CONSTANT IS CHANGE"
CHAPTER 4: EVALUATION OF CASE STUDY 4.1 INTRODUCTION
4.3 ANALVSIS OF THE GAP
TABLE 4.4 - JOB SATISFACTION Table 4.4 (a)
r h tR d AccompliS men ewar s
Frequencv Percent
Valid Aqree 2 7.1
Unsure 1 3.6
Disaaree 7 25.(
Strongl~ 1f 64...:
Disaaree
Total 2€ 100]
Table 4.4 (b) Skills Training
Frequenc Percen
Valid Aqree 10.
Unsure 1 60.
Disaqree 1 3.
strongl~ 7 25.
Disaqree
Tota 2€ 100]
Table 4.4(c) Improvement
Freauenc Percen
Valid AQree 21.4
Unsure 10:7
Disaaree 1 42.9
Strongl~ 25.(
Disaaree
Tota 2 100]
~ Preservation - Does the company want to maintain continuity in certain practices or preserve specific assets, to what extend can this be done?
~ Diversity - is the staff diverse or homogenous in terms of its values, norms, attitudes? Are there many subcultures or national cultures within the company?
~ Capability - Is the company capable or competent enough at managing change and how widespread throughout the organisation is this capability? How much change has the organisation and its individual staff experienced in the past?
~ Capacity - is there enough cash or human resource to divert towards change?
~ Readiness for change - Are the employees aware of the need for change? If they are, how willing and motivated are they towards the change? How much understanding is there of the scope needed?
~ Power - Where is power vested within the organisation? For change to be successful who are the major stakeholders within and outside the organisation whose support must be canvassed?
4.3.1 Application of Kaleidoscope to TCL
The kaleidoscope will be used in order to understand the change context, which was chosen by TCL. The design choices discussed above will be applied to TCl's case.
4.3.1.1 Time
As already discussed in previous chapters, the company was experiencing some decline in business and was privatised. Though the company was given exclusive rights for five years starting from the year 2000, it was evident that due to the change in competitive conditions the organisation was facing, time was not
new competitors enter the market, they could be able to face competition. Going back to the results, one could notice that communication was mostly top down.
This might have stemmed from the fact that management decided to use the big- bang reconstruction. Big-bang approaches, such as, reconstruction or revolution are mostly top-down and directive and supported by a leadership role, partly because there is no time for more participative approach.
4.3.1.2 Scope
The company needed to be turned around from the state of financial crisis, poor service and long waiting lists, which were caused by poor state of the network.
The state of network had to improved, to accommodate more customers, the number of staff had to be reduced, and the company's financial position had to be improved as well. One then gathers that not only one department or division had to be changed but the whole organisation. With the time constrained and the cash flow crisis that the company was faced with, management had to undertake reconstruction.
4.3.1.3 Preservation
When the company is in crisis like LTC was, it is natural for management to cut on some resources. To avoid unanticipated and damaging outcomes, the change agents have to understand the aspects of the existing organisation that need to be preserved, or how such assets could be replaced if lost. When restructuring management had to be careful not loose people whose knowledge the company needed. However the company might be faced with the problem of having to keep employees with tacit knowledge yet they cannot outgrow their old ways of operating. This may mean that management or change agents had to follow a more top-down, directive change approach. TCL decided to cut some of the assets, which were obsolete and were becoming costly to the company.
4.3.1.4 Diversity
As far as culture and subcultures was concerned, the company was not diversified. However, diversity in the company may occur because of professional or occupational groups between divisions and departments. In the event that these groups are considered to be powerful, a professional representative might be included in the change design team in order to increase the acceptability of any proposed changes to that representative's peers.
4.3.1.5 Capability
When designing an implementation process a change agent should make sure that the organisation would be capable of delivering. There are three levels in which capabilities should be vested; the individual level, the managerial level and the organisational level. The kind of change, be it transformational or incremental, that management needs to achieve may be influenced by above capabilities.
4.3.1.6 Capacity
In order for the company to assess whether it's well capacitated to engage in change management, a resource audit must be done. Capacity can be divided into cash, time and people. Limited resources may contribute to an unsuccessful implementation of change project. High levels of capacity, in terms of time, cash and people are required for collaborative, educative and participative styles of change. TCl's change process which was not so inclusive judging from the results, may be ascribed to the fact that the company did not have time and cash to engage in revolutionary change.
4.3.1.7 Readiness for Change
Readiness deals mainly with resistance to change, which might be caused by the fact that staff might not be aware of the need for change, or may not be willing or motivated towards the change. An article by Stewart (Intermediate Management Development Programme 2000) discusses 18 key elements of change readiness. From the discussion of the results it was found that the staff was aware of the need for change yet they did not feel part of the planning and felt
that insufficient time was spent on change planning. Going back to the change path choice, one might still say the big-bang change path was chosen because management felt that they had to shake staff out of their anxiety.
4.3.1.8 Power
Change agents for TCl had to understand personal power and politics within an organisation. It was also significant to identify the major power brokers before any design choices were made. In the case of TCl, which was privatised, and government still owned 30% stake, change agents needed to realise that government could still have power, which might influence change decisions. A stakeholder analysis could be important in this case. Stakeholder analysis enables the change agent to identify, which stakeholders are stronger and which ones are weaker, so that they can benefit from both accordingly.