Managing Change: A Case Study on Dell's Sustainable Practices

This report examines the change management strategies required for Dell to enhance its sustainable supply chain and address challenges in e-waste reduction. The analysis focuses on Dell's initiatives, including its closed-loop recycling program and "take-make-dispose" concept. The report identifies key areas where change is needed, such as improving the identification and reuse of plastics, optimizing market strategies to increase e-waste collection, and enhancing logistics for efficient material gathering. It applies Lewin's change model to outline a systematic approach to implementing these changes, emphasizing the importance of vision, stakeholder analysis, workforce alignment, and risk evaluation. The report concludes by highlighting the benefits of these changes, including reduced e-waste, cost savings, and improved environmental sustainability, ultimately contributing to Dell's business development and ecological responsibility.

MANAGING
CHANGE

INTRODUCTION
Change management is referred to a systematic way by which transition in processes,
technologies and goals of an organisation are managed properly. Purpose behind
change management is to adopt and implement new strategies so that organisational
productivity can be enhanced considerably (Olins, 2017). This assignment is prepared
in context with Dell which is a US based multinational company operating in computer
hardware and software sector. This firm is founded in 1984 and headquartered in
Texas, US. At present, this company is successfully operating in global context and
offer products like Smartphones, servers, personal computers, televisions, peripherals
etc. to their customers. This assignment covers the different situations where Dell is
needed to incorporate changes in their organisation. Also, a change process is
implemented along with mentioning the benefits of change to concerned company.
CASE SUMMARY OF DELL COMPANY
This case study is based on Dell specialist in Computer technology. This organisation
repairs, sells, develop and supports all kind of products or services linked with
computer. This organisation is serving worldwide and employ more than 145,000
employees according to the 2018 reports (Adebola, Ayinde and Olufemi, 2016). This
company is popular for its efficient e-commerce services and supply chain management
systems. In today's time, E-waste has become a big issue which generated due to
improper disposal of electronic waste. In this context, Dell company is well known for its
circular economy initiative under which “take, make and dispose” concept is followed.
Under this concept, company has introduced aspects like Take-back options, closed
loop economy etc. where already used plastic is recycled, reused and refurbished by
company to manufacture new products form it. By this, company use recycled material
for their products which helps in reducing e-waste. This initiative of company has some
loopholes and to overcome, organisational changes are required that will be discuss in
this case study. This assignment is important as it will discuss about different concepts
of sustainable supply chain so that threat to environment from materials like Plastic,
harmful gases like CO2 can be reduced. By working on this assignment, different
initiatives taken by dell to minimise e-waste will be discussed. This will helps us in
understanding about recycling and reusing products rather than throwing them as junk.
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Also, this assignment will helps in analysing the situations where change can be carried
out in a firm to maintain ecology.
DISCUSSIONS AND EVALUATION
Analyse of situations Dell is needed to manage change in their organisation is
discussed in this section. Dell is an IT and computer-based organisation, headquartered
in Texas, US. Main products offered by company are televisions, smartphones,
computers, laptops, peripherals and servers, cameras, software etc. to prepare these
products, company use recycled plastic and materials which is a good initiative to
reduce e-waste. Also, to manufacture plastic, large quantity of fossil fuels are needed
which results in increased expenses and intensive level of carbon emissions (Moxen
and Strachan, 2017). To overcome it, Dell has adopted circular supply chain and take-
back program which is operated in more than 80 nations and territories. Company also
has a reconnect partnership with Goodwill which is a not for profit organisation. Under
reconnect program, people drop off their used electronics which are then used by Dell
to produce new products. But there are some situations where adopting this concept is
complex. Manager in Dell is needed to change these situations so that organisation
goals and objectives will not suffer. Some of these situations are discussed below:
 Company has introduced closed-loop recycling but faced difficulty in
acknowledging which plastic can be reused and converted into a new product.
Concerned firm is required to carry out changes in their organisation so that this
issue can be resolved. In this context, this firm is needed to adopt new machines
based on scientific engineering so that existing way to perform closed loop
cycling can be modified.
 To increase the effectiveness of “take-make-dispose” initiative, Dell has adopted
close-loop supply chain but still company do not get sufficient volume of e-waste
or plastic to use it for a mainstream Dell product. This is the biggest change, that
concerned company is needed to manage if they wish to gain competitive
advantage over rival firms in terms of sustainable supply chains. In this context,
Dell is required to carry out changes in its market strategy so that required
amount of material can be collected via Take-make-dispose program (Beech and
MacIntosh, 2017). Changing of market strategies will help the company in
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promoting their closed loop supply chain by devoid any shortage of material. By
this, managing change related with market strategies can be implemented in a
proper manner.
 Other than this, company is needed to carry out change in their logistics. This is
because customers of Dell are presented worldwide, and company is facing
difficulty in collecting e-waste and plastic from their customers due to
environmental and economic costs.
All the above-mentioned aspects are needed to be changed for concerned
company so that loopholes in high organisational productivity can be eliminated and
company can contribute in ecology maintenance without any compromise.
IMPLEMENTATION OF THEORIES AND MODELS
Adopt a change process for company
To implement the required changes in the company, it is important for the
manager in Dell to adopt some change processes. These change processes will help
the concerned company in overcoming the obstacles which hinder effectiveness of take-
make-dispose initiative. Change processes can be adopted by Dell properly with the
help of relevant models and theories. In this context, some essential steps to implement
change are mentioned below:
 Present the vision: It is essential for the manager of Dell to specify the vision
behind the change so that employees and employers can acknowledge the need
of change at their workplace. Vision for changes that are taking place in Dell is
“to advance take-make-dispose initiative by overcoming challenges of close-loop
supply chain and recycling”. This will benefit the company in earning maximised
profits (Bradley, 2016).
 Analyse key stakeholders: It is important for the manager to analyse the
opinion of stakeholder for the concerned change. If stakeholders will not be
satisfied, it can create differences at workplace.
 Aligning workforce: It is an important aspect, if a company wished to carry out
some changes at workplace. By aligning workforce, it can be assured that
required changes will be accepted by workforce and no conflicts will take place
while implementing them.
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 Evaluate risks for change: Change which is manager of Dell is going to
implement have certain risks. For example, to purchase new machine, heavy
investment is needed. If new machine would not be able to solve the problem,
high capital will get wasted (Chung, and et. al., 2017). Failing of new market
strategy can reduce the positive image of company into market etc.
 Adopt a model for change: For these changes which are taking place in Dell,
there are different models that can be adopted like Kottler's eight step model,
Lewin's change model etc. As per the need of company, manager is going to
implement Lewin's model of change.
By following the above-mentioned steps, expected change in Dell can be
implemented by manager in a systematic manner.
Lewin's change model
This model is given by Kurt Lewin and involves three steps. By following these
steps, manager of Dell can implement required changes in organisation without any
complexities. These steps are defined below:
Unfreezing: Before incorporating a change in business firm, it is essential for the
manager to perform initial step of unfreezing. In this stage, awareness about the need of
change is given to employees and other stakeholders of company. This will allow Dell to
implemented require changes without any hindrance (Tai and Abdull Kareem, 2019).
Changing: During this stage, employees in Dell will became unfrozen and start
transitioning towards change. In this stage, changes needed by concerned company will
be implemented in a proper manner. During this time, change became real from a mere
concept. Changes which must be implemented in according to the situation of company
are stated below:
 To overcome the challenge of identification that which plastic can be used for
secondary production, company can purchase new machines which will be able
to detect and separate reusable and no-usable plastic. Purchasing these
machines will be costly but one completely set up will benefits the company in
resolving the problem associated with close-loop recycling.
 In order to eliminate the loopholes in Close-loop supply chain, manager of
company can change their marketing tactics and strategies. This will allow the
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company to promote and advertise about their take-make-dispose initiative, by
this, maximum number of people will be able to join it and prefer to contact Dell
for take-back of used plastics and electronics (Bakari, Hunjra and Niazi, 2017).
 Another problem faced by company is increased environmental and economic
cost due to which collection of material and resources around globe became
difficult. This is due to inefficiency in logistics. By channelizing more person their
transportation services near local area and opening of warehouses at oversees
for collection of resources and materials, this problem can be resolved. But to
implement this, manager is required to carry out changes in their logistics and
transportation services.
Refreezing: It is the last stage of Lewin's model which assists a business firm in
stabilising, solidifying and reinforcing new state after the change. When manager of Dell
will implement the above-mentioned changes within working of organisation then this
step will take place (Bridgman, 2016). At this stage, all the needed changes will be
accepted by the workforce of Dell and some other strategies will be implemented by
manager so that organisational productivity and working capabilities of employees will
not suffer due to these changes. Here, manager will monitor and check at regular
interval if required changes are being followed or not in a proper manner.
There are numerous advantages of incorporating change in organisation and these
changes are capable to attain sustainable aspects. There are many advantages to Dell
for adopting above mentioned changes. Some of these benefits in this context are
stated beneath:
 Adoption of new market strategy will allow the company to promote their agenda
to maximum people. This is because Dell will use digital and social media to
advertise about dropping of used electronics at warehouses of Dell. Due to this,
shortage of material will not be faced by company and amount of e-waste
generated will be reduced. This will help in preserving nature from access of e-
wastage (Grant, 2016).
 By improving logistics and transportation services, company can move to
diversified areas to collect scarps and other plastic material. Due to this,
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company will not have to depend upon transportation partners and overall cost of
shipping will be managed. This will benefit the company in saving their capital so
that maximum revenues can be earned.
 By purchasing new machines at workplace, useful plastic from large junk of E-
waste can be collected. Also, these machines will process the useless plastic
and try to convert it into usable plastic. By this, wastage due to electronics and
plastics will be reduced. This will help in maintaining ecology as these waste are
not renewable in nature and their burning can leads to emission of harmful
chemicals. This means, if Dell will purchase new machines to detect right plastic,
ecology of nature can be maintained (Dimitrovski and Terziev, 2019).
All of these points denotes that the initiatives which are introduced by Dell do not harm
nature in any manner and helps in reducing plastics and E-waste from the environment.
This proves the sustainability of these process.
CONCLUSION
From above mentioned report, it has been concluded that Dell company is
needed to manage change in their company. In this context, the company has showing
great efforts in reducing e-waste by offering refurbished products to customers by
transforming it into new product. But this process is not very efficient and required some
changes. Main organisational change which company is going to introduce are
purchasing of new machines, improved market strategy, improvement in logistics and
opening of new warehouses. These changes can be analysed wit the help of Lewin's
change model. By this, company can collect required amount of e-waste for their
manufacturing purpose. It will results in reduction of E-waste along with saving cost of
concerned company in purchasing raw materials. This will benefit the company in
saving their expenditures as well as preserving nature from million pounds of plastic
junk.
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REFERENCES
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Bradley, G., (2016). Benefit Realisation Management: A practical guide to achieving
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