MGT501 Contemporary Management: Evaluating Organizational Change

This document presents a comprehensive analysis of contemporary management principles through several case studies and discussion points. It addresses the impact of organizational culture on productivity, effective sales strategies, and the application of design thinking to improve corporate culture. The analysis delves into the challenges of managing change within entrepreneurial environments, emphasizing the importance of communication, sponsorship, coaching, training, and resistance management. The document highlights the need for a strategic approach to organizational design and change, advocating for participatory leadership and employee empowerment to foster innovation and growth. It also stresses the significance of adapting organizational structures to align with cultural contexts and ensuring employee engagement in the change process.

Running Head: CONTEMPORARY MANAGEMENT
Contemporary Management
Name of Student
Name of University
Author note

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Elevator pitch for topic 8:
Question: How does the culture in the organization affect your productivity and performance?
My response: I would take Sam to a coffee shop for discussing matters that bother him at job.
Lack of innovation in the organizational culture is unfavorable for productivity and Sam, as a
Manager of an IT company is only justified in wanting to foster innovation in staff. You could
try taking their mind off the excess work load by introducing fun activities post work, this will
help them exercise their imaginative faculty. They need a motivating team lead who will
encourage them to perceive of new ideas and think out of the box for taking on challenging
projects. Following the participatory leadership model will initiate the desired changes in the
organizational culture. You need to get to know your workers more closely, it will help you
resolve the conflicts. What you need is a good coordinator and a revised HR policy, so that
workers are better able to address their internal issues. The possibility of innovation will only
come with happy employees who are willing to grow themselves along with advancing the
growth of the business.
Elevator pitch: topic 7
Question: What are the effective strategies for boosting up sales and attracting a wider
consumer base?
My response: The reason why the customers are not responding to the unique services and the

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price matching is because we are failing to reach out to the potential consumers of the
contemporary society. We need to keep in mind that people today spend most of their time
online and promoting out products and services via online advertisement would be a wise
strategy for coming to the notice of the consumers. We can also arrange for loyalty programs
to retain the existing customers. In order to focus on increasing the sale of our products we
can offer discounts, coupons and special offers for young customers. We need to target the
young audience for securing a concrete market base. E-commerce is extremely in vogue so
launching an exclusive android application that takes and delivers orders online will be readily
welcomed by the old and new generation alike.
Case study: topic 10, Designing organizations
The concept of strong and weak cultures have been most classic in management theory.
Considering the fact that most large-scale, successful firms in the world follow demonstrate co-
ordination between work and thought in groups and divisions, it is only justified to employ
design thinking to improve the corporate culture of an organization. 1
The problem addressed is rooted in the structure of organization and definitely in the
design of the organization. What is needed is the modification of approaches to designing
organizations, only then there is any hope of eradicating the raised issue. The problem suggests
the close connection between culture and organization, but the issue is linked with strategy as
well. It has been observed over the years is that all big companies embrace innovation but with a
1 Tran, Quangyen, and Yezhuang Tian. "Organizational structure: Influencing factors and impact on a
firm." American Journal of Industrial and Business Management 3.2 (2013): 229.

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defined culture. What is required to be ensured is that people get on with their jobs happily and
are ready take on challenges without feeling threatened. From what can be gathered from the
case, Parivaar follows a weak corporate culture and the matrix structure of organization. The
workers of the company has several mentors they go to for assistance on projects. The
organizational structure of Parivaar would be more organic and this is partly due to the culture of
the country where the company is based. India is a highly interactive culture that encourages
team work and harmony in workforce. Bureaucratic culture of organization would not function
as effectively as an interactive structure.2 The company therefore would have a flat, team-based
structure rather than a tall, autocratic one. The workers of Parivaar would be more efficient while
working with teams, integrating with divisional focus and functional expertise. The system of
reporting to two bosses might create a little confusion in the workers and trigger power plays
among the supervisors. Things like independence and risk-taking are some of the factors the
CEO of the company must look into for better production. 3
Topic 11: Organizational change
The case traverses with one of the biggest challenges that in the concerned subject, that is
entrepreneurism. Managing change is a massive struggle in an entrepreneurial culture. The
company of the topic is family-oriented and the new CEO is attempt to make certain
organizational changes within the structure by implementing new designs. The challenges this
person faces in mostly due to the fact that he/she is new to the organization and the old workers
are skeptical of the intentions of the new entrepreneur. They might feel they are not empowered
2 Fan, Joseph PH, T. J. Wong, and Tianyu Zhang. "Institutions and organizational structure: The case of state-owned
corporate pyramids." The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization 29.6 (2013): 1217-1252.
3 www.youtube.com. "MGT501 Topic 8 Shaping Organisational Culture & Topic 10 Designing Organisations Chrys
And Simon". Youtube, 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TcrwII6gbTU&feature=youtu.be. Accessed 13 Oct
2018.

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anymore or they will be excluded from the decision-making process of the organization. Change
is perceived as a threat since people have already made up their minds about what is doable and
what is not. The entrepreneur has also to deal with passive resistances while the CEO of the
company is not aware of the necessity of an organizational change.4 The change management
must be dictated by sound reason and judgment for avoiding any relapses in the system5.
Sponsorship is crucial to change management since the sponsor is responsible for initiating the
change with suitable resources and adequate support from the CEO. The entrepreneur must
operate though the different levers of change management. First, she needs to come up with a
unique communication plan for including each and every individual if the organization who are
affected by the change. A structured plan of communication will present the right information at
the right time, in a strategic channel and format. Following this, the entrepreneur could look after
effective sponsorship for ensuring that the change sees success in the future. The management
must make sure that the sponsor visibly and actively participates in the change and
communicates directly with employees for consulting business matters. The sponsorship
roadmap will provide the structure of the change and formulate the design of the change strategy.
It must be kept in mind that employees will take notice of the initiated change when the senior
leaders and the organizers demonstrate their commitment and diligence towards it. To reinforce
the change and make it effective after implementation, it is important that all the employees are
willing to participate and support the motive behind it. Next comes the Coaching Plan, which
takes place between the supervisor and the employee. The managers need to communicate the
messages about the change and elaborate how it directly benefits the employees of the
4 Todnem By, Rune. "Organisational change management: A critical review." Journal of change management 5.4
(2005): 369-380.
5 Carnall, Colin. Managing change. Routledge, 2018.

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organization. They also need to manage and identify resources, the motive is to build strong
relationships between the employees and the person they report to. This step has to be followed
by the Training Plan, which will build the skills and capabilities of the workers. An efficient
change management will recognize the gaps existing in the training requirements and develops a
partnership between the training group and the management team. This is a suitable strategy for
supporting individual change. Lastly, and most importantly there is the resistance management
plan since resistance has been a major hindrance to successful change. The entrepreneur needs to
identify the root cause of the resistance and look for ways to overcome it, seeking support and
participation of the workers and managers. She can use the ADKAR model for reactive and
proactive approaches for confronting resistance. After the creation of the plans, they have to be
incorporated with different project activities as per the project plans. 6
Bibliography:
Carnall, Colin. Managing change. Routledge, 2018.
Fan, Joseph PH, T. J. Wong, and Tianyu Zhang. "Institutions and organizational structure: The
case of state-owned corporate pyramids." The Journal of Law, Economics, and
Organization 29.6 (2013): 1217-1252.
Todnem By, Rune. "Organisational change management: A critical review." Journal of change
management 5.4 (2005): 369-380.
Tran, Quangyen, and Yezhuang Tian. "Organizational structure: Influencing factors and impact
on a firm." American Journal of Industrial and Business Management 3.2 (2013): 229.
6 www.youtube.com. "MGT501 Topic 11 Organisational Change Chrys And Felicity 25 9 17". Youtube, 2018,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GyZhGtLXu78&feature=youtu.be. Accessed 13 Oct 2018.

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Van der Voet, Joris. "The effectiveness and specificity of change management in a public
organization: Transformational leadership and a bureaucratic organizational
structure." European Management Journal 32.3 (2014): 373-382.
www.youtube.com. "MGT501 Topic 11 Organisational Change Chrys And Felicity 25 9 17".
Youtube, 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GyZhGtLXu78&feature=youtu.be. Accessed
13 Oct 2018.
www.youtube.com. "MGT501 Topic 8 Shaping Organisational Culture & Topic 10 Designing
Organisations Chrys And Simon". Youtube, 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=TcrwII6gbTU&feature=youtu.be. Accessed 13 Oct 2018.