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Organizational change in
Vale
Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3

Lewin's Change management Model...............................................................................................3

Drivers of Digital Transformation...................................................................................................5

Management Practices Influence on Organizational Change..........................................................7

Leadership Style Influence on Organizational Change.................................................................10

Organizational Cultural Influence on Organizational Change......................................................10

Business Strategy Influence on Organizational Change................................................................11

Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................12

References......................................................................................................................................12
Introduction
The spread of COVID-19 has impacted the economic growth of the organization from every
business industry. The organizations have lost their profit due to certain lockdown and shutdown
of the industries (Jallow, Renukappa & Suresh 2020). The mining industry also has faced a huge
loss during the pandemic. To mitigate the issues that are faced by the organization from different
business industries, the organizational management has utilized the aspects of digital
transformation by replacing the functional attributes of the management system. The change
management models that have been used by organizations require advanced technological
changes. In this report, the organizational change management of the mining company Vale will
be analyzed to verify how the organization have dealt with financial loss and issues during the
pandemic. The Vale is a UK based mining company and also the organization works with
logistics such as ports, terminals, and railways. The organization also has a state-of-the-art
infrastructure for the energy and steel making process. The company has focused to transform
their organizational functions with advanced digital transformation, as the company has to face
several issues with the functional process of the mining industry, steel and energy making
process and supply chain management during the pandemic.

Lewin's Change management Model


The organization Vale needs to implement the change management model that would be
appropriate for mitigating the specific issues faced by the organization. The several aspects of
the change management model for transforming the organizational management, the company
need to undergo various stages, based on digital transformation. Before the implementation
process, the organization need to analyze the issues that are creating obstacles to the financial
growth of the organization. After analyzing the specific issues, the company can utilize the
framework of force field analysis of Kurt Lewin, which will help the business developers to
make appropriate decisions to change the organizational management to enhance the quality and
potentiality of the success so that, the organization can get sufficient profit in the global market.
According to Hussain et., al (2018), the structure of Lewin's Change Management model,
considers the idea that includes two different types of forces which can help the organization to
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encompass the goal of transformation, and the forces also guide the organizational management
to support the change by adopting the features of the transformation within the organizational
environment. The forces of the change management model structure direct the organization
against the changing equilibrium among the forces that do not support the transformation
process. All of these forces can change the magnitude and the direction according to the
situational transformation. After analyzing the magnitude of the problems or issues, the
organization has to design a systematic design that can support the management to adopt the
transformation based on the situation. The forces of the change management model encourage
the magnitudes to evaluate the nature of the reaction and determine how they have to react based
on the situation. It also helps the business developers to determine specific techniques of change
within the organizational management. In the case of the mining company Vale, Lewin's three-
step change management model will help the organizational executives to draw out an effective
systematic structure of transformation according to the issues.

Figure: Lewin's three-step change management model

Source: (Author-Made)

The three-step change management model has the following stages,


Unfreezing: This is the first stage of transformation. In this step, the organizational management
needs to dissolve the quo of its status by preparing the structure to make the changes through
accumulation support within the organizational context. To design an effective process, the
organization need to convince its stakeholders by discussing data or the previous business reports
of the organization.

The Process of Transformation: In this second stage of the change management process, the
company has to bring out the changes by sharing the information or sufficient knowledge on the
issues that have been faced by the organizational management, and which have caused the
financial loss. The transformation process considers change of leadership management, change
of human resource management according to the organizational vision, mission and objectives.

Refreezing: This last step of the transformational process, requires to imply the transformational
changes for sustainability. The digital transformation helps organizations to enhance productivity
and functionality by improving product quality and customer service. However, to maintain
sustainable business development through digital transformation, the organizations have to retain
the changes. The company and the interaction of the specific transformations cannot be replaced
frequently as the whole transformation process requires huge investment. To maintain
sustainability within the organizational context, new forces of the field should be made through
addressing particular issues that will solidify the relevant transformation (Tang 2019).

Drivers of Digital Transformation


Several drivers support the digital transformation process within the organizational context. In
the mining business industry, the process of digital transformation must be implemented by
gathering traction as per the multiple beneficial aspects that are provided by the change
management model. When a company is heading towards the transformation procedure, the
organizational executives or the business developers have to realize the technical requirements
which are needed to increase the productivity of the company. The risk assessment process
would help the miners to assess the potential risks according to the situation by analyzing
potential risks. Risk assessment also figures out alternative recommendations to mitigate the
issues. Risk assessment assesses safety arrangements to reduce the operational cost for the long-
term run. The requirements of digital transformation of The Vale have been generated to enhance
efficiency by meeting up the demands and streamlining the operational value chain. To apply the
resource-based review of the organizational management, it is essential to mediate the factors of
digital transformation based on the capability of the organizational management of the Vale, as
the capability of the organization is related to the information technology which is used by the
organization. Transparency is an essential factor to adopt the changes in the organizational
context. The requirement of transparency within the organizational digital transformation process
involves the effort of the organization for demonstrating corporate social responsibility strategies
which is very important to maintain the sustainability of the transformation process. According
to Abolhassan (2017), productivity, safety and efficacy are major drivers of the effective
decision making of the digital transformation process to determine effective techniques of the
transformation process. Enhancement of the human resource management of the organization is
another essential factor to select the drivers of the digital transformational process. To increase
the productivity of the organizations, employing high-skilled employees is needed. To overcome
the financial issues, a long-term cost-reduction strategy is essential to transform the
organizational management.

Figure: The forces of organizational change


Source:( Author-Made)

The above figure has represented the roadmap of the transformation of human resource
management of the mining company as the implication of technology helps to reduce the
workload of the employees and, thus, the employees can enhance their performance as well.
There are several aspects of the business development process that can help the organizational
executives to enhance the factors that are needed to be changed. According to Liere-Netheler,
Packmohr & Vogelsang (2018), the global pandemic has accelerated the transition process of the
mining company by adopting a more effective and advanced strategy as the company has
installed four levers, energy transition method, integrated collaboration to enhance the human
resource management of the organization. The advanced open source information technology has
helped the managers to figure out the performance of the employees by accessing their agility
that is essential for enhancing the productivity of the workforce of the company. The digital tools
regularly take records of the employees to build a better work environment. According to
Hrustek, Furjan & Pihir (2019), in the paradox of enhancement of productivity, advanced digital
technologies need to be utilized for mitigating the issues of management by analyzing the impact
of expectations according to productivity. In the case of the mining company the Vale, the major
factors or drivers to increase the productivity are:

 The determination of onset high cost.


 The replacement of traditional types of equipment with modern high-cost technologies.
 The advanced technology which is being relatable with the existing business model that
can generate issues by reducing the performance of the systems and the organizational
ham resource management because of lack of computability.
 The reduction of capability can generate the issue to analyze how the advanced
technologies could be implemented by modifying the existing business models.

Management Practices Influence on Organizational Change


According to Bakari, Hunjra & Niazi (2017), the increase of COVID-19, has impacted on
workforce management of the mining industry. It has been an opportunity for the miners of the
company as they have streamlined the operations and adopted the changes due to digital
transformation to increase the capability of human resource management. The changes of the
workforce of the organizations include cultural transformation, new management strategies the
has considered that the employees can avail work from home option for long-term as per their
choice. However, the sustainability of the transformation process depends on situational change.
In the context of modern business, the organizational work culture is very complex. Employees
from different cultural backgrounds have to manage within a specific management structure. In
the modern business model, the companies need to establish a diverse work culture that can help
the organization to adopt the new aspects of digital transformation. Diverse work culture works
like a major driver to maintain the sustainability of the economic growth, employee retention and
satisfaction, productivity and customer satisfaction for an organization. To transform the
organizational work culture, the organizational executives have to determine the issues with
human resource management. Organizational managers have to access the detailed issues for
validating the transformational changes according to the requirements of the teams. In the current
context, the existing management practices are the major part to analyze the existing issues that
have been faced by the originations. The managers need to overview the organizational policies
and other governmental rules and regulations to determine future strategies for transforming the
management. The efficacy of the implementation process depends on how the employees can
adopt the changes. Before determining new regulations or policies, managers have to ensure that
the new policies can ensure job security and employee satisfaction for the employees, as digital
advancement reduces the manpower. The executives also need to motivate the employees to
learn new things regarding the implication of advanced technologies by gathering sufficient
knowledge on the new techniques and tools. The mining companies have to work on various
projects that require advanced technologies to increase the productivity of the projects, so, the
project managers need to explore the knowledge on new advanced technologies that can be
utilized on the projects to enhance the outcome of the projects.

According to Stouten, Rousseau & De Cremer (2018), the administrators of the companies works
as the middle managers, and they are responsible to support the employees by providing efficient
training programs that are needed to adopt the changes and to gain sufficient knowledge to
handle the advanced technologies during the project progress. The company can provide
employee support where the employees can get help from the managers; The strategy can help
the company to reduce the potentiality of project delay as delay of projects leads to loss of
investment and project failure. The middle managers also execute the result of digital
transformation to evaluate the future scope of the digital transformation process. The managers
can use different analytical tools to compare the previous and present situational analysis of the
organizational management, structural development and business development progress of the
company. Thus, the middle managers can outline the detailed issues and factors that are required
to improve further in future. The analysis of the present business process will access the parts
that are needed to be changed based on urgency. In the case of Vale, the management has
engaged to explain the requirements of the digital transformation that has helped the
organizational management to determine safe transformational strategies for the employees.
During the pandemic, the company has utilized advanced technologies to provide work from the
home facility for its employees, which was an urgent requirement to mitigate the financial loss of
the company and as well as it has ensured the safety of the employees from the spread of the
coronavirus. The advanced technologies also have been used by the project managers and
executives to communicate with the project stakeholders and shareholders, as the communication
between the project stakeholders and shareholders is an essential part to determine effective
strategies for designing the project process. The administrators of the Vale are responsible to
ensure the business continuation during the lockdown period, as they have utilized both the
traditional and advanced tools to maintain the relationship between the organizational
management, shareholders and the stakeholders of the projects. The business analytics of the
organization has analyzed the automation process to select the new business partnerships for the
company. However, the company has to deal with several issues while implementing the
advanced technologies within an organizational context, but, later, the top middle managers and
the project managers have managed to find an effective way to overcome the issues. By using
appropriate technological advancement, the company has ensured economic growth during the
pandemic period by completing projects efficiently within a specific time through gaining
sufficient profit. The Vale is one of the most popular mining organizations within the mining
industry; The adaptability of the employees was very high, for this reason, the organization has
easily adopted the aspects of digital transformation by gathering proper information on the
implementation of new technologies that are needed to be applied on the projects. The financial
report of Vale has represented that, the organization has gained a huge profit of US$ 8.467
billion within the first quarter of 2020.

The managerial environment of Vale has represented its flexibility as it has introduced modern
technological development within the organizational management efficiently. The project teams
were very versatile enough to learn about new technologies that can be used to determine
effective innovative project development stages (Vale 2021).

Leadership Style Influence on Organizational Change


Leadership management is the most essential factor of organizational management as it
determines the effective strategies for the executives and organizational managers to manage the
project teams. It is the most critical task for the organizational leaders to motivate the teams for
adopting the changes. The managers have to select effective leadership styles from different
leadership styles by analyzing the requirements of the organizations. According to Tidd &
Bessant (2020), most modern organizations have struggled to select efficient leadership
strategies for managing the project teams that has impacted on productivity and performance of
the teams. In the case of Vale, the organizational managers have implied an effective leadership
framework to manage the project team and have influenced the employees to adopt the changes.
The managers have utilized the aspects of the transformational leadership framework to
determine the managerial strategies. The aspects of transformational leadership consider
innovative thinking, efficient problem-solving skills, sustainable decision-making strategies,
effective communication management strategies. The aspects of transformational leadership have
helped the organizational managers to motivate the employees for enhancing their performance
through the adoption of the aspects of digital transformation. The efficient leaders of the
organization have ensured that the trust between the employees could be maintained as trust is
the most important factor that can ensure the employees that the transformation will enhance
productivity.
Organizational Cultural Influence on Organizational Change

Business Strategy Influence on Organizational Change


In the current circumstances, the industry of mining will have to introduce changes to their
business strategies so that they can capitalize on the trends of the industry like automation,
digital transformation, collaboration while being smart and using technology, while also being
sustainable in its operations. The existing business strategy of Vale has a high influence on the
organizational change that is going to be introduced in the organization. The digitaol
transformation of the company would need to first consider whether the existing business
strategy can accommodate the organizational change. The change that will be developed through
digital transformation will include strategic as well as structural change in the organization.
Thus, the business strategy of the organization will have to cooperate with these changes in the
organization, while also aligning with the drivers of change in the organization. The external
strategies of the organization, like the kinds of economic, social, political, technological, legal,
and environmental strategies that it adopts, and how they can impact its digital transformation
process. According to Ismail, Khater & Zaki (2017), the new economy in the world, including
dynamism, customization, and highly competitive environment would mean that the mining
industry would need to consider these when promoting the change. The need for digital
transformation is especially high due to this, with circular economy being encouraged in the
organizations, which can be helped by the digital transformation. The disruptive technological
advancements in the world has made the digital transformation important to be implemented.
This way, the external business strategy will make it easier to implement digital transformation
in the organization.

Conclusion
References
Abolhassan, F (2017), "The drivers of digital transformation", Why There’s No Way Around the
Cloud. Cham: Springer (Management for Professionals).

Bakari, H, Hunjra, A I & Niazi, G S K (2017), "How does authentic leadership influence planned
organizational change? The role of employees’ perceptions: Integration of theory of planned
behavior and Lewin's three step model", Journal of Change Management,Vol.17, No.2, pp.155-
187.

Hrustek, L, Furjan, M T & Pihir, I (2019), May, "Influence of digital transformation drivers on
business model creation", In 2019 42nd International Convention on Information and
Communication Technology, Electronics and Microelectronics (MIPRO) (pp. 1304-1308). IEEE.

Hussain, S T, Lei, S, Akram, T, Haider, M J, Hussain, S H & Ali, M (2018), "Kurt Lewin's
change model: A critical review of the role of leadership and employee involvement in
organizational change", Journal of Innovation & Knowledge, Vol. 3, No.3, pp.123-127.

Ismail, M. H, Khater, M & Zaki, M (2017), “Digital business transformation and strategy: What
do we know so far”, Cambridge Service Alliance, Vol. 10, pp. 1-35.

Jallow, H, Renukappa, S & Suresh, S (2020), "The impact of COVID-19 outbreak on United
Kingdom infrastructure sector", Smart and Sustainable Built Environment.

Liere-Netheler, K, Packmohr, S & Vogelsang, K (2018), "Drivers of digital transformation in


manufacturing".

Stouten, J, Rousseau, D M & De Cremer, D (2018), "Successful organizational change:


Integrating the management practice and scholarly literatures", Academy of Management
Annals, Vol.12, No.2, pp.752-788.

Tang, K N (2019), "Change management", In Leadership and Change Management (pp. 47-55).


Springer, Singapore.

Tidd, J & Bessant, J R (2020), "Managing innovation: integrating technological, market and


organizational change", John Wiley & Sons.
Vale (2021), About us, Available at:<
http://www.vale.com/EN/business/reports/Pages/default.aspx/>, [Accessed on: 26th October
2021]

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