Use of Organizational and Effective Interventions to Help Beak and Johnston

Case Analysis Report
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Case Analysis Report
Introduction
The report evaluates the Beak and Johnston case in the context of the Company's employee and Organizational Change. Notably, Beak and Johnston’s rapid and radical pressures for change primarily resulted from its strategy to pursue growth and the subsequent contract with Woolworths of supplying case-ready meats. Consequently, the report identifies the problems and issues necessitating the change for the case company. It uses relevant organizational development OD and employee development ED theories/models and concepts to discuss the Company's changes. Furthermore, the report relies on the existing OD and ED literature to recommend ways that the identified problems and issues can be resolved or avoided.
Identification of Problems/Issues
Organizations must develop and consistently and systematically improve their operations, processes, and activities to remain competitive. For example, the Beak and Johnston Company, a manufacturer of meat products, faced rapid and drastic pressure for change due to its desire to pursue change and the subsequent contract with Woolworths. This contract necessitated significant organizational changes for the Company due to the need to meet the massive 150% increase in demand for meat products and conform to Woolworth's quality guidelines. According to Hussain et al. (1), change is the main motivation for organizational development and is necessary for organizations to grow in highly competitive environments. Therefore, organizational development is key to success in fluctuating business environments and challenging change situations. As Pimonratanakan et al. (2) indicate, organizational development's key objective is emphasizing the need to set high operations goals and achieve them and create the highest efficiencies in job operations. In addition, organizational development supports harmonious attitudes among workers to solve an organization’s problem. Generally, the Beak and Johnston Company responded to the need for change through radical structure and the cultivation of a new organizational culture.
The contingency theory best explains the need for Change for the Beak and Johnston Company. Just like the Company’s need to meet Woolworth’s supply and quality demands, Eric (3) shows that the contingency approach assumes that external factors or environment drive the need for an organization to consider different choices to adapt to the changes. Notably, the theories of change guide organizations in effectively adapting or modifying their activities, processes, structures, and strategies in response to change. In particular, the dynamic capability theory posits that companies can effectively respond to increasing market dynamics through speedy product and product innovation processes to achieve a competitive edge. Significantly, according to Hewapathirana & Pandey (4), the capabilities refer to employee development, enabling firms to appropriately adapt, integrate and reconfigure internal and external organizational skills to respond to business environment changes effectively. As such, the Beak and Johnston Company resorted to investing in building its human resources due to their potential capacity for redeployment and adaptation to new tasks and products to meet the changing market demands. Consequently, the Company focused on cultivating a new organizational culture and introduced autonomous working teams. Therefore, employee development is key for organizations to meet the changing market conditions.
Case Analysis
Organizational development enables firms to succeed in fluctuating market environments and during challenging change situations. Lewis et al. (5) argue that external factors, more than internal factors, especially the changing market dynamics, trigger the need for change in many organizations. Notably, the changing market pressures following the new, huge contract of supplying case-ready meat to Woolworth forced the Beak and Johnston Company to restructure its organizational culture, progressively devolving managerial responsibilities into teams. Besides, the Company dismantled the old division structure and information silo effect by removing the middle layer of management. The Company's initiatives confirm the crucial role of organizational development as a change management method. However, as Doroshuk (6) indicates, compared to other change management methods, organizational development focuses on the entire organization's development, applies a behavioral approach, and includes staff motivation and development. Consequently, the hard methods i...