Organizational Change Is Crucial For Success.

Organizational change comprises effort of management to review and modify organization structures and other processes. There are different types of changes in organization namely happened change, reactive change, and planned, anticipatory, incremental, directional, strategic, operational, fundamental and total changes. The reasons for the identified change in the company is due to increasing competitive environment, emergence of new technologies, economic conditions, varying levels of consumer demand and government policy actions. The advent of information technologies has brought forces that have changed the way business transacted and how agencies interact with employees, collaborate with the employee and how they outsource and distribute finished goods in the market.  

The report uses two tools of change namely Total Quality management and Learning Organization to explore the manufacturing and the service industry. The production sector featured includes food and beverage industry, and the focus includes Coca-Cola and the MacDonald’s. In the service industry, the company of choice includes the Bank of Singapore. The concept Learning Organization as popularized by Senge explains about an organization that has an ideal learning environment that responds to the team objectives through dealing with uncertainties and complexities in the business climate. In the service industry, specifically the banking the tool used includes TQM and it focuses on ensuring various processes and guidelines are applied by the management to reduce the level of errors that occurs in the process. The tool works in many ways through management using many techniques geared toward improving the sound outputs mainly services. The report argues that total quality management tool of change is compatible with both manufacturing and service sector but more useful in the service sector.

The report explores the tools used in management in the service and manufacturing industry and then make a recommendation on the ways to improve them. The construction industry is so huge as it encompasses various companies such as an automobile, textile but the scope of this report is the food and beverage industry with the focus on MacDonald’s and Coca-Cola. The same applies to the service sector as it has many companies such as education, consultation, and others but the focus is the banking sector specifically the bank of Singapore. The scope includes how they are applied, their advantages, shortcomings and how they can be applied to the industry and the particular company.

Certain features are identifiable in service and manufacturing companies. The manufacturing companies are identified by a series of operations that are present in the production of tangible products which means these products can be held, seen, broken. Further, the company can be divided into branches namely the discrete and process. Besides, organizations are engaged in the production of goods through use of defined ingredients and formula such as sugar, water, and other additives. Contrary, service organizations do not endorse a product, but their professionals provide intangible services that cannot be seen or identified by the customers. Service operations are divided into many categories namely hospitality, banking, consultancy, advertising, and others.

Manufacturing Industry

In general, companies such as Coca-Cola process of production is standardized because production takes place in mass and the end products are standardized. On the contrary, service firms have a broad range of opportunities for customization of the intangible services they provide to consumers and this means what is offered is not the same. However, there are some similarities and differences in both industries, and this includes facing similar problems which affect their result such as cost control. For example, the manufacturing sectors consistently find suppliers to provide them cheap raw materials which are of the highest quality. The service sector also does the same, and they struggle to control the cost or offering services. There is also effort applied to forecasting the likely supply and demand forces for their end products and services in a bid to maintain their competitive ability in the marketplace.

The report uses Learning Organization to explore the manufacturing industry with the particular focus on the food and beverage industry.  The concept Learning Organization should not be confused with others such as organizational learning. Peter Senge popularized the term to explain the organization that has an ideal learning environment that responds to the agency goals and services. Naturally, it is defined as an ingrained philosophy used by the management to anticipate, react and respond to the business environment change, uncertainties and complexities. There are various characteristics of the tool as identified by Peter Senge namely building shared, vision systems thinking, team learning among others. 

There are some benefits and shortcomings of using a learning organization in the manufacturing sector. The change tool does not rely on passive processes, and it seeks to facilitate and promote collective learning in the workplace actively. The main advantage of the tool includes the ability of the organization to maintain high and acceptable levels of innovation to make it remain competitive in the market and place it in a better position to respond to both internal and external pressures. The learning process equips the employees with ample knowledge to satisfy and meet the consumer needs, and this improves the quality of output across all the departments. Further, it enhances the company reputation and increases the pace at which the change is taking place. 

The tool can be applied to the sector by companies such as Coca-Cola, and other to bring change in the organizations. According to Senge, the change device requires the management to apply effort perfectly in tune with the company set goals and strategies. Companies like Coca-Cola can implement the tool by continually expanding the knowledge and capacity of the employees to improve the results and attain the desired goals. This means that the management work toward nurturing a particular kind of patterns through training. Besides, they set an enabling environment where the group of employees is allowed to interact in the process of learning and understand what is required from them. The implementation process can be implemented through various steps namely creation of a shared vision and culture that promotes sharing of values and the purpose for the change. Leaders then determine the strategies, structures and the policies that are used in translating the ideas and decisions into desired actions. The environment to enable the learning processes is created, and this allows the improvement of the strategies and structures. 

Service Industry

In this section, the focus is total quality management that can be used in the service and manufacture industry. The change tool was formulated by William Deming who was a management consultant in Japan and had an impact on both sectors. The tool has so many commonalities with the Six Sigma but not similar as TQM focuses on ensuring that various processes and guidelines are applied by the management to reduce the level of errors that occurs in the process. The tool works in many ways through management using many techniques geared toward improving the firm's outputs mainly services. The process is not done like an event but through continuous improvement of internal practices in respect to the set goals and the industry’s standards. 

There are various advantages and disadvantages of using total quality management in the organization. The tool is credited for eliminating defects, waste and cost in the process of offering services which reduce the cost of operation in business. Therefore, when the weakness is removed, there is ample profit, reduced resource input and increase the efficiency in which the services are provided to the clients. The tool allows for worker participation, and this contributes to its success and increased productivity. This means the workers are empowered because they are allowed to participate in the process. However, there is some disadvantages namely service disruption because the change tool requires training of employees which can decline the process. There is a possibility of a high level of resistance from employees who do not want the status quo to be overturned and when there is a lack of effective communication to the employees.

The tool of change can be applied in both the manufacturing and the service sectors of the economy. While the device originated from the production industry, its fundamental principles apply to some organizations, and the implementation process focuses on the long-term change while overlooking short-term objectives. The management uses it for the provision of cohesive vision to bring systemic change in service industries such as the banking sector, medicine, and others. Therefore, the management in the process of change focuses on the continuous improvement of the organization operations and the purpose is to ensure all the employees work toward achieving the common objectives. This ensures the services produced are up to the standard and the procedures used in production are appropriate. Besides, there is a huge emphasis on decision making to enhance it through the use of industry information and facts. The management also opens the channels of communication to motivate employees engagement with others and workplace morale.

Conclusion and Recommendations

In conclusion, many organizations are experiencing changes due to the advent of new technology and the need to stay competitive in the industry. Various tools are used in change management in both the manufacturing and the service sectors namely the food and beverage industries and the banking industries. The tool used in the manufacturing sector includes the learning organization which is the style employed by the management to respond to the changes in the environment as well as trying to achieve the set goals. In this, the organization seeks to attain knowledge to satisfy certain goals in the workplace. The other tool is total quality management that is used by the organization to reduce the errors and the waste in a bid to increase the quality of the output.

The report recommends the management to be fully committed and be continually involved in the process to entrench it as part of the firm’s culture gradually. When it is entrenched and accepted as a way of doing things, there are various financial due to increased efficiency and customer’s satisfaction. There is a need for companies to improve the learning organization strategy of change through establishing the guidelines for the future projects which should take into account the previous mistakes and norms. The employees too should be trained how to get committed and follow the laid down rules.

Aggestam, Lena. "Learning organization or knowledge management–Which came first, the chicken or the egg?." Information technology and control 35, no. 3 (2015).

Anderson, Donald L. Organization development: The process of leading organizational change. Sage Publications, 2016.

Attafar, Ali, Arash Shahin, and Manouchehr Kheradmandnia. "The impact of TQM practices on organizational learning case study." International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management 33, no. 5 (2016): 574-596.

Breja, Satyendra Kumar, Devinder Kumar Banwet, and K. C. Iyer. "Towards sustainable excellence: strategic analysis of Deming Prize winning companies." The TQM Journal 28, no. 3 (2016): 390-410.

Cameron, Esther, and Mike Green. Making sense of change management: a complete guide to the models, tools and techniques of organizational change. Kogan Page Publishers, 2015.

Dabholkar, Pratibha A. "How to improve perceived service quality by increasing customer participation." In Proceedings of the 1990 Academy of Marketing Science (AMS) Annual Conference, pp. 483-487. Springer International Publishing, 2015.

Hitt, William D. "The learning organization: some reflections on organizational renewal." Employee Councelling Today (2013).

Hussein, Norashikin, Amnah Mohamad, Fauziah Noordin, and Noormala Amir Ishak. "Learning organization and its effect on organizational performance and organizational innovativeness: A proposed framework for Malaysian Public Institutions of Higher Education." Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences 130 (2014): 299-304.

Lim, Sang-Ho. "A Study on the Effect of the Level of Learning Organization on Satisfaction of Learning Organization Support Project." Industry Promotion Research 1, no. 1 (2016): 51-57.

Mina, Andrea, Elif Bascavusoglu-Moreau, and Alan Hughes. "Open service innovation and the firm's search for external knowledge." Research Policy 43, no. 5 (2014): 853-866.

Mohammad Mosadeghrad, Ali. "Why TQM programmes fail? A pathology approach." The TQM Journal 26, no. 2 (2014): 160-187.

Pitta, Dennis, and Frank Franzak. "Boundary spanning product development in consumer markets: learning organization insights." Journal of Product & Brand Management (2013).

Prajogo, Daniel I., Daniel I. Prajogo, Brian Cooper, and Brian Cooper. "The individual and organizational level effects of TQM practices on job satisfaction." International Journal of Manpower 38, no. 2 (2017): 215-225.

Senge, Peter M. The fifth discipline fieldbook: Strategies and tools for building a learning organization. Crown Business, 2014.

Valmohammadi, Changiz, and Shervin Roshanzamir. "The guidelines of improvement: Relations among organizational culture, TQM and performance." International Journal of Production Economics 164 (2015): 167-178.