Running Head: CONSULTING PROPOSAL 2 1
Consulting Proposal 2
Gail B. Hinton
Liberty University
BMAL 504 – Leading Organizational Change
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CONSULTING PROPOSAL 2
Definition of Project:
The definition of this project is PricewaterhouseCooper (PwC) needed an overhaul in
their company image. They recruited Amy Middelburg and James Shaw from AIESEC to help
change the company’s image.They understood that starting at the bottom of a large corporation
would be a challenge but believed their previous training and expertise would power them
forward. Although facing bureaucracy issues, James Shaw and Amy Middelburg focused on the
current image, values, and vision of the company. Researching these elements, they realized
these current guidelines were atrocious and representing the organization negatively. They
proposed to Keith Bell some audacious modifications they considered essential. He was onboard
with the suggestions and presented it to upper-management.
The biggest challenge Middelburg and Shaw face is convincing PwC’s management and
leadership to be on board with their proposed changes. PwC management will have to get out of
their comfort zone of their daily routine and embrace the challenges that these two your people
are presenting. Management will also have to overlook what they perceive as inexperience and
accept the fact they were recruited by PwC to perform a specific job. This current image needed
an overhaul to include a global outlook while concentrating on the environmental aspect.
Middelburg and Shaw felt the company’s focus should be redirected towards their connections
and relationships with the public, clients, business partners, and ultimately the environment as a
whole instead of being so driven by their profits (Jick & Peiperl 2011).
Diagnosis of current situation:
Middelburg and Shaw are young recruits from AEISCO who maintained leadership
positions while in their employment. Together these two young people brought many qualities to
PwC. Their tenacity for challenges, strong work ethic and a positive, progressive attitude is what
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PwC needs to bring this company up to market standards. Their thick-skin demeanor,
determination to succeed and aversion for letting obstacles stalwart their mission will prove
beneficial against the nay-sayers of PwC. They brought a new attitude to this well respected
organization. Because of their youthfulness, over the top enthusiasm, the current management
who liked the situation as it stood, is not supporting these new recruits.
Middelburg and Shaw realized from their research, for PwC to remain visible,
concentrating on enhancing and integrating sustainability, establishing a global model, and
focusing on reinforcing relationships both internally and externally would be requisite. Bell
supported the changes and ideas Middelton and Shaw presented even though they were radical
and innovative. Allocating full reign over this project would be a positing a substantial level of
responsibility on Middleburg and Shaw. This would leave PwC’s reputation and image in
someone else’s hand which was out of upper managements comfort zone.
PwC needed transformation to thrust the company into the future. PwC realized Shaw
and Middelburg proposed changes that could create immense risks but also great rewards. If
management could jump onboard with their plan, the end result would generate increased loyalty
from the staff and clients, negate negative actions by regulators while increasing the operational
and financial effectiveness, and enhance the conditions for a healthy global and national
marketplace (Jick & Peiperl, 2011, p. 465).
However, Middelburg and Shaw realized the changes must be realistic and achievable for
the organization to be successful with any type of change. If the change is too sluggish, it may
lead to setbacks and severe profit losses. The organization’s morale can also be affected while the
confidence and esteem can be negatively impacted. PwC is also concerned about the bottom-line
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and wants this to be a key focus. The incredibly radical and risky ideas Middelburg and Shaw
presented were thwarted by the executives because they considered Middelburg and Shaw young
and inexperienced regardless of held leadership positions with their previous employer. They
were also considered consultants and not executors (Jick & Peiperl, 2011). Some of the positives
moves that the team made were networking, meeting an old executive at a AIESEC conference,
and recruiting talent that could potentially help them get a plan of action and some reachable
change in place (Jick & Peiperl, 2011).
Recommendations:
Middelburg and Shaw realized having the support of their recruiter, Keith Bell, could
move forward with their recommendations. The following recommendations need to be enacted
for this new image to become a reality.
One, an updated mission statement, vision, and guiding principles necessitates creation.
Second, a set of values that are imaginative and illustrate that monetary reward is not the only
objective for a successful organization. Third, PwC needed to adopt new principles of
sustainability while improving public image and corporate responsibility which includes
economic, environmental, and social aspects. Forth, changing the work processes and
implementing practical work values. Fifth, revamp the culture of the organization to include
empowering relationships between employees and management. The cooperative culture must
develop where teams are generated through the middle in order to settle clashing agendas and
work towards implementation (Jick & Peiperl, 2011). As the organization integrates change, the
team must be level-minded when working through challenges. Observing the progress and level
of achievement of goals and objectives is important, but this can lead to the blame game when
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ideas are unproductive. If an organization’s leadership is incapable of forming reliable
relationships with employees, it can be detrimental to the functioning of the organization. Oshry
calls this Middle-space and it is exactly as it sounds. Oshry states that Middle Space is a “space
that pulls us between others and whoever enters the Middle Space is caught between conflicting
agendas perspectives …and the demands of two or more people (Jick & Peiperl, 2011, p. 449).
Oshry advocates not allowing oneself to be caught in the middle and realize it is not your
problem unless you allow it to be. Instead he promotes Middle peer groups. This group of
middles has the potential of removing the emphasis of blaming people and put extra importance
on discovering the problematic circumstances that transpire between individuals and cultivate a
method to conquer them (Jick & Peiperl 2011, p. 458). This enables individuals to empower
others at diverse levels without positioning oneself in the middle. Leadership, regardless of
position in an organization has the obligation and responsibility to empower individuals below
their rank.
Oshry states this discloses an opportunity to ascertain a mixture of observations and
mediate the bottom and top of the system (Jick & Peiperl, 2011). Whether a person is a Top,
Bottom or Middle empowering one another instead of accusing is always beneficial to the
organization and individuals. When leadership can empower individuals through inspiration also
known as transformational leadership, they are much more likely to embrace and give a positive
response to the vision of the organization on their own volition (Kim & Shin, 2017).
“Empowerment can be strongly influenced by the organizational culture as the culture of an
organization identifies how contextual factors and work behaviours of employees are related”
(Gözükara, Çolakoğlu & Şimşek, 2019;2018, p. 1304).
I have personally attempted to implement this type of change by forming a homeschool
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CONSULTING PROPOSAL 2
association. It was a challenging time for everyone involved because during that time period
home education was not an accepted alternative. The key lessons were patience, compassion,
diligence, understanding and communication from all sides of the spectrum. The advice I would
contribute would be to listen, be open to suggestions and not feel one was backed into a corner
during turbulent times. I have found that organizations must always be willing to change,
improve, innovate and progress with the changing times or they will become stagnate and
obsolete.
Implementation Plan:
Successfully implementing the recommendations Middelburg and Shaw presented will
only come to fruition if PwC management provides support. They will start with the most
important aspect – a vision. Having a vision is an important function of leadership. The “vision
of the organization should incorporate the future state and should be a positive, inspirational
view of how the future will be better” (Martin, Ankel, Hemphill, Heron, Khandelwal,
Merritt, . . . Santen, 2018; 2017, p. 164). For the implementation process to be successful,
Middleburg and Shaw will form one team for each of the five recommendations. “A team
consists of two or more people who work interdependently towards a shared outcome. The
members of a team may each have different roles and responsibilities, yet they work in a
collaborative manner to achieve an identified goal” (Ryan, 2017, p 53). Teams are an intricate
part of change because it helps businesses to stay relevant. The teams would primarily focus on
developing solutions for their social, economic, and environmental issues that are present by
changing their internal processes. For instance, incorporate recycling, looking for avenues to
conserve energy, such as using LED light bulbs instead incandescent or fluorescent bulbs.
Middelburg and Shaw understand the reluctance of management, so to gain their support; they
will include one member of management for each team. “If a hierarchical leader is a member of
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the team, it will be necessary for that person to be open and vulnerable to feedback from other
team members (Fehr, 2018, p. 499). There will also be various members of the organization from
interns to country managers to keep management abreast of the implementation process,
Diverting the focus from financial to the other areas, the outcome will inadvertently affect the
bottom-line financials in a positive manner.
Summary:
PwC was able to revamp their organization by obtaining two young leaders that had new
brash ideas. Although upper management was resistant to their ideas because of the perceived
notion that Middelburg and Shaw were inexperienced, they finally came onboard. Proverbs 22:6
reads, “Train up a child in the way he should go, and even when he is old, he will not depart
from it” (NIV Bible). Management eventually set aside their hesitance of giving Middleburg and
Shaw some leeway. There is an element of excitement and nervousness when incorporating
fresh new outlooks from a sometimes routine and mundane environment because it gets
everyone out of their comfort zone. But more importantly, these actions require management sit
up and take notice of the environment around them. Creating teams for the recommendations
and having a member of management on each team, proved to management that Middelburg and
Shaw were not opposed to having more experienced individuals work with them but instead
welcomed the knowledge and experience. Their accomplishments were realized when PwC was
said to have the “most developed program for deep and wide implementation of sustainability
and corporate social responsibility among its peers” (Jick & Peiperl, 2011, p. 471).
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References
Fehr, L. (2018). Relationships: The key to effective teams. Journal of Continuing Education in
Nursing, 49(11), 498-499.
Gözükara, İ., Çolakoğlu, N., &Şimşek, Ö. F. (2019;2018;). Development culture and TQM in
turkish healthcare: Importance of employee empowerment and top management
leadership. Total Quality Management & Business Excellence, 30(11-12), 1302-1318.
Jick, T. D. & Peiperl, M A. (2011). Managing Change Cases and Concepts. New York, NY:
McGraw-Hill.
Kim, S., & Shin, M. (2017). The effectiveness of transformational leadership on empowerment.
Cross Cultural & Strategic Management, 24(2), 271-287.
Martin, D. R., Ankel, F., Hemphill, R. R., Heron, S., Khandelwal, S., Merritt, C., . . . Santen, S.
A. (2018;2017;). Creating a vision for education leadership. The Western Journal of
Emergency Medicine, 19(1), 165-168.
Ryan, S. (2017). Promoting effective teamwork in the healthcare setting. Nursing Standard
(2014+), 31(30), 52-60
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