Introduction

​Organizational changes are inherently complex and dynamic, yet they permeate daily in our
lives (Dawson, 1994; Mack, D, Nelson, D., 1998;) However, there is not a golden strategy for
organisational changes. When it comes to dealing with changes, some authors have pulled
toward participative approaches (Bunders, 1994; Lines *, R., 2004); meanwhile, others claim the
possibility of power-coercive change strategies would ensure the successful organisational
changes (Dunphy and Stace, 1988; Molm, 1994). I support the later change strategies;
however, only in specific situations when time and the seriousness of the threat are faced
(Nickols, 2016), considering its fastest result since all employees are compliant and will do what
they are made to do, regardless of any kind of resistance (Kotter, 2013). Culture is a mitigating
factor (Nickols, 2016) as if the organisational culture is less autonomic and entrepreneurship, its
employees often resent authoritarian moves. The organisational change of Washdale
Manufacturing (Dawson, 1994) was a typical example of the success of coercive change
strategies to cope with its unethical night shift working issue. In addition, I also briefly reflect on
what to learn from the case study regarding organisational management changes based on my
personal experience and how I can benefit from these insights later on. This paper refers to the
academic theories and conceptual frameworks in Unit 4, Unit 6, and Unit 7 to understand and
critically evaluate this organisational change.

Case Study Introduction

The case study used in this paper is about Washdale Manufacturing - a washing machine
factory in a relentless effort to deal with night shift workers who committed misconduct.

Accordingly, the new plant manager realised an amissing operation on the night shift without
being sure of any problems and decided to monitor machines’ cycle times using a cellular
manufacturing system. It revealed a suspicious long gap in cycles during the two and five
o’clock, yet there were numbers in the following-day report. It was claimed that an absence of
management control at night might have caused this severe issue. As a result, the managers
came suddenly on one night shift and found no one there from about two o’clock to five o’clock.
The truth was that night-shift operators had been working the machines beyond their limit to
have “sleep time” during their shift - before the arrival of morning-shift colleagues. The worst,
this misconduct behaviour was an unseen custom of the night-shift operator group for years and
accepted by others under considerable group pressure, saying that this practice “made life
easier for all”. Though the local management had not been aware of this issue for several years,
some other colleagues did know about the issue. Yet they did not report it to the supervisors
until they were asked, “‘You beauty, about time they did something about that. It's about time
you fixed those guys doing that.”

After the investigation, “So yeah, we don’t have a night shift anymore, " the new plant manager
confirmed. Employees bludging on the night shift left the company - to be exact, they were
sacked immediately. In addition, a significant change program and restructuring of the
workplace arrangements were introduced to alert other employees about the strict management
that would not tolerate misconduct.

Many night-shift colleagues could argue such a coercive change, saying they had been victims
of local night-shift culture and peer group pressure. Firing them shortly was a harsh treatment
without giving them a second chance. Nonetheless, dayshift employees who did not tell the
boss positively supported the hard-line stance that the managers had finally done something.
Moreover, the changes successfully raised morale in the workplace.

An Analysis of The Case Study

Figure 1: A cultural continuum in an organisation (Clegg, 2008)

The culture continuum model by Clegg (2008) indicated that employees as individuals and the
organisation have various awareness, skills, and knowledge along the continuum; such
variations take the form of political divisiveness, privation, economic privilege, and ethnic
stereotypes (Drummond, 1980). This model helps describe the healthy and unhealthy
behaviours and values of employees, practices, and policies of a specific organisation (The
Continuum | CCPEP.ORG, 2022). There was a sub-culture among two groups of Washdale
Manufacturing employees. The day-shift colleagues had a rigorous attitude and strictly followed
instructions. Meanwhile, the night-shift operators might have been flexible and innovative, yet
they negatively impacted their maintenance effort and budget. Moreover, their sub-culture
resulted in unfairness for years. Since such a difference in culture, two groups of employees
responded differently to the unethical behaviours and had different emotional responses to the
organisational change (Carnall, 2014).

Figure 2: Field theory by Lewin (1943; 1947)

According to Lewin (1943; 1947), individual changes are incorporated within a cognitive
conception of behaviours in a balance of two forces: the restraining forces, meaning those
against the changes and driving forces following with the changes. When the driving forces are
overwhelming the restraining forces, a change happens.

Take the night-shift operators group, for example.

There were several driving forces for the night-shift employees to adopt their comfort around the
working cultures. Firstly, night-shift employees took sleep hours without being cut down on their
salary. Thus, the driving force is that they could work less. Secondly, supervisor management
had been absent at night for years (Dawson, 1994), resulting in the thought of night-shift
employees that the management groups were resting comfortably in their warm beds while
working hard at irregular hours. This might have been considered as an unfairness. Thirdly, the
new employers on the night shifts claimed that they were under peer pressure and the local
culture, which was created and enhanced over time by group beliefs and values. Such a culture
discouraged them from consulting the managers and finally adopting standard practices. The
restricting force, meanwhile, was the realisation of the managers that would lead to penalties or
salary cutdowns. Reducing productivity and workplace incidents are also a restricting force,
considering that there might have sudden machine breakdowns when the night-shift operators
left their job for sleep. The irresponsibility of employees can disrupt the production process and
even cause damage to people and property.

In terms of management, the local managers detected the misconduct of the night-shift
employees and made their strategic intention by restructuring workplace arrangements.

One driving force of this management change was to create fairness in the workplace between
the night shift and dayshift employees by immediately sacking the misconducted employees.
The second driving force helped alert dayshift employees about the ethics and position of
management. Thirdly, the change stopped the unethical practice and prevented further damage
to the machines and productivity. In contrast, a restricting force was the lack of supervision on
the machine at night, which might result in unexpected breakdown incidents. Moreover, a rigid
change was unethical to night-shift employees since they were forced to leave their current job.

In two cases, driving forces overwhelmed restricting ones. Thus, employees and managers
changed their behaviours.

Figure 3: Iceberg metaphor theory (Schein, 1984)

The night-shift workers' hidden culture change could be considered an iceberg metaphor.
Schain, known as the father of organisational culture (1984), suggested the iceberg model
visualises the organisations’ cultures. Specifically, there are artefacts of organisations such as
stories, myths, heroes, and symbols that seem visible above the waterline. However, those
observable characteristics are being supported by unseen infrastructure, including unconscious
beliefs and perceptions. They are also called basic assumptions and are not always the best
practices (Agcas.org.uk’ 2009). There is a transition zone at the waterline where the
organisations' implicit understandings of strategies, goals, and philosophies. The metaphor
primarily implies danger and needs smelting (Verma, 2022) since the unseen assumptions are
below the surface and not easy for the organisation to deal with. However, they are affecting the
business daily.

In the case of Washdale Manufacturing, the misconducted behaviour-changing of the night-shift

employees had been occurring for years without being detected. As a result, the company was
facing a higher incidence of machine breakdown at night than at any other time (Dawson, 1994).
The breakdown would interrupt the manufacturing and result in damages and loss of properties.
In addition, the night-shift operators often worked the machines beyond their productivity to
fasten their performance targets. Consequently, Washdale Manufacturing’s local managers were
spending a lot on the maintenance of the devices. In other words, the behaviours of the
employees added significantly to the operational costs. Not to mention, the unethical custom
causes unfairness in the workforce.

Figure 4: Three changing phrases of night-shift employees (Lewin, 1947)

According to the 3 Stage Model of Change (Lewin, 1947), a change management process was
required to deal with the unethical issue, carrying out three phases: Unfreezing, Changing, and
Freezing. At the beginning of the “Unfreezing” phase, the organisation might not realise the
issue and deny applying changes. Many variables made it difficult to predict and control the
problem (Gleick, 1987). Gradually, the organisation came to terms with the changes since the
increase of incidents on the night shift and the maintenance costs of the machines. The local
management realised that “there was something amiss with operating practices on the night
shift” (Dawson, 1994). The “Changing” phase occurred right after when the supervisors and
managers decided to discard the uncertain suspicions and started investigating the
organisational change. Exploration was conducted to identify the root causes and proceed with
the change “So yeah, we don’t have a night shift anymore”, and this change provided a “major
change program that provided a clear signal to employees about the position of management”
(Dawson, 1994). In the end, the change was internalised when employees experienced it in
various ways. Few night-shift employees argued about the strict fire; meanwhile, most day-shift
colleagues agreed with the changes.
 Figure 5: Change framework (Buchanan and Badham, 1999; 2008)

In this case study, Washdale Manufacturing implemented a power-coercive resolution change

framework following the four change strategies developed by Buchanan and Badham (1999;
2008), in which change happened due to the local management group with power who enforced
the sack on the night-shift operators misconducting the working hours (Dawson, 1994). This
was based on the legitimate power derived from the former managers of Washdale
Manufacturing (French and Raven, 1959). Many researchers (Kotter, 2013; Nickols, 2016)
emphasised the benefits of the power-coercive change in situations of high urgency (Miedema,
2014) suitable for organisations with democratic decision making in short-term cases; change is
essential for the organisations to stay alive. It was important for Washdale Manufacturing since
the loss and dangers had been significant for years. Hamblin's study (1958) indicated that
leaders who proceeded with the hard-line organisational changes during urgent situations get
positively evaluated and have relatively greater power within the organisation when stress is
high. Even better, the management could raise morale among the current workforce against
improper behaviours. As a matter of fact, “local management of Washdale Manufacturing also
commented on the positive feedback they received from day shift employees' (Dawson, 1994).

A Critical Evaluation of The Case Study

As raised, I support the change strategy of Washdale Manufacturing; however, only in specific
situations when time and the seriousness of the threat is being faced and for organisations with
democratic decision making. The power-coercive change strategy still has disadvantages in
many other situations. For example, if the number of people who oppose the change is
significant and if there is a lax autonomy in organisational cultures, most employees will resist
authoritarian moves and replace the current management positions (Miedema, 2014).
Otherwise, the use of power-coercive toward punishment in exchange relations provokes
retaliation and hostility (Molm, L., 1994)

Although Washdale Manufacturing succeeded in emphasising its management position in the

workplace, there was also an ethical dilemma from the managers’ perspective, considering that
we should evaluate and make choices with the moral dilemmas at the core of change (Jibran,
2008). Legally, the managers of Washdale Manufacturing could fire the misconducted
employees on the night shifts, considering the machine breakdowns and the operational costs.
Nonetheless, it would be more ethical and moral to give those employees a second chance to
fix their mistakes rather than get rid of their employment immediately. Since the mistakes at
work are regular, the hard-line stance of the organisation might create a quick-sacking culture,
and employees might be worried whenever they do their tasks. It is also worth considering that
Washdale Manufacturing made mistakes in the first place due to the lack of night-shift
supervisors and close management of the machine's cycles with modern systems (Dawson,
1994).

I recommend the organisation learn lessons from the case study and enhance its management
team to prevent such an ethical issue from occurring again. Washdale Manufacturing should
also better communicate with the employees and encourage them to speak out to detect
potential improper behaviours as soon as possible. When it comes to night shifts, it would be
more helpful if the company assigned more employees so that they could take turns keeping an
eye on the machines and rest for a while during the shifts - instead of removing the night shifts
since “there was a higher incidence of machine breakdown on the night shift” (Dawson, 1994).

Personal Learning and Future Benefits

The case study of Washdale Manufacturing is exciting and helpful for me to understand better
the organisational changes and the corresponding frameworks and theories. Notably, I linked
the case with my previous experience in the company where I joined the internship two years
ago in Vietnam.

I was working as a Marketing Intern at a startup in the IT industry. It was mid-2019 when the
Covid pandemic broke out in Vietnam and worldwide. We had to work from home at that time
because the number of covid cases had spiked. Still, we work eight hours a day. However, after
a month, the company suddenly cut the salary down to 50% with the excuse of a decrease in
revenue due to the epidemic's impact without prior announcement or discussion with the entire
company. It was an unethical power-coercive change (Buchanan and Badham, 1999; 2008).
The employees grumbled and asked for an explanation from the board of directors. At first, the
CEO insisted on a revenue reduction in 2019 without showing any evidence. Over half of the
staff went on strike then. After three days, the CEO opened an Open Talk meeting with us and
shared the difficulties facing the company - in detail and with sincerity. Although we were not
satisfied with the idea of salary reduction, most went back to work and continued their jobs.
Together, the company worked on improving productivity and increasing the overall revenue.
Our salary came back to normal after three months.
What did I learn from my case? While the power-coercive change strategy worked for Washdale
Manufacturing, it was ineffective for my previous company. The lesson is that organisational
management changes should be reasonable and earn the employees' respect instead of
creating an unfair hierarchy system (Jung, Kang, Seung-Wan, 2020). In my opinion, from the
two case studies, there are three critical factors required for any organisational change,
including leadership, communication, and ethics.

About the leadership, managers of the organisation need to make decisions using their
leadership skills on the strategies and implementation aimed at improving the organisation
(Junnaid, 2020). As a leader, it is vital to have different characteristics, qualities, and styles to
succeed in organisational changes (UzmaRasool, 2016). There are two main streams of
leadership: transactional and transformational. People with transactional leadership give
rewards to their followers and provide punishment to those doing undesirable behaviours
(Carter, Armenakis, 2012). As a result, transactional leaders prefer a power-coercive change
strategy. Meanwhile, transformational leaders encourage the participation of employees in
organisational change. However, they try to change and inspire others with their vision,
knowledge, and expertise (Holten & Brenner, 2015). So far, I prefer the transformational
leadership style, following the "Four I's”, including Idealized influence, Inspirational motivation,
Intellectual Stimulation, and Individualized consideration (Avolio; 1991).

Communication is the second important factor in organisational changes (Lewis, 1998;

Schweiger, 1991) and poor communication on vision is considered one of the eight common
reasons for failed changes (Kotter, 1996). Communication has two goals: Informing the
employees of the issues and tasks related to the changes and creating a community within the
organisation (Elving, 2005). Communication should be early and frequent during the change
curve (Lewin, 1947) and sharing the strategic vision and goals of the changes is vital (Kotter,
1996). Nonetheless, communication is usually among the most challenging issues (Lewin,
1947). For example, in the case of Washdale Manufacturing, the company is suggested to have
closer communication with the employers to be aware of unseen actions and cultures quickly
and to have a more reasonable solution instead of firing bulk employers. In my case study,
communication was also the key to solving the employees' dissatisfaction with the
organisational change. Nonetheless, communication is usually among the most challenging
issues (Lewin, 1947). Regarding change, it is helpful to put down a written communication plan
and ensure that communication is consistent and freely through multiple channels. Before
implementing the changes, people must be given a significant amount of time to ask questions,
provide input, and request clarification (Susan, 2021). As a leader and a manager in the future, I
must improve my communication daily and get started with practical listening skills. Then,
whenever I make an essential conversation, I will plan the main ideas and write them down.
That way, I can correct and rearrange the communication content effectively.

Ethical dilemmas might occur, particularly when the managers deem a new culture to be more
efficient than an existing culture and make the change (Sarif, 2015) However, changing culture
is a complex undertaking for a long process and unethical changes lead to “dissatisfactions,
withdrawal behaviours, and the alienation of some of its faculty staff and members” (Awal,
2006). In the case of Washdale Manufacturing, it was the inhumane dismissal of multiple
employees and in my case, it was the salary cutdown polity without explanation. Both changes
significantly affected employees’ benefits. The lesson learnt is that managing change is not a
“blood sport” and the managers should take care of the company incentives as well as of the
employees who are working there.

Although leadership, communication skills, and ethics are essential and helpful, they are not the
mere keys to a successful organisational change. I will have to research knowledge and
theories on organisational management change to improve myself as a manager and be ready
to manage organisational changes soon.

Conclusion

Organisational changes are highly complex, involving many theories and frameworks. This
paper focused on analysing Washdale Manufacturing's power-coercive change strategy and
discussing when to use the strategy to identify organisational changes. Power-coercive change
strategies are helpful in situations of urgency yet they can also lead to ethical dilemmas and
unsatisfaction of the employees. To overcome the possible threats of power-coercive changes,
in particular, and the general organisational changes, in general, the management should
combine effective leadership and organisational communication strategies.

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