Change Management Report: Analysis of ARCBS and Future Strategies

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the Australian Red Cross Blood Service (ARCBS) focusing on change management. It begins with an overview of ARCBS's background, mission, vision, and objectives, followed by an examination of critical success factors such as shared change purpose, effective leadership, and engagement processes. The report assesses ARCBS's current positioning relative to these factors and identifies areas needing development, including income diversification and improved external engagement. Recommendations are provided, including restructuring leadership and strengthening board capabilities, along with practical change steps like resource allocation and stakeholder engagement. The report concludes by emphasizing the importance of adapting to changing community needs and maintaining a commitment to innovation.

Running head: MANAGING CHANGE
Managing Change
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author note:

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Table of Contents
1. Introduction.........................................................................................................................2
2. Discussion...........................................................................................................................2
2.1. Company Background.................................................................................................2
2.2. Mission, Vision and Objectives of the Company........................................................3
2.3. Critical Success Factors...............................................................................................4
2.4. Current Positioning......................................................................................................6
2.5. Areas of development..................................................................................................6
3. Recommendation................................................................................................................7
4. Practical Change steps........................................................................................................7
5. Conclusion..........................................................................................................................8

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1. Introduction
Change is inevitable. Every organisation needs to change and it is the responsibility of the
organisational leaders to initiate as well as facilitate the change (Benn, Edwards and Williams
2014). There are many organisations that have suffered from stagnation due to the fact that
their top leadership is not willing to take the initiative of making the required changes within
the firm. It indeed takes a lot of dedication and commitment for a company to undergo and to
sustain its change cycle. However, it is to note that in order to create unity and effective
change management process in among all the levels of the organisational staffs, one need to
observe certain number of things first.
This paper shall elaborate on providing an in-depth analysis of an organisation named
Australian Red Cross Blood Service (ARCBS) in the form of a report in order to enable it
deal with the change management process actively with the foreseeable future change within
the industry.
2. Discussion
2.1. Company Background
The Australian Red Cross Blood Service collects (ARCBS), collects blood and blood
products. In 1996 it was formally established as national blood service that enabled new
heights of national and international co-operation succeeding in reliability, quality and safety
of blood the blood products (Shrestha et al. 2015). It process and tests all product prior to
distributing all over Australia collecting an annual revenue of $580 million in total. Blood
Service currently engages 3800 people across 83 static donor centers and 38 mobile units that
visits over 1000 sites annually (Donateblood.com.au. 2019).
It is to note that ARCBS operates under four major blood processing centers, two main
inventory and distribution hubs across the country. ARCB was initially managed by each

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state and territory transfusion services. The Blood Service endorses the humanitarian
principles of Australian Red Cross that is important to the organization (Morgan et al. 2015).
ARCBS provides a platform of important social and professional oversight with well-defined
directive and consistent identity to perform the work. Simultaneously, the Blood Service
plays a crucial role in the health sector of Australia and is funded solely by the governments
of Australia who manage the health system. ARCBS has evolved as an iconic organization
and highly recognized with support from state, territory and federal government and active
support from the donors of Australia.
2.2. Mission, Vision and Objectives of the Company
a) Mission statement- To prevent and alleviate human suffering in the face of
emergencies by means of mobilising the generosity of the donors and the power of the
volunteers (Redcross.org 2019).
b) Vision statement- To turn the compassion into actions so that:
a. Every individual affected by disaster all across of the world receive hope, care
and shelter
b. The communities across the country are well-prepared for the disaster
c. Each and every individual within the country has complete access to lifesaving
and safe blood and other blood related products.
d. Every members of the armed services and their family members could find
comfort and support whenever they need them (Redcross.org 2019)
e. In case of any emergency, there are always group of trained individuals nearby
who are ready for using their skills of Red Cross in order to save lives.
c) Purpose- To provide life-giving, life-saving and safe blood, transplantation, plasma
and other biological products for the world-leading health outcomes, “through the
power of humanity” (Nollet, Komazawa and Ohto 2015).

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2.3. Critical Success Factors
a) Shared change purpose
The strength of Australian Red Cross lies in their volunteer network, their community
based expertise as well as their neutrality and independence. They work for improving the
standards for humanitarian, as partners in the development process as well as in the response
to the disasters. Each and every individual within the organization collectively persuade the
decision makers in order to act at all times in the interest of the vulnerable people of the
world. In this way, the company is successful in enabling safe and healthy communities while
reducing the vulnerabilities and strengthening resilience and fostering a constant culture of
people all across the globe.
b) Effective change leadership
It is to note that throughout the ninety nine years history of the Australian Red Cross there
have been huge number of attempts for addressing the tensions that are inherent in the
operating model and the structure of the organisation. However, it was never until the year
2004 that the appetite and the momentum for reformation notably increased. Among the
major catalysts was the leadership change along with having the election of new Vice
President and President in the year 2003, followed by the arriving of a new CEO in February
2005 (Blombery et al. 2015). It is to note that Australian Red Cross have worked through
many iterations of the model of matrix management that involved dual reporting to the
territory and state based line management and to the national managers. Over the passage of
time, the arrangements were put in place for vesting the primary responsibility for strategic
leadership of every services under 7 priority areas including (encompassing policy, quality
assurance and service development under the national leadership and left the daily
management services and operations at local level with ultimate accountability to CEO.

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c) Powerful engagement processes
It is to note that together the reforms that were adopted by the Australian Red Cross have
resulted in a very strong national voice along with some clear sets of policy positions that
have enabled deeper level of engagement as well as influence with the partners, community,
supporters and government. Also, there is increase in engagement, support and development
for the expanded workforce, supporter base and membership. Even, despite of a halting start,
the collaborative management of the company has been embraced as an efficient management
model which enhanced the flexibility while maximising the collaboration and engagement
level.
d) Having a very strong personal connections
The Blood Service Board plays a vital role in ensuring the good governance of the Blood
Service. It is responsible for the organization’s efficient operation and takes the lead in
setting the culture of operating in a responsible way within the community. They are mostly
assigned for a three-year term based on the specific skills essential for most boards, however
they may be re-appointed based on their performance (Donateblood.com.au. 2019).
Furthermore, there skill matrix includes knowledge and experience of the health sector,
transfusion medicine, manufacturing in a highly regulated environment, and government
relations and policy. There are no gaps against the skills matrix with the current board
membership.
e) Sustained personal performance in the market
In the year 011, the company put in place an income generation model that had a total of
three main components. Firstly, a sustained focus on the balanced budgets by means of
improvement in the yield from the existing sources of income and the effective cost recovery
and cost management. Secondly, the organisation also created Red Cross investment fund

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that would be used for targeting the new and the existing investment platforms and
opportunities. Thirdly, it formed an expansion investment plan for providing diversification
of the existing commercial and fundraising base.
2.4. Current Positioning
Through the power of humanity, the purpose of blood service is to provide blood and
blood products like plasma, platelets and transplantation for world-leading health outcomes
(Stanisic et al. 2015). ARCBS delivers one of the world’s safest supplies of life-giving blood
and blood products, in addition to providing outstanding research and providing proficiency
in diagnostic, clinical, transplantation and immune-genetics services. The Blood Service is
committed to upholding the ultimate standards of safety and quality of the service (Masser,
Smith and Williams 2014). The Blood Service plays a vital role to the patients in the
Australian Health Care system by providing the life-saving products that is required on daily
basis. These blood products are derived from voluntary donations from the donors across
Australia for distribution the nation.
2.5. Areas of development
It is to note that while the organisation has amassed a very healthy portfolio of certain
assets, the annual operating budget of the company was failing to meet the business objective
of the company of growing and developing services for the vulnerable people. There is an
urgent need for diversity income, along with rationalising the administration cost and
developing the on-going income streams. Particularly, fundraising was not cost-effective and
it relied on the outmoded events and raffles (Subramaniam et al. 2015). With the same, the
commercial operations like the networking of the retail shops were failed for delivering to the
potential and maximising high brand strength of the organisation. Moreover, the external
engagement including the communications and marketing, the media relations, government

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relations, social and business services, advocacy was uncoordinated. In short, the
organisation is at a crossroad and is facing with the choice of embracing the urgent need for
reforming or being consigned to the history as a company that had served its nations with
some significant distinction but failed for adapting to the changing community needs and the
operating context. Over the passage of time, the arrangements were put in place for vesting
the primary responsibility for strategic leadership of every services under 7 priority areas
including (encompassing policy, quality assurance and service development under the
national leadership and left the daily management services and operations at local level with
ultimate accountability to CEO.
3. Recommendation
This section shall provide some strategies that the organisation can make use of for
addressing the areas where the development is required to be done in order to meet the above
mentioned future success factors.
a) Succession planning and timing of board appointments and reappointments
b) Restructuring the services leadership for aligning the state and the territory with the
national level.
c) Accelerating the learning curve for new board members
d) A more structured framework for board member evaluation and feedback
e) Restructuring of the support functions for aligning with the services as well as the
seven priority areas like the teams of media and communication that are aligned to
every priority service area.
f) Strengthening the Board’s ability to focus on key strategic challenges and
g) Refining the Board’s information and decision-making processes.
4. Practical Change steps

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a) Allocating the resources effectively. In this process, the company leaders should
ensure good support and incentives
b) Building capacity in the ways of working and at the same time, establishing some
effective mechanisms for the programme development and quality.
c) Adopting the processes for managing the new services or expanding the prevailing
services while ensuring that these were aligned with the new strategic direction.
d) Making proper adjustments about the scope creep while re-examining the resources if
the scope of project changes
e) Having a leading edge face to face and online development and learning opportunities
including the formal process of induction for all the volunteers and staffs of the
organisation.
f) Strengthening the profile, engagement and reputation of the company.
g) Engaging the involved stakeholders
h) Introducing a work health and safety framework that encourages the consultation,
reporting and hazard inspections for attaining the vision of the harm free workplace.
i) Tracking the real goal of the company to attaining whether the promised benefits are
delivered
j) Preparing the staffs and employees of the company to sustain innovation while
managing and overcoming resistance to change
5. Conclusion
During the year the Board completed a performance evaluation, facilitated by Cameron
Ralph Khoury. Their report concluded that they had “rated the Board of the Australian Red
Cross Blood Service as strong for 2017. Each and every individual within the organization
collectively persuade the decision makers in order to act at all times in the interest of the
vulnerable people of the world. In this way, the company is successful in enabling safe and

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healthy communities while reducing the vulnerabilities and strengthening resilience and
fostering a constant culture of people all across the globe. The Board demonstrates strong
capabilities across the majority of the critical elements of board effectiveness and is actively
minimizing governance risk to the organization and for stakeholders.

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6. References:
Benn, S., Edwards, M. and Williams, T., 2014. Organizational change for corporate
sustainability. Routledge.
Blombery, P., Kivivali, L., Pepperell, D., McQuilten, Z., Engelbrecht, S., Polizzotto, M.N.,
Phillips, L.E., Wood, E., Cohney, S. and TTP registry steering committee, 2016. Diagnosis
and management of thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP) in Australia: findings from
the first 5 years of the Australian TTP/thrombotic microangiopathy registry. Internal
medicine journal, 46(1), pp.71-79.
Donateblood.com.au. (2019). [online] Available at:
https://www.donateblood.com.au/sites/default/files/Annual-Report-2017-2018.pdf [Accessed
18 Aug. 2019].
Masser, B., Smith, G. and Williams, L.A., 2014. Donor research in Australia: challenges and
promise. Transfusion Medicine and Hemotherapy, 41(4), pp.296-301.
Morgan, S.J., Rackham, R.A., Penny, S., Lawson, J.R., Walsh, R.J. and Ismay, S.L., 2015.
Business continuity in blood services: two case studies from events with potentially
catastrophic effect on the national provision of blood components. Vox sanguinis, 108(2),
pp.151-159.
Nollet, K.E., Komazawa, T. and Ohto, H., 2016. Transfusion under triple threat: Lessons
from Japan's 2011 earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear crisis. Transfusion and Apheresis
Science, 55(2), pp.177-183.
Redcross.org. (2019). Mission & Principles. [online] Available at:
https://www.redcross.org/about-us/who-we-are/mission-and-values.html [Accessed 18 Aug.
2019].

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Shrestha, A.C., Flower, R.L., Seed, C.R., Keller, A.J., Harley, R., Chan, H.T., Hoad, V.,
Warrilow, D., Northill, J., Holmberg, J.A. and Faddy, H.M., 2015. Hepatitis E virus RNA in
Australian blood donations. Transfusion, 56(12), pp.3086-3093.
Stanisic, D.I., Liu, X.Q., De, S.L., Batzloff, M.R., Forbes, T., Davis, C.B., Sekuloski, S.,
Chavchich, M., Chung, W., Trenholme, K. and McCarthy, J.S., 2015. Development of
cultured Plasmodium falciparum blood-stage malaria cell banks for early phase in vivo
clinical trial assessment of anti-malaria drugs and vaccines. Malaria journal, 14(1), p.143.
Subramaniam, K., Spilsbury, K., Ayonrinde, O.T., Latchmiah, F., Mukhtar, S.A., Semmens,
J.B., Leahy, M.F. and Olynyk, J.K., 2016. Red blood cell transfusion is associated with
further bleeding and fresh‐frozen plasma with mortality in nonvariceal upper gastrointestinal
bleeding. Transfusion, 56(4), pp.816-826.