Organizational Behavior Case Study Analysis: A Young Manager's Journey

This case study analyzes a scenario involving a young manager, Oliveira, tasked with turning around a struggling store. The assignment explores Oliveira's preparedness for the role, his experiences with organizational change, and his interactions with employees. The analysis examines his initial challenges, including employee resistance to change, and evaluates his approach to implementing changes within the organization. The solution provides insights into the difficulties faced by leaders in turnaround situations, highlighting the importance of gaining employee buy-in and employing analytical approaches to understand and address resistance. The assignment also suggests alternative strategies Oliveira could have used, such as applying reengineering concepts and diagnosing resistance from an organizational change management perspective. Finally, the case study proposes recommendations for Oliveira, emphasizing resource management, effective communication, and reflection on his experiences to improve his leadership skills. The assignment references several academic sources to support its analysis and recommendations.

Running Head: ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR
0
Organizational Behavior
Sociology Case Study Analysis
(Student details :)
5/9/2019

Organizational Behaviour
1
Case Analysis: The perils and pitfalls of leading change: a young
manager´s turnaround journey
Solution 1
According to me, Oliveira was not ready for the job because Oliveira acquired
experience through working at the Recife store. Although he was having experience on-paper
as he managed the Recife store for about a month yet I do not think that he was having
enough experience to a manager. Thus, in spite of being an experienced person at the
manager position at the Recife store, my personal thinking suggests that he was not fully
prepared for the job. After reading the case, I have analysed that during the beginning of the
career at a Recife store he has got an experience of in between stage 4 and 5 of the
organizational Change Cycle (Wisdom , 2018).
I also observed that Oliveira has experienced some anticipation, that I believe was
normal considering his role he was about to play at the workplace he was shifting to. Apart
from this, I have analysed that talking to Fischer has assisted him for overcoming that
particular stage and hence moving onto being self-confident with the organizational change
(Jones, 2013). While looking for the input put by him over how to lead all employees makes
me think of some characteristics of Sniff into the video “Who Moved my Cheese” as while
facing a challenge, or issue Oliveira never complained or gave excuses about the same.
However, he took a step ahead and hence explored for the effective solutions (Puntodewo,
2019).
Solution 2
In the beginning, Oliveira discovered that his store is located within the medium-sized
Vitoria in southeastern Brazil, and hence it is in trouble from the competitors’ viewpoint.
Later then, he tried to implement changes, for those he met with the resistance for change
through long-term employees of the store (Cates, Riederer, Tacha, & Awanda, 2017). In this
way, within the given case some major difficulties have been examined which may arise
while a well-equipped and young manager is indicted with turn around performance at a
dysfunctional firm (Jones, 2013).

Organizational Behaviour
2
In this context, I believe that although Oliveira has used turnarounds which are all
about organizational changes, yet his approach was not exactly appropriate for the situation.
Hence, he has demonstrated the fallouts which may occur while leaders do not attain wide
buy-in for their implemented changes in the beginning. Furthermore, in this case Oliveira
could have used the analytical approach to sense the resistance to change for finding the main
causes of the resistance by the employees (Cates, Riederer, Tacha, & Awanda, 2017). If I
would have been at the place of Oliveira, then in following ways I would have handled the
situation differently:
 I would have been applied material reengineering concepts to analyse the resistance to
change.
 I would have been diagnosed the resistance to change from the perspective of
organizational change management process.
Solution 3
I believe that, Oliveira should adopt the following approaches now:
 Oliveira should manage the challenges through managing his store resources such as
storing, warehousing, and distributing and many more.
 Now, Oliveira should focus on how to earn respect from organizational people by
interacting with them effectively through an effective verbal as well as non-verbal
communication (Wisdom , 2018).
 Oliveira should reflect on his own experiences related to people management,
organizational change management, and managing resistance to change in a way that
he can further apply the extracted learning into present and future scenarios.
References
Cates, K., Riederer, G., Tacha, N., & Awanda, R. (2017). The Perils and Pitfalls of Leading
Change: A Young Manager’s Turnaround Journey. Kellogg School of Management
Cases, 1-8.
Jones, G. (2013). Organizational theory, design, and change. London: Pearson.
Puntodewo, B. (2019). Paper Review - Perils and Pitfalls of Leading Change. Retrieved from
Insititue of Technology Bandung:

Organizational Behaviour
3
https://www.academia.edu/16502671/Paper_Review_-
_Perils_and_Pitfalls_of_Leading_Change
Wisdom . (2018). HOW TO CHANGE AND STRENGTHEN ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE
PRINCIPLES OF MANAGEMENT. Retrieved from Wisdom:
https://www.wisdomjobs.com/e-university/principles-of-management-tutorial-293/
how-to-change-and-strengthen-organizational-culture-9409.html