Riordan Manufacturing’s main focus is to find solutions for their customer’s challenges and not be the challenge. In order to do this and maintain these long-standing relationships there will need to be changes to the company’s management and communication plans. These changes will provide more employee satisfaction and efficiency throughout the company. Unfortunately change always comes with some resistance from employees but Riordan Industries will strive to keep employees well advised and well supported throughout this change to maintain our innovated work environment.
Power Structure Riordan Manufacturing infrastructure revolves around informal and formal power structures and like many other manufacturing organizations, its vision starts from top management. According to Riordan Manufacturing (Organizational Charts- Executive), the information displays a narrow span of control, with product base and manufacturing decisions are based solely on a centralized view. Formal power structure in Riordan is mechanistically based on a clear chain of command that processes a more managerial hierarchy.Formal power structures based on a narrow span of control negatively affects Riordan’s informal structure bases and instances including employee turnover. Power structures that are present at Riordan Manufacturing have both negative and positive outcomes. The CEO’s emphasis is on cost minimization, which is “tightly controls costs, refrains from incurring unnecessary expenses, and cuts prices in selling a basic product.
” (Robbins & Judge, 2011, p. 504) The main political power structure in the organization is employee development in spite of low job satisfaction and internal growth.Organizational StructureRiordan Manufacturing formally based power structure can work if communication levels and management develops a more diversified plan to increase job satisfaction through improving channels of communication. Riordan needs to place emphasis on retraining employees through professional development training. The steps for reformation of a highly centralized company is providing a channel that can remain anonymous for employees to express concerns or suggestions and employee and manager have monthly meetings to place emphasis on diversity, organizational worth, and presenting organizational goals and visions.
Riordan lacks an efficient database system that connects all four plants with appropriate information to conclude if sales cannot be me. The system should be re-evaluated to strengthen a centralized organization. Employee Behavior The effects of this structure on employee behavior can go a number of ways. The suggestion box can bring about more trust from employees to the management or to some employees may feel management is not taking their opinions seriously. The monthly meetings will help in creating a better understanding and communication between employees throughout the company.
Taking time to address their employees will allow for interaction with management and boost morale as well. Overall this type of structure will strengthen the company by bringing strong trust from the employees. Companies Culture Riordan Manufacturing employee base is predominately Caucasian between the ages of 18 to 39 with the majority of upper management also being Caucasian as well. The Caucasian culture is likely to have a corporate cultural influence within the company which indicates many are likely to be set in their ways based upon their age groups.
Those nearing retirement age 50-59 and in the 40-49 age groups are likely to not want change within the company and may show more resistance than the younger age groups. The younger age groups could possibly clash with the older age groups when changes are implemented. Resistance for Change Due to the lack of a formal system for managing customer information, employees have been left to come up with their own individual communication plan. To ensure a smooth transition to this change the company should schedule trainings for the new system well in advance of the start date.
Also, having an employee or a couple of employees in place who are experts on the system to answer questions during the transition period can help avoid confusion among employees who may not understand the new system. Implementing Change Over the next 12 months the company has set-up strategies to help make the transition to a new management and communication system more smoothly for employees. First step will be set deadlines for the change. The next step will be companywide trainings on the new system by experts.
The last step is to have an evaluation period for employees regarding the changes to allow for communication between managers and employees. Evaluating the Plan In order to evaluate the success of the planned change Riordan Manufacturing will first review the original business plan to familiarize with our initial strategic plan as we navigate through the evaluation process. Second, we will prepare an income statement for the first 12 months to evaluate the sales results. We will first compare the current sales with the results from the previous period prior to the change being implemented.Third we will compare the quantities of the businesses expenses to ensure that costs are not trending upward without reasonable cause. The final evaluation method is to survey our clients, employees, and business partners.
We will ask specific questions through anonymous responses. The questions will relate to service quality and customer service. Our key is to engage our clients, employees, and business partners to answer questions that will help interface areas of success and areas that require improvements.Most important, we will continue to monitor the results of our advertising services by tracking which offers and promotions work the best.
Communication Plan Communicating change in an organization is a critical and difficult task. Communicating change is both a critical and difficult task. Organizations undergo change for a variety of reasons including mergers and updating financial systems. Change must be communicated effectively to have a positive effect.
For example, poor communication leads to employees being both inadequately and wrongly informed.To help the change go as planned organizations need to efficiently execute communication. Communication Channels To create an effective communication plan redundancy and repletion are both a must. Our first priority is to share the plan with employees as soon as possible.
First, we will send a company-wide email noting the upcoming changes. The email will act as a merge or change initiative. Some organizations make the mistake of only using one communication channel to communicate important changes.Our goal is to provide our employees multiple opportunities to communicate concerns, ask questions, and offer suggestions. This is key because employees will feel involved in the process, which will help prevent the likelihood of the plan failing.
Second we will conduct a live conference with employees to understand the benefits directly coming from upper management. Third we will offer a questions and answers session to allow employees the opportunity to share ideas and address any concerns.Most important, the questions and answers session will help employees feel valued and as if they have a say-so in the implementation process. Communicating these changes must be done so all employees receive a clear and concise message on the change but also so management knows each employee received the message. All communication should be sent out in several forms to ensure if one is missed they will receive it in another form and all employees must verify they received the message.
The following is a sample hard copy letter which will be sent out to employees on the upcoming change.
