National Database and Registration Authority- Case Study

Question: Discuss about the National Database and Registration Authority. Answer: Introduction Organizations, when encountering problems related to decrease in turnovers, unhappy staff, and similar more issues need to undergo a change in its management policies and atmosphere (Alam 2013). It becomes important for the company to apply some change management theory to its current scenario in order to overcome the difficulties and losses. Also, to accomplish companys mission and vision more effectively and to evolve to a more desirable state, change management is an important aspect to consider. Incorporating changes in the company enables it to compete in the market in a more efficient way. In the case study Transforming the corporate culture at Heinz Australia, it is visibly outlined that Peter Widdows encountered negative, low-risk and punitive culture and he nurtured and changed it to positive which resulted in numerous benefits to the company and its employees (Appelbaum, Habashy, Malo and Shafiq 2012). Furthermore, few negative aspects of change were discovered mainly related to the employees, which will be discussed in later sections. The aim of the analysis is to discover those essentials which supports or discourages the integration of change with the company. Additionally, the last section of the report will mention a proper change management process along with an analysis of its weaknesses and strengths (Appelbaum, Habashy, Malo and Shafiq 2012). Culture Web analysis on Heinz Australia Widdow carried out following changes to the organization w.r.t corporate culture web: Paradigm: Prior to the changes made by Peter, Heinz Australias exemplar was very punitive, low risk and negative culture. Inward approach was in follow and everything was just way too difficult. Peter transformed the environment and brought in transparency and feeling of positivity. Routines and Rituals: Widdow adapted the rule of showing respect towards everyone at the organization and listening everyones opinion as the part of its daily routine and rituals at the company. Stories: Widdow became the role model for everyone at the organization and taught employees about how they must behave and talk with each other basically demonstrating the Walk the talk approach. Symbolic Aspects: A great organizations symbolic expects are determined by its employees hard contributions, innovative new ideas and capability to accept challenge. For Widdow it was a little difficult task to achieve but not impossible. By constant communication it could be achieved. Power Structures: The unbalanced power structure was removed by Widdow and he tried delegating central authority system to make believe to its employees that company actually cares for them and to maintain a work-life balance, Widdow emphasised on providing flexible working hours. Organizational Structures: 25% of the salaried staff was cut and board was restructured by bringing in middle and bottom level board members which clearly show that to bring in innovative ideas to the company every class of employees should be listened for their opinion. Control System: Widdow motivated the employees by generating reward scheme for those who contributed to company in any manner and this initiated the enthusiasm in the employees to continue their moves towards betterment of the company. Strategic Elements for and against change in Heinz Australia Essentials for change The negative, low-risk culture of the Heinz organization was the primary need to be changed. It was clearly visible from the case study and web culture analysis that this negative and punitive culture of the company affected the behaviour of employees, their interaction with the executives and senior management, and thus resulted in less productivity (Burnes and Philip 2011). Particularly, Employees were afraid of the superiors and a sense of hesitation was felt in direct communication with the seniors and as a consequence of these differences, employees actions were negative and defensive. A strong need of change was required and need to be implemented as soon as possible so that employees perceive organization in a positive way which was must in order to ensure employees commitment towards work and triumph of Heinz (Burnes and Philip 2011). Additionally, employees turnover rate was very high, which was the result of negative culture at Heinz Australia and this indicates that employees do not use to feel any obligation towards the company and use to leave the job without any hard feelings and to retain the employees was becoming very difficult for the company. Also, employees use to look for opportunities in other companies while working with Heinz and were ready to take it as soon as any opportunity was presented and the solely reason of this was Heinz did not use to offer any extra privilege to its employees such as sponsorship for further education, training programme etc. A change process in this area would ensure value of the employees in the company (Hayes 2014). Along with it, an appropriate compensation plan is needed by the management which will include extra benefits for companys employees and would help Heinz to increase the morale of its employees in order to attain higher productivity and profit. The compan y also need to change its recruitment plan and procedure as huge amount was being spent on the same every year as mentioned in the case study (Beischel and Davis 2014). Due to lack of morale amongst employees in the workplace, the percentage of productivity was very low and due to this Heinz Australia was experiencing major losses and the durability of the company in the nation became uncertain (Beischel and Davis 2014). The parent company, Heinz, was not sure whether it could continue to let Heinz Australia use its name as it could even affect the brand name internationally. Change of the managing director helped the company and Widdows was appointed as new MD which proved beneficial for the company as he might have worked towards the needed changes as the company came to a much suitable position in no time (Hayes 2014). Essentials against Change Even though, these many factors exist which urges changes in the company, one of the significant factor opposes these changes to occur and being implemented in Heinz Australia. The reason is, management would require cutting the one-fourth paid employees (Palma, Oscar, Asuncin and Peter 2015). At the start, management was very worried about this dangerous cause which might even affect the employees morale, who was not even sure to continue with the company by this time. Hence, if any further changes were implemented, it could have resulted in a negative move and might derail the employees further than they were at the time. And this was the reason that some of the seniors were against implementing any change in the company. Another reason for which management was refusing any change was expenses that would occur while incorporating changes as change at Heinz Australia would demand a proper and appropriate change process along with appropriate methods that will ensure that the company will gain revenues. In the view of management, this move was unimportant and very expensive at that point of time. Hence, they decided to not include any changes in the company which could affect Heinz financially and opted to maintain the current situation. On the viewpoint of short-term, this option was bit suitable at that time but it could not have survived on long-term basis as profit margins would remain same and no hike will be entertained (Maital and Seshadri 2012). Change Management Process The essential key elements identified for change in the company Heinz Australia needed an appropriate change management process which would help companys employees to adopt the new state easily and without much difficulty. Also, company must be sure about the changes that it will be able to withstand by incorporating huge changes in the culture and will not get affected negatively. Kotters 8 steps model would be best applicable in the current scenario and also has various advantages over Lewins model as the Kotters model ensures practicality, along with considering emotions and feelings of employees (Kotter 2012). Also, Kotters 8 steps model does not require full participation which is a must in Lewins model and is hard to achieve sometimes. Hence, Kotters model was chosen for the same (Kerzner 2013). Creating Urgency Heinz Australias current market position along with its competitive authenticities needs to be assessed. This step must also discover hurdles that are preventing company to rise and posing threats to the profit gain. Few appropriate scenarios must be developed which would act as an example of benefits of incorporating changes. All employees must be gathered for a brainstorming session and management must try to evaluate the opportunities that are probable for the company, along with it measures must be evaluated to implement these opportunities. Seniors must delegate the authorities centrally and try to start discussing involving each and every employee of the company so that proper reasons could be acquired to imply the changes. Adopting this approach will help to identify risk and crises that may occur owing to a particular change. Even the shareholders of the company could be included to get their opinion for the change (Kinicki, Brian, Williams and Martin 2015). Change Management Team Development A small yet strong and powerful team is required to implement change in the company which would motivate and drive other employees and members of the company to accommodate and adopt changes easily and effectively. The team will help to influence the behavior of each and every individual related to the company to propel the change. This team could comprise of leaders of every department of the company, or even the other members of the company depending on their expertise level, their political importance, their image in society or their status in the company. After team the team development, the most suitable individual must be elected as a leader which would ensure that the work is progressing effectively (Palma, Oscar, Asuncin and Peter 2015). Establishment of the ultimate vision for the change process The team that was developed in the step two must ensure an ultimate vision that would aim to achieve the required goals for the company along with an assurance that the changes would take in a positive way and will embrace company very effectively. A mission statement need to be developed by the team and also the core values that are the main concern for the changes need to be addressed in this part. A suitable strategy need to be created that would ensure the vision execution in a proper way. Communicating the Vision To achieve the ultimate goal of the company, development team will need to use each possible resource which is available. Development team must communicate very effectively and efficiently with the employees and must introduce the changes in a very simple and heartfelt way, so that the results of the implemented changes are effective. In case any concern is raised by some employee, team must be prepared to resolve the issue in a satisfactory manner. This section will discuss in details about the changes expected in the company and how these changes would help company towards positive development. A training programme must also be introduced for the employees to familiarize them with the change process. Empowering Actions to eliminate obstacles To detect any probable obstacle that may arise during the change management process implementation or after the implementation, development team must utilize empowering actions and also how to overcome those obstacles. Such as, it is assumed that employees will resist these changes depending upon the requirement to rationalising of the staff. The development team will guide and encourage employees towards the benefits of the changes for them and their future in the company. Also, employees those who willingly encourage the changes might get awarded in order to encourage other people to adopt changes. Establishment of short-term goals In this step development team requires to create realizable goals for the company which must be short-termed and present these goals to the organization to attain them. As the implementation process continues, development team must ensure to record progress at every step of the change and their positive and negative aspects. If the positive results of the changes will be displayed to the employees at regular intervals they would be encouraged and will work and accept changes more promptly which would automatically enhance their productivity (Brynjolfsson, Renshaw and Marshall 2012). Building on the Change The development team must work upon the improvements in the performances of the employees and ensure that these changes are applied efficiently. Since past experiences it has been observed that companies declare victory much earlier it is really achieved and as a result the change process fails many a time. Company must patiently wait for the process to finish and must consider its early wins as a positive outcome towards future development. Along with reduction in number of employees, other change also needs to be incorporated in order to achieve success. It was mentioned in the case study that subordinate employees are afraid of superiors and no proper communication exists amongst them, hence this must be the most important step that needs to be changed. The communication gap amongst juniors and seniors must be overcome. In this section development team will also work upon to determine which steps towards change are succeeding and which steps are declining success and those steps n eeds to be eliminated from the change process (Mishra 2013). Ensuring change implementation This is the last and final step in the change management process and revolves around securing the transformation in the company. The success of any company in the corporate culture depends upon how the employees of the company conduct themselves. Keeping this in mind the development team must encourage the utilization of new changes process amongst employees and ensure that employees understands the benefits of these changes. Timely reviews should be done to judge changes in every section and department of the company. Also, along with development team, leaders of each department must ensure that his section is following changes rules and regulations. It is must for the leaders to support team otherwise changes could not last long. These changes must also be acknowledged to shareholders of the company. Strengths and Weaknesses of this model The primary strength of Kotters model is that employees involvement is promoted which helps to attain greater productivity and thus enhance the chances to achieve companys goals and improved profits. This was the primary requirement of Heinz Australia in order to secure its durability in the continent (Kuipers, Malcolm, Walter, Lars, Jolien and Joris 2014). Also, the detailed 8 steps outline implementation process very soothingly and in an easy way. If these steps are followed in chronological order than the success of the company is guaranteed. However, as the model is in linear state, it is possible that the change process might be assumed in a wrong way. Furthermore, after the change process commences, to carry changes in all directions is a little complicated task. Hence, company must ensure a slow and steady way to accomplish change goal in a positive way (Kuipers, Malcolm, Walter, Lars, Jolien and Joris 2014). Conclusions As it has been observed from the case study provided, Heinz Australia needs to undergo a change management process on an urgent basis in order to secure its position in the continent. To achieve this Heinz needs to boost the productivity area of the company and increase the revenues of the company. It is recommended that the management team carries out the change process in an effective manner on order to achieve desired goals otherwise progress of the company is not certain. It is also recommended that to adopt these changes permanently and not on temporary basis, management team must review entire departments on timely basis and must ensure that the changes policies are being implemented by each and every member of the company. In case, new policies are objected by someone, team must ensure to overcome the problem by mentioning a proper solution for the same, otherwise, warns the employee to adhere the new policies. References Alam, S (2013). Successful Organization Change at National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) Pakistan: A Case Study, Global Management Journal for Academic Corporate Studies, 3(1), 166. 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