Managing Change

This report evaluates the given study to examine and develop the appropriate organizational structure for the new merged company KISS OFF. It discusses the key challenges, research, analysis, and recommendations for managing change.

Running head: MANAGING CHANGE
Managing Change
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author note

1MANAGING CHANGE
Executive Summary
This report has evaluated the given study to examine and develop the appropriate
organizational structure for the new merged company KISS OFF. The report has described
the synopsis of the situation where it has been identified that the organization needs to
terminate at least half of the employees and managers to decrease the redundancy within
the organization. In order to accomplish this and develop an organizational structure which
incorporates moderate characteristics of both the organization, will have to use the
contemporary school of though and management. The new organizational structure will
develop new values and morale based on the current need of the organization. However,
this business model will be improved by continuous improvement through bounded
rationality.

2MANAGING CHANGE
Table of Contents
Introduction............................................................................................................................ 3
Synopsis of the situation........................................................................................................3
Key challenges....................................................................................................................... 4
Research................................................................................................................................ 4
Analysis.................................................................................................................................. 6
Recommendations................................................................................................................. 7
Conclusion............................................................................................................................. 7
References............................................................................................................................. 8

3MANAGING CHANGE
Introduction
This report has critically evaluated the current situation of merger given in the case
study to identify the key strategies that has to be implemented for an effective merger
between Kincade and Occupational. Mergers and Acquisitions often fail due to the level of
complexity and difference in organizational practices between both the organizations.
Therefore, it is critical to restructure the organization effectively for taking advantage of the
complementary resources of the merged company. The report has identified the key
challenges and researched literature of the given topic, and analysed it effectively. The
report has also recommended solutions based on the issues identified which will facilitate in
decision making for the new president of the company. The formation of the new
organization will result in releasing of many employees from occupational. The merger has
put pressure on the new company to increase their profit margin and increase their
operational efficiency and the current study has aimed to provide better options for KISS to
integrate the positive aspect of both the organization.
Synopsis of the situation
Kincade industrial Sanitary Seating is the market leader in toil seat and other
peripheral segments which also consists of toilets that are fully assembled. On the other
hand, Occupational Fixtures and Fasteners are the market leader in manufacturing of the
hardware that holds the toilet seat. Kincade has acquired Occupational as both the
companies are complementary to each other. The resources and expertise of Occupational
will help Kincade increase the operational efficiency of the products sold by them. Kincade is
located in three locations such as South Australia, Victoria and NSW. These facilities are
expected to be in operation as the Kincade is the acquiring the other company. The number
of workforce in the organization consist of 650 employees. The level of bureaucracy is high
in the organization where the management team has taken a traditional approach and
communication in the organization is conducted through a chain of command. Moreover, the
management believes in cost cutting at every possible place. The company follows strict
working hours with minimum benefits and even the vacation policies are nominal in the
organization.
On the contrary, it has described that Occupation has two facilities which are within
100 km of Victorian location of Kincade and Australian Manufacturing Workers Union has
represented the workforce. The majority of the employees in the organization have been
working in the organization for more than 25 years. The organization follows participative
management where there relationship between the management and the employees are

4MANAGING CHANGE
extremely good consisting of flexible working hours, self-directed teams and medical benefits
that are exceptional. Moreover, the decisions are made at the lowest level and there is great
degree of communication at all levels. The organization also believes in innovation and takes
feedback from the employees in developing new design that would prove to be revolutionary.
Key challenges
The major problem faced in this acquisition is the fact that even though both the
organizations sell complementary goods, they have vast differences in organizational
culture, workforce polices and management styles. This makes it quite difficult for the top
level of management of the new organization in a dicey situation as downsizing is the only
option for the company for reducing redundancy and improving the cost efficiency of the
organization.
On the other hand, the majority of the employees and the management have been
working in this organization from its commencement so it would be very difficult for the new
president to decide the managers and employees that are redundant. Moreover, it is much
more difficult to break the bad news to the employees and manager as it affects the morale
of the existing employees. The case study also suggest that the new company requires at
least half of the staffs to maintain their sustainable competitive advantage in the market. This
means that the new organization will have to let go of at least half of the employees.
The employees of the acquired company will feel unsettled during the period of
downsizing. This affects the overall productivity of the organization. Moreover, the
compensation structure, the benefits and work life flexibility was quite different for both the
organizations. Therefore, completely following the human resource policies of either of the
organization would prove to be ineffective for employees. The organization requires
restructuring at such as extent where the new organizational culture and policies should
consist of characteristics of both the organization. However, there are certain options that
the organization would have to take into account in before restructuring such as whether it is
feasible to restructure at the current situation and are there any other options that would
provide better results for the organization.
Research
The different management school of thoughts are essential for identifying the current
practices within an organization. The different schools of thought are classical school,
behavioural school, quantitative school, and contingency school and system schools
(Tolstoy and Kant 2016). These school of thoughts consist of different forms of management
which defines the way the business in run using that particular approach.

5MANAGING CHANGE
In the classical approach, the study area can be grouped under scientific
management, bureaucratic approach and administrative management (Khorasani and
Almasifard 2017). This theory only focuses on improving the efficiency of the work done and
effective management of the employees. In the scientific approach, the management is
solely responsible for planning of the work and the responsibility of the employees is to
implement the plans developed by the management. The scientific management also
focuses on selecting employees based on their qualification and provides the employees
with adequate training to improve the quality of the services performed. Administrative
management provides a general theory of management which is a big contrast to the
scientific school of thought. However, the basic principle remained the same where the
management were expected to plan, organize, command, coordinate and control the
different aspect of the planning phase (Shafritz, Ott and Jang 2015). The bureaucratic style
of management which is highly based on hierarchy consisting of impersonality, formalized
rules and promotion and selection based on the ability of the employees.
The next school of thought is the behavioural school of thought which was developed
due to the inefficiencies in the classical approach. This thought is focused on understanding
the different factors that affect the behaviour of human beings at work. Human relations and
behavioural science are the two aspects of behavioral thought (Morecroft 2018). The human
relation school of thought the managers should have the capability of assessing the causes
of interpersonal communication, motivation and human behaviour at work. This focuses on
the motivation and satisfaction level of the employees (Khorasani and Almasifard 2017).
Behavioural science mainly focuses on organizational behaviour which has defined the
relationship between productivity and worker attitudes.
The next is the quantitative school of thought which focuses on the making decisions
by using quantitative approaches of decision making. The different approach are
management science, and production and operations management (Mattsson, Irauschek
and Yousefpour 2018). The management approach comprises of use of management
information system to identify the optimal allocation of resources. On the other hand, the
operation management focuses on the quality and productivity of manufacturing of products.
The systematic school considers the organization as an open system where the
inputs are transformed into outputs. This focuses on the overall organization and takes a
holistic approach. It focuses on interaction with the external environment. The contingency
school of thought focuses on applying theories based on the situation (Geisler and
Wickramasinghe 2015). This means that there is no correct way of managing a particular
issue and the managers will have to make effective decisions and adopt different styles of

6MANAGING CHANGE
leadership to address the issue. The last school of thought is the contemporary school of
thought which will consist of continuous evolution where the organization implements new
approaches to continuously improve the organizational strategies (Witzel 2016).
Analysis
The above school of thought discussed the different management school of thought
and it can be identified that both the organizations mentioned in the study uses a different
school of thought. In case of Kincade industrial Sanitary Seating, it follows the classical
approach which consist of high level of bureaucracy, scientific management and
administrative management (Thompson 2017). This means that there are strict level of rules
within the organization and the employees does not have any work life flexibility. This shows
that the organization follows autocratic form of leadership where the employees follow the
actions and the plans of the management. Therefore, the sole purpose of the workforce to
implement the plans developed by the manager.
On the other hand, in case of Occupational Fixtures and Fasteners uses the
behavioral school of thought. The management and the employees are at good terms within
the organization and there is two communication. The decision making is made by
consulting with the employees within the organization (Khorasani and Almasifard 2017). The
employees are provided with additional benefits and flexible working hours to motivate the
employees and provide them with high level of satisfaction at work. This is the reason there
is low level of attrition within the organization and majority of the employees have been
within the organization for more than 25 years. The organization follows participative style of
leadership where the employees’ opinion matter to the managers and the organization
promotes innovation by accepting innovative ideas from the employees.
Therefore, these two organizational structures are completely different and mere
opposite to each other. The manager should evaluate the different available options before
developing the structure of the new organization (Foss and Weber 2016). Bounded
rationality is the model which will provide the best possible option for the organization within
a given period of time. In this method of bounded rationality, the different alternatives are
identified and analysed (Puranam et al. 2015). However, the most feasible option is selected
based on the time constraint and risk taking ability of the organization.
In this above study, the organization needs to use the contemporary school of
management to implement a structure which includes characteristics of both the
organization. Similarly, the organization needs to terminate employees not only from

7MANAGING CHANGE
Occupational but also from Kincade. The management should consist of managers having
both experience and innovative ideas for the new organization. However, as 150 employees
including managers will lose their jobs. The organization needs to select two managers
having equal amount of experience in handling employees. Downsizing would affect the
morale of the employees so it is essential to communicate effectively the reason for
termination (Yang, Toubia and De Jong 2015). The manager will also to anticipate the
reaction of the employees and take necessary measures to console and make them
understand the situation.
Recommendations
Therefore, the analysis of the current situation has identified the following measures
that needs to be taken for developing the organization effectively and they are as follows:
 The senior most manager of the organization has to take the initiative in terminating
the other managers.
 The manager with best relationship with the employees needs to terminate the
employees so that effective communication is there between both the parties.
 The organization will need to use the contemporary model of though where the
organization will initially develop a business model which will be improved
continuously through innovation and support from the employees within the
organization.
 The manager needs to develop clear communication strategy for the employees and
make sure that all the employees prepared for the worst case scenario.
 The new requires moderation in every aspect as both the initial organization were
poles apart. This means all the human resource policies, workforce management,
training and development policies needs to be accommodate characteristics of both
the organization.
 The level of bureaucracy has to be decreased significantly to assist in increasing the
innovation with the organization.
Conclusion
The analysis of the above case study shows that both the organizations are poles
apart and in order to develop an effective organizational structure for the new organization.
The organization KISS OFF needs a contemporary model of management which will
facilitate innovation within the organization. This will help in integrating continuous innovation
within the organization by applying suitable strategies based on the situation.

8MANAGING CHANGE
References
Foss, N.J. and Weber, L., 2016. Moving opportunism to the back seat: Bounded rationality,
costly conflict, and hierarchical forms. Academy of Management Review, 41(1), pp.61-79.
Geisler, E. and Wickramasinghe, N., 2015. Principles of Knowledge Management: Theory,
Practice, and Cases: Theory, Practice, and Cases. Routledge.
Khorasani, S.T. and Almasifard, M., 2017. Evolution of management theory within 20
century: A systemic overview of paradigm shifts in management. International Review of
Management and Marketing, 7(3), pp.134-137.
Mattsson, B.J., Irauschek, F. and Yousefpour, R., 2018. Gaps in Quantitative Decision
Support to Inform Adaptive Management and Learning: a Review of Forest Management
Cases. Current Forestry Reports, 4(3), pp.111-124.
Morecroft, J.D.W., 2018. Management attitudes, learning and scale in successful
diversification: a dynamic and behavioural resource system view. In System Dynamics (pp.
69-106). Palgrave Macmillan, London.
Puranam, P., Stieglitz, N., Osman, M. and Pillutla, M.M., 2015. Modelling bounded rationality
in organizations: Progress and prospects. The Academy of Management Annals, 9(1),
pp.337-392.
Shafritz, J.M., Ott, J.S. and Jang, Y.S., 2015. Classics of organization theory. Cengage
Learning.
Thompson, J.D., 2017. Organizations in action: Social science bases of administrative
theory. Routledge.
Tolstoy, L. and Kant, I., 2016. 4 Management thought in an age of enlightenment. A History
of Management Thought, p.75.
Witzel, M., 2016. A history of management thought. Routledge.
Yang, L., Toubia, O. and De Jong, M.G., 2015. A bounded rationality model of information
search and choice in preference measurement. Journal of Marketing Research, 52(2),
pp.166-183.