Change Management Argumentative Essay

Nowadays we observe an acceleration of change in the value systems worldwide, an adoption of new attitudes, new goals, and aspects leading to rapid change of the society. To survive and develop, an organization must first know how to anticipate and capitalize on the opportunities and to attenuate or eliminate the vulnerabilities. Second, the organization must demonstrate the ability to effectively manage the change process, from detailed investigation of its past and present. Bold, 2011) This report assumes that any organization wishing to adapt their external environment and especially to the progress, must accept the change and respond to them in a quick and responsible way. And to help X Factor organization manages change as it seeks to become more sustainable through resource efficiency, and as it takes corporate responsibility for the effects of the human resources. The objective of this report is to explain the concept and steps to support and help X Factor during their change process of restructuring workplace due to a sustainable workplace.
For the start we are going to take a look at our organization and a small introduction of their business and their goals. 2. Background X Factor is one of the biggest international automakers in the world, which has 300,734 employees worldwide. The company was founded in 1980 as a family company to create automobiles. They received Quality Control Award in 2000 in the US branch. After that they started to expand their business to Europe, and started with Germany. After while they established they branches in 10 countries, Germany, I-J, Denmark, Netherlands, France, Italy, Switzerland, Japan, China and Argentina.
With growing the business and also with growing markets, managers start to think about the ways to add value to their business. They realized to remain competitive they should be take more attention to the environmental issues. They understood this fact which in addition to ecological aspects of energy and how it can damage the environment and our earth, using energy in fact is really costly, because it is an expensive resource and it is one the highest operational expenditures.

Therefore energy consumption has become a major issue for most of the industrial sectors and hence, they are looking for efficient energy consumption methodologies. In other words, reducing energy consumption makes perfect business sense; it saves money, enhances corporate petition and helps every one lead the fight against climate change. (Carbonates, 2011) In one of their branch which is located in Switzerland, in Zurich that is Just commercial and marketing department, they decided to apply sustainability in to their workplace.
Their workplace consists of 3 floors in one building, with 120 fulfillment employees and 20 part times. Their objectives for this decision are to act in a way to benefit both their business and also society. Before we go for the change process we will analyze their objectives in their business, because any change in company is objected to reach the objective and the alee of the core business, so it is really important before any change processes to specify the objectives, goals and main value of the business.
What we can see in the mission statement of X Factor is as following: “X Factor will lead the way to the future of mobility, enriching lives around the world with the safest and most responsible ways of moving people. Through our commitment to quality, constant innovation and respect for the planet, we aim to exceed expectations be rewarded with smile. We will meet our challenging goals by engaging the talent and passion of people, who believe there is always a better way. Retail Industry, 2009) So we can see that responsibility to planet is one of their objectives in the business, which here regarding to the change process there are indenting to claim this goal in this branch. In following chapters we will see why and how they will apply this goal to their business. 3. Approach The approach which used in this report to apply the change process and getting the best out of it, started by analyzing the company.
After a short introduction about the organization itself, we explained the current situation in the company which related to environmental issues to know the culture of this organization. After defining the challenges, opportunities and objectives of the change, we analyzed the best leadership style which could be used (actually used) in the organization by project leaders and also defined the type of change which realized by leaders. Then we did a stakeholder analysis in order to identify who will benefit and challenge in this process.
After stakeholder analysis we started with one of the changes model, to apply the process of change in the company. At the end we will analyze the outcomes and results of the change. 2 4. Situation Analysis After lots of discussion and researches on change processes, managers decide for he first step try to understand the changing behavior in their groups and organization that require an understanding of how these communities act to work, an identification of barriers and facilitators for change and what influences their behavior in general. 4. Current Situation After a wide analysis with experts in environmental issues, following results were found due to their current behavior in environmental issues: Most of the employees are working in offices which consist of 2 or 3 person, and there are some private offices as well in all three levels. All the Coos have their private offices which are rarely used. There are 5 meeting rooms in whole building which are most of the time empty, because due to their global business most of the important meetings are taking place in other countries, and these meeting rooms will Just usable for domestic issues.
After considering the expenses of the company they found out that travel expenses are too high due to taking part in meetings and small discussions. The usage of papers and copy machines are too high. In general usages of energy in the company are also too high, which is almost 1. 5 times more than usual. (This includes water, electricity, heating, light… 4. 2 Organization Culture The culture which exists in the organization is the hierarchical culture, a highly structured and formal place to work with high control.
Rules and procedures govern behavior. Leaders strive to be good coordinators and organizers who are efficiency- minded. Maintaining a smooth-running organization is most critical. Stability, performance, and efficient operations are the long-term goals. Success means dependable delivery, smooth scheduling, and low cost. Management wants security and predictability. (Tarp, 2009) Looking to this culture, leaders should try to have a Truckee plan and strategy to implement change.
Despite of high hierarchical culture, higher managers willing to have all employees involve to the change process. 3 4. 3 Reasons for change Sustainability has three aspects in a company, Environmental, Social and Economical. Environmental sustainability is about maintaining the integrity of life support systems. This aspect incorporates the important notions of biodiversity and ecosystem services. As our energy and natural resource demands grow, impacts to ecosystems are systems proportionally growing and causing more damage to the health of our planet and inning communities.
Social sustainability is about equity within and between generations and within and between ethnic and social groups. It is inclusive of people’s mental and physical well wellbeing and the cohesion of their communities based on a fair distribution of natural resources. Economic sustainability means using resources to provide necessary and desirable products and services for the present generation without compromising the ability of present future generations to do the same.
Sustainability presents opportunities for efficiency that can improve business per performance and competitiveness, while reducing operating while costs. Sustainability, 2012) We can also wee three aspects of sustainability in figure 4. 3. 1 : Figure 4. 3. 1: Aspects of Sustainability Source: http://www. Porous-sigma. Com/archives/1082 sigma. Com/archives/1082 4 Energy is one of the highest operation expenditures in an organization, so if the organization wants to stay competitive should care about sustainability and energy efficiency. 4. Benefits/Opportunities Sustainability and being sustainable has lots of benefits for the organization, which we can categorize them in three parts. We can measure the benefits of sustainability on Profit, Planet and People. (Stringer, 2009) Profit: Sustainability can save Organizations Money and Resources, Increases operational efficiency and reduced operating costs, Organizations that embrace sustainability are likely to have an advantage in recruiting and retaining young people w ho value the environment and w hose Job preferences may increasingly reflect these attitudes.
Given the high concern many organizations have about attracting, retaining and motivating workers, the sustainability advantage could be significant, Increases profit and customer loyalty, Adopting Sustainability Enhances reputation and brand image, Creates new business opportunities, Increases productivity and morale, Preferential government and regulatory treatment, Innovation in market through cooperation with local communities.
Planet Significant saving in carbon footprint and greenhouse gas emissions, Reducing energy consumption, Saving planet for future. People Productivity and Increased morale for employees, Positive and healthy work environment, Benefit from a sustainable environment, Increased employee satisfaction Loyalty and engagement to company with sustainable policies. 5 4. 5 Challenges/Barriers One of the biggest challenges and barriers in this change process are employees, ND involving them in the change process.
Involving employees are really important in this change process because of the following reasons: The employees are the ones that will be seeing to it that all the day-to-day tasks at the workplace reflect the principles on sustainability. Without their support, the project will surely fail. Involvement is not Just a means. It is also a core value of the sustainability concept that people have the right to have influence on their own working lives. It is therefore in everyone’s interest that the employees are involved in he discussion, the planning and the implementation of the workplace initiatives to promote sustainability. FCC, 2004) Here we are going to discuss about some of the reasons which we might face with employees during the change process to a sustainable workplace in the organization: Knowledge and behavior gap This can be due to users’ lack of knowledge about general environmental impacts of consumption. And it will also happen because of the lack of communication. As we know one the important steps for a successful leader is to communicate with employees, and convince them about the benefits of change transition.