Question

Q4. In most management contexts, there is no “one best way” to managing resistance. Explain the organizational development ( OD) approach that was applied in the case study by Rose reflecting it from the different approaches to managing resistance in your course work.

Case study
MARKS AND SPENCER

Stuart Rose, the CEO of Marks & Spencer, started with emphasising the critical need for change – by emphasising that the current state was untenable. Rose noted that inventory was not being managed effectively, decision making was being delegated without accountability or senior management sign-off, and customers were being attracted to newer, dynamic competitors. Change was imperative.

Rose started the change process with a core team of trusted people he had worked with – and he knew their strengths. Rose brought with him the Executive Director of IT, Supply Chain, and Property, and the Executive Director of Marketing and Store Design. With this core team, Rose was “able to hit the ground running.” Rose described the period prior to his leadership unflatteringly as the “consultant years, which were awash in numbers and surveys and complexity.” Rose reviewed the current use of consultants, and eliminated all but 10 of the consultants’ 31 existing “strategic projects.” For Rose, the change was simple: “improve the product, improve the stores, and improve the service.” Rose provided a simple, accessible and operational guiding vision.

In addition, he reinforced the communication of the message symbolically to reinforce the point, and focus energy around the core direction. Rose drove the change down into the “DNA” of the organisation not only by putting everyone through training on the basics, but sat in on operational day to day meetings to the “level of micromanagement” to focus the conversation in detail on the key points. Incentive structures were realigned to reward service performance instead of seniority, redefining the career progression path. The entire 56,000 strong workforce was put through motivational training sessions focused around teamwork and customer service.

Rose encountered an environment where “people within Marks & Spencer were already lobbying for different plans, different strategies.” However, because “the Christmas season is the key to the entire retail year and how industry analysts gauge a company’s health”. There were clear timelines to achieve results. There was no time to try one direction and perhaps change to a different course if that didn’t work. Rose committed to the direction he had selected, and “there was no Plan B.” That is, Rose committed to letting go of alternative ideas and the status quo, and committed the organisation to the new path

Answer 1

The organizational development approach to change is where the changes are made in the organizational levels such that it can increase productivity, efficiency, performance and morale of everyone included in the change. It is a strategy which includes identifying all the areas that require change and implementing the change in a planned and systematic manner one by one to all those areas. The leader along with the consultants develop an OD plan which can be best beneficial to the organization and all those affected by the change. It mainly focuses on identifying the key employees having skills and capabilities to adapt to the changes and increase productivity. These employees lead teams of other employees who are all trained and developed for the changes. The changes can include new job responsibilities, reporting changes and new work processes.

In this case, Rose adapted the same strategy of OD change management. He brought changes in the organizational processes and leadership to bring the overall change of the product, stores and service. He put capable and efficient employees to training, help meetings daily to discuss the progress. He redesigned the reward system which was based on seniority to performance. This lead to motivation in employees to perform better. Training sessions were given focusing on teamwork and customer service which were considered two factors for change towards success. With these steps he applied the ogrnaizational development change approach to the organization for resistance to change and long term success to the comapy.