Modern Toy Shop: Organizational Change Case Study Analysis

This assignment presents a reflective case study analyzing organizational change at Modern Toy Shop, a wooden toy manufacturer in Australia. The case focuses on the challenges faced by the company under the leadership of CEO Ana Bracken, including decreasing sales, issues with product quality, and resistance to changes. The case study explores the decisions made by the leadership team, such as considering offshore manufacturing and the implications of these decisions. It also explores the role of Human Resource Managers, and the impact of organizational culture and behavior on the company's performance. The assignment includes two key questions that encourage the reader to examine and analyze different aspects of the case in detail, along with brief example answers to demonstrate the potential learning outcomes. The case study is based on the author's personal workplace experience and includes references from academic journals.

Running head: ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE
Organizational Change
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Introduction
Organizational change is the continuous process of adaptation and assimilation within the
organizational structure; it is one of the major aspects of the organizational management.
Changes are necessary because competition is intense among the modern industries. This is
necessitated by the new entries into the marker as they pose new set of challenges and threat to
the existing organizations. This enhanced competition in the market makes the survival of the
existing companies difficult and complex (Palmer, Dunford and Akin 2016). Taking into
consideration of this situation, it is crucial that companies adopt new changes in order to adapt
and acquire share of the market. Hence, any further business expansion requires these companies
to adapt the change. The success of an effective change is measured by the level of improvement
of the organization in the market (Alvesson and Sveningsson 2015). Hence, change and
improvement are the two sides of the same coin.
The aim of the paper is to analyse the issue of change management of the chosen
company, Modern Toy Shop. The company faced challenges relating to the changes initiated by
the Chief Executive Officer and which relates this paper to analyse the changes. The paper also
aims at specifying the questions from the case study and finds a solution for the same.
Case study scenario
I operated as the Human Resource managers of the company based in Australia back in
2012.The name of the company is Modern Day Shop. It is known in the Australian market for
manufacturing the wooden toys. It was established by Jeff Lee, 2001 and it is known for
producing quality products in the regions of Australia. The company also has over 3500 number

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of employees in the area of Brisbane. The success of the company is depended on its quality
production that gives it a competitive edge in the market. Ana Bracken was employed as the
chief executive officer of the company. For the leadership management, the responsible person
was Stephen Lee. She is known to earned respect for her success in the last company, Toy
Galaxy where her excellent leadership skills proved to have paid well for the company. With
Ana’s leadership skills, Toy Galaxy which was a small toy manufacturing company, however
soon it became one of the top manufacturing companies of Australia. This is to be noted that her
leadership skills have proved to be instrumental in influencing the decision of the chief executive
officer of the company. At the end of 2013, Ana Bracken and the other members of the company
decides that the company requires enhancing their growth rate and this decision seen to have
been objectively associated with all members of the organization. However, after two months,
another meeting was called by Ana Bracken where I being the human resource manager had to
join the other departmental heads and operative directors.
This meeting was significant from multiple aspects; firstly, it was called to consider the
issue of the decreasing sales of the company due to the poor quality design of the manufactured
toys. This is particularly visible in the decreasing sales of the company. The managers and
leaders were concerned due to the sudden decrement and it is the concern of the company and
the employees together. This motive behind calling this meeting was to consult the issue of
achieving higher growth and another meeting was called 6:30 p.m in the evening. The issue for
this decreasing quality and sales of the company was found to be in the organizational culture of
the company. It was noted that employees of the company were fulfilling their scheduled work
hours and leaving office fifteen minutes before the scheduled time. Ana was quick to find out the
issue is here and it needs to be addressed.

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During this another issue was found. It was pointed out by Ana that there is a need to
raise the production as higher levels of manufacturing was required to meet the demand of the
Australian Market. However, the issue took a different turn as the head of the manufacturing
department highlighted the desirability of another shift where employees were expected to
provide higher productivity. It was highlighted that increasing the productivity without managing
the shift timing in not feasible and it is not possible to raise the manufacturing. Moreover, the
issues of decreasing quality of products were another reason that bothered her much than the rest
of the employees. This situation marred with anger and frustration on Ana’s part led to decisions
not quite appreciable by others in the company. She has called upon the head of the department
of design to discuss the issue and it is found that she has ignored the key managers like John
Paine and Boris Fernandez. John has the reputation of award winning design manager while
Boris is renowned to have achieved higher production in his company, Doll House. The design
head of the Modern Toy Shop even though nodded as a matter of consent, however, the issue
was bigger than this. Ana seemed frustration with the issues of the company even though she
looks upon the bigger concern for the company than the petty issues.
Soon after the break, Ana came to address the issue regarding the issues arising out of
low productivity and growth of the company. The opinion of Stephen Lee was also considered
regarding the operation of the organization. However, the decision of the directors of the
company were indifferent because they sensed that such a drastic change in the company would
incur huge loss as the contract between the company and the labor union would be violate as a
result of this. Even though Ana was optimistic about the growth of the company because a
lucrative deal would be helpful for the future of the company. After consultation with Stephen, it
was decided that it is difficult to manage such huge manufacturing cost unless the company takes

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steps to outsource and look for other avenues like offshore manufacturing. The chief executive
officer was also of the view that a huge manufacturing loss at this stage of the company is a risk
to its future and it is only possible when it is done through offshore manufacturing. However, the
head of the marketing is of the opinion that it is more of the interest of the local customers who
are influenced by the products and the company enjoys this position is determined mostly by the
local customers choices of quality products. Since, the origin of the company is Australia; it has
created a sense of belongingness among the local customers.
However the issue was somewhere else. It was noted by the head of the marketing of the
organization that the implementation of such a drastic changes by shifting the offshore
manufacturing can actually hurt the sentiment of the Australian customers and can cause notable
amount of concern for their business in the Australian region. However, the decision Ana made
significant change in the way the organization worked. Ana observed that at this situation what
was the utmost requirement was the proper communication. A marketing communication is
required that can approach the Australian market and protect their interest in Australia.
Moreover, the situation was more serious than this. It was also noted that the problem
was also associated with the organizational behavior and the kind of organizational culture they
held within the organization. It is believed that the workforce has an ineffective work culture in
which affected their organizational behavior and the overall outcome. It was noted that an
effective cooperation was needed for making a successful change within the organization.
Therefore the problem was that there was difficulties achieving this deal as the multiple
stakeholders were not cooperating in the desired manner. It seemed extremely difficult for the
executive managers of the company to manage the employees within the organization because
employees were seen to have not equally participatory with the administration. This is

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manifested in their overall outcome as the company faced large losses in achieving larger share
in market and sales were also at a declining. It seems the company was losing its previous hold
in the market and it is a major concern for the company. This problem faced by the company was
multifaceted as it experienced low revenue for the current year; it also saw its reputation being
damaged as the quality of the design deteriorated at the same time.
Considering the issue, these following questions can be posed
Q1. Will it be effective idea to look for offshore manufacturing and outsource for future growth
and achieving under the present volatile situation?
However, it is to be considered that the offshore manufacturing is expected to provide an
effective solution regarding the manufacturing enhanced cost at Australia. The main obstacle in
this issue of manufacturing was their process of manufacturing at the upscale market. It is found
that one of the reasons for higher manufacturing cost is there is the above mentioned reason
(Ancaraniet al. 2015). However, what is found to be the benefit of the offshore manufacturing is
that the cost of the manufacturing could be reduced to a lower grade of the same could be
launched in the mid-scale market. This tool is found to be instrumental in limiting the enhanced
production cost. However, the required infrastructure is the major cause of concern before
installing new manufacturing set up. This to be taken in mind that a significant outsourcing
strategy is to adopt to achieve the required infrastructure in the market (Schniederjans,
Schniederjans and Schniederjans 2015).
Q2. Is the decision of employing John Paine and Boris Fernandez is important and significant for
management of the effective workforce under the changed circumstances?

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This decision will prove to be effective because it is found that the head of the design
department has conducted some previous unethical businesses while considering the ordinary
designs for larger profit and ignored the quality designs of the products. It seems to have taken a
favored attitude towards few firms. Therefore, it is found to be one of the major reasons for
decreasing quality in design is found to be this. In addition, the company faced with another
issue of insufficient supply of products to the supermarkets and shopping malls in the locality.
Even though, the manufacturing department raises their issue against Ana’s decision, this
decision would help the company to limit the supply of products to the market ad it will also help
reflecting on the issue of decreasing sales. Considering this situation, the decision of the chief
executive officer of the company introducing the award winning designer into the company as it
will be contributing in the achievement of the set up goals for the company (Doyle and Locke
2014). Along with this, it is also to be noted that the inclusion of Boris Fernandez into the
company has also been successful for the company because it is it will help in enhancing the
production of the company. It will help the company to have better hold in the Australian market.
Conclusion
In conclusion it can be said that, this case scenario is a perfect example of organizational
change because through the evolution of the case study, it can be derived that an efficient
organizational culture and an efficient organizational behavior from the organization and the
employees perspective are the sole reason to be held responsible for the problems faced by the
organization. It can be said that organizational culture and organizational behavior are the key
factors of organizational management.

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References:
Alvesson, M. and Sveningsson, S., 2015. Changing organizational culture: Cultural change
work in progress. Routledge.
Ancarani, A., Di Mauro, C., Fratocchi, L., Orzes, G. and Sartor, M., 2015. Prior to reshoring: A
duration analysis of foreign manufacturing ventures. International Journal of Production
Economics, 169, pp.141-155.
Doyle, D. and Locke, G., 2014. Lacking Leaders: The Challenges of Principal Recruitment,
Selection, and Placement. Thomas B. Fordham Institute.
Palmer, I., Dunford, R. and Akin, G., 2016. Managing organizational change. McGraw-Hill
Education.
Schniederjans, M.J., Schniederjans, A.M. and Schniederjans, D.G., 2015. Outsourcing and
insourcing in an international context. Routledge.