Organizational Changes: AKU Company
AKU is an English organization that provides the representatives of the general public with communicational devices, mobile phones in particular. It operates in the market only for 2 years yet but it already has a lot of loyal clients and its business turns out to be rather successful. Still, the company is willing to expand to improve its competitiveness constantly. Realizing the necessity to attract customers, its CEO decided to put more emphasis on innovations, claiming that AKU should launch a new product if it is willing to continue developing. As a result, the company faces a necessity to implement organizational restructuring so that it can manufacture and sell smart bracelets developed for communicational purposes. This change also triggers revamping of departments, as separate workgroups are needed to focus on the new product. The CEO believes that restructuring will have an advantageous influence on the company’s operations because it will make it more centralized and efficient. The organizational change that AKU is going to implement soon will be entailed by a range of cultural, ethical, and corporate social responsibility (CSR) implications.
Basically, AKU has a flat structure, which means that only a few employees have an opportunity to interact directly with the top management team and the CEO. In this way, they tend to have more autonomy in comparison to other workers. What is more, their level of authority is rather high because of the lack of hierarchy. The necessity to launch a new product is going to entail the creation of additional departments and teams, which means that those employees who are now close to the top management will make one step down and reduce interactions with a boss. A chief operating officer is likely to take everything under control over time. Such kind of organizational restructuring has some positive alterations because it will make interactions more structured. However, cultural changes may cause additional issues and misunderstandings among the personnel. For example, employees may start arguing regarding the importance of their operations. In addition to that, departments may turn into competitors who are willing to protect their budgeting and hierarchical position. If restructuring will lead to the creation of combined groups (novices and experienced employees), competition within the organization is going to increase. In this way, the workers are likely to gather in groups who are operating in opposition, trying to ensure the management that they perform better than others. Such an environment will have negative influences on both social and psychological cultures. It will be rather difficult for the management to spread shared vision and values, making the company united. The information flow may undergo a range of obstacles that affect the effectiveness of communication and lead to more critical complications, such as inappropriate quality of products or safety.
AKU’s restructuring may also be considered to be unethical by some employees. For example, those members of the staff who has already worked at their positions for a couple of years may think that it is unfair to allow novice professionals to maintain similar duties and have the same authority and autonomy. In addition to that, there may be a situation in which the management will need to resort to downsizing, for instance, if there is a possibility to hire a person who can cope with additional duties or is ready to be paid less from the very beginning. The company should not forget that it has moral obligations to its employees (Greenwood). Thus, the management needs to think of harm it can cause through the implementation of changes.
In the framework of SCR, AKU can provide negative influences on the environment. The company is going to manufacture a new product, which means that it will deal with the increased amount of resources that are rather harmful to nature and require a special kind of utilization. Thus, it is significant for the organization to think about the ways it can reduce the footprints of its production processes. In addition to that, ethical labor practices should be discussed in this framework. AKU must ensure that it treats its personnel appropriately and that its practices are aligned with international and local laws. Human resource management (HRM) department also should think of the possibility to cope with those issues that are connected with the client’s traditions, social norms, business practices, etc. (Yang, Colvin & Wong).
Organizational restructuring is likely to entail a range of HR issues that are to be efficiently managed to reach positive outcomes. In this way, HR should develop a clear strategy for a change to be implemented smoothly. The CEO should pay attention to the company’s positioning and identify the strengths and weaknesses its personnel has. As a result, HR will be able to maintain a proper assessment of worker’s skills and knowledge so that it will be seen if some of them should be fired and substituted by other people. In this manner, new personnel should be hired. AKU will be able to achieve success in the sphere only if it pays enough attention to the talent. Of course, additional training for novice employees will be required, but it should not turn into a total educational course. AKU should think of the company’s hierarchy and consider what positions are required to fill the gap which occurred due to the creation of a new product. To ensure that new personnel is not going to face difficulties from the very beginning, the company also believes that it would be better if it gives leading positions to those people who have worked in this company from the very beginning. Such alteration is going to appeal to current professionals because it will ensure that their efforts are appreciated and that all people are equally valued.
The HR department should pay additional attention to the communication with different stakeholders because it provides a basis for the novice employees who are yet not aware of the communicational peculiarities of AKU. In this way, employees will be aware of how to communicate different job implications and address concerns after the adoption of a new organizational structure (Guest & Woodrow).
Thus, it can be concluded that organizational changes have an enormous influence on all companies and require thorough investigation and assessment. AKU plans to resort to organizational restructuring due to the development of a new product that was not manufactured by it beforehand. It can be concluded that any organizational change is likely to turn into a complicated procedure that is greatly affected by the cultural, ethical, and CSR implications. The management realizes that it is significant to make other people avoid feeling neglected even though they are fired. Thus, it resorts to the best strategic options for managing HR issues.
Reference List
Greenwood, M.R. (2002) ‘Ethics and HRM: a review and conceptual analysis’, Journal of Business Ethics, 36 (3), pp. 261-278.
Guest, D. & Woodrow, C. (2012) ‘Exploring the boundaries of human resource managers’ responsibilities’, Journal of Business Ethics, 111 (1), pp. 109-119.
Yang, N., Colvin, C. & Yim-Yu, W. (2013) ‘Navigating corporate social responsibility components and strategic options: the IHR perspective’, Academy of Strategic Management Journal, 12 (1), pp. 39-58.