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SOLARIS AND SUPERNOVA

CHANGE Nature of change ·

change: The management of Solaris has made a decision to take over SuperNova. The takeover is somewhere between revolutionary and evolutionary. · change: It is revolutionary to SuperNova because it is a major change to takeover a new organization. A new culture and structure is introduced in the organization. · Evolutionary: It is evolutionary because Solaris recently taken over and is deciding how to best integrate its employees into the larger company. If SuperNova is , the change to the current employees of Solaris is evolutionary because the organization . Lewin’s Model of Change Evolutionary change (Solaris) · Slow, (ongoing minor changes that are incorporated in the existing organizational structure) · Stays relatively · Change individual parts or departments · Makes the

Revolutionary change (SuperNova) · Fast, massive (change that alters their very nature) · Seek transform entire organization · Create new structure and management

· Incrementally change existing production technology · Planned change (Solaris) · Organizations have

Unplanned change (SuperNova) d · Organizations have ·

ate to unanticipated threat

of event

What is causing the change? External forces ·

Information and communication technologies have had a major impact on the developments as new information technologies have exploited the “old technology” of the telephone to shape the customer interface in innovative new wats. As the call centre is a fast-growing industry, it requires company to so that the company will not lose out and can e. Innovation are for survival. · : Recent estimated indicate that growth in call centre industry is stalling (失速) as a result of fierce (凶猛的) competition from Asian countries and India. er Solaris competes in a business environment, where its success in achieving , as well as customer are vital for survival.

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SOLARIS AND SUPERNOVA Internal forces · New : Solaris has recently taken over SuperNova which has very different working culture. · New : Solaris focuses more employee’s satisfaction and team working is different from SuperNova. The acquisition of SuperNova can help Solaris to target a wider group of customer and adopting a more standardize strategy in the future.

Change agent James Carr: He is the CEO and ‘team leader’ of the Management Team, he knows the company and the business of company well. He has already that exists in Solaris: ‘Excitement, Attitude, Achievement’. However, with Solaris and might be bias towards SuperNova. Kimberly Bell: She is the team leader of the Human Resource Department. · Right knowledge: As a HR manage, she is in charge of recruiting and dealing with employees. She also acquires shown on her office bookshelf. However, her as an internal change agent is that she is · Right skills: She has enforced the culture of Solaris. It is partly due to the employees that she has recruited based on her that they fit the Solaris culture and training them consists of prominent cultural rituals that seek to socialize and inform them about the ‘way things are done around here’. However, it may be d e the culture at SuperNova because SuperNova’s culture is more about the individuals and to meet performance standards. · Right attitude: She is of culture in Solaris. She is her culture ideas for SuperNova.

What needs to be changed? · Culture: The culture needs to be changed at SuperNova ( ) to be similar to Solaris ( ). The culture at SuperNova is (紧张的) and there are on individuals to meet performance standards. There was a heavy emphasis on monitoring and measuring performance at SuperNova. →Change the culture gradually to become more relaxed like Solaris. employees for not meeting targets, excellent employees; ; Give employees m b a y be less computer screen directions as this will improve the they gain when completing a call. · Structure: SuperNova may retain geographically separated so that there is little interaction between current Solaris employees and SuperNova employees. The management of Solaris should (分散) SuperNova employees in each work team and encourage Solaris employees to treat them like family and therefore SuperNova employees could with Solaris employees. In addition, a more hierarchical structure at SuperNova should be reduced and a great emphasis placed on self-managed teams like Solaris. This will make it easier to n and the n. · Strategy: There are d s to customers between Solaris and SuperNova, so they would have to make a new strategy that fit for both organizations. Solaris: l as well as customer s on; ‘best employer ’; lowest employee turnover in the industry, a customer-friendly environment. SuperNova: a series of q e and detailed assessment of every call, specialized in more routine operations associated with a single customer, a more traditional call centre environment.

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SOLARIS AND SUPERNOVA will you implement the change? O d. This is because culture is d e and can take many years to change. As integrating SuperNova with Solaris, ensuring that the end results is that SuperNova employees now share the same culture as Solaris. Kimberly would have to emphasis how the exciting and team-based culture at Solaris has led to many ‘best employer’ awards and ‘a recognized leader in quality customer service’. She should also highlight how SuperNova teams tended to turn on each other as performance pressures intensified while Solaris team members tended to work together. nge. Kemberly should examine the environment of employees at SuperNova on and determine if any culture changes can be observed. To determine any non-observable changes, she could , beliefs and values or through Process of change by using ’s Model: Unfreeze the old culture, change the culture and then refreeze it. · Unfreezing: Recognizing the need for change. Combat (与…战斗) resistance to change. The employees at SuperNova were working in a more traditional call centre environment which is very different from Solaris. The first thing to do is to change the working at SuperNova. Implementation is a juxtaposition ( 并 列 ) of two forces: those resisting change and those promoting change-Forces resisting change may emerge from with established practice; k of of what is involved in the change; the influence of important centres of power, which resist change or modifications to existing power structure ect. Those managing change have some powerful for ces that they can use to promote the change. · Change: Altered structure from le to a working and conducive ( 有益的) environment so that create a such as ‘Sing Song’ and company fun days to sustain high morale. Employees should be trained to inform them about the ways things are done around here and they should learn how n ef Kimberley should approach the employees in SuperNova and obtain feedback from them with regards to ways which they can (固定程序,惯常的) and activities without feeling annoyed (烦 闷的) or dissatisfied. · Refreezing: To ensure the change is some should be established. · The -e.g. If reward fall short of expectations over time, the change is likely to be short-lived. · To sustain change, need the f a s -This person, typically should be high in the management hierarchy, provides the change with legitimacy and . · Employees need to know what is of them as a result of the change. Therefore, transmitting information about expectation is important. · C s-As employees become aware that others in their group accept and sanction the change, they become more comfortable with it. · to the change should lead to · The more (扩散) in the change effort, the more units that will be affected and the greater legitimacy the effort will carry. the change within the processes of the organization: · Communicate change rationale to those who will be affected-Argue that current performance is inadequate and that new standards and procedures must be established. They cite comparable organizations or units with better performance to justify the need for change, and then often explicitly describe how current practices can be improved.

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SOLARIS AND SUPERNOVA · Change agents delegate the implementation decisions to those who will be affected-The stipulate (规定,保证) the need for change or the opportunities change can be provided, create a taskforce to do the job, assign members to the taskforce, and then delegate authority for the change process to the taskforce with a statement of expectations and constraints. · Abdicating (退位) the decision to experts-Identify the need or opportunity for change. But because they are disinterested, lack knowledge or feel that others can handle the job better, they take a relative passive ( 被动的, 消极的) role. · Top management makes the key decisions and uses hierarchical authority to implement them. There is little or no participation and those affected are told what the change will be.

Six Silent Killers (SK) & Organizational Fitness Profiling (OFP) (1) Management style is either too top down or too laissez faire. Management at op . Senior management do not consult with employees about what constitutes their performance standards. Managers depend on the top management heavily, which exert a high pressure on employees and form a tense atmosphere, this lead to a resistance of employee and → Solution-Engage p: It will be difficult to accept change if they do not participate in the decision-making. It needs more intervention and managers should also explain the meaning to employees positively to form a smooth and warm working environment. To let partnership forged to include upper and lower levels can help to reduce resistance, obtain commitment and increase the quality of the change decision. Taskforce which includes managers and operators from both companies could be formed so that the new culture could be introduced and feedback could be heard. (2) Unclear strategy/conflicting priorities. D s to customers between Solaris and SuperNova. →Solution-Compelling business direction: The top management should develop a common business direction. Kimberley would need to emphasis how exciting and team-based culture at Solaris has led to many ‘best employer’ awards and ‘a recognized leader in quality customer service’. (3) Ineffective senior management team. The senior management team at SuperNova did . This caused high labour turnover due to excess competition. The h as sometimes all the teams could not meet the target. This will definitely undermine the confidence of employees and teams. →Solution-Effective management team: Kimberley and other top management would need to take initiative in instilling ( 逐减灌输) the fun culture from Solaris to SuperNova. Twisting ( 扭转) and distorting facts to make them appear more attractive, withholding ( 阻 挡 , 克 制 ) undesirable information. Cooperation is a form of both manipulation and participation. It seeks to ‘buy off’ the leaders of a resistance group by giving them a key role in the change decision. The advice of those who have been co-opted ( 团结) is sought only in order to get their endorsement ( 认可,支持), not to ensure a better decision. In addition, managers should lower down the budget to make it realistic and achievable, otherwise the target could mean nothing but threaten. Using more rewards rather than punishments when justify employees. (4) Poor vertical communication. SuperNova has 层 e within the organization. Employees s in maintaining performance standards. →Solution-Open dialogue: Dialogue is established at lower levels about strategy and barriers. Communicate with

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SOLARIS AND SUPERNOVA employees to help them see the logic ( 逻辑) of change. Sometimes, the source of resistance lies in misinformation or poor communication. This can be achieved through one-on-one discussions, memos, group presentations or reports. (5) Poor horizontal coordination. SuperNova team tended to turn on each other as →Solution-Coordination: New roles, responsibilities and structures to get people to work together. SuperNova should establish group force or teams in targeting certain type of customers. Employees are allowed to join any teams they prefer. Weekly meeting among team leaders could be held to address current issues and future prospects. (6) skills at lower levels. No training was given to lower level managers and employees at SuperNova for them to achieve the required standards. New team members who did not always fit in and whose lack of training meant reduced team productivity. And SuperNova employees will have to assimilate ( 吸收) with the new hierarchy that who will be reported to. There is high turnover at SuperNova and it would be for new managers to manage a culture in the organization. →Solution-Lower-down leadership: Skills developed at lower levels via coaching, training etc. When employees fear and anxiety are high, counselling (辅导,建议) and therapy (治疗), new skills training or short, paid leaves of absence may facilitate adjustment.

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SOLARIS AND SUPERNOVA

COMMUNICATION Theory The functional approach is the way of understanding organizational communication by describing what messages do and how t s. Organization is seen as rational information processing system. Communications takes place when one is consciously conveying a message. The process starts when sender intentionally encodes message and transmits the message through channel to receiver and then receiver decodes the message. Communication means messages and meanings are “passed on” and it is completed when the recipient r . Functional perspective on communication suggests a r in communication that goes through the organization. If a manager has a problem with organizational communication, it is because the message was The Function of message · ·

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Solaris Communication is built on relationships. It is about Recommendations: · Solaris used words such as ‘family’ and ‘heroes’ to establishing relationships between people. design their communication in such a way that it The company structure aims to was based around building relationships. However, e (授权) workers with autonomy and c t this was seen as phony by several employees as b . Words such as ‘sense of they did not feel that this design provided them identity’, ‘feelings of loyalty, devotion and with a sense of any of those feelings. This is responsibility’, ‘heroes’, ‘partners’, ‘trust’, because these employees viewed them as empty ‘family’ are often used in Solaris. It conveys a words which had no meaning and were not nd followed up on. es. Employees have a sense of belonging and collective purpose at · Thus, to eliminate this problem, Solaris should not Solaris. be all talk and no action and instead actually making these words reality. For example, the word However, some employees found this p ( 欺骗 ‘family’ could be instilled by making employees 的) as they saw right through it. They felt as if the go on relationship-building company retreats. The Solaris’s design of communication did not provide word ‘hero’ on the other hand could be propagated s. They (传播) by having employee of the month conform outwards displaying the ‘right’ behavior and attitudes, but inwardly debunk much of what is competitions. Therefore, these words won’t be enthusiastically celebrated by those who are e seen as phony anymore, because they are actually . This could potentially being applied in their workplace. lead to internal conflicts or dysfunction in the organization. SuperNova Communication is built on organizing. It is about Recommendations: getting people to do things and establishing rules, · Design should be more accommodating and mirror Solaris’ communication design more closely. regulations, policies, etc. Managers organize their employees through a · The oppressive design of communication should be abolished and managers should focus on more hierarchical structure. There was a heavy building good relationships instead. emphasis on monitoring and measuring performance at SuperNova. Every call was subject · Top management should build on relationships throughout the organization to foster good team to a series of detailed measurement that had to

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SOLARIS AND SUPERNOVA correspond to the specifications laid down in the contracts with each of its customers such as the time taken to perform tasks. · The work was oppressive: the day-shift lasted eight hours and included two 15-minute paid breaks and a 45-minute unpaid lunch break. Breaks were strictly controlled. The various forms of monitoring were used as a coaching tool, but they also led to dismissals (解雇) if agents were not performing well enough. · This placed high pressures on SuperNova employees causing high turnover rates and teams tended to turn on each other as performance pressures intensified.

and work relations. This could be done through to strengthen relationships between employees and managers. As a result, this could facilitate a t and r employees faced within the organization. Thus, this would reduce staff turnover.

What Network to use? Solaris SuperNova Informal: Employees are seen as ‘tight-knit family’. Informal: In SuperNova, informal communication is Activities such as ‘Fun days’ and ‘Sing Song’ are seen categorized by employees turning on each other due to to facilitate and build close relationship like family in intense competition and fear of losing their bonuses or the company. Solaris reflects the cultural values of being under intense supervisory pressure. autonomy, empowerment and trust in a more tangible manner. The teams are also expected to think of themselves as family. Thus, communication is informal in this aspect. Problem: · When integrating these two companies together, SuperNova employees may find it hard to fit in and accept the Solaris way of doing things causing them to feel uncomfortable and out of place. This would cause dysfunction in the organization as employees in Solaris and SuperNova communicate in different ways. Recommendations: · Due to the different ways the informal network was carried out in both companies, in order to integrate Supernova into Solaris more effectively, a welcoming party should be thrown in order to make them feel welcomed and a part of the organization. Team bonding sessions is also a good way to make Supernova feel like a part of the ‘family’ as well as it would foster good relationships between all employees. · Training should also be given to Supernova employees to enhance their interpersonal skills so they do not feel uncomfortable with the way things are done at Solaris and would learn to communicate without the need to turn on one another. What the Direction to send the message? Solaris Horizontal: ‘Flat’ organizational structure, were there were self-managed teams. The decentralized company structure aims to empower workers with autonomy and cut bureaucratic red tape. Each team has a leader who is invested with the authority to monitor and discipline their fellow team members, but the team members are

SuperNova Downward: The agents worked in a more hierarchical structure than at Solaris. There are more levels of middle managers. Team leaders reported to Supervisors and then the Supervisors reported to the Project Manager, who reported to the Operations Managers, who oversaw the call centre operations and reported to

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SOLARIS AND SUPERNOVA expected to contribute in discussions and decision the CEO. These managers were responsible for making. In Solaris team, members tended to work monitoring performance and adopt an intense together. supervisory style onto employees if they are underperforming. Employees have to follow managers’ instructions so as to not lose their bonuses and would not be put under intense supervisory pressure. Problem: · The clash between the two different ways of communication in the organization may pose problem during the acquisition of Supernova as employees in Supernova may not be used to the horizontal communication style in Solaris. Thus, creating confusion among employees as they are unsure of how to go about communicating in the organization. Recommendation...