Managing Resistance: An Ethical Analysis of Lakeland Wonders Case

This case study examines the ethical dimensions of managing resistance to change within the context of Lakeland Wonders, a wooden toy company. It focuses on the challenges faced by the new CEO, Cheryl Hailstorm, in implementing her vision amidst resistance from Mark Dawson, the Senior VP of Operations. The analysis identifies Mark's resistance stemming from concerns about the impact of changes on employees, the company's culture, and brand reputation. It critiques Cheryl's initial responses as lacking procedural fairness and respect for senior management, potentially leading to a coercive leadership style. The study recommends Cheryl to adopt a more empathetic and participative leadership approach, follow established procedures, and align with the existing organizational culture to effectively manage resistance and foster a more collaborative environment. The solution emphasizes the importance of ethical considerations, such as respecting employees and ensuring transparent decision-making, in successful change management initiatives. Desklib provides access to similar case studies and solved assignments for students.

Running Head: BUSINESS MEMO ON ETHICS OF MANAGING RESISTANCE
Topic- Business memo on the ethics of managing resistance
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2ETHICAL CHANGE MANAGEMENT
TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
DISCUSSION..................................................................................................................................3
PRINCIPLES OF ETHICAL CHANGE MANAGEMENT.......................................................3
IDENTIFICATION OF RESISTANCE FOR CHANGE............................................................3
CRITICISM OF THE RESPONSE OF CHERYL HAILSTORM TOWARDS THE
MANAGERS...............................................................................................................................4
RECOMMENDED MEASURES TO BE TAKEN BY CHERYL HAILSTORM TO
MANAGE RESISTANCE...........................................................................................................4
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5

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INTRODUCTION
Change is inevitable to every business organization. Managing change is one of the core
functions that keeps the organization going (Ashkenas, 2013). In this paper the two principles of
ethical change management are considered and applied to the given case study of a wooden toys
company named Lakeland Wonders.
DISCUSSION
PRINCIPLES OF ETHICAL CHANGE MANAGEMENT
Decision making is one of the integral parts of a strategic manager (Hayes, 2018). For
effective decision making the personal beliefs of the manger should be kept aside and larger
perspective of organizational goal need to be focused (Cameron & Green, 2015). Strategic
managers always need to keep the four main principles of ethical management in mind, they are
respecting each employee, mutual respect, fairness in procedures and transparent decision
making (Morgan, 2013). Here the two considered principles are respect for every employee and
procedural fairness (Hashim, 2013).
IDENTIFICATION OF RESISTANCE FOR CHANGE
From the very first day of joining as the CEO, Cheryl Hailstorm, is focusing on changes.
Whereas Mark serving almost a decade for the company is not a fair supporter of change as he
was worried about the consequences of change on the workers and their Union and also on the
imbedded culture (Bateh, Castaneda & Farah, 2013). People will not understand the benefits of
strategic decision of production off-shoring to Bull’s Eyes stores, which Cheryl is focusing on
the most. They will only understand that their job is not secured and this will lead to strikes and
conflicts (Goetsch & Davis, 2014). The whole culture and the harmony of the organization will
get distorted. He understands the labor market better as he has years of experience of dealing
with them (Kaufman, 2017). He is not in support of quick and nasty decisions but is a ‘slow and
steady’ kind of manager. He is also worried about the brand name of Lakeland, selling its shares
will not have good effect on the shareholders and the brand name will get hampered (Hayes,
2018). Packaging, branding, and delivery are crucial for its product line and the company for the
last 94 years is maintaining its reputation intact. Sudden changes in overall operational functions
will not be a boon for the company and so decision making need to be fairer as per procedures

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considerations (Alvesson & Sveningsson, 2015). There are a set of rules and regulations, policies
and procedures in every organization, and managers need to keep in compliance with them. Any
change in management function will have direct effect on the policies and ethical considerations
do not permit such nasty changes (Cummings & Worley, 2014). It is true that Mark is resisting
the change which Cheryl is eager to implement, but he is looking from the in-build cultural
perspective of Lakeland.
CRITICISM OF THE RESPONSE OF CHERYL HAILSTORM TOWARDS THE
MANAGERS
First and foremost, Cheryl has been recently appointed as the new CEO of the Lakeland
Wonders. Her positive attitude and thirst for achievement has placed her in this role
(Steigenberger, 2015). She firmly believes that working for extra hours will not be in vain if it
adds to the company’s bottom-line (Hashim, 2013). But protocols need to be followed. Mark
being the Senior VP Operations need to give permission otherwise workers could not work in 3rd
shift. She did not consult the issue with Mark clearly and took decisions on her own (Benn,
Edwards & Williams, 2014). Her mid-way visionary need to be upgraded and more practicability
in her actions need to be added on (Langley et al, 2013). She wanted to secure offshore
production operations within the limited time frame of merely nine months as the Union is on
contractual basis and their contract will end soon. This will be risky on part of the management
as it will incur extra costs to convince the Union (Uhl & Gollenia, 2016). She did not think deep
into the matter and was having partial view of increasing bottom-line. Labor issue was not in her
list. When Mark told her about the issue, she did not consider it even then for discussion, and
focused on other Board members for their decision on sales and marketing (Rafferty, Jimmieson
& Armenakis, 2013). When they supported her in their prospective areas, she drew an overall
conclusion. It shows that her ethical base of giving respect to each and every senior manger is
not well integrated (Della Torre & Solari, 2013). The structural and behavioral changes are not
clear and procedural fairness is not maintained (Wood et al, 2015). Her self-centered leadership
style is seen by others as intimidation and coercive act.

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RECOMMENDED MEASURES TO BE TAKEN BY CHERYL HAILSTORM TO MANAGE
RESISTANCE
Firstly, she needs to be more empathetic about her mangers and co-workers. She needs to
work on her ‘leading by example’ leadership style and adopt a more participative style of
leadership (Carnall, 2018). She should give equal respect to her managers and trust in their
decisions. She is now the boss of the company and need to change her previous attitude of
customer. She should listen to her co-workers and should decide jointly with them. Managing
good rapport with the co-workers need to be improved (Kuipers et al, 2014).
Secondly, she needs to follow procedures in making the change. She should keep her
personal beliefs aside and think from organizational perspective. Unless and until she is not clear
with her team about future goals, she will not be able to implement changes effectively.
Lastly Cheryl should synchronize herself with the existing organizational culture. Her
attitude of ‘bull in a china shop’ need to be improvised and she should match her steps with the
rest of the organization. The approach of ‘here is my vision of change and let’s follow it’ will not
work all of a sudden (Cabrey & Haughey, 2014). Instead of creating urgency she is creating
anger and fear in her group and the level of trust is shallowing (Sharma & Jain, 2013).
CONCLUSION
Identification, criticism and recommendation of the various resistance forces are
discussed and justification on the same is made in the grounds of change management.

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