Many companies around the globe often strive to succeed by overcoming the challenges facing them in the business environment. Some of the strategies adopted may involve a total restructuring of organization. However, the pace of instituting the change is often met by resistance from employees. This study has focused on the efforts adopted by Western Union's Christina Gold when she sought to change the nature of the company's production model from the US-centric to a regional one. Even with the challenges
Christina Gold Leading Change at Western Union
Summary of the case
The case study is about the Western Union Company, which is under the leadership of Christina Gold. The executive officer (Gold) intends to introduce a change in the structure of the company. The company needs to change the nature of its production from the U.S.-centric focus of production to the regional structure. The key main divisions of focus include the Americas, Europe, Africa, the Middle East and South Asia, and Asia-Pacific. They needed the change to introduce new organizational culture focused on decentralized management of activities. Through this, Gold wanted to increase the responsibility and the authority of the regional heads in handling profits and losses in their lines of operation. Adopting the change meant that it could provide an opportunity for the company to expand its global operations.
Introducing the change also targeted at increasing the consumer target of the company. This includes increasing the number of consumers utilizing the organizational services across the world (consumer-consumer transactions). In addition, restructuring was necessary to re-define the shape and performance of the company globally. One of the organizational activities likely to increase because of the new changes is the number of consumer-to-consumer transactions, and consumer to business transactions. Introducing a new line of operations and offices in all the regions where the company operates will increase the rates of consumer-staff interaction, as a consumer will gain abilities to inquire and express their desires directly to the organizational staff (Konrad & Mitchell, 2005).
Major issues
It is clear that the Gold faces many challenges as she plans to introduce the desired organizational change. Resistance to change from the organizational senior management team and the other employees is one of the challenges facing the company. As shown in the case study, "the leaders in the U.S. were reluctant to give up the control of product lines." The management of the company also faced the challenge of introducing the desired organizational culture to promote change. This entailed replacing the old organizational culture with a new culture that focused on decentralization and centered to meet the needs of the consumers and the employees of the company.
The company also faced the challenge of aligning the operations and the activities of the company with the newly designed organizational changes. This was done by ensuring that the behavior and the performance of the employees achieved the set organizational goals. In addition, the company faced a challenge of restructuring its activities to meet consumer and market demand. Finally, the company faced the challenge of recruiting and training the employees on the needs of the desired organizational change (Konrad & Mitchell, 2005).
Actions that can be done by the management to prevent unintended consequences
Effective management of resistance to change determines the organizational abilities to introduce the desired change. Therefore, it is important for the organizational management to develop strategies that will manage and reduce the incidence of resistance to change among the employees. For example, it is important for the organizational management to educate the employees on the upcoming changes in the company, what is expected from them, and the desired behaviors that will facilitate its success. This creates awareness among the employees, thereby minimizing the resistance to change.
Facilitating the change process aids in the reduction of resistance to change. This entails leading by example to ensure the employee enumerate the desired behavior and become motivation to adopt the change. The company should communicate to the employees the new changes required by the company. This not only creates awareness among the employees, but also aligns the required organizational goals with that of the employees. Other strategies applicable in managing the issues include the provision of incentives, adopting effective leadership styles (transactional and transformational), and coercing the employees to adopt the required organizational change (Leban & Stone, 2008).
How well aligned is the new structure to the six strategies?
The organizational six strategies align with the goals and objectives of the new organizational structure. The intended organizational structure aims at decentralizing most of the organizational activities. This will improve the development and marketing of a global brand targeting all consumer segments. The new structure developed in the company aims at developing a global network of service providers. This aligns with the organizational strategy of enhancing a global distribution network. The new structure aims at increasing the number of employees recruited by the organization. This implies to its future development and growth of leaders within the company. Creating new offices expands the leadership positions for the employees hence, building their leadership skills. Consequently, these strategies ensure provision of excellent services to the consumers, maintaining the performance of the company (Konrad & Mitchell, 2005).
Recommendations
You’re 80% through this paper. Sign up to read the full paper.
Sign Up Now — Instant Access Already a member? Log inAlways verify citation format against your institution’s current style guide requirements.