change and resistance to change

 The propose of this topic is research and discuss the change. Change is nothing new and a simple fact of life. Some people actively thrive on new challenges and constant change, while others prefer the comfort of the status quo and strongly resist any change.( Mullins 2010: 753)

 In everyday life, as people grow older, they always face with the changes with or without they realize it. Change is a process of becoming different and better than before. In another word, it is a power of making things move from one stage to much better stage. Furthermore, change is an unavoidable feature that can influence all parts of the organisational operation and functions. According to Mullins, whether one resist change or not is decided by the personality of the individual and there is little management can do about resistance to change. (Mullins 2010: 753) To a certain extent, it is true, due to the resistance might come from technical or social change or the employees. However, I do not agree that little management can do about resistance to change. For instance, if the resistance come from social change, the manager can solve it by training the staffs in order to increase their skills.

Using a case study JC penney to analysis the role that managers play in overcoming resistance to change and increased benefit for the company. JC Penney (JCP) is an oldest business retail organisation and has long tradition about one hundred years. It was challenging for the new CEO, Myron E. Ullman due to the bad situation of the company. As the company was too rigid and formal, Ullman believes it is need to change the organizational culture in order to better adapt to the current business situation. As a result, he successfully changed JCP’s organisational culture form rigid and traditional style to a more flexible style. The company opened more retail outlets, the sales improving month by month and earnings edging towards a break even point and profit was dramatically increased.(Walter. 2013). During the process of change, generally, resistance was come from employees, for example, when he imposed the ‘Just call me Mike’ and abolish the old formal addressing of names, there was a group of employees felt uncomfortable to adapt this change of organizational culture and even show they were forced to accept this change. Even the resistance that come from employees is a tough problem during the process of change. The managers should deal with the resistance according to the different personalities and differences of employees. (Paul. 2012).

In my chosen industry- automotive industry, There is a typical examples- Ford, which is a positive example to explain how the management changed to save Ford from the problem.

 In 2005, Ford Motor Company was downgraded by American two major credit rating agencies due to providing the long-term employees with over excellent retired health care and benefits. By contrast, the Japanese automakers were not as good benefits as Ford. Meanwhile, the rising oil prices made the sales of SUV sport reduced and the competition from Japan and Korea became more competitive, which involved Ford in deep dilemma. Ford had loss of up to $1.6 billion in 2005 and $12.7 billion loss for 2006 which is its biggest in its 103-year history. (Sholnn. 2007). In order to solve this problem, Ford has established a series of programs to recover from the trouble over the next years and named it as The Way Forward. (Case Study). These programs included:

•  Cut between 25000 and 30000 jobs in North America.
•  Close 14 factories by 2012 to reduce losses in North America.
•  Stop the production of some unprofitable models.
•  Reduce some material costs
•  Focus on R&D crossover vehicle, hybrid vehicles, small cars
•  Consolidate the existing product line of Ford- Lincoln.

 With all these changes, Ford has gradually recover from this crisis. In 2013, Ford China sold 935,813 wholesale vehicles, which is a 49 percent increase from 626,616 vehicles in 2012. Besides, the European car sales was increased by 9.2 percent in January of 2013, benefiting from strong demand in the region’s top markets Germany and the UK. (Andreas. 2014)

 

Conclusion

Change is inevitable during the modern information age. The examples of JC penny and Ford have indicated that continuously changing with the vary of the environment is the key to the success. Furthermore, Although the management probably cannot totally eliminate the resistance to change, it can help unfreeze it. 

 

List of Reference

 Andreas.C. (2014). ‘Ford European sales up 9.2 percent in January’. [online]. Available from: <http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/14/us-fordeurope-carsales-idUSBREA1D0OT20140214&gt; [Accessed 15/03/2014]

 Case Study. (2007). ‘Ford- The ‘Way Forward’ Restructuring Program.’ [online]. Available from: <http://www.icmrindia.org/casestudies/catalogue/Business%20Strategy/BSTR204.htm&gt; [Accessed 15/03/2014]

 Paul.R. (2012). [online]. Available from: <http://hbr.org/1969/01/how-to-deal-with-resistance-to-change/ar/1&gt; [Accessed 15/03/2014]

 Sholnn.F. (2007). ‘Ford Had Its Worst Loss Ever In 2006′. [online]. Available from: <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/25/AR2007012500811.html >. [Accessed at 15/03/2014]

 Walter.L. (2013). ‘J.C.Penney: Ullman’s Team Is A Reason For Optimism’. [online]. Available from: <http://www.forbes.com/sites/walterloeb/2013/08/21/j-c-penney-the-past-was-horrible-the-future-a-challenge/&gt; [Accessed 15/03/2014]