Case Study: A Tough Battle

Introduction:
Rickson is CEO of Hi-Soft Inc, IT Consulting MNC with headquarters at Stanford
Connecticut, USA. It provided consulting for improved business results through
the use of IT tools and also rendered services in the domain of Information
Security. It executed projects to various companies engaged in manufacturing,
finance, IT, Construction, utilities, and others. Rickson.

Background:
Hi-Soft European operations with about 100 employees having headquarters in
London was not performing well. Rickson tried to improve organizational culture
and turn around but did not get adequate support from the team. Hence, he
decided to promote Jayme as Director of European Operations with a mandate to
bring in required changes in work culture and get the things done as per
organizational requirements.

Q1. Actions taken by Jayme for bringing about the change:

 Organized Team building workshops
 Conducted Outbound exercises
 Lead the Collective planning exercises
 Set up Interdepartmental committees to increase collaboration among
employees
 Reorganizing roles of his direct reportees Anne and Sebastian
 Anne to manage relationship within the department and customer
interactions
 Sebastian entrusted with the responsibilities of data analysis and
monitoring
Why were the training programs not effective?
 Employees felt disconnect with the company and respective departments
due to lack of respect shown to them
 Individualism amongst supervisors
 Resistance to move out of their comfortable zones
 Lack of interest to involve in achieving organizational goals
 Participation in interdepartmental committees looked like extra work
 Lethargy and disillusioned with work culture
 Ineffective communication
 Attitude
 Autocratic leadership of Anne
 Distorted perceptions
 Negative Stereotyping

Factors responsible for individuals to resist change

 Selfishness
 Mistrust
 Different opinion
 Low resilience for change
 Poor communication and Employee Engagement
 Functional conflict within groups
 Work interdependence
 Differences in goals
 Differences in perception about management
 Work Culture
 Social change – Contrasts human behavior
 Self Esteem
 Lack of cohesiveness
 Low Morale
Q2. What further actions or change interventions would you recommend for
Jayme to improve the situation?
 Alter the organization’s structure with redesigning jobs of Anne and
Sebastian
 Conduct behavioral approach workshops aimed at developing leadership
qualities, improve team building and reduce team conflicts.
 Stimulating Competition – Implement healthy competition techniques
between the groups and provide incentives to enhance performance.
 Use of effective communication
 Appropriate action against problematic individuals
 Use authority to accomplish organizational goals
 Mobilize resources in the required direction.
 Anne to be cautioned about her bullying behavior with other colleagues
 Use HR to spearhead the required change
 Inculcate trust and transparency
 Empower individuals
 Flextime
 Rotate employees across functional and divisional boundaries