Introduction
It is argued that change is an event that cannot be ignored in organizations. The rationale behind this assumption is that organizations operate in a complex and dynamic environment. With changes in the internal and external environment, organizations are often forced to develop and implement certain practices that can help them mitigate the forces of change.
Change management factors involve numerous things, most of which revolve around the abilities and the inabilities of the organizations. This paper presents an assessment of change management at SMA Micro-Electronics Product Division (MEPD).
The paper brings out the assessment of internal and external change management as brought out in the MEPD change management program. All the strategic issues of strategic change management as addressed in the MEPD change management program case are explored.
Organizational design in change management is heavily dependent on the problems of management that are facing organizations. Of greater importance in the redesigning of organizational operations is the implementation of best practices in management, which aim at mitigating the managerial challenges that are a hindrance to organizational performance.
From the case, it can be noted that MEPD was facing a human resource problem that emanated from the issue of managing group dynamics resulting from in-group conflicts. This reduces the rate of performance by the employees of the company. The problem of coordination and conflict come out as the main issues that impact negatively on the delivery of the employees, thus the poor performance of MEPD.
Internal factors of change like the changing conditions in the market are reported to impact negatively on the internal operations of MEPD. The report of the survey that was conducted at the MEPD revealed that the prevailing group conflicts in the division have developed from long held managerial problems in the division.
The managerial problems, which smouldered for an extended period of time, have combined with the emerging problem of the stiffening of the market conditions, resulting in the constriction of business activities in the company.
As earlier noted, MEPD implemented a number of practices as a way of dealing with the problem of declining sales, which emanated from the fierce competition in the market. Spichty, the vice president of MEPD, designed cost cutting measures as a way of dealing with the problem of shrinking sales in MEPD. These measures included reduction of the number of employees and the cut down on other expenses in the division.
One critical question to ask is whether the cost cutting measures were effective, and the extent to which they proved to be rational solutions to the problem that was facing MEPD. According to the case, the implementation of cost cutting measures in the company did not bring a long lasting solution to the problems that were facing the division.
In fact, it compounded the problem of human resource management in the organization. This is denoted by the growth in the levels of mistrust among the employees and between the employees and the managers in the division. This, further, impacts negatively on the functioning of groups and project delivery.
The design of operations in the company was the source of the competitive strength of the company in the market for a long time in the history of the company. SMA operated based on the segmentation of its business into eight operating divisions. MEPD is one of the operating divisions in SMA. The divisions aided in the attendance of a stronger technical capability through invention. This acted as a competitive force for the company in the micro-electronics market.
Research and development was easily enabled by the design of operations in SMA. The company has continuously built its competitiveness around research and development in each of the operating segments. Research and development is a key factor for competitiveness, which is easily advanced through organizational projects.
It enabled the company to come up with technologically advanced products. This denoted strength in production and a strong ground for the performance of the company in the market. Each division in SMA was taken to be a profit centre. This qualifies the value of segmentation of business operations, which denoted the application of managerial practices in each division.
Changes in the market are critical factors to the managerial orientation of any given company. As observed in the case, MEPD has been dynamic in terms of implementation of the development and implementation of managerial practices. The division has paid a lot of attention to the changes in the external environment.
This is because the change in the external environment has a profound impact on the internal structures of operation in organizations. The division needs to be applauded for its efforts to focus on technical issues in the micro-electronics business environment and patterning them with the managerial problems.
In 2009, MEPD introduced slight changes in the design of its operations by introducing two functional units. It set apart the marketing and sales unit, which began to operate as an individual unit. With the mushrooming competition in the market, MEPD formed the product development unit. This can be termed as a positive development. The growth in the levels of frustration among the employees often results from work pressures.
Differentiation of functions eases the pressure by giving each set of employees a change to work on a given issue. For instance, the introduction of a sales and marketing unit was vital for solving the problem of declining sales. On the other hand, the product development unit easily works with the technical staff and the manufacturing team to ensure that issues of design, quality, and quantity of products are addressed according to the needs of customers.
The quality of any change management initiative is determined by the level at which the initiatives meet the demands of the changes in the internal and external operational environment of an organization. Several change initiatives have been developed and implemented by the management of MEPD.
Strategic change initiatives are critical to increasing the competitiveness of the company by improving the level of discharge of the functions of the organization. The strategic strengths of the change initiatives in MEPD lie in the manner in which it crafted and implemented several change initiatives relative to the demands of the changing environment.
It should be recognized that the change in MEPD was necessitated by growth in the competition in the micro-electronics market, which is an external factor. The internal environment played a greater role in influencing the internal environment by causing the friction that resulted in the declining performance of the division. Therefore, an overhaul was needed in the managerial functions of the company to meet the demands and enhance the profitability of the division.
The strategic strength of the change program of the MEPD is that it focused on the broader division. Strategic change is a critical exercise that is geared not only on the problem being experienced, but it should also be able to address the projected problems of the company.
This expounds on the relevance of expansive strategies. The change initiatives of MEDP focused on two main areas of organizational performance. These are business development and employee development. These two aspects often complement each other, and a balance between them easily results in the competitive positioning of the company.
Business development cannot be enhanced without the improvement of human resources practices and putting the employees in a better position to discharge their functions. The introduction of new operational units can be taken as a multifaceted initiative that was aimed at addressing the problem of employee delivery, as well as a corporate solution to the problem of shrinking marketing opportunities.
The second strategic strength of the initiatives in the change program at MEPD is that they were objective in the sense that they focused on the problems that were facing the company. Improvement of coordination is attained after the changes in the managerial practices in MEPD. More new products were also developed by the company to meet the changing customer demands in the market.
The main weakness of the change program in MEPD revolves around the failure to attain high returns from some of the changes that were introduced. Some of the new departments that have been developed as part of the change in the organizations like the marketing department have not resulted in the regaining of the competitiveness of SMA in the market.
However, the fact that most of the objectives of change were met is a reason enough to applaud the change program as it neutralizes the negative aspects of change. The other weakness of the change program is that it did not heavily deploy the aspect of participation, especially in the development of change initiatives. Participation of the employees in the design of change programs increases the rate of compliance.
The complexity of operations in organizations often impacts on the behaviour and performance of employees. Therefore, it is vital for organizational managers to explore such problems in order to streamline the behaviour and performance of workers. Functional problems in MEDP have been attributed to several changes in the business environment. Several conclusions have been put forward on how to deal with the functional problems in MEPD. The level and value of each conclusion are dependent on the rationale behind the conclusion.
The issue of market changes has been one of the main undoing factors for the management of MEPD. Shift in the market often requires the company to be proactive in terms of meeting the demands that are brought about by the changes in the market.
It can be noted that most of the changes that have been given attention only centre on product development. The critical exercise of crafting operations in a manner that is appealing to the employees of MEPD is not given attention. Therefore, the company can hardly attain the full commitment of the employees.
MEPD operates in an active environment and the design of its operations was not as active as it would be desired to pattern with the pace of change in the external environment. The expansiveness of the managerial functions in MEPD is based on the fact that the managers have technical competencies in each of the designed functional areas like manufacturing, technical development and research and development.
This sets a competitive scale for the management, which can easily improve the delivery of the MEPD management. Issues of capital requirements only come in as secondary challenges. The changes that were introduced by MEPD vice president ought to be applauded. The separation of a number of key functions like marketing from sales and the product development team were vital to sorting out the problem of declining sales in the market.
This managerial exercise denoted the differentiation of work in MEPD and a leading factor in the reduction of work pressure on employees. It also enhances the ability of the functional units to support each other. The other thing that ought to be observed is that the issue of coordination becomes complex when employees are assigned to multiple tasks. Differentiation of functions reduces the complexity of the work, thus increasing the organization of work.
The increased differentiation of operations results in the spreading of responsibility and does not denote fragmentation of managerial practices. What needs to be done by the management of MEPD is to raise the level of independence of groups through empowering them with the skills and resources to deliver.
The performance of the new segments for instance marketing is something that ought to be given attention. These segments need to be given a heavy back up from other segments in order for them to pick up and add to the profitability of the company. While some segments remain to be dormant, like in the case of the research and development, their contribution cannot be completely written off.
They might not have direct contributions to profits, but they play a significant role in supporting other functional units. The product development unit and the research and development unit remain to be vital in as far as the long-term plan of dealing with competitive pressure in MEDP is concerned.