Lakeland Wonders: An Ethical Approach to Managing Change Resistance

This report delves into the ethical dimensions of change management within Lakeland Wonders, a family-run toy manufacturing company facing resistance to its new CEO's vision of shifting production overseas. The analysis focuses on Mark Dawson's (VP of Operations) resistance, attributing it to factors like fear of the unknown, mistrust, and violation of cultural ethics. Cheryl Hailstorm's (CEO) response is critiqued for its driving style and lack of consideration for the company's core culture. The report recommends correlating change with needs, taking time to adapt, and fostering open communication to overcome resistance and align the organization towards a collective vision. It emphasizes the importance of understanding organizational culture and building trust for successful change implementation. Desklib offers a platform for students to access this and other solved assignments.

Running head: ETHICAL CHANGE MANAGEMENT
Ethical Change Management
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1ETHICAL CHANGE MANAGEMENT
Introduction
Cheryl Hailstorm the new CEO of the Lakeland Wonders toy manufacturing company
aims to achieve the company’s target by shifting production overseas and by adopting a new
supply chain. Her vision however is not supported by the Mark Dawson, the VP of operations.
The paper will identify the issues that are being caused by the vision of the new CEO. The paper
will identify the reason behind resistance of the VP, evaluate the response of the CEO and will
propose 3 recommendations that can be taken to cope with the change.
Principles of ethical change management
Adaptation with Culture
The culture of a company is what determines the nature and behavior of the members of
the company (Borodai, 2017). While overcoming cultural differences, leaders with the vision to
bring about change, fail to correlate the resistance with the culture of the organization. It has
been found that majority of the executives of companies across the world, fail to take the existent
culture of a company into consideration while implementing change (Hayes, 2018). This should
not be the case and the only reason for justification can be that they view the culture of the
company as a hindrance to adaptation. Leaders should rather identify the elements of the culture
that are suited for change and capitalize on the same.
Assessing before adapting
In some cases leaders are so optimistic about their vision that they fail to realize whether
their vision will be implemented into action. Leaders fail to realize which of their plans are
working and what is not working. For a plan to work and a vision to be carried out, the leader
should first asses the viability of the current scenario before planning further (Heuvel et al.,
2013). They must first take response from the other leaders and the members of the organization.
Taking their inputs will ensure that a proper plan is created to which all the members of the
organization are perfectly aligned which will lead to achievement of the organizational goal
(Kaliannan & Adjovu, 2015).

2ETHICAL CHANGE MANAGEMENT
Resistance to change
The Lakeland Wonders company has been a family run company that has been carrying
out the business for 94 years. Cheryl Hailstorm is the first person to hold a highly ranked
position in the company. Mark Dawson, the VP of operations of the company does not share the
same views of the CEO. The resistance from the part of Mark is eminent. He is said to be
resisting to the views of the CEO for the following reasons:
i. Fear of unknown territories (Ucbasaran et al. 2013): The vision of the CEO involved
shifting of the supply chain and manufacturing to possibly a second or a third world
country. Additionally the risk involved in operation in foreign territories was a major
reason behind the resistance.
ii. Climate of mistrust (Ruggeri, Gizelis & Dorussen, 2013): As Cheryl was a new member
of the company who was outside their family, Mark did not trust her completely. In
addition to that shifting the focus from manufacturing overseas would imply that the
operations in state would fall in jeopardy. He did not trust the ability of the managers to
take care of the company on his absence.
iii. Violation of cultural ethics (Gillespie, Dietz & Lockey, 2014): Production abroad would
imply that the repertoire of the company due to their “Handcrafted in USA” would be
lost. Furthermore he resisted since he did not want to compromise on the quality of their
products.
Cheryl’s response
It has been understood that the aims of the CEO were perfectly aligned towards achieving
their organizational targets. However, the style she had can be considered as a driving style and
the same was not aligned with the culture of the company (Shafie, Baghersalimi & Barghi,
2013). Throughout the response, she was found to be talking about the urgency to achieve the
organizational goals. There is nothing wrong in being goal driven (Gong et al., 2013). However,
the understanding of an organization’s cultural values is of great significance (Hogan & Coote,
2014). She took no care in understanding the core culture of the company and rather focused on
the change. She was however found to be highly optimistic in trying to adapt to the requirements
of the company, even though she should have adjudged the inner scenario before making amends
to adapt. Her intentions were for the prosperity of the company however she failed to consider

3ETHICAL CHANGE MANAGEMENT
the opinions of everyone else, focusing way too much on “her” vision. One should rather focus
on the organization’s collective vision (Razmerita, Kirchner & Nabeth, 2014).
Recommendations
In order to cope with the resistance, Cheryl must ensure the following:
i. Correlating the change with needs: Most members resisted the change since they failed
to realize the importance of the same. In order to carry her plans put, she must
communicate to the resistant members and reiterate the importance of the change.
Establishment of proper communication is the key to free flow of ideas (Broadbent,
2013).
ii. Taking time to adapt: Cheryl is the first highly ranked official from outside the Swensen
family. Since she is fairly new to the organization, the inter-organizational levels of trust
are yet to be established. It is because of this reason that one should take time to adapt
with the organization before making hasty decisions (Day & Schoemaker, 2016).
iii. Open up: By being more concise about the reason for change, Cheryl can establish a
culture of communication which generally results in resistant members complying with
the change (Battilana & Casciaro, 2013).
Conclusion
The family run business of 94 years went through a sudden change when the visions of a
newly appointed CEO were resisted against. The latter wanted to bring about changes but it was
not received well by other members of the organization, especially Mark Dawson. The resistance
can however be overcome by Cheryl if she spends time to understand the organization’s cultural
frameworks and adapt to the same.

4ETHICAL CHANGE MANAGEMENT
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