How was a sense of urgency created in the PPF Corporation? If it was not, how could it have been?
Immediately after being elected PPF’s president, Stephen Oswald first created a sense of urgency for change in the organization by focusing on understanding the key issues affecting employees through spending time with them. The interaction between the president and the employees enabled Oswald to be visible, seek input, an express his views on the potential damage that a union would create ( McGuire & Rhodes, 2009) . To symbolize that change would be occurring soon, the president painted the factory floor, learned the names of most of the employees, created a voice board to aid in posting policy changes, and wrote a note to all the associates after learning that an election for the union was due to be held.
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Who was included in the guiding coalition? Should anyone else have participated?
The guiding coalition consisted of all the employees, the president’s senior team, as well as Mercer Consulting, who helped in the development of a new pay plan, based on skills, which was vital in enhancing employee satisfaction ( Liedtka) . The team and the employees, on the other hand, were engaged in the clarification of the forms of winning behaviors that each employee in the organization was expected to uphold.
What were the vision and strategy?
The vision of the organization that the president developed focused on securing the future of all the customers, employees, and other relevant stakeholders at PPF. The strategy that the president implemented to achieve this vision includes initiating all-employee meetings that were held three times annually to share resulting and answering vital questions relating to the achievement of the established vision ( Liedtka) . The vision was crucial in enhancing the organization's performance since it gave meaning to every role that people within the organization played, in addition to clarifying how the actions of everyone within the form would influence their future. For instance, they would have an uncertain future if the employees failed to work towards ensuring the profitability of the organization.
How was the vision communicated?
Several approaches were applied in communicating the vision, including workshops and training. The president conducted several regional distributor summits that focused on understanding the company distributors' perspectives as well as acquiring their input. Through working with the group, the president managed to implement a strategy that aimed at the provision of solutions rather than mere products. Further, the president sponsored a workshop that aimed at educating employees on the habits that they needed to adapt to become successful at the workplace, whereby he made it mandatory for all the employees to attend ( Liedtka) . Further, the president engaged an outside consultant in running a series of strategy workshops that targeted the global management team. The workshops sought to develop a shared strategy as well as training. Finally, the president used key ideas from Jim Collin’s book in a bid to create a common perspective and language among the employees and other vital stakeholders in promoting the achievement of the set vision.
What was broad-based action taken through management support?
One of essential broad-based actions that were executed by with the support of the management is higher involvement of the community in the organization as well as increased funding for the community based-programs and organizations.
What short-term wins were established or could have been established?
The short term wins that the president focused on involved celebrating successful people and performance through re-instituting the holiday party tradition for the company. However, the case failed to identify the specific wins, notably short-term wins, which ought to be celebrated regularly, particularly those pertaining to effective behavior change among the employees and meeting targets among others.
How were gains evaluated? Did they promote continued change?
Gains were evaluated by examining what the organization in general and the employees had achieved against the set targets. The gains largely supported the intended continued change since they played a crucial role in steering the organization towards the desired vision and direction.
What activities supported a permanent change in the culture?
Several activities helped in supporting permanent change in the organization’s culture, including effective communication at all levels regarding the change expectations as well as achieved milestones in the change process. Creating a change vision also played a crucial role in enhancing permanent change since it ensured clarity in the roles of each employee and their responsibility in ensuring the success of the organization ( Kotter, 1996) .
References
Kotter, J.P. (1996). Leading change. Ch3-10
Liedtka, J. Leading Change at Ppf Corporation (a).
McGuire, J. B., & Rhodes, G. (2009). Transforming your leadership culture (Vol. 120). John Wiley & Sons.
