ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE

TERM PAPER

SUBMITTED TO:
Prof Mamta Mohapatra

SUBMITTED BY:
Modak Priy (08xpgdm31)

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 CHANGE IN PERSONAL OR PROFESSIONAL LIFE

“All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what
we leave behind is part of ourselves; we must die to one life before
we can enter into another.”

Anatole France

My life has been continuously undergoing radical changes both in

personal and professional front. I have been trying to adjust fast
enough. Right from child hood till today these innumerous changes
have developed in me the penchant to manage them efficiently and
effectively. Born in 1980, at the holy city of Varanasi I was brought
up by my parents in lucknow the capital city of uttar Pradesh. The
journey of first eighteen years of my life was full of experiences that
are very common in an Indian society where the focus of parents is
towards imbibing culture and values in their wards. This was the time
where I learned the values of life through which i could differentiate
between good and bad and the essescence of best.

CHANGES AT PERSONAL FRONT

The story of my personal radical change started when I was selected in an

engineering college through an all India test. As I moved my first step
ahead I experienced changes that lead me to understand the
importance of my individuality in an environment which was free
from numerous boundations that I used to experience at home. It was
this juncture of my life that imbibed in me the various qualities of
decision making and managing ambiguity.
Passing out from the engineering college and stepping into the world of
professional life I experienced changes that helped me to understand
the atrocities of life and my responsibilities towards society at large.
This in itself incarnated in me the ability to understand different
situations and react accordingly. Joining Motherson Sumi in the year
2003 as a GET I experienced varied changes in my self , the way I
could react to a situation ,my approach to solve problems and
continuous efforts to stay competitive .
In the year 2006, I experienced another significant change in life when I
joined Tata motors Pune plant. Pune was a new city to me and there I
saw the change in culture, environment and society. Though initially
it was difficult for me to adjust myself in that environment where I
could hardly understand what people speak , their eating habits, their
style of living etc but as the time passed I was able to acomotise
myself in that environment.

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 DRIVERS (PRESSURES) FOR CHANGE

External pressures for change are discussed below:

Environmental Pressures: The phases of change in my life I related to

environmental pressures. The pressure to stay competitive, adopt
updated technologies, understand business dynamics and the changing
market scenarios etc .Environmental pressures have a big say in one’s
life as the technologies keep changing , new products and their
features keep on coming, sectors like telecom and IT had changed
tremendously. Joining engineering can be considered as
environmental pressure.
Fashion Pressure: Adopting latest technologies, enhancing my skills and
competing with friends are pressures that I would consider as fashion
pressures of my life.

Organizational pressures for change are discussed below:

Growth Pressure: I experienced growth pressure when I joined my first

company when I was put into a skeleton of tremendous growth
pressure to enhance my skills, broaden my scope of working etc.This
also lead me to change different organizations from time to time and
enhance my basket of experience.

ORDER OF CHANGE:

The orders for change discussed in my various phases of life can be

considered as Mid order changes. Such changes are a part of
everyone’s day to day life and are very much instrumental in building
a path for future goals. First order changes keep on happing everyday
but mid order changes occur when some one moves from one phase of
life to the other.

CHANGES IN PROFESSIONAL FRONT

Working with three different companies in a span of five years , I was

able to see numerous changes taking place in day to day activities in
terms of new responsibilities, new technologies, new team,
reorganization, new projects ,longer hours of working, new boss, new
subordinates, new colleagues, downsizing etc.

One radical change that I could see in an organization was at Honda

cars where the company was moving from the phase of a so called
small unit in India to a large unit by increasing production to two fold

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 in a short span of six months. The ambition plan of the organization
was the result of increasing demand of Honda cars in the Indian
market.

DRIVERS (PRESSURES) FOR CHANGE AT HONDA

External pressures for change at Honda are discussed below:

Environmental Pressures: Environmental pressure of change was seen

at Honda when the demand of Honda products increased suddenly
and the company was unable to meet the demands. Managers were
under tremendous pressure from outside agencies to revamp
production facilities and to maintain corporate reputation and
credibility with stake holders.
Fashion Pressures: With the increase in demand of the Indian
automotive industry, the organization was under pressure to
implement the best industry norms in terms of building an
organization with good ethical practices, training employees to meet
the standards of current industry norms, benchmarking various tools
to stay competitive, providing good remunerations to employees to
increase their morale etc. Honda a Japanese company that was
established only a few years ago was competing with Indian giants
like Tata & Maruti and the organization was in the mode of adopting
best practices to suit the customer requirements not only in terms of
customer satisfaction but also building brand and reputation.
Hypercompetitive Pressure: Managers at Honda were under pressure
from competitors of other car makers to deliver its products more
quickly and more customized to Indian consumers and this
competition lead to enhance the company’s quality standards by using
techniques like MOST which were new to the organization. Most was
implemented at Honda in the year 2005 and it was through this
technique that the productivity of the organization increased though
there was only a slight change to abridge the gap between demand
and supply of the company’s products.

Organizational pressures for change are discussed below:

Growth Pressure: Growth pressure on managers was very relevant in

context of Honda at this juncture of time. The management decided to
enhance its capabilities by increasing production in a phased manner
starting from January 2006. Production facilities at Honda were being
extended through out the organization. All shops were under pressure
to extend their layout for the existing to new as per plan. Company
was also in a mode to increase manpower and their facilities and

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 incorporate changes in their timing and start shift operations.
Employees were being given trainings to handle large workforce,
enhance production, and adopt technical changes etc on board and
abroad. Recruitment of new staff was underway and I could see
everyday new engineers joining the organization. The organization
structure was also being changed at this time. The organization was
under pressure to grow in all aspects and this was the time I could see
how important was for a manager to incorporate daily changes in the
organization keeping lieu with the daily activities.

ORDER OF CHANGE:

The change at Honda cars was a Second order change were the
organization was restructuring its operations to incorporate the
increase in demand of the companies products. It can be categorized
as a Transformational type II change where the company revitalizes
its establishing facilities to operate more effectively. The company re
engineered its operations to incorporate technical facilities, increase
staff, enhance production, meet quality standards and stay
competitive.

TYPE OF CHANGE:

Technological Change

Honda Siel Cars Ltd has one manufacturing units and 38 branch
offices. And now the challenge was to link all branch offices to
Manufacturing units and headquarters. The implementation of Sap E-
Business Suite started at end of 2005 and was completed in 2006 for
Noida plant. The plan to implement Sap E-Business Suite across its
operations in the country to enhance its enterprise resource planning
and marketing activities. HSCI expected to reduce costs overheads to
the tune of US $3.5 million annually by improving efficiencies and
management control as a result of this implementation.

The implementation of Sap E-Business Suite was done for following

benefits:

Enhance production to meet demands.

An improved information flow across the company’s worldwide
operations, providing constant updates on worldwide consumption
patterns, thereby reducing export lead times;

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A reduction in production and inventory costs through an improvement in
supply chain management process and more efficient information
exchange with suppliers;
An increase in efficiency and productivity via the improvement of
information-sharing between staff, suppliers, dealers, and partners
using the Web-based Sap system;
A reduction in inventory & turnaround time for material usage, thereby
reducing working capital;
An increase in the efficiency of marketing campaigns and promotions
across different media;
An improved intra- and inter-operations communication environment for
better co-ordination and improved logistics planning;
Improved scalability and flexibility in the company’s IT systems;
An increase in forecast accuracy;
Providing improved management control through the introduction of
efficient business processes and the availability of updated business
data.

KEY LESSONS

Personal Change:

People put themselves under pressure when they lose confidence in their
abilities. A good self-awareness and a solid understanding of your real
skills are important for avoiding this type of pressure. Building and
supporting confidence is also invaluable.

When assessing potential changes on a personal level, be aware of how

you respond to pressure. Some symptoms you exhibit may be positive
and motivating, others may not. Know your balance and how others
respond. At the same time, be aware of pressure in others. No two
people respond to pressure in the same way.

There are physical strategies to help manage pressure. Exercise is good

from a health standpoint, and often relieves pent-up frustration. In the
office, simple things like stretching in your chair, going for a quick
walk, or talking to a friend can be good remedies for relieving
pressure. Take occasional breaks from work using holidays or
vacation time. In more serious cases, consider moving further away
from the situation through a sabbatical, job rotation, or study leave.

In addition, a sense of humor can help manage pressure, as can

remembering to step back from a situation. It is important to tackle
the underlying causes of pressure whenever possible, rather than just

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 dealing with the symptoms. Above all, remember that you are not
alone in feeling pressure or attempting to better manage it. Do not
hesitate to confide in a friend or colleague, or to seek counseling
when help is needed. Some causes of pressure are much more
overwhelming than others—for example, being ill, caring for a sick
family member, or experiencing a change in marital status. In these
circumstances, talking to someone may help you to see things from a
broader perspective and to take the first step toward a solution.

Professional Change:

In assessing the issues and arguments stated above care must be taken in
assuming the type of organization change that is implemented. It can
be small, adaptive and incremental compared to those that are large
and transformational. Mental frame work, individual perspective, the
extent to which the change is relevant and the degree to which a
person accepts change always influences how the change is viewed.
Large scale change is viewed by managers at Honda, in the sense that
it was disruptive to their current working practices and routines. It
entails large personal impact and requires different ways of
approaching how to do things. The organization was also in the mode
of restructuring where the mechanism of empowering staff with
decision making authorities was being incorporated. This requires
organization to understand its last structure and processes before
implementation. Without understanding the current day to day
practices and the processes such changes cannot be implemented in an
organization.

Technological changes in organizations require following challenges:

Communication- communicating the direction of, and process for

implementing a technological change is an important element of the
project and should be done effectively.
Contingency Planning- Change involves planning for future as well as
planning for day to day activities. Contingency planning enables
anticipation of possible scenarios which could lead to devastation in
organizations.