Crystel - Managing Change

CrysTel, an Illinois based telecommunications company, offers a diverse line of products and services. Due to the frequent advances in the telecommunications field, regular changes in both the administrative and technological side of the business are anticipated. "Companies in every industry are increasingly being challenged to build the capacity for change, not only in response to competitive and technological pressures but also in anticipation of those changes" (Kerber & Buono, 2005, p.23). The top management at CrysTel is concerned with optimizing flexibility, promoting innovation and coping with frequent change and has decided to apply behavioral change techniques through the use of a consultant in order to build a culture that can sustain constant change.

Implications of Change

"The driving force of culture change is the marketplace. Its urgencies represent the only compelling rationale for organizational change" (D'Aprix & Tyler, 2006, p.23). In order to determine if CrysTel is ready to handle constant change, two surveys were handed out by a consultant to analyze each department, determine where issues exist and training is necessary, and overall which departments are the strongest and the weakest. The first survey was an employee satisfaction survey that was used to quantify satisfaction with work related issues such as communication, training, working conditions, benefits, supervision, and teamwork. Using the data collected by surveying the departments at CrysTel and completing an analysis, a determination was made indicating which two departments required further attention and improvement efforts. Before change efforts can be put into place, existing issues within the departments must be resolved in order to decrease the level of resistance and the risk of failure implementing continuous change. The following table illustrates the results of the consultant's employee satisfaction survey and illustrates the 9 criteria the survey was based on.

Table 1 - Employee Satisfaction Survey

Employee Satisfaction Levels by Department (%)

Criterion Technology

Development Technology

Operations Human

Resources Marketing Sales and

Delivery

Overall Job Satisfaction 70 64 68 53 51

Pay and Benefits Satisfaction 76 68 66 54 52

Career Advancement 65 62 69 55 51

Supervisory Promotion of

Teamwork and Participation 74 79 76 52 53

Communication 68 66 73 53 56

Training and Development 68 65 70 52 57

Physical Working Conditions 74 68 75 60 61

Strategy and Mission 78 76 84 71 76

Job Stress 53 65 63 68 75

After reviewing the results listed in the employee satisfaction survey shown in table 1, the two weakest departments appear to be the marketing and sales and delivery departments. These two departments must turn their weaknesses into strengths. For the marketing department this means improving upon employee and senior communication, empowering teams, training and mentoring less experienced employees, and allowing for career development plans. Since the marketing department functions include communicating new technology to the customers, working with the technology development, technology operations, and sales departments from concept to delivery, and implementing public relation activities and advertising campaigns, interdepartmental communication and teamwork are essential. In addition, a lack of training and mentoring is currently causing poor performance. The marketing department lacks necessary qualities for continued success and action is necessary in order to make improvements and ready these departments to cope with continuous change. Actions such as defining job roles, frequent listening and communication between the senior level and coworkers, encouraging teams to decide on targets and leaders and using specific objectives in order to create urgency will be valuable in changing the weaknesses to strengths. Without these changes the marketing department will not be able to adapt to continuous change and resistance within the company will increase.

The sales and delivery department handles sales tracking of the company's products, product inventory and the distribution channels for wholesale and retail sales. In addition, at the operational level, the department also manages route tracking, logistics, and product packaging as well as on-time delivery. Improvement in this department must include employee participation in problem-solving, empowering team members to make decisions and implementing a program to help subordinates regularly share work-related concerns and issues. Since this department follows a top-down management approach, involving employees in problem-solving and increasing their confidence in decision-making will be essential in preparing the department for continuous change. Without these changes, the sales and delivery department will not be able to adapt to continuous change and just as with the marketing department, the level of resistance will increase.

The second survey administered throughout the departments at CrysTel by the consultant was a climate survey which measured employee attitudes towards leadership style, communication channels, motivation levels, job security, teamwork, senior management accessibility, conflict resolution and rewards and recognition. Using the data from the climate survey areas where action is needed was determined and the next step is to use this information to turn weaknesses into strengths. The following table illustrates the 8 criteria that the survey was based on and the percentage of positive answers.

Table 2 - Climate Survey

Climate Survey by Department (%)

Criterion

Technology Development Technology Operations Human Resources Marketing Sales and Delivery

Security 68 66 65 53 51

Leadership 77 73 72 54 51

Communication 65 63 73 51 55

Motivation 74 69 67 54 53

Senior Management

Accessibility 64 68 67 56 58

Teamwork 65 72 63 60 58