Organizational Change Replies
Response to Leah Kemp
Hello, Leah, and thank you for your post. Your discussion highlights some of the reasons why organizational change may fail. As you rightly put it, the change at your organization was inspired by a desire to cut costs. Initially, there were two customer service departments: general customer service and licensing customer service. I agree that the change was inspired by the desire to reduce business costs by reducing commissions offered to sales representatives. Following the change, the sales department was introduced on top of the general and licensing customer services departments.
You have captured the major failure in the restructuring process to be the decision to only place quotas on the sales department. Although members in this department were receiving commissions, they were forced to reach certain targets lest they be transferred to the less lucrative general and licensing customer service departments. The change put some employees under extensive pressure to deliver targets, while employees in general and licensing departments were given a free hand to operate without pressure. For successful change to occur, an organization must ensure that it puts its employees first (Yenice, 2018). Companies like Southwest Airlines are successful because they put employees first before implementing any change. Your post shows that while implementing change, the organization should align with the needs of employees.
References
Yenice, S. (2018). Organizational Culture And Managing Change IFCC EMD -Committee on Clinical Laboratory Management (C-CLM). https://www.ifcc.org/media/478037/sedef-yenice-organizational-culture-and-managing-change-pathcape.pdf
Response to Lavenia Billy
Hello, Lavenia, and thanks for your post. Your post gives an insight into the barriers to successful organizational change. As you put it, your current manager has limitations in inputting notes or dealing with paperwork, hence delegating the work. However, I agree that the manager is forcing you to implement a system where new tabs are added to the notes system. As you put it, the move is likely to complicate already difficult tasks. As managers seek organizational improvements, they must also consider the employees’ needs (Strebel, 2014). Your post suggests that you resisted the change because the manager yelled instructions, yet he did nothing to facilitate you.
You also indicate that another situational factor that may have encouraged resistance to change is your organization’s lack of job security. As you put it, you constantly feel like you are stepping on eggshells, a sentiment that is not good for performance. I agree that the decision of the manager to push you makes it hard for you to deliver optimally.
References
Strebel, P. (2014, August). Why Do Employees Resist Change? Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/1996/05/why-do-employees-resist-change
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Question 
Lavenia Billy
A change that was attempted in my workplace was how we input our notes. My supervisor is not good at doing paperwork or inputting notes. We met with our tech person, and my supervisor started yelling out her ideas. The idea was to start implementing new tabs on our Casenote system that weren’t necessary. It added more work to the already complicated system we had. It was planned to begin making the changes, but they failed because the person was already overwhelmed with the laundry list of things we were already experiencing. It failed because it made no logical sense; it just added another step. In my profession, we have a lot of expectations and no job security, so complicating things makes it hard for workers to do their work. Because of the lack of job security, I believe that workers did not take to the change well. It would be a better transition if workers were given job security and not made to feel like they were walking on eggshells.
Organizational Change Replies
Lea Kemp
A few years ago, my company restructured our customer service department. Previously, the department consisted of two operations- general and licensed customer service. The licensed representatives assisted customers with existing policies and wrote new policies if they received a call from a prospective customer. Representatives in this role could earn commissions for any new policies they acquired. Our organization broke this department into three operations- general customer service, licensed customer service, and sales. This change was inspired by a consulting firm that advised executives that it would be more cost-effective by paying out less commission, and representatives would be more proficient in their roles by specializing in a more targeted role. Company culture was a huge factor that didn’t appear to be considered in this change. In the two-operation model, licensed representatives were never pressured to sell. The customer trained them to do what was right, even if that meant advising the customer that we may not be the best provider for them. When this change happened, that ideology seemed to change with it as the sales representatives were given strict quotas and threatened with returning to a customer service role if they did not meet them. This ultimately resulted in sales representatives procuring questionable business to hit their quotas. This effort remained challenging for about 2.5 years before the sales department was dissolved completely. Much of the pain and failure around this change could have been prevented had front-line workers or first-level managers been given a voice during the shift. The top-down direction was out of touch with the realities of the job and contradicted the company culture, which made the role enjoyable for many employees.