Introduction
Microsoft Incorporation is a leading worldwide software and internet technologies provider that was founded in 1975 by Paul Allen and Bill Gates. The corporation, headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA, develops and manufactures computer software, personal computers, and related services throughout the world. Although Microsoft Corporation has an array of different products and services, it is best known for its Microsoft Windows line of operating systems which makes the company a unique OS provider in the world of technology. The company is ranked number 30 in the 2018 Fortune 500 corporations by total revenue. The company may appear to be made of a diverse leadership team who are all experts in the various divisions, but more needs to be done to ensure a leadership structure that is guided by the cooperate culture of unity and diversity (Carlson, 2013). Having reshaped its mission to enable people and businesses throughout the world to realize their full potential, the company's leadership structure was faced with the challenges of stiff competition and harsh governmental and judicial actions. Growing competition from other tech companies like Google means increased visible inroads into the technology mark share and change of corporate strategy. In other words, it is quite essential for Microsoft Incorporation to diversify its young leadership that is more concerned about the integrity of the operating systems to one that takes into account these changes in the actual market. For this to be made effective, such modifications as the addition of new organizational units should be made. This includes both staffing and supervision. It would also call for the changing of roles and responsibilities for the organizational units that are to continue operations.
Organizational Change Management Overview
Current State
Led by a group of young top executives highly skilled in their various fields of operations, Microsoft Incorporation is characterized by a highly motivated staff used to moving so fast that it makes it necessary to have an organizational change that places great emphasis in the coordination of operations between the various departments. Currently, the company is divided into groups such as the Sales, Marketing and Services group that is run by the corporate vice president (Hanft, 2013). With the expansion in the market, it is essential that such groups are disintegrated to create independent sales, marketing, and services groups capable of running their operations before having to report to the general operations manager.
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Future State
With the expansion and the creation of new operation groups, it will not only be more comfortable for the group managers to concentrate on their areas of duties out since they will have a relatively smaller group to lead, but it will also become easier for the workers to have a stable and more reliable relationship that is directly invested in the affairs of the group. For this to be realized, Microsoft Incorporation would need to create the additional management posts, such as the post of the group managers and supervisors who will be responsible for reporting directly to the Operations Manager.
Assess of Potential Impacts
This kind of move will have a direct impact on group leadership and management. Having a new management initiative would lower the production rate quite considerably as the staff takes a moment to get accustomed to the new administration and get acquainted with the new leaders. It is true that while such managers, supervisors, and heads of operations may not be sorted from outside, stepping into such great roles would mean taking time before learning of the duties expected of each player in the team. Such an organizational change also implies having to develop a leadership strategy that might be entirely different from the previous strategy. But in the long run, such a move would facilitate increased productivity since it encourages and fosters innovation on both the part of the leaders and the staff.
OCM Overview- Communications
For change management to be effective, excellent and effective communication is very vital since it limits the possibilities for change resistance but instead encourage collaboration (Sushil, 2014). To ensure good communication about the change management plan is passed to all stakeholders, there are a few strategies that the leadership of Microsoft Incorporation could adopt. One such approach would be having board meetings with the management to encourage stakeholder analysis. These meetings will not only be geared towards informing the stakeholders of the proposed changes in management, but it will be a great avenue also to have all the questions about the change answered. Resistance to a change management plan arises when the parties do not feel actively involved through periodic updates and consideration of their insights. Frequent board meetings ensure that both of these instances are concisely answered to. Similarly, such meetings and updates should be implemented for the staff and workers as well. The goals of the change management plan, as well as the duties expected of every player, should be communicated frequently through such avenues as meetings and notices to the workers, which would serve as a constant reminder. Such messages and notifications should be short and precise and have a positive tone (Sushil, 2014). As far as consistency goes, the messages, which are in the form of updates should allow room for feedback from the staff. The progress of such updates should as well be documented and made available for both the stakeholders and the team. Such a move not only provides clarity for the parties involved but also helps in reducing resistance from the players. The more open communication is encouraged, the more the partners would be inclined to support the change management plan and increase their collaboration.
Training Objectives
Implementing such an organizational change management plan is not an easy task for Microsoft Incorporation because such changes would not only be felt within the workplace but will have effects that will manifest in the products and services offered hence have a direct impact on consumer satisfaction as well (Suder & Payte, 2006). This means therefore that if the change is not implemented correctly, the consequences would be direly felt by the consumer hence reduce the market share Microsoft enjoys. To ensure that this does not happen. It is critical that the change management team, first of all, be trained in the change implementation model to be used. The training not only focuses on how the personnel is supposed to handle such factors as resistance to change, but it also equips them with the skills necessary to use the change management tools in question. These include coming up with strategies to monitor the change management plan, reacting to the effects of the change management plan, and then coming up with correct measures to incorporate the change management plan into the organization's culture. The training method to be used should be one that ensures minimum disruption of the regular duties and operations of the company. In this case, the personnel could be trained in batches or shifts to ensure that while the training for the leaders in charge of the change management is being conducted, there would be enough leaders to man the daily operations of the corporation. The instructions of the change management should be documented in a manner that makes it easy to read and understand since they would serve as the manual for the process (Suder & Payte, 2006). Additionally, it is crucial that Microsoft adopts a hands-on-training method since it gives the personnel room to gain practical experience in handling the change plan. Developing training for the new system would ensure that the new form of leadership conforms to a given set of rules. In addition to being aligned with the organizational culture.
The Role of Strategic Renewal in Propelling Change
Faced with the stiff competition from other giants like Google who are threatening to take the world of technology by storm, Microsoft Incorporation is faced with a future of crisis as far as its market share and grip in technology is concerned (Suder & Payte, 2006). Over the years, consumers of its products and services have been showing dissatisfaction in Microsoft and have started to lose confidence and faith in the producer. It is essential therefore that the company develop a set of practices to guide the leaders into a new era of technological innovation. This strategic renewal ahead of the looming crisis would require significant efforts to initiate, fund and lead. This propels change in the sense that the company would need to do things out of the conventional to ensure that it takes into account innovative ideas and approaches that will ensure the diversification and production of materials and services that will answer to the evolving nature of the market. In other words, strategic renewal propels change in the sense that it calls for a new approach in building strategy, experimentation and the execution of the daily operations of Microsoft Incorporation to facilitate a new approach in its market leadership.
The Behavioral Aspect of Leadership Change
To implement the organizational change at Microsoft Incorporation, it is essential that the leaders consider the behavioral aspects of the change. This includes purpose, vision, assessment, experimentation, and partnerships (Mangalindan, 2013). It is crucial for the leadership at Microsoft to show mutual compelling and clear purpose in the change management module. It is correct to point out that such a change in a multi-national company would require agility. The agility in establishing the need for change is crucial in defeating any resistance that may arise from the team. Vision, on the other hand, is quite critical since it infuses the change agility into the organizational culture by creating awareness in the opportunities for improvement in the daily operations of the company. It opens up the leaders into the world of possibilities in which they are encouraged to look for ways to increase their profitability. Seeing what may not be working out and seeking avenues for improvement also plays a crucial role in facilitating leadership change at Microsoft. This means being able to look at the shortcomings and flaws of the current leadership. The inability to lead the company into the future that promises a substantial market share would almost automatically solicit the need for another form of leadership by the stakeholders whose interests lie in the company's profitability and presence in the world of technology. After assessing the need for change, it is critical to promote calculated risk-taking and experimentation of a new form of leadership. In this scenario, the stakeholders become open to the possibility of a unique style of leadership within the corporation that promises more stability. In this aspect, the need for change, or the change agility would lead the leaders to consider another approach in leadership. After reviewing the new form of leadership, which allows for the decentralization of duties and grants more independence to the various units of production, the next character of leadership change calls for looking for boundary-spanning partnerships (Mangalindan, 2013). This means that in as much as the divisions would be granted more freedom and independence, is it crucial to find ways of coordination between the various division to ensure the smooth transition of operations from one division to the other.
The Faces of Leadership Change
Turnaround
The turnaround face of leadership change entails putting in place new faces in leadership to oversee the leadership transition from the old leadership approach to the new forms of leadership (Sushil, 2014). In Microsoft, this could be the use of the turnaround practitioners. These could include executives, the Chief Restructuring Officer, and the financial stakeholders who assume the role of advisers both at the line management and board level to guide the specific aspects of the turnaround.
Tools and Techniques
The next step of leadership change is the tools and techniques level. In this step, Microsoft leadership team will be tasked with the responsibility of developing the appropriate tools and techniques for the implementation of the change management plan, and the assessment of the project to ensure its incorporation into the organizational culture (Sushil, 2014). In other words, it is a period in which the leaders ensure they have the necessary skills and resources to implement the change.
Transformation
After ensuring that all the tools and techniques are in order, and after going through the whole process of the logistics behind implementing the change management plan, the final step will be the actual implementation of the change management plan (Sushil, 2014). In this case, it is the actual transition of the new form of leadership within Microsoft in which the appointed officials for the new administration step into their roles and flag off the operations of the company. At this stage, it is critical to have in place the necessary mechanisms for assessing the change management plan to ensure that it falls in line with the organizational culture.
Employee Resistance and Support for Change
The employees at Microsoft will be inclined to resist the change if they feel the changes do not protect their interests in the company (Dhillo, & Gupta, 2015). Most organizational changes are done in a bid to boost productivity which in most cases entails upgrading of operations. In the new era of technology, the most common means of doing so is the increased use of technological equipment that is deemed more proficient. Communication plays a crucial role in enlightening the employees on the need for change, how such a change will be conducted, how they are expected to contribute to such a change, and most importantly, how they stand to benefit from such a change (Dhillo, & Gupta, 2015). Communication clears the employee doubt, makes them feel part of the whole process, and embraces their input, thereby reducing their chances of resistance and instead encourages them to support the leadership change at Microsoft.
Conclusion
Microsoft Incorporation being a global company, and with the advent of competitors such as Google Incorporation and Amazon.com, it is critical that the company restructures its leadership from just being focused on steady production to one that takes into account the trends in market demand. The centralization of division leadership empathizes on the consistent production based on the common goal of producing operating systems, but with the decentralization comes the new approach in the administration that embraces the diversity of products and services to ensure that the needs of every consumer are taken into account through the production of various products and services. In the end, Microsoft will not only be able to retain its market share through consistent production, but the diversity will enable it to penetrate a wider market, in the long run, covering all technological needs.
References
Carlson, N. (2013, June). Microsoft plans dramatic reorganization . Retrieved from https://www.businessinsider.com/microsoft-plans-dramatic-re-organization-2013-6
Dhillo, I. & Gupta, S. (2015). Organizational restructuring and collaborative creativity: The case of Microsoft and Sony. IUP Journal of Business Strategy, 12 (1), 53-65. Retrieved from http://web.a.ebscohost.com.csuglobal.idm.oclc.org/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=1&si d=600d9f85-0277-4e0a-8f9b-f54d3280d5b9%40sessionmgr4007
Hanft, A. (2013, September). Microsoft’s massive reorganization – all structure, no culture . Retrieved from https://www.huffingtonpost.com/adam-hanft/microsofts-massive- _b_3619736.html
Mangalindan, J. P. (2013). Microsoft’s reorganization is only step one. Retrieved from http://fortune.com/2013/07/11/microsofts-reorganization-is-only-step-one/
Suder, G. & Payte, M. (2006). A case in cross-company transformation. Thunderbird International Business Review, 48 (4), 555-596. doi: 10.1002/tie.20109
Sushil, A. (2014). Managing continuity and change for strategic performance. Global Journal of Flexible Systems Management, 15 (4), 275-276. Doi: 10.1007/s40171-014-0079-4
