Organizational Change Case Study

Organizational change can have significant impacts on the morale, productivity and outlook of employees. Whether positive or negative, organizational change will have repercussions that must be managed appropriately in order to maintain streamlined transitions and efficient processes. The following will address Aerotech manager’s frustration and needs with a specific team after a significant organizational change has occurred. While management training is often a safe bet to address low productivity, it is important to consider other factors in order to develop a targeted solution to the issue.

In this case, the client is requesting an intervention training program for a weak team of engineers that would focus on the elements of time management, prioritization and project management. He hopes that addressing these training opportunities will increase productivity and consistency from the team. He has also requested a coaching and training session for the group’s manager, Todd, in order to improve his management skills and better work within projected cycle times and budget restrictions.

On the surface, the presenting problems are substandard productivity among the engineers on Todd’s team. They consistently go over stated budgets and exceed delivery times for important orders. This is having a negative bottom line impact on the business because it allows competitors to overrun the market and take over Aerotech’s market share. Failing to have the product available at the right time has significant implications for marketing and sales also because it halts their processes. The client believes these issues in productivity drill down to poor time management, prioritization and self-management within the team.

Despite these presenting problems, there are underlying issues that may be causing the productivity problem. From the text, it seems as if Todd was expected to ease the transition and lessen the challenge of change within the company. While he has significant management experience and practice, he was never officially trained on Aerotech’s specific structures and culture. The client admits that Todd has significant experience in management, but lacks knowledge about Aerotech’s different way of doing things. Todd has been attempting to manage his team successfully based on his own experience and knowledge, but misunderstands that the company culture requires a different way of thinking about things. In addition, the client admits that every time he visits the team, he sees them working. This suggests that they are hardworking, yet simply misguided when it comes to Aerotech’s different way of doing things. While there are some veteran engineers on Todd’s team, they may not feel comfortable advising him, and may shy away from attempting to teach him company culture and processes. In my view, the underlying problem is a lack of understanding about Aerotech’s specific company culture and confusion about expectations. Meeting with Todd’s team to explain the specific ways Aerotech operates will increase communication and understanding between the client, Todd, and his team.

Data compilation would assist in gathering information that will illustrate whether lack of company culture training is the real problem. A series of qualitative surveys will be provided to the group with questions related to the company culture and the expectations they understand. It will also incorporate a section that will ask questions about previous work cultures and past expectations from other companies. By comparing and contrasting the expectations and culture standards that employees perceive from Aerotech with the actual culture standards expected by the client, the suggested underlying problem can be confirmed. This form of qualitative data gathering allows reviewers to gather rich information that can be used to address the overarching productivity problem. The other teams will also participate in this survey in order to also contrast outlooks and opinions between teams and departments.

There are significant advantages to the qualitative survey method. First, surveys can be incorporated with multiple choice and write in answers, increasing the richness of the data. It provides a foundation to understand thought processes and perspectives, and gives respondents the personal time and privacy to really consider their responses. They are easy to develop and administer and are very cost effective because there is no need to incorporate expensive tabulation tools. In fact, it is very cost efficient to use survey software, which can incorporate statistics for validity and reliability. Qualitative survey responses provide significant evaluation flexibility. The ability to analyze multiple variables based on the responses is important, especially given the many potential underlying causes in this case. In addition, surveys can be administered in many formats, making it convenient for companies to integrate them in multiple applications such as mail, telephone, email, or online. Unlike one-on-one interviews or observational research methods, surveys allow reviewers to collect data from a large number of respondents easily. It can incorporate numerous questions that are catered to the needs of the company, and provides data analysis flexibility as well.

Despite these benefits, qualitative survey methods are not without drawbacks. The reliability of the data is largely dependent on the ability of respondents to provide honest and accurate answers. This can be a challenge in an environment with low engagement and morale. Respondents may also shy away from being honest if they feel as if their responses will make others view them unfavorably. As a result of this factor, it is recommended that the survey responses be administered anonymously in order to maintain reliable data. The development of the survey is crucial to the effectiveness of the data produced. Closed ended questions have lower validity rates, while open ended questions allow for flexibility and explanation. In addition, because survey responses are voluntary, the number of respondents in comparison to the population may skew the data, decreasing its reliability. As interpretations of questions can be vastly different across the survey sample respondents, it is essential to develop one with clear questions that have the least chance of misinterpretation.

I will need six weeks to administer the survey questions and develop a recommendation proposal for Aerotech. I will use one week to develop the survey and incorporate questions that will help me to understand the disconnection between team productivity. I will work with professional survey writers to make sure the questions are clear, direct and do not inherently sway the respondents. I will then take 2 weeks to administer the survey, allowing plenty of time for employees to consider their responses and provide thoughtful and honest answers. In order to make it simple and convenient for all involved, it will be administered online and taken at the employee’s convenience. While I will use survey software to help classify, categorize, and analyze data, I will also personally evaluate the results with a human perspective. I will ask a significant amount of open ended questions like, “How would you describe Aerotech’s company culture?”, and “How do Aerotech’s processes differ from other firms you have worked for?”

Once the survey is completed and the data is collected I will look to see if there is a distinct difference in the way tenured employees understand the company culture and expectations versus the new employees. I will take one week to pour over the data and address response trends and deviations. This will be the starting point for looking into the productivity issue and developing a targeted recommendation to resolve it. After this is completed, and I have a comprehensive understanding of the underlying issues, I will take two weeks to develop a targeted proposal to meet the needs of the client and the employees. Incorporating and analyzing the data rich survey responses will allow me to understand the needs of all involved, and present a helpful approach to improve team productivity and company profitability.