Essay: Strategic Change Management - Australia Post Case Study.

Objective of Australia Post

Questions:

1. Identify strategic change needed through an analysis of strategic plans, Review existing policies and practices working against strategic objectives, Monitor trends in external environment  to identify risks to organisations objectives.

2. Identify major operational/performance gaps/opp or threats/ decisions, Review and prioritise change requirements, Undertake a cost benefit analysis.

3. Undertake risk analysis + Identify and respond to barriers to change.  

4. Consultant internal managers & experts, Consult with individuals and relevant groups.

5. Develop a change management plan and project timetable, Obtain approval for change management plan, Assign resources to the project.      

6. Develop comm. & education plans for relevant staff, Develop comm. plans to promote benefits & minimise loss, Arrange activities to deliver communication.

7. Activate strategies for embedding change, Conduct regular evaluations and reviews.

A business needs several changes in its lifetime. Change may take place due to several reasons like, to improve the production quality, to improve the service quality, to modernize the business’s structure etc. To do any change the organization must manage the whole situation. Change management is a systematic way to transitioning any kind of change to an expected future situation.

Accoridng to Ardichvili (2012), that a company needs strategic changes when it faces any kind of difficulties during implementation of strategies to achieve the objectives. Here, in this particular study, the needs for strategic changes in the company i.e. Australia Post has stated below:

Objectives of Australia Post – (i) The main objectives of Australia post is to deliver innovative and easy-to use products and services to the people. (ii) It is also an objective of the company is to provide friendly services through knowledgeable staffs. (iii) Another objective of Australia Post that is very important is to build an efficient and effective network to provide services to the people within the required timeframe. (iv)The objective for the employees or for the staffs is to rewarding their excellent performance and providing job satisfactions to the employees. (v) Another objective is to encourage all the members of the company to participate efficiently to make the business successful (Brown, 2006).

However, Australia Post has the above business objectives but the current strategies taken by them are become unsuccessful to meet those objectives due to some loopholes in the current strategies. As opined by Gill (2012) that the loopholes in the company are – lack of knowledgeable staffs to provide excellent services to the people, lack of friendly attitude in the staff members of the company,  lack of sincerity within the employees to provide timely services, lack of motivational activities within the company. Hence, existence of these all loopholes needs some strategic changes within the company (Kossek, 2007).

The current policies of Australia Post and the limitations

(i) policy of Australia Post Enterprise Agreement, 2013. It is taken to rewarding the employees but this is not implemented in a right manner. Hence, the employees do not get expected reward for their performances.

(ii) Another policy is Assignment of Postcodes. It is made to allocate the postcodes to various geographical areas and to the localities but due to lack of proper training, the staffs are not able to allocate the Postcodes timely.

Loopholes in Current Strategies

(iii) The next is Refund Policy.  As explained by Smart and Pontifex (2003) that this policy is to guide the clients or customers to refund the products and request for any kind of exchange and repair but in actual situation, the employees do not properly give this guidance. Hence, the customers face many problems for that.

(iv) Policy to maintain ethics is the next one. This policy is to guide all the members of the company to perform their job in an ethical and integrated manner but due to lack of proper communication system this is not happening actually. However, these policies are failed to meet objectives of the company and so, the change is required.

Political – At present, the political focus is increasing on the postal services industry in Australia. This means the government is thinking about this industry for betterment, which is indicating good opportunity of the company Australia Post (Gashi, 2013).

Economic – The reduction in customers’ net income due to the economic crisis is creating pressure on the postal industry of Australia, which will results in the growth of this industry. That means, Australia Post is benefited during this changed situation.

Social – The demand for innovative postal products and services are increasing in Australia at present and it is one of the main plus points for Australia Post (Graham and Bennett, 2008).

Technological –The current technological changes is creating new scope for business for this postal industry in terms of new and innovative products and services and it is the great opportunity for Australia Post.

Legal – The present internet evolution has stretched the legal boundaries for the postal industry, which has resulted more customer demand in case of their right in getting postal services.

Environment – The growing environmental awareness has provided the scope to the postal industry in Australia to produce and deliver the innovative eco-friendly products. It is another big scope for Australia Post to introduce attractive eco-friendly products and services as mentioned by Hersey and Blanchard (2012).

Performance gaps – the main performance gap in Australia post is not delivering the products and services in time. This is happening due to the lack of sincerity in the staffs of the company; another gap is not satisfying the employees’ needs. This is the performance gap of the managers; they are not successful to communicate the employees properly; the next is providing standard services to the customers. This is taking place due to the gap in knowledge of the employees (Martocchio, 2004).

Business opportunities and threats – The main opportunities for Australia post is the growing environmental awareness among the Australian public, advanced technological changes, increased social demand for innovative products and services (Tracey, 2004). On the other hand, the threats for Australia post are the increased legal restrictions, introduction of new companies, which have strong capital and technological base.

Management decisions – the management of the company made several policies but they are failed to take appropriate decisions to implement those policies and they have also took decisions of not providing all the relevant holidays to the employees which became the main barrier for non-achievement of objectives (Tracey, 2004).

Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal, and Environmental Factors

However, these above performance gaps, management decisions, threats and the opportunities has caused for the needs to strategic changes.

The biggest opportunity for which the organization requires strategic change is the increased demand of the innovative eco-friendly products. For this the production manager needs to change the production strategy that is the strategy for change in the types of raw materials, machinery etc as opined by Gashi (2013). Another opportunity is the development in the internet services. For this, the marketing manager needs to change the present strategy to provide better services through online. The next change is required is the change in the strategy to provide training to the employees and this is the responsibility of human resource manager. Proper training and guidance will make the employees able to provide better services and increasing the market share (Smart and Pontifex, 2003).

Barriers to changes: The main barriers to changes in Australia Post are –

(i) shortage of required money for making the infrastructural changes and starting the training and development program.

(ii) Lack of appropriate personnel to provide the training.

(iii) Lack of employees’ sincerity to adopt the required change.

(iv) proper internal environment is not present in the organization.

(v) Absence of proper communication system within the organization (Smart and Pontifex, 2003).

Agreed and mitigation strategies: The agreed and mitigation strategies of Australia Post are –

(i) strategy for communicating all the employees at each time when any change takes place.

(ii) Strict notice by the management to implement the changes.

(iii) Strategy for starting training and development program.

(iv) Strategy to source the new kind of raw materials before the requirements takes place (Gashi, 2013).

To introduce the changes in the organization at first a change management team must be appoint in the organization. The employees of the organization and the personnel from the outside can be included in the team. In the second step the plans of the company have to analyzed properly to see the suitability of the plans. The next step is to make a communication plan within the organization to inform all the members about the changed plans or strategies (Kossek, 2007). The fourth step is to create a suitable timeline that will require during the change management process. Fifth step is detection of those problems, which may arise during the change process. The sixth step is preparation of a report including all the information of change to present it to the senior management. The last step is discussing with the local management team about the future changes that will happen (Kossek, 2007).  

After completing the planning, the employees need to take the approval from the appropriate authority. For example: To doing any changes in the production department the approval must be taken from the production managers, CEO and the Managing Director of the company. For any change in the human resource department the approval have to take from the human resource manager, and from the Managing Director. Therefore, for any kind of change the approvals have to take so that the change meets the legal requirements and everything goes in a systematic manner (Brown, 2006).

Performance Gaps

After taking the approval from the appropriate authorities, the local managers have to take care to allocating the required resources to the changed plans. For examples: if Australia Post requires any changes in the human resource department that is requirement of training and development the manager of the human resource department needs to source the appropriate authority who will give the training. With that the manager have to identify the employees who need training program and then the manager need to apply for the required money to the senior or appropriate authorities (Smart and Pontifex, 2003). On the other hand to change the type of products the production manager needs to identify the raw materials that is required to produce the new type i.e. eco-friendly products. After that the managers have to inform the human resource department to give training to the workers or employees, if required. At last the production manager will apply to the appropriate authority that is the finance department to provide the required finance or money for implementing the change.

The cost-benefit analysis is as follows:

Change requirement and opportunities	Costs	Benefits
Increasing demand for eco-friendly products	The knowledge limitations in the workers of the production department change in production system, huge initial cost.	Increase in customer base, increase in sales and profitability and positive movement o brand image.
Advancement of technology	Lack of proper knowledge within the employees, sacrificing jobs of some employees	New and innovative products and services
Training and development program for employees	Huge initial costs	Trained staff members, delivering better services to the customers

Table1: Cost benefit analysis

Job analysis and preparation of organisational structure: This is a significant task for Australia Post in establishing where the core experience and knowledge is situated and among which key workers or individuals or areas this is vested. It the change objective proposes to adopt new business practices and processes targeted at providing the firm with enhanced business performance, then carrying out a job analysis across the entire spectrum or strategic organisational roles and responsibilities also need to be undertaken at the earliest.

To accomplish the mission, vision and objectives, any company must aim at realising the full potential of all its employees (Hersey and Blanchard, 2012). Be valuing its staffs, a company can increase its innovativeness and ability to adapt to change, thereby improving its overall performance. Constant employee involvement and consultation will assist in assuring employees of the significance of the organisational changes, the ways in which they can be involved and how they can support the alterations to the business.

Barriers to the change that is taking place in Australia Post:

• Lack of knowledge in the employees
• Lack monetary base for the required changes
• Lack of appropriate communication system
• Lack of personnel to provide the training
• Lack of appropriate infrastructure for implementing the change

The researcher has thanked to the higher authority of the company because of their helpful approaches. The higher authority of the company has helped the researcher to analyse the data in proper manner. The manager of the company has provided all kind of information that helps the researcher to conduct the research in proper manner. 

The stakeholders of the company are managers, shareholders and supplier, employees and customers of the company. The stakeholder’s are played their effective role in developing the performance of the organisation in the market. Though the company has faced some of major problems therefore, the stakeholders are allowed to provide necessary idea to the company to overcome its barriers and get benefit from it accordingly.

The Company Australia Post is responding to the changes by initiating training programme in the market. The manager of the company that is Australia Post has to create a strong communication network to communicate the employees and their customers (Hersey and Blanchard, 2012). The management needs to announce about all kind of changes that will take place in the near future. Another thing that the management have to do is arrange the required money to implement the change in the organization.

Steps in Strategic Change Management

The development of communication or education plan to promote the benefits of the change to the firm and to reduce loss include three steps namely, organisational pre-positioning, change management plan implementation and ongoing support and consolidation.

Organisational pre positioning – this phase focuses on the preparations for change through communication with staff and stakeholders. In also comprises of initial job analysis including preparing of job descriptions for introduction of a novel organisational structure and the deliverance of general change management awareness training to employees. This particular phase is targeted at preparing the organisation for change and managing associated risks and benefits (Smart and Pontifex, 2003).

Change management plan implementation – The focus in this phase is on the implementation of the changes against the decided plans and business objectives. The progress of application should be regularly informed to senior manager’s stakeholders and staff.

Ongoing support and consolidation – This particular phase concentrates on provision of continual support and enhancements as the alterations are incorporated within the firm and are considered as the new work culture of the company.

A fundamental feature of facilitating a change process throughout the application phase will be development of an initial awareness and comprehending at an early stage, regarding why change management process is necessary and the benefits to be gained at team, individual and organisational performance levels (Kossek, 2007). Pre–positioning is essential for shaping and successful delivery of required knowledge to advance the firm from its current business mode of operation to accomplish a higher stage of business performance. From a practical perspective, at no stage of the communications cycle should the change management application timeframe be delivered in anything except the most realistic terms. Otherwise, it may severely hamper the degree of employee commitment as well as the credibility of programme and transformation (Smart and Pontifex, 2003).

General awareness training and analysis: The primary step of designing a concentrated and relevant training and learning plan is to ensure that the activities are targeted at raising the awareness of suitable skills and knowledge of the staff of Australia Post. All managers will be required to provide data on individuals by using a framework of competencies for each job profile. Apart from this, the business objectives and strategy will also determine key areas where the planned changes have to be delivered to enhance organisational processes (Graham and Bennett, 2008).

Activities	1st month	2nd month	3rd month
Informing the employees about the future changes	ü
Initiating the training program	ü
Continuing the training program	ü	ü
Communicating all the members in the organization	ü	ü
Arranging the money	ü	ü
Completion of change program			ü

Table 2: Gantt chart

Conclusion:

It can be concluded that Australia Post initiates several training programs for the growth of the employee. This will directly give strong impact on the growth of the company itself. This is recommended for the managers to judge the growth.

Reference List:

Gashi, R. (2013). Strategic Human Resources Management: Human Resources or Human Capital. Academic Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies.

Graham, H. and Bennett, R. (2008). Human resources management. London: Pitman.

Hersey, P. and Blanchard, K. (2012). Management of organizational behavior. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall.

Martocchio, J. (2004). Research in personnel and human resources management. Amsterdam: Elsevier JAI.

Tracey, W. (2004). Human resources management & development handbook. New York: amacom.

Ardichvili, A. (2012). Knowledge Management, Human Resource Development, and Internet Technology. Advances in Developing Human Resources, 4(4), pp.451-463.

Brown, A. (2006). Quality Management: Issues for Human Resource Management. Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources, 33(3), pp.117-129.

Gill, R. (2012). Change management--or change leadership?. Journal of Change Management, 3(4), pp.307-318.

Kossek, E. (2007). Human Resources Management Innovation. Human Resource Management, 26(1), pp.71-92.

Smart, J. and Pontifex, M. (2003). Human Resources Management and the Australian Human Resources Institute: The Profession and Its Professional Body. Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources, 31(1), pp.1-19.