Manage Org Leadership

Managing Organizational Change

Students’ Quantitative Reasoning skills will be assessed three times during the Leadership program. They will be assessed in a Signature Assignment at the “introduced” Level of Quantitative Reasoning in MGT401. The second time students’ Quantitative Reasoning skills are assessed is in the Signature Assignment for Quantitative Reasoning in LED402 at the “reinforced” level. Toward the end of the program, they will be assessed again in MGT423 at the “emphasized” level. Rubric criterion for the other two courses are included in their respective assignments.

For this assignment, first, do a thorough review of the required background materials and read up on each author’s discussion about Kotter’s eight-step model of change, Lewin’s three-step model, and the five phases of Action Research. There are also some videos on some of these models that might help as well.

The table in this Case assignment is an example of one way to summarize the data acquired for this small research project about why profits decreased and potential steps to take to move them in the opposite direction. A table or graph are both good tools to use to display data that is easy to follow without being overwhelmed with too much data. You can read more about tools to display statistical data in the following optional reading:

Elliott, A., & Woodward, W. (2020).  Describing and Examining Data . (Vols. 1-0). In  Quick guide to IBM® SPSS® Statistical analysis with step-by-step examples. SAGE Publications, Inc.,  https://doi.org/10.4135/9781071909638. Available in the Trident Online Library, SAGE Research Methods database.

When you are done reviewing these models of organizational change, take a look at the following scenario, determine which of the three models of change would be most appropriate, and answer the questions below. You are required to use APA style of writing, cite at least three of the scholarly sources from the background readings (required and optional), and write 4 full pages (excluding title and references pages).

Scenario

Acme corporation has had recent problems with increased turnover of employees and decreased profitability. However, leadership is not sure exactly what the problem is or what to do about it. Senior managers have been arguing for many months about what to do, but it is clear that leadership does not have a strategy to get the company back on track. The company (prior to organizational changes) had 24 sales associates that averaged $423,000 in combined sales each month with a profit margin of 32%. This breaks down to a monthly sales average of $17,625 per sales associate.

Since the changeover, the employees are stretched thin and have become demoralized as management has been slow to respond to the turnover and has increased pressure to exceed monthly goals. The average monthly sales have steadily decreased for six months after the new Chief Executive Officer (CEO) replaced the vice president of sales, two sales directors, and six sales managers with employees from another organization. The Vice President, directors, and managers have yet to establish relationships, are not very engaging or motivating, have more of a transactional style of leadership, and micro-manage every detail of the sales associates performance. The following table shows company sales performance since January of this year and includes month, number of staff, average sales, profit percentage and total profit.

Please use the scenario and the table above to answer the following questions (support each section with sources from the required and optional readings list):

a. Introduce your paper with your thoughts on the scenario and why it happened. This goes immediately  below the title of the paper at the top of page 2 but it does not have its own heading.

b. What could have happened in the months of April-June to see a large drop in profits after what was seen as a slowdown in lost profits (indicating a potential increase coming next) at the end of March?

c. Explain which organizational change model (Kotter’s Eight-Step, Lewin’s Three-Step, or the Stages of an Action Research Project) would be most suited for this scenario. Support your decision and response with a source from the required or optional readings list.

d. Provide a solution to the scenario and build a plan of action for this organization using the individual steps of your chosen change model.

e. Use and fill in the table below with your expected forecast potential to show growth in sales staff, sales, and total profit from July through December. Use the formula below the table (New Month Sales x 42% = ______), to calculate expected sales and profit percent for an increase in profit dollars for Acme Corporation.

Table 1: Expected Sales and Profit Forecast

· New Monthly Sales X Profit Percentage = Total profit

f. Conclude your paper to align with your introduction, a summary of findings from each section, and wrap up in a final thought. This section of the paper should have the heading Conclusion (bold and centered).

Case Assignments are to be prepared in Microsoft Word, using 12 pt font, be at least 4 full pages in length (excluding title and references pages)  and include an introduction below the paper’s title prior to inserting an answer to the first assignment question. Every question requires its own short heading. Do not use the entire assignment questions as headings. As previously stated, include Conclusion as the final heading before the References list page begins. Always begin the reference list on a new page. There should be nothing in the top left corner of the paper and only a page number in the top right corner of all pages.

The paper should include the following:

· Title Page formatted per APA, 7th edition.

· Be sure to cite and reference (using APA Style) a minimum of 3 scholarly and peer-reviewed sources listed in the Course Materials and Bibliography (Module 4 Required and Optional Reading List), in the Module 4 Background Page: Required and Optional Readings, or in the Trident Online Library (peer-reviewed journal articles).

· Page numbers in the top right corner of every page and nothing in the top left corner of every page.

· The paragraphs must be left aligned (you should not see a right margin that is straight up and down) and indented ½ inch.

· An Introduction, Body of Work, and Conclusion. Except for the conclusion, these are not the headings for the first of the two sections, however just descriptive of the content required there.

· Report content should include a brief introduction to the assignment, background information about the organization being studied, and your discussion of organizational structure in terms of the concepts or theories being applied in the assignment. Use subtitles, bullets, and tables to improve presentation values.

· References page (double-spaced, 12 pt. type, Times New Roman font) should be formatted per APA Style. See APAstyle.org or the APA Manual (7th ed.).

· Attention is to be given to citing sources of information in-text as well as in the reference list at the end of reports. Citation and reference style instructions are available at  Purdue OWL  (https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/10/) or the APA Manual (7th ed.).

· The paper should be written in third person; this means words like “I,” “we,” and “you” are not appropriate.