MGT540 Management of Change Case Study: Lakeland Wonders

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MGT540 - MANAGEMENT OF CHANGE CASE STUDY (NATURE OF
ORGANISATIONAL CHANGE)
Subject Code: MGT540
Subject Title: Management of Change case Study (NATURE OF ORGANISATIONAL
CHANGE)
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Question 1 Analyse the nature of the Lakeland Wonders organizational change project,
taking into account the reasons for this change
Answer 1: The business organization of Lakeland Wonders is a 94-year-old manufacturing
company that manufactures the higher quality of wooden toys. The company had its three plants
in Minnesota & approximate 5000 employees. The current CEO of the company is "Cheryl
Hailstorm" who had been approaching this position from around 6 months within the company.
The main goals of the company because of which the company had conducted the organizational
change project were meeting up the target & objectives of the sales, acquiring the contract of
Bull's Eye stores, launching the products & company into the mid-market with attracting new
customers and selling as well as enhancing the long term growth in the mid-market.
Various factors or multiple essential points had been analyzed in the context of the
organizational change project’s nature. A lack of common vision was being identified between
the CEO, Cheryl and the whole team of the management. Different views were being possessed
by Cheryl for her different employees that strongly relates to both the models of the hard HRM
as well as Theory X. Also, the planning made & enhanced for the organizational change project
was more reactive & also not enough in case of being proactive. Apart from all these, the lack of
soliciting as well as the cooperation opinions were being found within the business organization
(Fugate, et.al. 2012). The leadership & management team & all the employees were not
interested in implementing the strategies as discussed by Cheryl. The lack of trust &
communication was being found along with the increasing issues related to engagement &
commitment.
Multiple reasons have been identified behind the analysis of the organizational change project of
the business organization & it has been founded that the CEO of the company, who was the
driving force behind the higher level of growth of Kids & Company, wanted to enhance the huge
expansion of its manufacturing from the domestic or the local companies up to the overseas
companies, as it was very expensive or costly for the company to manufacture the wooden toys
in the country of US along with meeting up of the pricing arrangements of Bull’s Eye contract
(Al-Haddad & Kotnour, 2015). Another major reason involved the hiring or recruitment of Pat
and Cecil so that they can be provided with the innovative support, effectively & efficiently.
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Apart from the above-specified reasons, it has also been identified that the traditional culture is
being followed strongly within the whole business organization because of which all the
employees resist the essential changes (Jacobs, et.al. 2013). All the other managers & team
leaders also strongly agreed on this point of view but still, they were moving at the slow pace
behind her back, deliberately.
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Question 2 Assess and explain the extent to which the change approach that has been
adopted by Cheryl Hailstorm is appropriate to the organizational contexts in Lakeland
Wonders.
Answer 2: Cheryl determined the necessary changes or the effective change approach along with
evaluating that about up to what extent the determined change approach has been proved suitable
or appropriate. Along with recruiting Pat and Cecil, Cheryl was also required to pair both of
them with all the organizational members/ employees who were working within the business
organization, because only the recruitment of both the persons did not work as the strong reason
for the employees.
Cheryl, in her organizational change approach, involved the leading of the whole business
organization with an example. But, she should greatly & highly change her leadership style as
her previous approach of change of leading by example and relocating the office may be seen by
other people as the intimidation as well as the coercion (Al-Haddad & Kotnour, 2015). The
vision set up by Cheryl was effective but she could have understood that her vision was not
linked with the increased expectations & various needs of all the employees.
It has also been founded that Cheryl wanted to change the future benefits tangibly in the context
of her whole business organizations, the employees working under it & all the stakeholders for
looking the danger situation of doing nothing. This danger case/ situation may involve the issues
of bankruptcy as well as the job losses. It does not matter whether the message given by Cheryl
was dramatic or not, but she should aim to highly ensure that none of her employees is
blindsided through the change. Giving the surprises to her employees may increase the higher
level of fear & resistance among them because of which the delays can be caused (Fugate, et.al.
2012). Apart from all these, Cheryl needed to articulate the clear & proper understanding about
how both the structural as well as the behavioral changes can be consistent in the relation of all
the treasured values of the business organization. Through this, Cheryl may aim to ensure &
increase the higher level of performance in the effective as well as in an efficient manner.
Even after doing so much essential & necessary things & implementing the suitable changes
within the organization, she was not able to grab the full support from all her employees. The
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main reason behind that was she did not establish the effective rules of engagement for working
together, she was highly required to understand that she was no longer the customer of the
company, she was the boss. Also, all the necessary changes that had been made by Cheryl were
being imposed on all the employees & the whole management team according to her personal
views & thoughts (Jacobs, et.al. 2013). Rather, before making the personnel changes she should
have given the appropriate or suitable choice to her team and after looking at the different
reactions of them, she should have decided about who should stay & who should leave. Cheryl
was able to implement the effective changes within the organization, but he implemented
strategies were failed to explain about the changes among all the employees that were essentially
required to be enhanced, effectively & efficiently. The management executives were failed to
create a sense of urgency about why the change is necessarily required (Král & Králová, 2016).
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Question 3 Are there gaps? Is there a different approach or combination of approaches
that might have been better – based on the contexts for change that you have analyzed?
Answer 3: Though, Cheryl used to identify & implement the effective as well as the useful
strategies to change the whole business organization in the favorable & the positive manner. She
used to adopt the effective full-disclosure approach & that was expected by her from all the
employees. According to this approach, she expects that if any of the employees were facing any
kinds of the problems, then they should talk to Cheryl first, as done by Cheryl also. She was also
carrying the thought that if they failed or not able to follow this approach, then she could hire
those persons who could follow it. Along with this approach, she also adopted a unique &
suitable approach to learning & greatly understanding about the different solutions given by the
different people/ organizational members. Though the implementation of this approach was not
at all easy, she found this approach very liberating (Král & Králová, 2016).
Even after adopting & implementing the various suitable solutions & unique or the innovative
strategies/ approaches, Cheryl failed to adapt the unique & positive lenses or the alternative
perspectives on she can effectively & properly enhance the achievement of the business plan for
the organizational board. The approaches implemented by Cheryl involves the major gaps as she
was only & highly concerned about the effective completion of the goals defined by the
organizational board & less concerned about seeking out the other essential ways that can lead
the whole business organization of the “Lakeland Wonders” for exceeding the common defined
or the expected performance (Appelbaum, et.al. 2012). Along with all these, she failed to solicit
the different opinions of other people of those who are not passive that identified the gap of
lacking the overall organizational ability for reaching up to the higher level of potential (Al-Ali,
et.al. 2017). Her approaches also failed to ensure the increasing participation of all the
employees among the suitable enhancement of strategic decisions that could impede the
resourcefulness as well as the higher competencies of all the organizational employees.
Based on all the identified gaps, various effective approaches have been found out that can
highly eliminate all these gaps in a better way. Cheryl should have effectively & properly build
up the strong & potential relationships with all her employees to enhance the higher level of
participation. The leadership style should be changed from transactional to transformational.
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Along with these, the model of Kotter’s 8 steps should have been implemented in a positive way
(Choudhary, et.al. 2013). The essential steps include the creation of urgency for communicating
the great opportunities to all the employees, forming a powerful coalition to assemble the
potential group with increased power & energy, creating the string vision for change to shape the
strategies accordingly, communicating the vision to address various concerns & anxieties of
people, developing unique plans to overcome the resistance to change, creating the short term
wins, building the necessary change to foster the campions & anchoring the change within the
corporate culture (Appelbaum, et.al. 2012). All these steps can together form the best approach
for the business organization of “Lakeland Wonders”.
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Question 4 Critically apply either the PEST-based framework or the McKinsey 7S
Framework to Analyse the need for change in Lakeland Wonders case.
Answer 4: The framework of McKinsey 7S is the effective & efficient model of change
management that can be adapted properly & suitably for analyzing the strong need for change in
the business organization of “Lakeland Wonders”. This framework was developed by the
business consultants “Tom Peters, Robert H. Waterman, and Jr. Peters" during the period of the
1980s. This framework includes the strategic vision for all the different organizational groups.
The concept of 7S includes the essential factors of structure, system, style, shared values,
strategy, skills, and staff (Singh, 2013).
Figure: The McKinsey 7S Model/ Framework
Source: Mindtools, 2018
 Structure defines the suitable organization of the whole business. It involves the proper
structuring of all the organizational departments & other teams.
 The shared values are the core values that are to be essentially followed within the
business organization of “Lakeland Wonders” in the context of the corporate culture &
the ethics of business or the general work.
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 The staff involves the potential employees along with their respective general capabilities
possessed by them (Al-Ali, et.al. 2017).
 The unique business strategies are the organizational plans that should build &
maintained for gaining a competitive advantage over all the competitors at the same level.
 The systems include the necessary activities as well as the unique business procedures
that are to be performed daily that can be used by the employees to get the job done in a
suitable & appropriate manner.
 The style involves an effective & suitable leadership style that should be adopted
necessarily & effectively.
 Skills are the innovative & the actual skills along with the essential competencies about
all the organizational employees (O’Reilly III, et.al. 2014).
This effective model will not help the business organization of "Lakeland Wonders" to be strong
in all the above-defined areas but will also help the project executives & the whole management
team to properly & greatly analyze as well as they understand about the current situation & the
proposed future situation. The major gaps can be properly identified along with the
inconsistencies that may be prevailing among them.
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Figure: Analysis of Current and Future situation
Source: Mindtools, 2018
The diagrams that have been described above may be used effectively for analyzing both the
current as well as the future situation that can be faced by the business organization. For this,
certain questions should be prepared in the context of all the 7S that have been discussed in the
model. All these necessary elements should be aligned properly so that they can highly support
the change initiative favorably (Lee, et.al. 2016).
For example, in the case when the sales strategy of Lakeland Wonders is not aligned with the
skills & capabilities of the organizational employees, the gaps can be identified with the help of
this model. Hence, all the employees are to be necessarily required to be provided with the
proper guidance about how they can lead & effectively use their innovative ideas to enhance the
implemented sales’ strategies.
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Question 5 What type of organizational culture would you say is evident
in the Lakeland Wonders case? Justify your argument.
Answer 5: In the business case of the “Lakeland Wonders” it has been identified that the
performance of Cheryl was being considered as the troubling aspect under which the driving
style of Cheryl was not effectively & properly identified with the culture of the business
organization and this great aspect was not recognized by her. She was creating a higher level of
fear & anger among all the employees & other executives within the business organization. Until
& unless, she will not change or transform her operating style, she may lose all the confidence of
her important stakeholders (O’Reilly III, et.al. 2014). Therefore, while considering all these
necessary things, Cheryl is essentially required to develop & enhance the new business plan that
will surely address the higher growth & better achievement of goals within the business
organization & that should essentially fit the culture of the Lakeland Wonders.
For example, a new subsidiary can be started by Lakeland for doing the offshore production &
selling to the lower-end markets & hence eliminating some of the brand issues in the effective &
in an efficient manner. It has been recommended that to build or develop the new culture, she
needs to move with the higher speed & intensity. The culture of dragging the feet by all the
employees had been identified by Cheryl which she wanted to change & making all the
employees highly motivated & active so that they can utilize their capabilities towards the proper
direction & accomplishing the defined goals, accordingly.
It has been identified that Cheryl should develop & enhance the “Clan Culture" in the Lakeland
Wonders which creates & ensures the friendly working environment in which people possess a
lot of common things & this environment or the culture is similar to the large family. All the
organizational leaders, as well as the executive members, are being considered as the effective
mentors or the father figures. The whole business organization is being held together by the
factors of loyalty & their respective tradition. Great participation & involvement is being
enhanced under this culture (Lee, et.al. 2016). The main focus of this culture is to enhance the
development of human resource in the long run along with ensuring the moral or the core values
within the business organization. By developing & enhancing this culture in the Lakeland
Wonders, the great success can be enhanced within the particular framework of greatly
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addressing the different needs of all the clients/ customers along with caring for all the people.
Overall, it has been said that the essential factors of teamwork, consensus & participation are
being essentially & greatly promoted by Cheryl within the whole business organization (Král &
Králová, 2016).
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