Organizational Change Assignment: Case Study Analysis of Jobs International

Question

Task: To prepare this organizational change assignment, consider the case study of Jobs International (India) Ltd conducted by Ambika Nagar and answer the following questions:

1. Imagine you are Mr Jacobs and you have just received the consultant’s report:

a. What action would you take and why?
b. What obstacles would you expect to meet and how would you overcome them?

2. Imagine you are the Managing Director of JI (India). Mr Jacobs has just informed you of the contents of the consultant’s report. He has asked you to produce an action plan for turning the situation round within six months and preparing the ground for the introduction of the Australian and North American business:
a. What actions would you propose and why?
b. What obstacles would you expect to meet and how would you overcome them?

Answer

Question 2
A. Action that can be taken by Mr Jacobs
As per the role of Mr Jacobs portrayed in this case of organizational change assignment, a certain form of decision would be taken that can help to manage the issues faced by the JI in India. First of all, a modern organizational structure needs to be implemented so that JI can be able to compete with other rivalries. Lewin's Change Management Model needs to be implemented in the case of JI to introduce a modern organizational structure. As mentioned by Hussain et al. (2018), change management is required to modify leadership style as well as reinforce staff's energy towards the achievement of organizational goals. As per this model, there are three important steps, namely Unfreeze, change and refreeze. In the unfreeze step, needs for change in organizational transformation are required. After that, training would be provided to staff to access the change regarding the implementation of IT into the JI. In the last step, the further need would be assessed based on the performance achieved after the organizational change. As stated by Morozenko and Krasovskiy (2018), implementation of modern organizational structure helps to robust growth and empowers employees. In the case scenario, it has been identified that staff have to wait to do something as per the guidance of their supervisor. In this regard, a modern organizational structure would be best suited.

Figure 1: Kurt Lewin's model of change management
(Source: Adopted from Hussain et al. 2018)

Implementing IT systems into the JI can be effective to manage the needs and wants of consumers. As mentioned by Singh et al. (2019), and employees management system helps to manage and engage employees with the aid of technology. There is a need in the implementation of Zoho People so that employees do not need to wait long for verbal approval. Change in the employee’s motivation system, as well as a management system in JI, is also mandatory in order to expand in Australia and America as well. As a role of Mr Jacobs, change in the operation process, employee’s motivation process, and leadership style would also be referred to the managing director of JI India. Implementation of IT systems in the operation process would help the JI to save time and energy for staff as well. It would also speed creativity and innovation in the future as well. As mentioned by Cohen (2017), training and development help in empowering employees and develop core skills within them. As per the scenario, employees are nervous about the change of managing director, and training would help them to manage nervousness and help them to work. The horizontal structure of the organization would be implemented so that staff can build their capabilities and do not need to wait for step-by-step guidance from their leaders or managers. Implementation of transformational leadership instead of an autocratic one followed by Jacob's cousin would be effective to accept change. This type of leadership not only helps to empower employees but also helps to accept the change and helps in managing the issues faced by JI India.

B. Obstacles that might be faced by Mr Jacobs and mitigation
Certain forms of obstacles would be faced by Jacob willtake action regarding the implementation of organizational change. These are as follows:

Lack of support:
As the cousin of Mr Jacob was following some autocratic leadership style. There might be poor support from both the leaders, managers and directors that is a cousin of Mr Jacob regarding her transfer. As mentioned by Meng and Berger (2019), supportive organizational culture helps to develop trust and morale among employees. In order to manage the issue, it would be needed to develop a suitable organizational culture where people support each other.

Poor skill and lack of creativity:
Due to the poor potential and nervousness of staff, it would be difficult to introduce them to the new organizational change. As they are poorly motivated and not aware of the technology regarding the operation process, then it would be not easy to get support to implement a modern organizational structure. In order to overcome the issue, the implementation of suitable soft and hard training would help them to handle IT systems within the operation and management process within JI India.

Constraints about resources:
Organizational change is associated with the vast numbers of resources like financial, HR and time frame (Baran et al. 2019). As stated in the case scenario, there is poor communication and a lack of morale. In order to implement the IT system into the operation process of JI India, vast numbers of financial resources are required. Implementation of modern organizational structure would also take lots of time as well. In order to overcome the issue, appropriate allocation of resources is required so that success can be achieved regarding the Change and Transformation of JI in India and foster expansion into Australia and America.

Question 3
A. Action was taken by the Managing director of JI India
Imagining the managing director of JI India, it would be better to change the entire culture of the organization. In order to turn the situation around within the next six months to prepare for expansion into Australia and America, a certain form of action would be taken. These are as follows:

Table 1: An action plan for turning situation of JI India
(Source: Possessed by author)

Employees are the primary pillar for any business organization introducing growth (Singh et al. 2019). In this scenario, it has been achieved that staff are not well motivated by the man being a director (Cousin of Mr Jacob) due to his autocratic leadership style. There is a lack of trust as well as poor morale among employees. The hierarchical structure of JI also creates communication issues and results in conflicts. Improper training does not allow staff to develop core skill and potential. Hence, employee empowerment is required to add strength to them and make them able to adjust with the operation princess followed in the UK division as well.

Training would also help Indian staff to adopt the UK operation process via the development process as well. As mentioned by Fiaz et al. (2017), the democratic leadership style allows employees to take part in the organizational decision-making process. I would be implemented within the JI Indian division so that employees can get high-end motivation. This type of leadership helps JI India to manage talent and engage large numbers of employees. This type of leadership will also allow employees the potential to adjust to UK operations and provide support to firms when it expands the firm to Australia and America.

Implement professionalism in leadership style is also required to manage the needs and wants of staff in JI India. As mentioned by Ursu (2020), cross-cultural communication is necessary for international expansion. Hence, JI needed to implement a cross-cultural communication system before entering America and Australia so that interaction with different stakeholders could be easy in those countries. Implementation of employee regulation is also necessary so that employees could not face such type of bullying they face in JI India.

External market research in the two countries is also required so that the managing director of JI can get an idea about the potential threat from these two regions. In addition to this, a suitable mode of entry is also required so that expansion could be beneficial and JR has an active competitive benefit after all. Implementation of technology would be the most effective one to make JI modern and improve their operational efficiency like their rivalries.

B. Obstacles and overcome strategies
Cultural barriers would be the most important obstacle that can hinder the efficiency of the JI from expanding into the international areas (Kahiya, 2018). These two countries have different culture when compared to UK and India. Hence, employees working in both the UK and India might face difficulty in handling operations in those new two-country regions. In order to manage the issue, a suitable communication system would be implemented by the managing director of JT. Cross-culture training will also be provided to employees so that they can handlestakeholders in the cross-culture region.

While preparing for the expansion, JI might face issues regarding the poor knowledge and skill of leaders and managers. As mentioned by Cohen (2017), training and development help to empower employees and develop core skills of creativity within them. There might be issues regarding the team management as the employees do not have morale and trust over each other. In the case scenario, it has been identified that employees are not given enough motivation. In addition to this, there is a high level of buying that hinders employee performance. In order to overcome the issue and manage employees, incentives, rewards, and recognition would be given to increase their engagement with the JR. There might be a lack of professionalism that could hamper the operation initiatives taken to expand into Australia and America. In order to manage this obstacle, suitable organizational culture like adhocracy culture needs to be implemented. It would foster creativity and innovation within the staff and help them to handle the expansion process efficiently. ?

Reference list
Baran, B.E., Filipkowski, J.N. and Stockwell, R.A., 2019. Organizational change: Perspectives from human resource management. Journal of change management, 19(3), pp.201-219.

Cohen, E., 2017. Employee training and development (pp. 153-162). Routledge.

Fiaz, M., Su, Q. and Saqib, A., 2017. Leadership styles and employees' motivation: Perspective from an emerging economy. The Journal of Developing Areas, 51(4), pp.143-156.

Hussain, S.T., Lei, S., Akram, T., Haider, M.J., Hussain, S.H. and Ali, M., 2018. Kurt Lewin's change model: A critical review of the role of leadership and employee involvement in organizational change. Journal of Innovation & Knowledge, 3(3), pp.123-127.

Kahiya, E.T., 2018. Five decades of research on export barriers: Review and future directions. International Business Review, 27(6), pp.1172-1188.

Meng, J. and Berger, B.K., 2019. The impact of organizational culture and leadership performance on PR professionals’ job satisfaction: Testing the joint mediating effects of engagement and trust. Public Relations Review, 45(1), pp.64-75.

Morozenko, A. and Krasovskiy, D., 2018, June. Development of reflex-adaptive organizational structure of high robustness. In IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering (Vol. 365, No. 6, p. 062012). IOP Publishing.

Singh, P., Fartyal, H., Zubair, K.A.A. and Laddha, A., 2019. Employee Management System. International Research Journal of Engineering and Technology (IRJET), 6.

Ursu, O., 2020. Enhancing Business Students’ Cross-Cultural Skills. Review of Economic Studies and Research Virgil Madgearu, 13(2), pp.213-224.