Analysis of Organisational Change Management at Lakeland Wonders

This report provides an in-depth analysis of the Lakeland Wonders case study, focusing on the organisational change project initiated by CEO Cheryl Hailstrom. It examines the internal and external factors driving the change, particularly the pressure from shareholders and the competitive market. The report assesses Cheryl's adopted change approach, identifying it with Theory E, and discusses the gaps in her plan, such as the emphasis on shareholder value over workforce capabilities and the top-down decision-making process. The McKinsey 7S framework is applied to analyze the need for change, evaluating strategy, structure, and systems. The report highlights disagreements within the organisation, particularly between Cheryl and Mark Dawson, and suggests a combined approach of Theories E and O for a more effective change management practice. It also discusses the role of consultants and the importance of involving all stakeholders in the decision-making process. The report concludes with a call for a more collaborative and inclusive approach to change management at Lakeland Wonders.

Running Head: ORGANISATIONAL CHANGE MANAGEMENT
ORGANISATIONAL CHANGE MANAGEMENT
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Answer 1
The organisational change in Lakeland Wonders is one of the leading wooden toys
manufacturing in Untied States. The change in the management also creates new vision and
demands for the organisation in terms of procuring aggressiveness in sales growth. The new
CEO of the organisation Cheryl Hailstrom is trying to penetrate into the midmarket by
manufacturing new and innovative products (McNult, 2002). Therefore, the Bull’s Eye contract
is very significant for the success of the organisation and Cheryl is willing to penetrate into the
midmarket with the help of this contract. There are both the internal and the external factors that
push Cheryl to opt for such a change. As far as the case study is concerned, it can be stated that
the internal factor of procuring a change is the pressure from the shareholders or the governance
board to increase the profit in a sporadic manner. For instance, one of the shareholders, Hastings,
Curtiss is highly aspiring to pursuit relentless growth. Therefore, it is important for Cheryl as the
CEO of Lakeland to take responsibility to increase the growth of the company so that it will meet
the interests of the shareholders.
On the other hand, there are also external factors that influence Cheryl in a great scale to
put great deal of focus on the change in business activities. Competitive market is the most
crucial external factor that compels Cheryl to initiate measure to incorporate the midmarket in
the potential target customers’ base (McNulty, 2002). As a result of that it will provide a
strategic advantage for Lakeland to safeguard its business in the competitive market successfully.
However, the high end pricing of products seems to be a great challenge for Cheryl to attract the
midmarket. Therefore, she proposed for offshoring manufacturing. The potential location is
China. According to Johansson and Olhager (2018) the offshoring manufacturing is very
advantageous for the business companies and it offers a two end advantages for the enterprises.
In one hand, the production cost of the companies can be reduced to a great scale. On the other
hand, the sales growth can be increased to a great scale because the affordability of the product
to the midmarket customers.
The internal pressure from the shareholders is also associated with the leadership quality
of Cheryl that leads to a highly aspiring nature of CEO to achieve success soon. As per the
research of Dunne et al. (2016) it can be stated that leadership is the most important aspect for

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the business organisation to get a vision and mission towards safeguarding the future of the
organisation. In this regard, the leader is responsible to motivate and push the entire workforce to
achieve the stated objectives (Davenport & Ronanki, 2018). Therefore, the role of the leader and
his or her vision matters the most for the success of an organisation. In the context of the case
study, it can be seen that the leadership quality of Cheryl is dynamic and she is always looking
for the opportunity to exploit the market trend at its highest form. Therefore, change in the
organisational vision can also be highlighted in the context of Lakeland Wonders.
Answer 2
Georgalis et al. (2015) pointed out that there are two different approaches of
organisational change that the business organisations can follow in course of initiating change.
The approaches of organisational are theory E and theory O. For Lakeland Wonders, the change
approach can be associated with the dimension of Theory E. There are plenty of aspects that
approve the type of organisational change Cheryl is focused. There are five dimensions can be
discussed such as goals, leadership, focus, process and use of consultants. In theory E, the goal
of the organisation is vested on the practice of maximising the shareholders’ value rather than
putting emphasis on the organisational capabilities suggested by theory O. Ceulemans, Lozano
and Alonso-Almeida (2015) opined that the meaning of putting emphasis on the shareholders’
value is identified as setting the objectives of the change initiative on the basis of the expectation
of the shareholders. Therefore, important change in the leadership quality is also identified with a
top down approach. For Cheryl, the interests of Hastings, Curtiss to get maximum profit from the
organisational growth is identified as one of the essential aspect (McNulty, 2002). Henceforth,
the decision making of Lakeland Wonders is entirely depended on the final decision of Cheryl.
Apart from that the focus of the leader or the organisation is also played significant role
in order to make the change a success. For Theory E, it is important to focus on the structure and
the systems that support the change. The meaning of structure and system is resembled with
different teams that are involved in the change management process (Merritt Jones, 2014).
Therefore, for Cheryl it becomes very important to create a team that is highly focused on the
suggested change. In addition with this, Day, Crown and Ivany (2017) stated that the theory of E
also emphasised on the plan and programs for the change. It portrays a planned measure that the

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organisations are using in course of making better change management practice. Cheryl also tries
to make a workforce that will help to plan programs or steps for the changed process. In response
to this, the case study suggests that the team meeting has great deal of importance in the changed
plan of Cheryl where she is trying to develop a team with potential ability to bring the dream
comes true. As a result of that the adopted change approach of Cheryl Hailstrom is strictly
followed the process of delivering a clear example of the theory of E.
There is also another significant aspect of the theory of E in change approach that
symbolises the use of consultants. From the research of Nordin and Deros (2017) it is confirmed
that while planning for a change in the organisational activities, it is a common practice for the
management to use external experts or relying on the organisational resources so that it will be
effective for initiating the change practice within the organisation. However, for the theory E it
can be stated that the organisation intends to focus on the external assistance in course of making
the change a success. Therefore, Cheryl also did the same thing by recruiting Cecil Flemming as
the new product developer. Therefore, the change management practice is definitely followed the
Theory E of the change approach.
Answer 3
There are definitely a number of gaps that the change management plan of Cheryl is
facing in course of convincing the subordinates or the board. First of all, it can be stated that the
shareholders’ value is not the ultimate one that an organisation should consider. There are also
the capabilities of the organisation or the workforce that is also determined the efficacy of the
change in process (Brighton, 2018). Cacciolatti and Lee (2016) pointed out that the
organisational capabilities are played significantly important in course of organisational change
because all the efforts and activities are vested on the workforce so that their efficiency and skills
are also considered to be pivotal for the business enterprise. However, in case of Lakeland
Wonders, the new CEO Cheryl Hailstrom does not try to understand the ability or scope of the
workforce to achieve the change (McNulty, 2002). She is always supporting the outsourcing of
manufacture. As a result of that it becomes a problem for the Senior Vice President of the
company, Mark Dawson to convince her about the risk of workforce in introducing the
outsourcing of manufacturing. All the misunderstanding and clash of interests that is fermented

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between Mark and Cheryl, relies on this misconception. As a result of that it also creates enough
obstacles for developing an effective change management practice.
The second gap can be found in the process of leadership practice that Cheryl is
possessed. It can be stated that her leadership quality is good to some extent where she tries to
lead by example. However, change in organisation is not a one man’s task. It requires great deal
of knowledge and man power to expand business and increase sales growth. As a result of that
the issue of misunderstanding is started by the top down decision making process. It is true that
during the board meeting Elaine from marketing, Jerry from sales and Ned as the CFO gave their
opinion in favour of Cheryl but the decision was already made where Cheryl dreamt about
carrying forward the manufacturing unit in offshore. Their opinion also supported her dream and
boosted her to place the proposition in front of the board of directors. Varoutsa and Scapens
(2015) advocated about the fact that engaging both the top management and the below
employees is always an effective practice for the success of any project. It will help the leader to
gauge the viewpoints of both ends and make decisions with the help of all the internal
stakeholders of the organisation. However, in case of Lakeland Wonders only the top down
decision making can be found. Apart from that the role of the consultants also used as a deciding
factors for the organisations. Cheryl also focusing on recruiting new people in the change
management process rather than keeping confidence on the organisational resources. Therefore,
it is also identified as a potential gap for the new change in process. Therefore, in relation to all
the touch points, it can be stated that Cheryl should use a combined theory of E and O which will
be effective for Lakeland Wonders to project a good change management practice.
Answer 4
For analysing the need for change in Lakeland Wonders case it will be effective to use
McKinsey 7S framework. According to the Cox, Pinfield and Rutter (2019) the McKinsey 7S
model is highly effective for the business organisation as the seven elements are trying to analyse
the organisational effectiveness to a great extent. There are two types of elements that the 7S
model is comprised with such as strategy, structure and systems are identified as the hard
elements whereas the shared values, skills, style and staff are defined as the soft elements of an
organisation.

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Strategy: The planned objective for the change in Lakeland wonders is to increase the growth of
sales in the organisation. Therefore, the strategy that Cheryl proposed was to initiate offshoring
manufacturing in order to reduce the production costs which would be suitable to attract the
midmarket customers. However, for achieving the change strategy of Cheryl was an aggressive
mode that resulted in disagreement between the CEO and the Senior Vice President of the
organisation. In response to this, it is the responsibility of Cheryl as the CEO to change the
approach and incorporate all the important members into the proposed change plan.
Structure: A hierarchical structure is witnessed in the organisational structure of Lakeland
Wonders. Therefore, disagreement and lack of collaboration is often hampered important
decision making within the organisation. No doubt that the organisation has a range of
innovative ideas but it is not possible to meet without making a collaboration between the top
management and the others. Maximising profitability with the help of targeting a wider market is
an obvious choice by Cheryl but the way of achieving the objective requires all the important
players of the organisation. Therefore, it is important for Cheryl to listen others’ opinion and
give them enough scope to share their vision properly. A joint decision can only make the
change management proposition a success.
Systems: The systems that the organisation is currently using is not adequate enough to deal with
the proposed change. Therefore, it requires a new system that will provide better experience in
course of introducing and implementing a change in the organisational practice (Alvesson &
Sveningsson, 2007). The new system will definitely be based on a rational organisational
practice so that the organisational system will be developed.
Shared values: The shared value of the organisation and the shareholders is clearly projected
through the case study where the CEO of the organisation Cheryl tried to harness the
organisational growth with the interests of the shareholders. As a result that the shared value can
be seen in Lakeland Wonders.
Skills: The skills of the workforce is identified as one of the key factors for the success of
Lakeland Wonders. The human resource in the organisation was highly experienced and putting
a great deal of emphasis on the benefit of the organisation over their personal interests (Corfield

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& Paton, 2016). However, lack of skills in the management to convince all the people for a
change is considered to be a grave problem for the future of the change.
Style: The style of the management is more of a one sided process prevalent in Lakeland
Wonders. Cheryl takes all the decisions without giving respect to others’ visions. As a result of
that it seems a great threat for the organisational management.
Staffs: Mutual understanding and respect for each other is identified as a major characteristic
feature for the Lakeland Wonder’s employees. However, the disagreement between the CEO and
Vice President of the organisation created a threat for the efficacy of the organisational success.
Answer 5
Hierarchy culture will be the best option for Lakeland Wonder because of a number of
factors. Moon, Uskul and Weick (2018) opined that the hierarchy culture is coupled with a
formalised and structured work environment where the leaders are entitled to provide a
efficiency based coordination within organisation. Moreover, it is also essential in hierarchy
culture to facilitate a smooth functioning of the workforce so that the long term goals can be
achieved properly. Apart from that the hierarchy culture also offers an effective execution of
tasks and trustful delivery that will maximise the rate of customers within the organisation.
In course of the Lakeland Wonder company, it is important to acknowledge that the
objective of the change within the organisation is very much fit within the framework of
hierarchical culture. First of all, it can be stated that the formalised and structured workplace
environment is very much important for Lakeland Wonder in order to render success in the
change management practice. It will be helpful for the organisation to create a strong and unified
workforce that is pledge to bring success to the organisational objectives. In this regard,
Valmohammadi and Roshanzamir (2015) suggested a number of value drivers of the hierarchy
organisational culture such as efficiency, consistency and uniformity. It is important for
Lakeland Wonder to emphasis on those factors and bring a solution that is supported by all the
important actors.
Apart from that the hierarchical organisational culture focuses on the long term goals of
the organisation. Therefore, it requires control and efficiency of the top management in order to

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pursue the planned change objectives properly. For Cheryl, this specific organisational culture is
highly relevant because it can certainly provide a guidance to the CEO of Lakeland Wonder and
paves the way for better organisational practice (McNulty, 2002). Moreover, the role of the
hierarchy organisational culture also develops certain kind of integrity among the employees and
harness a healthy relationship between the top management and the subordinates. In return, this
integrity results smooth planning and execution of tasks in a flawless manner. This is also
essential for Lakeland Wonder to run the change management process successfully. Therefore, it
will be relevant and pragmatic for Lakeland Wonder to opt for the hierarchy organisational
culture where any kind of disagreement in decision making can be resolved as all the acting
players will be corroborated on the same point. As a result of that it will guarantee the success in
achieving the projected objectives effectively.

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