Organizational Change
Essays

Capacity planning and knowledge management are terms that have flooded the literature in recent years. Many of the best run organizations in the world have dedicated resources that focus on each concept respectively. However, there is also a lot of overlap in the two concepts; especially with regards to human resources and training and learning. For example, when learning occurs and is documented to train other members of the organization, not only does the knowledge base grow but so does the human capital capacity. However, since there is a human element in human resources capacity, this asset is often rather intangible and difficult to quantify.

When developing an organization or a personal relationship there are many issues that have to be considered. Some people have the knowledge of these things and realize they're important, but they don't understand how to take that knowledge and work with it properly. Until they get a handle on how they are going to use the knowledge and information they have acquired, they will struggle to move forward.

This paper is about Black and Decker throughout the years. The paper begins with an analysis of the company's strategy in the 1950s and 1960s when it held a virtual monopoly in handheld power tools. Latter strategies are discussed as well as the transition from its early days to a fully global business environment.

Resistance to Change Management Introduction Why do some employees resist change within the structure of the organization? What can management do to bring those employees along as the company transitions to another strategy? This paper addresses those issues and other related to resistance to change. The Literature on Resistance to Change Management Roy Smollan, senior lecturer in Management at Auckland University of Technology in New Zealand, notes that some companies refer to resistance to change as a "brickwall" or a "dangerous roadblock to transformation" (Smollan, 2011, p. 12). Resistance to change is normally seen as a dynamic where employees refuse to carry through with authorized instructions, but the real, ultimate problem may be found in the frustration of the manager who sees things are not falling into place (Smollan, 13). "Handle resistance with care" and don't assume it is "willful or ignorant"; engage in "full and honest communication" (Smollan, 15).

Introduction As with structure, culture is methodologically analyzable by virtue of its emergent status. Indeed, like structure, culture has relational, causal properties of its own, which confront actualizing agency in the form of situational logics (Archer 2006: ch. 7). Cultural analysis is also a multi-level affair, from the doctrinal level, where, for instance, religious doctrine may contradict welfare policy, down to the micro-level. Just as any role within an organization can have contradictory requirements, so can cultural values. However, the problem currently vitiating the literature on ‘organizational culture' is precisely how one can examine the relative interplay between society's ‘prepositional register' and agency when culture is reduced to, or defined solely in terms of, what goes on at the level of causality. The realist assertion that culture as an emergent product has properties of its own is thrown out of the analytical window; or, following Archer, the S-C level is conflated with the CS level.

The modern day working environment is a highly complex and intricate field, in which employees and employers have to continually meet new demands, standards and challenges. Employees, for instance, have to perform new tasks at superior standards, or they have to continually develop their skills. At the level of the employers, they have to respond to challenges such as increasing roles of employees, increasing competition for talented staffs or changing structures of the workplace, especially due to diversity (Bond, 2007).

Alcan's continued revenue growth is the result of the combined success of increasing sales in four main business units, in addition to growth through acquisition. The cumulative effects of these two factors have served to create a profitable business and one where a highly decentralized organizational structure dominates (Chang, Wang, 2011). The catalyst of the organization becoming so decentralized is the continued revenue gains made across four businesses, each competing in market areas that face heavy pricing and commodity-like market conditions. Despite the heavily process-centric based approaches the industry takes to supply chain management, production and distribution, Alcan has been also able to profitably grow sales in the more mature markets they compete in. The senior management and IT departments credit the highly decentralized nature of the enterprise-wide systems that run the company. During the time period of the case, Alcan generated $23.6B in sales in 2006, and has 68,000 employees throughout its global operations that span 61 countries. The four major groups include Primary Metal, Engineered Products, Packaging and Bauxite & Alumina. Each of these business groups have their own Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system and IT infrastructure. They each also have their own maintenance contracts with enterprise software vendors including SAP who the company pays approximately $100M a year in maintenance fees to. There are also the costs of operating over 400 different pricing systems, many of which duplicate functions across divisions as well. The new CIO of the company, Robert Ouellette, enters into a challenging situation and one that will require a completely different IT and organizational structure to succeed. Organizational Environment The Alcan organizational environment is highly decentralized to the point of there being four separate companies in the same corporation, each with its own entire value chain and supporting functions. As with the value chain concept, each of the four divisions has created its own main and supporting functions, and no two business units or divisions are the same. From the initial supply chain management and supplier quality management processes and systems to the supplier qualification, new product development, production and fulfillment including logistics, each business unit is significantly different than the other. When information systems and processes become unique to a given organizational business unit or division, the information and intelligence shared redefines the identity and over time, the core competencies of a business unit (Boh, Yellin, 2007). This is exactly what's happening in the four business units of Alcan during the time period of the case study. The Primary Metal, Engineered Products, Packaging and Bauxite & Alumina have in effect become their own companies, each with its own ERP, Manufacturing Execution System (MES), Supply Chain Management (SCM) and myriad of pricing and distribution systems. The case states that there are over 400 different pricing systems in place across the four business units or divisions. CIO Robert Ouellette and other senior executives see the potential for consolidating all systems together and creating a centralized IT architecture. Creating a highly centralized IT architecture and framework would require the fundamental structure of the company to change significantly. It would also require an entirely new IT architecture, followed by redefinition of processes, systems and procedures throughout the company. As the information platforms or technologies of a business define not only the performance of divisions but the structure and performance of business models over time, Robert Ouellette and his staff must think strategically as to how they will modify the overall organizational structure.

Located on U.S. populated place and spring in Marion County, Florida, just to the east of the city of Ocala. It is part of the Ocala Metropolitan Statistical Area. Silver Springs is the site of one of the largest artesian spring formations in the world, producing nearly 550 million gallons of crystal-clear water daily. Silver Springs forms the headwaters of the Silver River, the largest tributary on the Ocklawaha River, a part of the St. Johns River system. It has been ranked by many organizations as one of the most livable cities in the United States.

The unifying dynamic of all successful organizations is communication. The foundational elements of all successful collaboration, coordination and the synchronization of complex systems and tasks are predicated on a…

¶ … Value of Participative Leadership During Organizational Change