Change Management and Communication Plan Essay

Identify the current formal and informal power structures in the organization. How might the power and political structure of the organization affect employee behavior? The organization structure of Riordan Manufacturing consists of the executive which are the President, and the Executive Assistant, Senior Vice President of Research and Development and the Chief Operating Officer. The Senior Vice President of Research and Development oversees the Manager of Product Development and Manager of Research which manager the research and development department. The Vice President of Sales and Marketing oversees the Directors of Sales for custom plastics, plastic beverage containers, fans, international and the Marketing Manager. Vice President of Product Support supervises the Customer Service Representatives and the Warranty service Technician. The Chief Operating Officer supervises the all the department Vice Presidents. In the hierarchy of power in this organization, there are many level s. The political and power structure may affect employee behavior. Four different locations can cause large differences in how a particular location is run. One of the locations is in China. Communication between the locations can cause frustration. Many levels of management can cause information to employees to become distorted. One area may need more attention than others and cause employees to feel neglected or ignored by organization. Destructive behavior from employees may result. Identify the most appropriate and effective organizational structures for Riordan Manufacturing that will help them accomplish their planned changes. The proposed changes are to establish a relocation of the plant in Hangzhou to Shanghai. This type of relocation will need to involve numerous departments and resources. The first stage would be exploring the costs and resources available. Financial department would need to contrast the costs of current expensed as opposed to the cost and profitability of the new location. This  would involve the cooperation of the Director of Accounting and Finance/ Controller, Financial Planning Manager, Director of Sales International, and all other managers or directors involved with the international plant. Human resources will handle employees concerns and also relocations and any new hiring. What are the potential effects of this selected structure on employee behavior? Factors that influence the ways employees respond to their customers, leadership and work is also called organizational behavior. Identifying the internal and external factors that affect their behaviors can help the company understand why employees are committed and motivated. Internal factors can be leadership, organizational structure and the corporate culture. External factors include family life and other business relationships. Because of the proposal, employees’ behavior may be affected. Time and resources will be utilized for the change and other employee’s may feel ignore d. Employees having feelings of not being paid a completive wage may feel betrayed. Growth of the company may give positive results such as a pride for a successful addition to the company. In order to ensure positive change for the organization, managers should highlight positive outcomes to employees. Riordan Manufacturing must make sure all duties of the organization should be shared in the absence of employees working on the change. Identify characteristics of the company’s culture. What are the potential influences of the corporate culture on employee behavior? A culture is the values and practices shared by the members of the group. Company Culture, therefore, is the shared values and practices of the company’s employees. Company culture is important because it can make or break your company. Companies with an adaptive culture that is aligned to their business goals routinely outperform their competitors. Some studies report the difference at 200% or more. To achieve results like this for your organization, you have to figure out what your culture is, decide what it should be, and move everyone toward the desired culture. Company cultures evolve and they change over time. As employee leave the company and replacements are hired the company culture will change. If it is a strong culture, it may not change much. However, since each new employee brings their own values and practices to the group the culture will change, at least a little. Riordan Manufacturing incorporates the primary characteristics of an organizational culture. Riordan Manufacturing began  business in 1992. It has grown into a three location organization. Reviewing financial reports for the last three years, it is both financial efficient and allocates funds to research and development, which aids in keeping a competitive edge. This evidence of stability is also supported by the benefits is offers to employees. Some to the benefits available to employees include 401(k) Saving Plan, Educational Financial Assistance and Flexible Spending Accounts. Offering competitive wages along with these benefits promotes stability in the organization. Riordan Manufacturing encourages innovation by offering employee suggestion program and use an HRIS system to monitor employees’ information. The process of inventory and production are good examples of the organization of paying attention to details. People orientation and team orientation are introduced through new employee orientation and continuing training. Employees are cross-trained and work together in teams to achieve goals. Riordan Manufacturing aggressiveness is mild. The everyday operations are formal, but are open to new ideas and different ways to gain competitive edge. The corporate culture of the organization affects the behavior of employees. Positive culture that provides structure, professionalism, encourages employees and provides a sense of belonging will encourage employees to be productive and loyal. A disorganized or incompetent culture can lead to destructive behaviors. Destructive behaviors such as dishonesty and stretching can cause work projects to suffer and cost an organization large amounts of funds and resources. Identify the potential sources of resistance to change and develop strategies to manage resistance to change. The potential of resistance can benefit by opening a debate and discussion therefor having employee engaged to the process. Having employees engaged and giving their opinions can help evaluate their where they stand and giving the management an opportunity to explain the changes. Good strategies for management are to be papered by having answers for every question that maybe possibility to be asked by the employee. Recommend a strategy to implement the changes over the next 12 months. A strategy that can be implemented can be a learning organization. A learning organization can help developed the continuous capacity to change. Manager need to establish a strategy, also redesign the organization structure, and reshape  the organization culture. Describe how you will evaluate the success or failure of the planned change. One suggestion that we like to imamate is evaluating by giving employee a voice and allowing them to give some input. When employees give in their input they feel ap preciated and tented to improve. So we just don’t get better performances we also get to see a different stand point that will allow viewing things from the employee’s point of view. Section II: Communication Plan Select the most appropriate channels to communicate the change to the employees, and explain why you selected these channels. Identify the potential barriers to effective communication and strategies for overcoming the barriers. The communication method that it is used in the company is outdated and non-effective, the company communicates through a memorandum system that is limited in the amount of characters and it is also limited in the information that it can be attached and displayed on them. Although the memorandums deliver the message and information intended to, they are limited in the communication that can be shared. There are many methods of communications that would be useful for the company’s intra communication network, but the ideal method would be to develop an electronic mailing network that would allow the company to send and receive electronic mails with the option choosing the person or persons that the message would be delivered to, and also the electronic email network would allow the sender to attach information such as documents and images. The integration of an electronic mail network would also make communication within the employees simpler and more efficient, with this type of network employees would be a click away from communicating with anyone in the company. Another method of communication that would allow employees to communicate would be to develop a blogging network in which the employees under the monitoring of the human resources department would be able blog about their concerns, questions, announcements, and ideas that would allow the company to be in complete communication. Without a proper communication method, employees see communication within the company as a barrier that make completing projects difficult and a form of an issue that creates confusion and stress within the company. Developing a new communication plan would allow employees to communicate with all the associates from the company including management  position. With the new communication plan an open door policy is created in which em ployees have the right and are encouraged to ask and discuss any issue, idea, or concern they might have making the associate feel appreciated and content, increasing productivity, loyalty, and engagement towards the company.