CRITICALLY EVALUATE THE IMPLEMENTATION OF A SPECIFIC

CASE OF ORGANISATIONAL CHANGE. BUILDING ON THIS, REFLECT

ON WHAT YOU CAN PERSONALLY LEARN FROM THIS CASE
ANALYSIS ABOUT CHANGE MANAGEMENT AND HOW YOU MIGHT
BENEFIT FROM THESE INSIGHTS IN THE FUTURE.

ESSAY ON ‘MILLSTONE NUCLEAR POWER STATION: CASE STUDY

MANAGING ORGANISATIONAL CHANGE

UMODML-15-3

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WORD COUNT: 3299

 This paper provides insight on a company called Millstone Nuclear Power Station

(MNPS), it’s about how the organisation was able to implement and manage

organisational change in their culture through leadership and appropriate changing

process. Millstone was able to turn their ‘crisis’ into a journey of transformation, learning

and organisational change. Millstone was on the cover of Time Magazine in 1996 which

pointed out matters such as: discrimination of diverse views, intimidation,

ineffectiveness and insensitivity of management on employee concerns. Organisational

change can be dynamic, complicated and challenging but it’s never instantaneous

which is why it’s more of a process than an event (Aravopoulou, 2015). This case study

analyses the relation of organisational culture and its importance for organisational

change. In order for change to occur, ‘need for change’ is the first step to be

recognised. Leadership plays a vital part in leading the change in an organisation which

is also relevant and applicable for Millstones’ case. The change process for MNPS

helps them understand their organisational reality taking them through a whole journey

of transformation that addresses all issues on internal, external, personal and

organisational level (Burke, Noumair 2015). The essay consists of several theories and

literature drawn while analysing key issues at MNPS, critical evaluation of challenges

during the organisational change and how the frameworks fit in the case followed with

reflection.
Moreover, this paper presents how MNPS was able to reshape a new organisation

culture which was acquired through strategic leadership from joint leaders and

participation of all members through the change process. The literature on processual

approach framework in comparison to planned approach in this case study shows how

processual approach fitted best during the crisis at Millstone due to its practicality and

sustainability.

Changing Culture Lens:

Numerous academics have curated several definitions for culture overtime but

there are mainly two foundational branches that shape culture, which are: sociological

and anthropological; collective behaviour emerging culture or culture already embedded

in an organisation (Kroeber and Kluckhohn, 1952). Majority of literature done on

organisational studies settle on the idea that culture is the glue of an organisation for

success. It consists of shared values, beliefs, perception, expectations, underlying

assumptions that was learned as a group together. In other words, an attribute of an

organisation that was socially constructed (Schein, 1996). In the beginning of the case,

CEO of Millstone Bruce Kenyon reveals, ‘he had never seen a culture as broken as this

one’. Organisational culture is deeply interconnected with organisational change. In the

process of going through organisational change, failing to examinine culture as one of

the critical aspects to incorporate during the changing process is why organisations fail

to change and adapt (Balogun and Johnson, 2004). In order to solve a problem, one
must ‘recognise’ the problem first. In this case, it was apparent to Kenyon that the

culture at MNP had to be diagnosed at all levels to find the origin that was preventing

organisational change. ‘Subcultures’ that were once so diversely-integrated and

functional making MNP the no. 1 leading engineering organisation in the industry were

‘shaken’ in the 1980’s when the whole organisation shared remarkably challenging

experiences and assumptions due to the rapid-changing industry they operated in

(Becker, 2005). According to Schein, (2010), for a problem to reach its maturity and

decline, its origin must be discovered. A useful framework that also applies for MNPs’

organisational culture is that they faced adaptation issues to survive in the external

environment and had disorganised internal processes to make their survival certain.

The toughest area of transformation in an organisation is changing culture. The

formation of a new culture and growth consists of extensive factors. Changing culture

can be so complex that some critics argue that it is impossible to change culture if

proper history is not given(Cameron and Quinn, 1999). However, in this case study

change of culture begins at MNP as ‘reframing of the everyday life’ where meaning is

put in management through leadership signalling the organisation and its members the

‘need for change’ (Colville and Murphy, 2006). The insensitive and intimidating

management that lacked interpersonal skills took a turn when Kenyon was hired who

displayed visibility and certainty through effective communication that influenced a path

for discovering new individual and organisational identities at MNPS.

Leading change View:

The business world is very concerned with leadership but the concepts on

leadership and its appliance can be very differing for every organisation. Simply put,

leaders can influence values, beliefs, behaviour and attitude of an individual or a group

(Ganta and Manukonda, 2014). There are a certain set of skills that are general to the

leadership role. Kenyon brought the principles of leadership through his process skills

and cognitive skills from the very start. After 2 weeks of assessment at Millstone,

Kenyon ‘diagnosed’ the broken work culture, made quick ‘adaptation’ by replacing

managers and ‘communicated’ the commitment he was willing to make for Millstone

(Hersey and Blanchard, 1988). In order for growth, culture and change to happen and

sustain in an organisation, there must be a competent leader who can manage skills,

capabilities and knowledge (Peus et.al.2009). The relationship among members at

Millstone was so ‘dysfunctional’ that the very first and ‘toughest’ thing for Kenyon to do

was to build ‘trust’ among the team and also as his leader competence (Bennis, 1984).

Literature suggests that it takes a sharp leader to initiate and co-ordinate organisational

change because where there is change, there is ‘resistance’ and change itself is

complicated. While Millstone was heading for change, the organisation required

leadership guidelines for the change ‘journey’ and its implementation procedure through

management. Hiring a well admired figure Dave Goebel as vice-president, a voice for

employee concerns and a leader for employee programmes was exactly what was
needed. Goebel developed a panel where conflicts and disagreements were

acknowledged and addressed so that employees and managers could step into the

‘changing culture’ journey with a fresh start (Schabracq, 2007). Quality of management

was introduced as these programmes were also accessed on their effectiveness as

these leaders were building a new ‘managerial identity’. Kenyon openly confesses that ‘

there is no hero’ of leading change at MNPS because there were multiple leaders and

most of all ‘self leadership’ had empowered, coached and developed the organisation

through its change process (Zairi, 1994). As communication, vision and goals were

developing at Millstone, a third party was brought in to oversee the plan and

implementation as requested by NMC. Billie Garde was an excellent team player in this

strategic leadership. She was leading change in mostly managerial areas which was a

must for Millstone due to the negative perception (internal and external) built upon till

the crisis. Her proactive approach by reshaping policies in management, management

training and its implementation assisted employees with their concern and perception

towards management at Millstone (Randeree, 2008). With strategic leadership, over

2000 employees, 1000+ contractors and consultants finally started to share the strategic

vision and were uplifted to attain the goal of making the organisation a ‘safety-conscious

work environment’. The leadership and change happening at Millstone was

‘transformational’ and it was a collective effort of several leaders. Mike Brothers

initiating and leading the safety conscious work environment that helped in effective

communication for employees, implementation of ideal managerial identity by Billie

Garde, a panel for employee concerns and effective measurement by Goebel which

were ‘supported’ and ‘coached’ by CEO Kenyon is what facilitated in changing culture,
developing structure and promoting healthy work environment. Integrating all these

components of organization system and people in order to commit to the common vision

that also brings sustainability and shows effective strategic leadership of ‘managing’ and

‘leading change’ at Millstone (Zainol et.al. 2021). A key role played by Kenyon while

leading change was ‘direction setting’ which converted into action, aligning people and

organisation at Millstone, finding effective channels, developing strategic capabilities

that supported the ‘collective’ strategic leadership (Davies and Davies, 2004).

Changing as a process view:

Organisational change is a wide spectrum. Research on organisational change

mainly studies the management-centric aspect but organisational change also requires

need for change, real motives, actions, experiences and meaning for everyone involved

in the company (Bartunek et.al.2006). Even though change is constant, it will not occur

unless it is absolutely needed and demanded by an individual or an organisation. It

takes place when circumstances are so difficult and critical that the organisation has ‘no

choice’ but to change and make it happen (Conner, 1990). The crisis at Millstone

portrays the change process embraced by employees on a personal level that build and

changed their identities along with organisational change as they evolved.

Organisational change is crucial because it directly relates how organisations can

improve performances, effectiveness so that growth and sustainability follow (Stouten,

Rousseau and Cremer, 2018). Literature shows two approaches that are widely used

during organisational change: planned approach and processual (emergent) approach

(Odor, 2018). The pioneer for planned approach was Kurt Lewin, this approach is also

well known as Lewin’s three-step model: unfreezing, moving and refreezing. Several

writers added more steps to this model in the future but the central idea of this remained

that organisations could manage change with predictable moves and prescriptive steps

(Cummings and Huse, 1989). Planned approach for Millstone would not have been

feasible and sustainable as their crisis required more analytical and broader

understanding of chronic problems which meant reviewing the past which are all areas

that planned approach ignores (Dunphy and Stace, 1993). Pettigrew and Whipp, (1991)

state that “the management of strategic and operational change for competitive success

is an uncertain and emergent process”. Comparing planned approaches to processual

approach for organisational change, later studies criticise the planned approaches as

change has always been a continuous and open-ended process so it can’t just

‘unfreeze and refreeze’ (Kanter, 1983). Planned approach isolates change which is a

road-block for innovation, transformation and radical change. The processual approach

on the other hand does not reject planning, it consists of change and changing

demanded as you go, it requires understanding of power, politics, processes of

organisational change so that an organisation can adapt and learn from unpredictable

effects of change especially in a ‘turbulent’ environment (Dawson, 1994). As Kenyon

assisted the organisation in realising the ‘need for change’, the change process had to

begin from individual to group to organisational level. The change process began in

micro-evolutionary areas which consisted involvement of employees in daily decision,

‘participation in change’ and leaders who were willing to learn to build a new social

dynamics and culture. The macro-evolutionary level was distribution of power where
new leaders such as: Goebel, Garde, Brothers, Morgan worked together to align people

and the organisation to heal from the crisis and be a part of change. Processual

approach was the key for organisational change at Millstone as the context of change

was external (political, cultural, economic) and internal (perception, management,

culture) (Child, 2005). The external forces brought in new leadership at Millstone which

helped in reshaping the culture and operations so that change process was continuous,

strategic, local and transformational (Burke, 2002). Change process is not only

challenging but some situations in the process can be uncomfortable and not

necessarily positive but Millstone was ‘learning by doing’ from such scenarios. For e.g.

Two contractors were fired for alleged poor performance while they were only raising

safety concerns. Due to the micro-scaled changed that was happening in the process,

line managers and employee concerns management had stepped in to change the

‘perception’ of contractors management. This is a perfect example of how using the

process approach helps multiple voices and perspectives to be applied in such ethical

dilemmas whereas planned approach assumes that there is common agreement in

everything ignoring conflicts and politics (Yazdifar, Askarany, Nasseri and Moradi,

2013). Process approach helps the organisation question, experience, interpret and

communicate their perception towards the change happening. Every organisation has

its own social reality so while making sense of change, all members are free to have

their own interpretation of change and free to make variations. If participants actively

engage in the change process, it is easier to make sense of past that required change,

be present in the process and give sense to its future. Several changes such as

management training, surveys, team building, process consultation, evaluation of the

process, open communication and admitting mistakes were all part of the changing

process at Millstone which further helped them to recover from a ‘dysfunctional’

organisation to ‘aligned and functional’ organisation that was willing to learn and

embrace change. The processual approach interacts with multiple variables such as:

context, substance, scale and making sense (Dawson, 2014). The complexity and

uncertainty of problems in power, politics and culture unfold easier with a processual

approach rather than planned approach in the changing process. While dealing with

change process, organisations must be mindful to look multiple frameworks so that gap

between the ideal change process (theory) and reality of the situation (practice) is

addressed (Burke, 2002).

In conclusion, the organisational change that happened at Millstone was an

exemplary case of how a company in crisis was able to rise from it by leading change

that shaped a new organisational culture so that foundation of strong management was

rebuild as the company started to transform and strive using ‘contextual approach’ in

the change process. Cultural change in the organisation through strategic leadership

converted the insensitive, non-interpersonal and intimidating management into

sensitive, perceptive and receptive management. The newly reformed management

was able to sustain a healthy and safe space work environment where the deeper

issues in the organisations were unfolded and there was chance for advancement . The

whole change process itself along with processual approach, changing culture and

leadership was only effective due to participation, open communication, willingness to

learn which further helped in gaining new perceptions and healthier relationships in the

organisation. Organisational change at Millstone was not only necessary but it was

inevitable.

Reflection:

I would like to share and reflect about of my personal, work and life experiences that I

can closely relate to the understandings of this module and assignment.

My personal experience is about my family moving to Australia when I was 13.

Before moving to Australia I had never been abroad even for travel so my values,

beliefs, perception or overall culture about myself and the society was all deeply rooted

in the Nepali culture. Everything in the Western culture from food to friends to school to

way of living was different to what was ‘normal’ to me before I moved there. At that age I

obviously did not know the meaning of culture but reflecting back on this, change in

culture for my teenager self was a ‘cultural shock’ (Winkleman, 1994). Eventually as I

started mingling at school and working part time, my experimentation in this culture

quickly made me accept that this was my new life and society. The cultural change was

changing me as a person but having to build on both cultures plus being very young to

examine and understand both cultures on a deeper level was very challenging for me.
Being part of two very different cultures and participating in culture according to family

or friends or work was definitely ‘frustrating’ at times. As I have learned from this case

that changing culture is not a very easy transformation to make. With a little more

maturity that came with age and better understanding of societies and culture, I can now

see that changing and adjusting in a new culture takes time, patience and

understanding to reach adaptation. A very important note I make from this experience is

that, I can choose to embrace all the good things that fit with my values as a person

from both cultures if it is positive, fruitful and benefits not only me but everyone around

me.

My work experience is about my job as a bartender at a local bar owned by a

couple in Canberra. It was fairly small and less organised than a normal bar u would

find in the city. After my training finished and as I started doing shifts, I noticed that the

register was only a tilt drawer that would open for cash ins when u pressed the button

for what was ordered by the customer. It was a very general and old-fashioned tilt that

wouldn’t specify what particular drink was being sold and only some drinks had the

labelling for size. The main issue here was that the tilt was not connected to a computer

or a printer that would keep records of what was being sold and its quantity as well.

There was no proper system to account the drinks being sold on a busy night,

especially when some regular customers would request a tab for their drinks. As

someone with customer service experience at multiple chains before, it was a very easy

problem for me to spot. I made a suggestion to the owners to buy a small printer that

connects to the register tilt and with a new design of specific labels to cover the buttons
in the tilt. This way, they would have more transparency on their sales and the

salesperson. They were very appreciative and eagerly implemented my suggestion as

before this, they completely trusted and depended on the other bartender who had been

working there for quite some time. He also had a lot of responsibility at the end of the

night where he had to bank the sales of the day and update stock after closing.

Reflecting on this particular work experience and integrating with my understandings

from the case study tells me that my general process skills were able to help me

diagnose the problem and communicate it well as a leader who can initiate and bring

change.

Going through all my experiences in life has firmly made believe that changing

process is not only unpredictable and uncertain but it is a continuous process with no

ending. My understandings from the case study and my own experiences tell me that u

can only plan so much for change. It is so sudden that when it happens, it is a process

for any individual or an organisation to learn and evolve with it. An example I would like

to add where changing as a process is: Covid-19. The unprecedented pandemic brough

change in life for everybody in this world. To tackle this change, everyone in the world

right now is using processual approach, the beginning of change such as: lockdowns

due to Civid-19 was a shock for everybody. Slowly, we have accepted that there might

be few more years with this uncertainty and changes in life that covid has brought. The

human civilization ‘accepted’ that Covid was here to stay so instead we tried different

approaches than staying in lockdown. Vaccines were developed, and people

everywhere today wear masks when they step out of the house. Surely at the start this
was frustrating and uncomfortable but this has become the new reality for everyone. My

outlook and understanding of processual approach in changing process through Covid-

19 is that while dealing with change, everyone learned by doing whether it was on an

individual or national or international level. For e.g. we learned do’s and don’ts from

countries that had first outbreaks, we learned what method would be best applicable as

a country while dealing with covid and individually whether it was learning from being

affected by covid or at least getting familiar about this virus. My main insight from this

experience is that change cannot be avoided but what we can do is learn from what the

change has brought to us, how it challenges us and how can we move forward towards

the next challenge. Change process is more of a journey that’s a part of life.
‘

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