Introduction
Red Carpet LLC appears to be challenged by several issues including high turnover, inadequate training, organizational culture, and other problems. In order to address them and increase the company’s performance, there is a need for a change initiative suitable for this specific organization. In this report, major elements of the change process such as change type, stakeholders, and initial activities will be discussed relative to the identified problematic instances.
Type of Change for Red Carpet
The three change modes such as developmental, transitional and transformational are different in scale, efforts and resources required, benefits and drawbacks they yield. Developmental change is usually implemented when a single process is failing or not performing to its full capacity (Queensland Government, 2017). It presupposes that on the larger scale the company functions well. However, Red Carpet, despite its profitability, needs a more systematic and complex change, as problems it faces are multiple. Yet, most of them are of similar nature and connected to underdeveloped human potential and training pitfalls. Transformational change implies the largest scale change of all types that presupposes a major shift in multiple aspects of the company’s operations, corporate culture and external relations. In application to the Red Carpet case, it might be overly fundamental as the business is not completely failing to deliver profit to the major stakeholders and only lacks in a few faculties.
Transitional change could be one of the best choices for the company, as it is an average between the developmental and transformational ones. While it can still arouse discomfort among employees and pose significant challenges for managers and owners to implement, it is still less demanding but more effective than the alternatives (Carnall, 2018). Unlike transformational change, transitional one does not rely heavily on long-term dynamic control. Instead, it allows for a relatively smooth relocation to a new practice or ideology, provided all participants of the adjustment process are well informed and frequently updated. Thus, transitional change appears to be an overall balanced approach to the challenges faced by Red Carpet and can be sufficient to facilitate meaningful alteration.
Key Stakeholder Groups in the Change Process
There are multiple stakeholder groups that would participate in the change initiative including lower-level employees, managers, and owners. As several Red Carpet divisions experience turnover problems, employees would be the main beneficiaries of the change process. Their interests should be on the top of the priorities list of managers and owners when the transition to new HR policies will be planned. For instance, Delicacy restaurant is said to demonstrate high profits only due to the long shifts for the staff, which does not seem to be a viable long-term practice. This is evidenced by several researchers that confirm the negative influence of turnover on firm performance that manifests in additional training and recruiting costs (Schiemann, 2014). Therefore, the key change plan arrangements should consider the employees’ needs as they are one of the key stakeholders.
The second vital stakeholder group is managers. Since Red Carpet relies heavily on General Managers and Vice Presidents in several divisions, it needs to address their interests to ensure their above-average performance and loyalty to the company’s cause. Specifically, General Managers are vital personnel for Red Carpet hotels and food services. Amon the core problems that face the company are its supplier relationships, which adequate department management should be capable of solving. The final stakeholder group is owners who need to change their attitude towards HR practices. Due to the fact that major decision-making processes are conducted within the close circle of CEO and board members, the key changes need to start happening from there. In addition, the generation of vision and mission as well as other elements of new corporate culture that values human capital befalls the senior management and owners, which is why their interests and concerns should also be prioritized.
Initial Activities Plan for Change Process
The first step towards change is to define what change means in the context of the company. To establish the meaning of change, Red Carpet needs to critically assess all its performance indexes and why they are insufficiently high. There might arise the need for additional assessment tools such as employee or manager job satisfaction questionnaire. Once the data is gathered and the need for change is defined, step two would be to determine and assess the stakeholders and how the new policy will affect them. This will allow for deeper understanding of risks and drawbacks to consider in the implementation phase. It is also essential to plan how the change and actions it entails will be communicated to the stakeholders. It is critical to let employees and managers know why the change is happening, what it will bring, and how it affects them. The success of this endeavor will ensure the smooth transition process and increase the involvement of workers and executives.
Conclusion
To conclude, the change process in Red Carpet requires a moderately-fundamental improvement that may be addressed by using transitional change model. Due to the limited areas of its problems, this approach will probably suit the company perfectly. Among the key stakeholders are Red Carpet’s employees, managers, and owners as each of their interests will be sufficiently concerned by the change. The company should start by clearly defining the problem, change, stakeholders, and develop a plan to communicate with the latter to ensure the smoothness of the transition process.
References
Carnall, C. (2018). Managing change. London, UK: Routledge.
Queensland Government. (2017). Types of change. Web.
Schiemann, W. A. (2014). From talent management to talent optimization. Journal of World Business, 49(2), 281-288.