Change Management Report: Addressing Challenges at Samson Media

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of change management strategies for Samson Media, a fashion magazine publisher facing challenges from digital transformation and increased competition. The report begins with an introduction that identifies the company's strategic change needs, including the shift from print to digital media and cost efficiency. It reviews current human resource policies, performs an external environment analysis using the PESTLE framework, and identifies best practices in change management. The report then summarizes key information sources, assesses risks associated with change, and outlines major operational changes, including rewarding employees and improving communication. A cost-benefit analysis is provided, along with recommended communication and education strategies to facilitate the transition. The report's findings and recommendations aim to help Samson Media adapt to the changing market, improve employee morale, and ensure long-term success. This report serves as a valuable resource for students studying change management and organizational strategy, and it is available on Desklib, a platform offering past papers and solved assignments.

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CHANGE MANAGEMENT
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Change Management Briefing Report Template
Introduction
a. Analysis of the company’s organizational objectives and identification of
strategic changes needs
Samson media, which is a publisher of several upmarket fashion magazines, has
strong link with numerous high-profile fashion houses. However, of late Samson
Media has lost a considerable number of readership in the past two years. This can
be attributed to the competition that it has been facing from the upcoming fashion
magazines. The second issue that the company is facing is the shift from print
media to digital media. As there has been a decline in the readership, there has
also emerged the plummeting of the profits by a margin of 20 per cent. This has
further led to the decrease in the price share. To recover from this loss faced by
the company, a new CEO named Amir Johnson has been appointed for the post
who has years of experience in the media. Some of the strategies devised by the
company are enacting a transformational change of the company that would
convert the magazine (print) to the digital medium and aiming for cost efficiency
through shifting the head office to the main office. These strategies looks
promising for the company to recover from the losses faced due to the competition
posed by the webzines.
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b. Review of the current human resources policies and procedures and practices
at Samson Media against strategic objectives and report on required changes
The current human resource policy and procedure include recruitment, induction,
and selection policy and procedure. This is considered an ad-hoc performance
review process that takes place as the issue ensues. There is no professional
development or formal process of training needs analysis. In Samson Media, the
selection decisions are made based on merits with the aim of avoiding
discrimination and employee termination is handled with sensitivity and fairness.
External environment analysis or PESTLE analysis
The external environment analysis of Samson Media reveals that due to the
expansion of the digital medium which is considered as revolutionary there have
emerged a number of issues that needs to be taken into account. There may emerge a
number of lawsuits due to the copyright of content. On the politico-legal front, this
will compel the publishers at Samson Media to be cautious regarding the quality and
the type of content that will be published in the webzine (Anderson 2016). This is
relevant considering the strategic objective of Samson Media to close its distribution
channels and sites and completely shift its base to online distribution in the form of
webzines (Benn, Edwards and Williams 2014). There is also the threat of piracy. On
the economic front, there is increasing pressure from the rise of sell in books. It has
been found that the profit on e-books is negligible. However, the digital magazines
have a wide market and are creating attractive environment for the advertisers. On the
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social front, new publishing strategies produce the community forums that would
enable the readers to form a community and engage with the contents of the webzine.
The audience these days has better access to the media distribution much like the
publishers (McCleskey 2014). However, threat networking can lead to bad reviews.
On the technology front, technology has enable in the revolution of webzines and at
the same time led to stiff competition for Samson media’s print magazines. On the
environmental front, shifting to a digital medium is good as it saves trees that are used
in the production of paper for the print magazines (Turlais 2016).
Sources of information on change management and best practice approaches
and overview of best practice change
The sources of information on change management are the staff survey and
information on recruitment policies, practices and procedures, and the strategic
objectives and external analysis; it has been found that there are different areas that
need to be changed. The best change management practice is to adopt a
transformational leadership style, understand the problems of the employees and
motivate them to deliver their best performance for the company. It is also important
to communicate about the change at all levels. The overview of the proposed changes
of shifting the company headquarters, shifting to the digital media from the print
media, and motivation of the employees is believed to be helpful for Samson Media
for achieving their goals and objectives.
The sources of information about the best practice change have been derived
from the recruitment policy and procedures, staff sorbet and termination policy. All
these sources have been useful in understanding the current problem in the company
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and the kind of changes to be appropriated based on the views of staff and company
guidelines.
Summary of each source of information
It has been found that although there has been efforts from the management to
aim for open communication there is reluctance among the employees to share their
true opinions. Some staff feels that the department is not completely honest. There is
also a belief among the staff that despite change, the management will work according
to their discretion. The management needs to adopt the transformational
organizational change through transformational leadership (Barry, Kimble, Nambiar,
Parry, Jha, Chattu, Massoud and Goldmann 2018). The thrust would be to create a
workforce that becomes important for the organization and the members of the
organization feel motivated. The termination policy of the company reveals that the
company will terminate employment on grounds of employment, retrenchment, bad
performance or serious misconduct. In the recruitment policy, nowhere it was
mentioned that the salary structure and incentives would be discussed with the
employees that is quite important.
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Risks/barrier to change and strategies
Risk Assessment– Change Management
Risk
description
Likelihood
of risk
Impact of
risk
Priority
of risk
Preventative
Action/Contingency Plan
Digital
marketing
May end
up in Niche
market
Loss of
revenue,
loss of
reading
subscription
3 Ensuring it remains wide by
monitoring the subscription
and range of publication…
Competition
from the
May not be
purchased
May lose its
revenue
1 Include high-quality content to
neutralize the effect of stiff
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brands
specializing in
digital
magazine
by the
buyers
competition
Inclusion of
new kinds of
content for the
magazine
It may not
be liked by
the loyal
customers
As
customers
would not
associate
with it and
hence there
would not
be any brand
recall
2 Inform the customers about
the new features so that they
are prepared
Major change requirements
The major operational change in Samson Media is to reward the employees and
provide them with a space to articulate themselves. Communication needs to be
improved through appropriate change management (Buckman, Crawford, LePine and
Zhang 2015). The print magazine should be made available in the digital format.
Employees should be reward to boost their morale confidence. Feedback from the
employees need to be collected regarding job satisfaction and work culture.
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Prioritization of change requirements
 Transforming the print magazine to digital medium due to the favourable
market for digital magazines
 Rewarding the staff members to prevent attrition rate.
 Creating and expanding the channels of communication as the employees feel
left out due to the indifferent attitude of the management.
Cost-benefit analysis
There will be some cost involved in this regard that have been documented below:
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Summary of the Results of the Analysis:
Capital Costs $0
Whole of Life Costs $675,000
Present Value of Benefits $1,244,804
Present Value of Costs $550,233
Benefit Cost Ratio 2.26
Net Present Value $694,571
0 1 2 3 4
Year 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022
Discount factor (mid-year) 0.96225 0.89097 0.82497 0.76387 0.70728
Discount factor (start of year) 1.00000 0.92593 0.85734 0.79383 0.73503
Benefit 1 $100,000 $100,000 $100,000 $100,000 $100,000
Benefit 2 $100,000 $100,000 $100,000 $100,000 $100,000
Benefit 3 $100,000 $100,000 $100,000 $100,000 $100,000
Total Benefits (mid-year) $300,000 $300,000 $300,000 $300,000 $300,000
Present Value of Benefits (mid-yr) $288,675 $267,292 $247,492 $229,160 $212,185
Present Value of Benefits $1,244,804
Cost 1 -$25,000 -$25,000 -$25,000 -$25,000 -$25,000
Cost 2 -$25,000 -$25,000 -$25,000 -$25,000 -$25,000
Cost 3 -$25,000 -$100,000 -$100,000 -$100,000 -$100,000
Total Costs (mid-year) -$75,000 -$150,000 -$150,000 -$150,000 -$150,000
Capital Costs (at start of year) $0 $0 $0 $0 $0
Total Costs -$75,000 -$150,000 -$150,000 -$150,000 -$150,000
Total Capital Costs $0
Total Whole of Life Costs -$675,000
Present Value of Costs (mid-year) -$72,169 -$133,646 -$123,746 -$114,580 -$106,092
Present Value of Costs (start year) $0 $0 $0 $0 $0
Present Value of Costs (by year) -$72,169 -$133,646 -$123,746 -$114,580 -$106,092
Present Value of Costs -$550,233
Net Cash Flows $225,000 $150,000 $150,000 $150,000 $150,000
Net Present Value (by year) $216,506 $133,646 $123,746 $114,580 $106,092
Cumulative NPV $216,506 $350,152 $473,898 $588,478 $694,571
Chart data only:
Year 0 1 2 3 4
Present Value of Benefits ($million) 0.289$ 0.267$ 0.247$ 0.229$ 0.212$
Present Value of Costs ($million) 0.072-$ 0.134-$ 0.124-$ 0.115-$ 0.106-$
Cumulative Net Present Value ($million) 0.217$ 0.350$ 0.474$ 0.588$ 0.695$
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Recommended communication and education strategies
Communication and Education Plan
Audience Key message Delivery
method
Date/duration of
session (if
applicable)
Location
Marketing
Manager
Ensure
monitoring of
subscriptions…
Email …… ……
Human
Resource
manager
Ensure that the
staff is
contended
Email ……. ……
Editor
Ensure high-
quality and
eclectic content
Email ………. ………….
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References and bibliography
Anderson, D.L., 2016. Organization development: The process of leading
organizational change. Sage Publications.
Barry, D., Kimble, L.E., Nambiar, B., Parry, G., Jha, A., Chattu, V.K., Massoud, M.R.
and Goldmann, D., 2018. A framework for learning about improvement: embedded
implementation and evaluation design to optimize learning.International Journal for
Quality in Health Care, 30(suppl_1), pp.10-14.
Benn, S., Edwards, M. and Williams, T., 2014. Organizational change for corporate
sustainability. Routledge.
Buckman, B., Crawford, E., LePine, J. and Zhang, Y., 2015. A meta-analytic
investigation of job engagement's role in the transformational leadership–job
satisfaction–job performance relationship. In Annual Meeting of the Southern
Management Association, SMA 2015.
McCleskey, J.A., 2014. Situational, transformational, and transactional leadership and
leadership development. Journal of Business Studies Quarterly, 5(4), p.117.
Turlais, V., 2016. BUSINESS SCENARIO PLANNING FOR DECLINING
INDUSTRY. Journal of Business Management, (11).
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