Reflection Paper
Essay 2
02-23-2014
Professor Trenton Taylor HRM 587- Managing Organizational Change

Change is something that is always inevitable. It’s a phenomenon that not everyone is ready to accept or be ready to implement it into their daily routine. The world is constantly changing no matter which field we look at. Even naturally, the Earth itself is in a constant motion of change, from day and night, to the different seasons. Human beings are no different. Throughout history we can see how drastically we have gone through changes. Technology today is something that has reached a level people didn’t even imagine fifty to thirty years ago. So whatever the case maybe, change is a constant process in every aspect of our lives. Reading this telegraph case study showed a lot of different views on change. Those who try to resist it, will eventually be left behind their competitors, but those who wholeheartedly embrace it, are usually the most successful and stay ahead of the game. Some companies develop a culture within the workplace, and if they see it to be successful, they stay with the culture that’s established. So in order for any company, or anything in general, you must keep me with the constantly changing and evolving world. Reading this study case, I noticed many things that our book had discussed about when it comes to managing change. Some barriers to allowing change were within the company culture. The first issue the company had was money early on. Even though they were selling their paper, the fact that the bills weren’t being paid on time forced the owner to unwillingly sell his company to a printer and publisher named Levy. The new owners unknowingly created another barrier, even though it was unintentional. To create a mellow and friendly home-like environment, they treated all workers as a family, which resulted in both good and bad consequences. The reason it was bad was because this created a management that was not every efficient. Not only that, but they had so many employees, regardless of the fact if they were useful and beneficial to the company, or if they were unproductive, but because of the family atmosphere they tried to create, they kept all employees. Again, even though this helped make the workplace a great environment, it was also setting the company up for disaster. Another issue that occurred was when their competitor launched the Daily Mail, selling it at an even lower cost, and thus increasing his profit. To counter this, the Telegraph released an issue on Sunday, not being aware of the counter effect it would have due to their environment, and they received negative feedback from the traditional Sunday Christian Sabbath (keeping in mind this was before the 1900s, and the era was more traditional and conservative than today). Due to this resistance, they were forced to stop it and find other ways to make up. The biggest barrier to change was then faced by this company, which was to continue the strong middle ground position they had developed and stick with it, hence not adhering to any form of change. As discussed in our book, either you move forward or you go backwards, but you absolutely can’t stay the same throughout, and expect the success you might be currently having. This would only be possible if you had no competitors within your market. Of course this would be something impossible, and even then, with the new innovations being made in technology, it is imperative to keep up and implement these changes for more efficient improvements in any company. Another very huge barrier that is also discussed in our book, as one of the biggest issue in every company is communication. Communication isn’t something that is easy even though it doesn’t sound like something that can create huge effects within a company. As the book discussed, there are two parts in learning how to have a productive communication, once they’re both mastered, it will help in delivering the message and also have the employees understand and help to make sure that everyone is on the same page. It creates a good flow of information and makes everyone aware of what is going on. In order to properly communicate, there needs to be a strategy and a set of skills. Once these are perfected, getting things done at work will become easier. In the Telegraph Company, there was no communication. The company installed very costly printing presses, with the intention of improving legibility and appearance, but still kept the old, out of date shape of the pages. The owner did this on his own accord, and didn’t listen to anyone else who was concerned with this change. This lead to a huge failure and forced the company to once again be sold to a new management. The other barrier I noticed was that the target audience. Telegraph wasn’t geared towards the younger age group, but more towards the elderly, the ones who had been using this paper from previously, but as time moved on, they lacked the ability to create ways to attract all age groups, especially the newer generation. The way this company has been moving and the different leaders who keep coming and going, I think there are a few images of managing change that can be utilized here for more productivity. The most important change image Telegraph needed was a director. The reason a director is vital to this company is because you need someone who can control the management and have outcomes that are achievable. The company also needs someone who can make strategic choices that will result in the survival and general well-being of the organization. Changes are always messy and have various results, but even then you can have satisfying results if you have a strong director. Another image of change that Telegraph can use is the caretaker image. Caretaker can help shepherd the company as best as they can, even though they have a lot of restraints from the internal and external environment. Caretakers might have a limited role, but they allow for a more smooth transitions rather than being able to totally control the results of what the changes bring. The most important change image this company was in need of was a coach. Basically, the company is set, its moving, but not in the right direction. The coach image is somewhat related to that of any sports coach. You have all the materials and team established and ready to go, but just need someone to guide you in which direction to go. The coach tells the company how to change its moves to stay competitive with its opponents. Even though this image of change doesn’t control the outcome of what can happen, but the coach image helps lead the company to a path that’s geared towards success. In conclusion, doing this research helped me understand all the aspects from this class and I was able to incorporate the material from the book, this project helped me gain a more in depth understanding of the different images of change, diagnostic models that are needed to figure out the symptoms of the company and how to fix those changes. This class also helped me apply this material from this class to my job as well, because we recently underwent many different phases of changes. Using the material and strategies from this class I was able to give ideas and present them in ways that my management was impressed. The one thing I honestly did not enjoy, was doing a group presentation, more due to the fact of lack of communication. I have been able to only get a response from one of my team members and not the two others. Maybe in the future, either we should be able to pick our partners or if the group number be limited to just two or three, but again this is just in my humble opinion. Other than that, I can say I thoroughly enjoyed this class and learned a lot of real world information that I am utilizing at work every day now, but because of this class it makes more sense and I feel to have an upper hand as compared to my other colleagues.

References 1) Managing Organizational Change: A multiple perspectives approach, 2nd Edition, by Ian Palmer, Richard Dunford and Gib Akin, © 2009, The McGraw-Hill Companies.