Introduction
Businesses operate in a competitive environment that full of challenges and changes. As globalization and technology advances, managers are required to lead their organizations through the right change to adapt to the new trends. While the managers remain alert to the changes in the business world, they have to realign their organizations to fit into these changes. One of such realignment that is required in the organization is changing and reinforcing organizational culture. The culture of the organization must always be aligned with the corporate goals of the firm so that all the activities that take place in the organization are directed towards meeting these goals. However, managers have for over many years’ experienced critical challenges when trying to change the organization culture whenever they feel the culture is not in line with the corporate goals. Organization culture is one area that requires the leaders to apply professional competence and experience because failure to do this can result in more problems for the organization. While organization culture change remains a critical challenge for the organizations, leaders must use creativity, innovation and professional skills to deal with the situation in a manner that will be beneficial to the organization.
T-Mobile Corporation
T-Mobile is the United States based wireless network Operator Company. The company is the third largest wireless carrier in the United States with over 72.6 million customers ( Krebs & Duncan , 2015). The company provides wireless voice and data services in the United States. Furthermore, the company serves as a host network for many other mobile virtual network operators. With over $40 billion annual revenues, the company was named as the number one American wireless carrier. Also, the company was named as the leading in the customer service satisfaction in 2017. Founded in 1994, the company has witnessed continuous growth and development in the wireless communication sector, making it one of the largest companies in the United States of America.
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Key Stakeholders
Customers are the key stakeholders at T-Mobile Company. The firm aims at providing the best value and satisfaction to its customers. The company has been able to build a strong customer base compared to its competitors, and the level of customer satisfaction has been very high. Since 2013, the company added over 39 million customers to its base, making it one of the biggest companies in the United States of America. The company also added on average 5.7 million customers in 2017, making it the fourth year that the company has added over 5 million net customers’ additions. The company also added more than 3.5 million branded postpaid customers, a number which was even higher than the rest of the companies combined. Everything that the company does is powered by the leading 4G LTE network, which reached 322 million Americans by 2017 from 314 million in the prior year ( Malhotra & Kubowicz , 2013).
Another key stakeholder at the T-Mobile is its employees. The company values its employees who are the effort behind its rise in the industry. The company hires qualified staff which ensures that the customers get value for their money. The company has an approximate of 51000 employees, both part-time and full time. The company has shareholders with which it works so hard to protect their investments. The company has been giving the shareholders return on their investment through a series of profits that the company makes annually. It is the leading in the industry in terms of revenue and profitability. This has been the driving force behind its growth that has been witnessed over the past few years.
Unlike most companies which present their mission statement in a formal way to the public. T-Mobile does not have a formal mission statement, but rather present it in an informal and simple way that the customers can understand. They present their mission statement in a customer friendly manner by stating why they are in business. “The value of our plans, the breadth of our coverage, the reliability of our network and the quality of our service are meant to help you stick with people who make your life come alive. That is why we are here.” The company provides services, plans and reliable network to their customers by increasing their connectivity in a relatively less connected world. The mission statement set apart from the rest of the company’s history.
The company has a code of ethics that guides its conduct of business as well as how its members behave. The company has business ethics that ensure that they treat their customers with honesty and fairness. The firm does not deceive customers on its services but aims at providing the best and most trustable services to the customers. Furthermore, the company values the privacy of its customers and therefore protects and guards customer’s private information. The company also has policies which advocate for the respect for each other while at the same time protecting the environment. The firm has policies on the protection of the employees’ information, confidentiality, public health, and safety as well as minimizing the pollution impacts on the environment. The company engages in ethical business activities while at the same time selecting and dealing with suppliers who have ethical implications. Choosing ethical business partners is useful in helping the company maintain its good image when it comes to ethics and ethical business practices.
Challenge Facing the Organization
Organization culture is one of the most critical aspects of the development of the company. Culture represents a significant aspect for the existing members of the organization by allowing them to develop a strong sense of belonging. Developing a healthy and strong culture should be the focus of every leader of an organization because the success of the company is a product of its culture. The culture should direct the member of the organization towards the same direction which is the goal of the firm. Without a strong and a healthy culture that allows the members of the organization to move towards a set direction, it would be difficult to achieve the goals of the company. While corporate culture is always essential for the growth of the organization, it is never without issues. Culture comprises of the company beliefs, the working methods, its history, ethics of the company, values of the company, teamwork, quality of the customer service as well as work environment. Studies have confirmed that organizational leaders are the prime determinants of the organizational culture and that the culture of the organization is related to the consequential organizational outcomes. It is, therefore, the responsibility of the organizational leader to determine what culture is appropriate for the organization and then initiate proper means that can be used to introduce that culture. The leader is the role model and must lead by example while introducing the culture so that other members can learn from him/her.
Despite its rapid growth for the last few years, the company has been experiencing some challenges with its culture, and there has been a growing tension that it could impact negatively on the performance of the company in the coming years if it is not corrected. The company has been experiencing some issues such as integrity and ethics of the employees while at the same time there is lack of teamwork and coordination amongst the employees. The accountability of the employees is slowly diminishing, and the levels of service delivery are getting affected. Reports of misuse and the theft of company resources are constantly increasing and this is causing worries for the top leadership. Employees no longer work together as a team, and this is affecting the levels of service delivery of the company. It is expected that the customers will soon start launching complaints and express dissatisfaction. Employees are not being held accountable for their actions and this culture is rapidly spreading to all departments of the organization. A significant number of products are starting to have defects, which leads to more wastes, returns, and repairs. The trend is slowly worsening and unless this is corrected, it might result in serious effects on the business.
The major challenge that the leadership of the company is facing is changing the culture and reinforcing a new culture that will ensure integrity, accountability, teamwork as well as focus on excellence in all levels of production and service delivery. The management is faced with the problem of changing the slowly cropping culture and replace it with a new culture that will help solve the problems that are slowly emerging into the organization. To solve the problem, the leadership of the organization decided to change the culture by calling all the employees and giving telling them of what is required of them as the new policy. However, another significant challenge that the management faced was the resistant from the employees. While introducing culture change, there was no consultation with other stakeholders on the need to change the culture and introduce a new one. No one was happy with the new changes in the culture of the organization and there was increased dissatisfaction of the employees. No employee was willing to adopt the new changes as many felt that there was no need for the change. As a result of the resistance, it was almost obvious that the new culture introduced by the management was going to fail.
The leadership of the organization faced the challenge of changing the culture of the organization because the changes were met with resistance from most employees of the organization. However, the management seemingly did not use an effective way of introducing a change into the organization. An effective way of introducing a culture change in the organization requires an inclusive approach where all the stakeholders are involved. Any change that does not involve all member of the organization is bound to be met with resistance and more likely to fail. Employees will always resist change for various reasons such as fear of the unknown. To introduce a change in the organization, the management would have identified the need for change and explain it to the employees while at the same time assure them that it would not affect them negatively. After communicating the need for the change to all members of the organization, it would have been effective for the management to identify appropriate implementation strategies that would best get the culture into practice.
A leader is the overall head of all the members of the organization. Leaders must always lead by example because employees will always copy what the leader does ( Thiel et al., 2012). The best method that the leaders can always apply to promote a positive culture in their organizations is to lead by example. A leader must always show and prove his belief in integrity, teamwork, and excellence by acting as a role model. When the leader has the traits of integrity, all the junior employees will follow in by learning from the leader. Constant communication with the employees is also essential in ensuring that the employees understand the actions that are required of them at all times.
Strategy for overcoming the Challenge
There are various proven strategies that the leaders can apply to overcome the challenges in the organization. For this company, the leader can apply various methods essential in making the employees adopt change and minimize resistance. The first strategy that the manager can use is to apply open communication with team members and all other members of the organization ( Schalock& Verdugo , 2012). The leader should encourage the members of the employees to constantly be open to communication and express their opinion while at the same time allowing them to take part in the decision making of the company. Keeping a close contact with the employees and encouraging them to engage in open communication will help identify areas which have issues that need to be solved. It is the employees who are in at the production sites and therefore they understand when there is an issue that requires an attention of the leader. Encouraging open communication is essential in making the employees open up about these issues.
The leader can also show passion and lead by example in all areas. The leader should show belief in the culture of the organization from his actions. When employees see the leaders behave in a way that emulates the actions required by the change, they are more likely to live in line with those behaviors. However, when the leader does not show what he advocates for through his own actions, the employees may not take him seriously.
Empowering innovation and remaining creative is another way that the leaders can use to overcome the challenges that they face ( Stacey, 2012 ). When faced with a situation that is challenging, the leader can always get creative and innovative in an attempt to get the best solution. This can be done through brainstorming and research. Also, encouraging people to be creative and flexible towards the anticipated change can be useful in uncovering the problem and becoming part of the culture change.
Effective planning is also critical in assisting the leaders to overcome the challenges they face. Any situation requires proper planning and appropriate way to execute the plan. At the same time, there should be multiple plans such that should plan A fail, the leader does not get stuck but instead adopt plan B. Appropriate plan helps avoid errors that might occur while trying to solve the problem.
Managing performance and motivating employees can also help the management solve the challenges they face in the organization. Employee motivation and inspiration can be useful in helping them adapt to the new changes in the culture of the organization. Motivated employees can be very productive and goal oriented thus helping the organization achieve its goals. While motivating employees, the leader must constantly manage the performance of these employees and ensure they are motivated towards achieving the goals of the organization.
Remaining positive and supportive to the employees while introducing change can also help minimize the challenge of employee resistance to culture change. While people find change unsettling, the support of the leader is always required to inspire the employees and make them understand the anticipated benefits of the change. While employees expect leaders to manage change, inspirational leaders create a culture where change becomes the responsibility for all.
Conclusion
While organization culture change remains a critical challenge for the organizations, leaders must use creativity, innovation and professional skills to deal with the situation in a manner that will be beneficial to the organization. Employees will always resist change and managers meet a great challenge trying to overcome the issues associated with the culture change in the organization. However, certain strategies such as motivating and inspiring employees as well as encouraging communication can help leaders overcome these challenges.
References
Krebs, P., & Duncan, D. T. (2015). Health app use among US mobile phone owners: a national survey. JMIR mHealth and uHealth , 3 (4).
Malhotra, A., & Kubowicz Malhotra, C. (2013). Exploring switching behavior of US mobile service customers. Journal of Services Marketing , 27 (1), 13-24.
Schalock, R. L., & Verdugo, M. A. (2012). A Leadership Guide for Today's Disabilities Organizations: Overcoming Challenges and Making Change Happen . Brookes Publishing Company. PO Box 10624, Baltimore, MD 21285.
Stacey, R. (2012). Tools and techniques of leadership and management: Meeting the challenge of complexity . Routledge.
Thiel, C. E., Bagdasarov, Z., Harkrider, L., Johnson, J. F., & Mumford, M. D. (2012). Leader ethical decision-making in organizations: Strategies for sensemaking. Journal of Business Ethics , 107 (1), 49-64.
