UNIT 02: MANAGING CHANGE IN ORGANISATIONS

1)INTRODUCTION1)INTRODUCTION::

This report focuses on a major group-wide management development

intervention programme aimed to change the style of management and the

culture at Royal Mail. The corner stone been identified as tackling the

management development, the report further utilizes appropriate plans on

how this is been achieved.

One-off launch “My Development” event has been planned and

implemented aiming to develop managers. Evaluation and the

effectiveness of this plan has also been analysed with the construction of a

contingency plan.

Report highlights the Managers role and their development needs in

sustaining profitability in an organisation.

2)INTRODUCTION TO ROYAL MAIL GROUP2)INTRODUCTION TO ROYAL MAIL GROUP::

Royal Mail Group Ltd is the parent company of Royal Mail, Post Office®

and Parcelforce Worldwide. Royal Mail Group is the most recognised

postal business in the UK. It is wholly owned by the UK government. Every

person living in UK is a customer, makes the company unique. Royal Mail

takes pride in its community policies. The key principle that runs through

its culture has been identified as the strong service element of the Royal

Mail. Royal Mail collects, processes and delivers 82 million items to 27

million addresses each day. Also employ almost 193,000 people in the UK.

That’s almost 1% of the working population.

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UNIT 02: MANAGING CHANGE IN ORGANISATIONS

3) Background and need for change:

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UNIT 02: MANAGING CHANGE IN ORGANISATIONS

4)OBJECTIVE OF CHANGE4)OBJECTIVE OF CHANGE::

Achieve re-newel of the business and to re-engage its workforce by

making Royal Mail a great place to work.

Royal mail certainly needs to move forward and sharpen up its willingness

to flex to new challenges. The chairman of Royal mail group (Allan

Leighton, 2000) identified the need of key operational changes in order to

achieve sustainable profitability. The group’s Chief Executive, Adam

Crozier, highlighted the “need for change” as “the only way we can deliver

long-term sustainable improvements in customer service, while generating

sufficient cash to run our business”

5) Change issues:

It has been a Process dominated organisation. A culture shift needs

to take place. Focus has to change from processes to engaging

people.

Encouraging involvement in the shaping of business is seen to be

important in increasing capability. Thus a change in the management

style is required since the present bureaucratic style involves typical

command and control patterns of management.

6) planning the change:

Mainly six key issues are involved in the planning stage. They are listed

below:

Need to build effective reporting and management structures which

lead to provide direction, support and resources.

Activity planning and constructing a schedule for change

programme is required. ( example: Gantt chart )

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UNIT 02: MANAGING CHANGE IN ORGANISATIONS

Commitment planning is essential, since there should be identified

key people and groups whose commitment and support will be

needed for change.

Monitoring the objectives will also take place to track and review the

progress.

Training and development is essential for increasing the awareness

and willingness to change.

7) Swot analysis:

Below a SWOT analysis has been carried out on the Royal Mail, SWOT

analysis entails the internal factors i.e., strengths and weaknesses,

external factors as opportunities and threats to the industry.

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UNIT 02: MANAGING CHANGE IN ORGANISATIONS

S W

O T

Strengths Weaknesses

Opportunities Threats

The brands, Royal Mail is known and recognised by businesses and domestic

customers alike.

Over 370 years of experience behind

- -Strong Infra structure and know how

Became a plc on 26 March 2001 under the Postal Services Act 2000, since then

undergone huge transformation, turning 1losses of more than £ million a day into a

537£ million profit from operations in-2004 05.( www.royalmailgroup.com)

DDDDDDDDDD DDD DDDD DDDDDDD DD DDDDDDD DD - record with world class performance.

Operations of the process and - systems are complex operational

inefficiency

Rival organisations involved in the postal service

Bureaucratic style of management generating passive employees who

are not engaged in improving thebusiness

Dramatic changes in the external environment with greater

competition and regulatorsinvolvement.

DDDDDDDDDD DDDD DD DDDD DD DDDDDD in the service by summer 2009, cash

received will be pumped into Royal Mail and Post office (BBC news,

[online] 26th Feb 09)

Recently government has proposed on transferring responsibility for the

pension fund, with its £ 6bn deficit, to .( , [] 26

Feb 09)

Modernisation plan going ahead byLord Mandelson (BBC news, [online]

26th Feb 09)

DDDDDDDDD DDDDDDDDDDD

DDDDDDDD DDDDDDDDDDD DDDDD DDDDDD gaining an increased advantage in

overcoming the company.

Rise of DDDDDDDD users which means an - increase of e mail usage leading to the

decline in personal letter sending

High political pressure on Royal Mail to increase revenue.

Lack of motivation among the workforce, due to the large pension

fund deficit, accounting deficit of over 4 ( , [ ] 26£ billion BBC news online th Feb

09)

Technology currently lagging that of the competitors

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UNIT 02: MANAGING CHANGE IN ORGANISATIONS

8) STRATEGY FOR UNDERSTANDING AND INVOLVING

OTHERS IN CHANGE PROCESS:

“Communication” and “Getting people involved” is the two main facets

in planning and execution of change. Communication not only involves

giving information, but also listening to the feedback and taking actions on

it. Through communication the people can help themselves to overcome

the fears and encourage those concerned to assist rather than resist

change.

Royal mail should treat the people not as obstacles for change but make

them involve in it and make them responsible for it. Since Royal mail’s

strategy is to do with developing the managers, the responsibility for

decision making and target setting will be transitioned to operational

managers to create greater freedom to act.

“Sustaining the momentum” need to be considered at times when the

initial enthusiasm for change wanes. This can be done by providing

resources for change and also giving support to change agents.

Royal mail will have a chosen change management team who will develop

managers and not only plan and oversee the change project, but also

motivate others and deal with difficulties. Under the developing manager’s

scheme, managers should be able to optimize their resources and move

the business forward by administrating people in clear performance terms.

Also, when they are faced with obstacles, they will be expected to

overcome and seek support necessary.

Develop new competences and skills

Mangers must be capable in five key areas in order to take responsibility

and authority at work.

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UNIT 02: MANAGING CHANGE IN ORGANISATIONS

Inspiring people

Focusing action

Seeking improvements

Driving results

Taking ownership

Under the management development programme, managers will be given

the right skills and confidence to perform well improving the business and

making Royal mail a great place to work. This will become a major

development thrust.

9) Stakeholder Analysis:

Royal mail business is all about the people. They believe that it’s their hard

work and dedication that will take their business forward through every

next stage of unprecedented change. Royal Mail needs to develop and

improve the relationship with people. Also, ensure that they have the right

incentives to continue delivering consistent service to customers. They are

committed to encouraging:

better leadership commitment to safety issues

line managers to become role models and to set safety standards

Accountabilities, consequences and recognition of safety management

Support and safety skill training. (Available from :>

http://www.royalmailgroup.com/portal/rmg/content1?

catId=23200539&mediaId=23300512 [online] accessed on 10th March

09 )

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UNIT 02: MANAGING CHANGE IN ORGANISATIONS

10)ADAPTATION OF APPROPRIATE PLAN 10)ADAPTATION OF APPROPRIATE PLAN ::

Managers are introduced to the development programme.

Help managers with first-hand experience of the different

development activities available to them.

Help them to communicate the value of the managers in supporting

the business.

Reinforce the expectations of managers.

Regenerate the motivation among the managers and drive them up

to inspire people.

Provide an update on the current business performance.

Help them to identify their development priorities.

Most importantly making them more aware of the benefits of this

event, “My Development”.

How the event, “My development” will be used as a tool to develop

managers, is shown below in a diagram. Also, refer to the Gantt chart

attached to the appendix section for a further view on the schedules for

this particular change programme.

11)IMPLEMENTATION PROCESS AND OUTCOMES11)IMPLEMENTATION PROCESS AND OUTCOMES

::

With reference to the detailed Gantt chart, the activities that will takes place

according to set quarters for the year, planned 2010 are shown:

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UNIT 02: MANAGING CHANGE IN ORGANISATIONS

programme plan

Involving the people, informing them and briefing on “My

Development” event followed by an introduction to the “My

Development Planner” is taking place on the first quarter of the year.

In this phase, managers will get to know about the new programme

and its benefits. This will be headed by the selected change

management team, consisting of mentors, top level executives and

senior managers.

Through out the development planning year, major development

activities and sessions takes place ranging from Practical

workshops, Skill module classes, Action learning, Coaching to E-

learning gatherings.

1. Practical Workshops- Class-room based training, focused on

high impact issues, such as health, safety, diversity etc. that

will require rapid roll-out in the business.

2. Skill Modules- Dynamic enjoyable sessions dedicated to

focused development. Skills include: ability to give feedback,

decision-making, assertiveness, collaborative working etc.

3. Action Learning- Managers meet over a period of few months

and is required to reflect and review action and report

progress to the groups.

4. Coaching- External coaches are brought in, and they help

individual to maximize their performance. Managers get to

tackle leadership challenges.

5. E-learning- learning products accessed online at a time and

pace which suits the manager. Products include: policy on

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UNIT 02: MANAGING CHANGE IN ORGANISATIONS

performance management, conduct and attendance code,

assessing risk, business targets and the balanced scorecard.

reporting and assessing

Performance of each manager is monitored by the mentors and the

executives in the beginning of each quarter from April onwards.

Effectiveness and their impact on the real work are measured in the mid of

each quarter. The factors assessed are as follows:

The way managers are rewarded for developing sub- ordinates

Identifying the development needs of managers

Amount of time and effort Royal Mail apply to manage the whole

process of developing people.

How often opportunities and promotions are given to the managers

who shows outstanding performance.

Potential and the capability of the managers are how often identified

and appraised by the seniors.

Afterwards, results are disseminated in order to do the reviewing on how

the development agenda can be made of greater benefits and

effectiveness.

12) feedbacks :

An “employee survey” is conducted in the mid of development year and

the results are analysed to see the impact of the new programme, on the

style of management and to the degree of change in culture instilled at

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UNIT 02: MANAGING CHANGE IN ORGANISATIONS

Royal Mail. Regular feed back on one to ones are given on a weekly basis

for further improvements.

13) Evaluation and the Effectiveness of the Change:

While the objective has been to achieve re-newel of business and to re-

engage its workforce, it is inevitable of the numerous difficulties and

pitfalls of the strategies employed. Considering the large, geographically

scattered organisation, it is quite tough to build consensus and support

across the business. Often senior managers may find it reluctant to fully

support the programme, since they don’t know the credibility of the “My

Development” event. Some may find that the choices of activities and

flexibility of programme confusing. However “contingency plan” has been

put in action. A random sample of managers will be followed over the

whole development year and performance measures, pre-and post

development, will be compared across the different combinations of

activity classes undertaken. Line mangers will also be asked to rate the

changes identified in relevance to hard, key performance indicators. This

will provide an all-round assessment. Using the contingency plan, senior

managers can gain more credibility over the programme and can show

greater commitment to it, as a result motivating and engaging others as

well.

14)CONCLUSION14)CONCLUSION::

This report exemplifies an illustration of innovative management

development and it accentuates the role of managers at organisations.

Report states that, increasing the capabilities of the manager is the

mechanism for generating increased profitability at Royal Mail in the light

of the current organizational context. The participation in the group wide

management intervention aiming to develop managers and to re-engage

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UNIT 02: MANAGING CHANGE IN ORGANISATIONS

the workforce has been tackled in order to make Royal mail a great place to

work. A new one- off launch “My Development” event has been planned in

order to build potential managers who will thrive in the rapid changing

competitive market. Report also shows that there is a need to engage all

staff to work together, effectively-profitably and enjoyably. The

implemented development programme will make the managers lives easier

by helping them to do a great job. In conclusion, the Managers have a

crucial role to play in changing the culture of the organisation. Hence the

first target falls on developing the managers to facilitate the flux.

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UNIT 02: MANAGING CHANGE IN ORGANISATIONS

Refrences:

Burnes, B. (2000) Managing Change: A Strategic Approach to

Organisational Dynamics, 3rd edition. England: Pearson Education Limited.

Mullins, L. J. (2005) Management Organisational Behaviour: Case Study

10.2: Will the mail get through: Managing Change at the Royal Mail, 7th

edition, Prentice Hall.

Royal Mail Group Ltd (2009) Welcome to Royal Mail Group. [online].

Available from;< http://www.royalmailgroup.com/portal/rmg/jump1?

catId=23200529&mediaId=23200554 > [Accessed 20 March 2009].

Ark Group Ltd (2009) Case Study: Royal Mail Group: Special Delivery.

[online]. Available from;>

http://www.ikmagazine.com/xq/asp/sid.0/articleid.B76A58E4-03F0-44D7-

85CE-051642962881/eTitle.Case_study_Royal_Mail_Group/qx/display.htm >

[Accessed 26 NOV 2009].

BBC News (2009) Sell-Off: to save Postal Service. [online] Available from;>

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7911526.stm > [Accessed 24 NOV

2009].

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