The concept of change is vital to the survival of all forms of life; it is nearly impossible to remain stagnant and unchanged when inhabiting a round sphere that is in constant motion. Today’s society thrives on competition, speed, and convenience. Long gone are the days of mom and pop stores and consumers actually enjoying to shop in person. Instead, physical stores are being replaced by the convenience of virtual shopping from your cell phones, Ipads, computers, etc. This is the case of the Concord bookshop, whom in its hay day was a highly regarded community jewel in Boston, known for their customer service and vast knowledge of books. The last few years have been financially difficult for the bookshop and in a last ditch effort to remain open, the owners have decided to enforce a new business model much to the dissatisfaction of their employees. I will focus on two phases of the organizational change process that were not implemented by the Concord bookshop that ultimately led to their failure.
The first failure occurred when the new general manager and the owners decided to change the business plan without consulting the three current store managers or the employees. “Change imposed from “above”-top executives telling employees that they must alter their behaviors in order to implement a new strategy or perform better under the old strategy-is likely to engender resistance” (Spector, p.11, 2010). Getting people to change is all in the way that you approach them. If you make demands of people, without asking for their input or feedback, it would be like hitting your head against a brick wall. The employees at the bookshop felt like they had no voice and that their opinions did not matter to the management team so they preferred to quit than feel undervalued as employees.
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