Change Management In Modern Toy Shop: Offshore Manufacturing And Workforce Management

Challenges faced by Modern Toy Shop

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.

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 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.

Solution: Offshore manufacturing

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.

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 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.

Solution: Workforce Management and Organizational Behavior

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 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.

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).

Importance of Communication in Change Management

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.

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.