BSBINN601 Lead and Manage Organisational Change

Part One

You are required to develop an organisational change management plan that:

1. Discusses the strategic changes that need to be made following a merger

In order to ensure merger successful implemented. It is highly important to revise a strategic changes that may benefit both companies. In most merging situation, both companies will have different organisational culture and management method which create high incompatibility; even companies within the same industry or high similarity will face difficulties on unification (The Economist, 2014). This problem generally occurred due to ignorance when both parties withheld sensitive cooperate information during the discussion stage for merging. Furthermore, no common vision may cause merging failed after both companies merged. Others problems such as poor governance, communications and management may also indirect be a failure source after merging (Siegenthaler, 2010). Nevertheless, one key benefit of merger is both companies will gain a rise in share price significantly; therefore a lot of companies try their best to set aside difference and go through merging process.

Based on above strategic analysis, it is highly important for consulting company to revise a strategic change to cope with merger. The primary change that merging company should implement was develop new vision and mission statement that will align its company value with the merging company. In order to counter problems associate to governance, communications and management, merging company need to re-design the management approach through analysing merging company and communicate with merging company regarding their existing management approach that both can reach a uniformity agreement. Next, operational activities restructuring, merging company need to check any existing legislation relating financial institute merger which they need to comply.

2. Monitor trends in the external environment to identify trends that may impact the success of the merger. You should research data from government websites, statistics affecting the industry etc., for up to date current trends affecting the financial industry today

Merging with financial institution give both company access to better monetary support on current business as well as venturing into new industry. However, one of the major trend in financial institute merger case was lost of customers after merger took place. According to Pilcher (2013) stated that almost all financial institute lost 17% of their customers switch their service providers and 31% customers remain at switching risk.

Source: Pilcher, J. (2013) How to Keep Customer From Jumping Ship After A Merger. The Financial Brand, retrieved on June 13, 2017 from: https://thefinancialbrand.com/27872/merger-communications-strategies-for-financial-institutions/

3. Look at potential/hypothetical operational change requirements following the merger

According to Australian treasury department mergers and acquisitions chapter 6 indicates that principal objective of merger regulation required both parties has no power to choose its level of profit deriving from merger process. Meanwhile, according to anti-competition policy and regulations, mergers should not cause imbalance in the market resulting monopoly or breach consumers’ right (Australian Treasury Department, n.d.).

Source: Australian Treasury Department (n.d.). Chapter 6: Mergers & Acquisitions. In Australian Treasury Department, Financial System Inquiry, pp.155. Retrieved June 13, 2017, from https://fsi.treasury.gov.au/content/downloads/DiscussionPaper/chapt06.pdf

Based on the findings, Bounce Fitness need to review the business operation to ensure it is comply with Trade Practices Act 1974. Merging process allow the company to introduce new financial products to its customers, these new products, the company need to make sure the products offered does not violate any Trade Practices Act 1974. Meanwhile, management need to undergo training session regarding law and regulation related to financial institution. Furthermore, all managers should also undergo trainings to understand basic financial products so that they could collaborate with newly merged company managers.

Additionally, the difference between both company management system and software need to be rectify. Bounce Fitness need to discuss on possible change such as updating to new management software if merging company had better management software; which lead to re-training of staff members on new software handling knowledge.

4. List the change requirements in order of importance

Ulrich, Younger and Brockbank (2008) discussed that an efficient HR need to be able to sync operations in diversified organisation for employees to cope with changes. An employees working in a huge corporate often seek to have the similar work standard when moving from site to site therefore it is highly important for HR professional to understood that and make sure when merging, both company able to redesign their operation to similar standard.

Following table list the importance of each change requirement as following:

The above mentioned change requirements’ importance are list out based on the changes required to addressed first to last.

Part Two

1. Develop a communication/education plan to promote the benefits of the change to the organisation. The plan should aim to minimise loss and focus in implementing the strategy to bring the two companies together.

The communication plan developed below consist type of meeting with different key message schedule with different time requirement to be delivered to specifics audience through a specific media. The purpose of doing so was to share change information, and discuss possible new change requirements to minimise loss while conducting change management plan.

• Internal meeting is a meeting conducted to deliver key message to general staff in the organisation by centre managers. The message in the meeting is aim to acknowledge the possible changes to be implemented throughout the change process and provide feedback to the employees on their performance of last change implementation
• Formal meeting is a meeting conducted by change committees and others responsible associates to present change requirements analysis, legal updates, progress of change implementation as well as outcome. Furthermore, the meeting will also include discussion of financial budget and updates allowing executive management of the organisation to evaluate the change management result. The meeting will be carried out once per month divided into two session to discuss different agendas.
• Lunch activities is a causal meeting conducted by change committees to gathered information regarding the differences between both companies in term of operation and management. Meanwhile this activity allow managers from both companies to build a better relation prior merger.
• Presentation is a meeting conducted monthly to external consultant and executive management to overview the change result, data and actual problems encountered will be explained.

2. You should also prepare a draft schedule of activities as a platform from which you can deliver the communication/education plan to all relevant groups and individuals in the financial institutions.

An education plan with a list of activities that required to be participate by different staff members of the organisation was developed as following to allow staff members of the organisation to learn the basics and required skills associate to merger.

• Training (1) was introduce to educate managers and general staff on the new management or operation software that may be implemented for higher efficient upon merging.
• Training (2) was introduce specifically for both company managers to understand the products’ differences between both company and the documentation, legal framework required to oblige when introduced.
• Training (3) was provided to both company to understand the code of practice and operation standard of each company. The training will perfect the flaws of current operations existed in both companies by adopted the best practices available.
• Training (4) was introduced to allow executive management and managers to understand the merging company culture; so both management can understand each other core value and initiate minor adjustment.

Part Three

Answer the following questions related to your change management project plan and communication/education plan you developed in Parts One and Two.

1. How will you consult with relevant groups and individuals for input to the change process before and after the implementation commences?

Before the implementation commences, a meeting and survey will be conducted on both company to gather information on their value, belief, operational differences and product differences. With these information a change management draft will be generated. The draft will be reviewed by both parties’ managers for critical discussion on the implementation’s feasibility. Finalising the draft with both parties’ managers, the draft was updated and present to management of both company for approval.

After approval was obtained, the change management plan will be present and distribute to all managers, the change ideas proposed by the managers that was not adopted will be explained to avoid resistance from the managers. During the implementation, a questionnaire will be provided to all managers while they conducting internal meeting, the questionnaires will be distributed to all staff members in the meeting to acquire feedback on the change. Meanwhile consultation will be conducted in the lunch activities as well to get valuable information on both company progress on change management plan. The problems encountered by manager and efficient solution applied by the manager can be useful when presenting the findings to management during monthly presentation.

2. What barriers to the change do you see as possible? Develop a risk management and mitigation plan for each.

3. How would you action interventions and activities set out in project plan according to project timeline?

In order to make sure activities set out in project plan able to meet with the project timeline. A monitoring mechanism consisting consultation time table will be set up to measure the activities progression according to Gantt Chart. Evaluation will be conducted during the progression of each activities to make sure it meet the deadline. Meanwhile, consultation process with all members responsible for the change management plan will be conducted to investigate possible threats that may affect the project timeline.

4. How will you activate the strategy and start the process for change?

In order to ensure the change management plan being able to implement successfully, Lippit, Watson and Westley model will be used as change strategy. This strategy was originated from planned organisational change also known as Lewin’s model (Kim, Hornung, & Rousseau, 2011). The conventional model indicate change occurred through unfreeze the status quo, movement from current level to a new equilibrium and refreeze the new value to achieve stability in new equilibrium (Southern Cross Education Institute;, 2017). Based on Kim, Hornung and Rousseau (2011) research finding indicates that identifying the factors motivate individual is critical to managing changes. Therefore, using improved model from Lippit, Watson and Westley is effective for implementation. Lippit, Watson and Westley model consist 7 changing phases: 1.) Situational diagnostic, 2.) Motivation & capacity for changes, 3.) Assess involving parties, 4.) Setup change action plan,

5.) Setup clear chain of command,

6.) Maintain change through coordination and

7.) Institutionalised change value.

• Situational diagnostic: Both company operating standard will be checked for compatibility and any differences will be included in the report to investigate for best practice available.
• Motivation & capacity for changes: In order for employees to change, a reward system will be set up to reward employees who show positive mentality for change.
• Assess involving parties: Merger is a change involving internal and external parties extensively; collaboration and commitment from both parties’ leaders is highly important to ensure the change success. So it is imperative to include all members in the decision making process and inform both parties on the change progress; making sure both companies reach an agreement on change requirements.
• Setup change action plan: Once agreement was formed, both companies need to setup change action plan accordingly. The change action plan will be designed based on SMART model: a.) Specific, b.) Measurable, c.) Assignable, d.) Reliable and e.) Time-based.
• Setup clear chain of command: Once the action plan was layout, both companies need to set up a clear chain command, such as personnel responsible to overlook and evaluate the performances of action plan, ensuring the action plan was properly carry out. This is the phase, where communication plan is crucial and important.
• Maintain change through coordination: As the change management plan progress, it is important to keep the change continue progress and meet all the change objectives. Therefore, management need to coordinate personnel who are responsible for executing change plan accordingly. For example, assigning financial team to review and update the budget required for change, communicating the result to front line manager, acknowledging the problems faced by manager through providing guidance and others.
• Institutionalised change value: This phase main purpose was to ensure employees adapted to the new code of practice, embedding the value to employees’ norm and belief. In order to do so, reinforcement technique can be used, such as reward and punishment to fostered desirable attitude and extinction of non-compliance behaviour (Kimble, 1956).

5. How and when will you conduct evaluation and review? When would you modify the change management project plan to achieve change program objectives?

An effective review and evaluation mechanism is imperative to examine change program objectives achieved and track the change performances (Hernan, 1986). Meanwhile, Hernan (1986) report indicate that monitoring mechanism is highly useful to generate valuable data and information for future planning and modification on change management project Due to that reason, monitoring mechanism need to be setup from change management plan beginning phase. During the beginning stage, development team need to review the draft before finalising making sure it is practical. While in executing stage, a weekly review need to be setup to examine the progression of the plan, while a monthly evaluation will be conducted to examine whether the change implemented meet the requirements of change objectives.

References

Australian Treasury Departmnet. (n.d.). Chapter 6: Mergers & Acquisitions. In Australian Treasury Department, Financial System Inquiry (pp. 151-186). Retrieved June 13, 2017, from https://fsi.treasury.gov.au/content/downloads/DiscussionPaper/chapt06.pdf

Hernan, C. G. (1986). Evaluation of agricultural research in Colombia. Singapore Workshop, (pp. 7-9).

Kim, T. G., Hornung, S., & Rousseau, D. M. (2011). Change-Supportive Employee Behavior: Antecedents and the Moderating Role of Time. Journal of Management, 37(6), 1664-1693. doi:10.1177/0149206310364243

Kimble, G. A. (1956). Reinforcement Theory. (G. C. Wrenn, Ed.) Journal of Counseling Psychology, 3(2), 112-115. doi:10.1037/h0045475

Pilcher, J. (2013, March 5). How To Keep Customers From Jumping Ship After A Merger. Retrieved June 13, 2017, from The Financial Brand: https://thefinancialbrand.com/27872/merger-communications-strategies-for-financial-institutions/

Siegenthaler, P. J. (2010, August 3). Ten reasons mergers and acquisitions fail. Retrieved June 13, 2017, from The Telegraph: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/businessclub/7924100/Ten-reasons-mergers-and-acquisitions-fail.html

Southern Cross Education Institute;. (2017). Leading and Managing Change. BSBINN601 Power Point. Adelaide, SA, Australia: Southern Cross Education Institute.

The Economist. (2014, November 17). The trouble with mergers. Retrieved June 13, 2017, from The Economist: http://www.economist.com/news/business-and-finance/21633272-our-advice-1994-companies-considering-merger-trouble-mergers

Ulrich, D., Younger, J., & Brockbank, W. (2008). The twenty‐first‐century HR organization. Human Resource Management, 47(4), 829-850. doi:10.1002/hrm.20247

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