Leading Change Paper

Leading Change Paper

Upon completion of the simulation regarding Good Sport, it became apparent that some rapid changes were necessary in order for the company to remain competitive and profitable in today’s ever-changing, growing fitness equipment market. In the following paragraphs, a brief description of Good Sport will be given, as well as listings of various techniques and strategies that the executives and management teams within Good Sport can employ to manage resistance to change and to manage conflict with the organization.

Good Sport is a fitness equipment manufacturer based in Coral Springs, Florida. Good Sport manufactures various types of fitness equipment, such as treadmills, bikes, rowers, and steppers. Good Sport was founded fifteen years ago by ex-basketball star Jason Poole. The company sells its products to hospitals, clubs, hotels, and residential homes.

At Good Sport, there is currently a top-down organizational management structure in place. There are varying levels of management, starting with the Chairman of the Board, then the CEO, the Vice Presidents, etc. This organization structure is also referred to as a vertical management structure, as opposed to a horizontal management structure, which employs many managers who are on the same level within the company. A top-down, or vertical organizational management structure is the structure most commonly used in organizations of today.

At Good Sport, the culture is rather laid-back and an emphasis is placed on creativity and new innovations in the fitness industry. The company promotes creative challenges to its employees, and in turn, the employees have a great deal of respect for the CEO and management team, and they strive to impress the CEO with their ideas and work ethic. The culture is sales-driven, but the sales team does not promote just any product. The product must meet their standards and guidelines and the sales team prides itself on creating products of the utmost quality and innovation. The employees of Good Sport are very dedicated to the management team and the creative atmosphere that exists within the organization.

The structure and culture of the organization are definitely related, because without effective leadership in place, the employees would lack the guidance and principles necessary to meet the company’s goals. The overall vision and goals of the company are put into place by the CEO and management team and then the enthusiasm then makes its way down to the employees via the management team. Furthermore, the fact that the management team promotes creativity and innovation is why the employees work so hard to impress them and meet the goals of the company. Ultimately, the culture of a company is determined by the founder and the management team and it is up to those individuals to make sure the employees share their vision and goals.

In all industries today, including fitness equipment, change is a constant that must be met with little resistance by companies if they are to remain competitive and profitable in the future. It is up to the managers within companies to motivate employees to accept change openly, because all leaders will meet at least some resistance from employees whenever any type of change is introduced. There are several strategies that managers can incorporate in order to motivate their employees to accept change, which will be discussed in the following paragraphs.

Any new process is bound to meet some degree of resistance. Overcoming it is critical to the successful implementation of product and service improvements. Resistance can cause unnecessary delays, waste and process performance that falls short. As a result, implementation efforts should include strategies to diffuse resistance. Resistance typically arises from fear and a lack of understanding. It can appear in several forms, but the most common tactics include ignoring the new process, failing to comprehend the new process, challenging the validity of the process’ benefits, criticizing the process tools, allowing exceptions, and sabotaging or delaying process implementation.

There are a great number of strategies that Good Sport can implement in order to deal with resistance to change from their employees. Some of the strategies they might like to consider are as follows:

• Hold employees responsible for implementing change. It would be a good idea for management to base employee reviews and/or salary increases and promotions on which employees are able to successfully embrace and implement changes. Employees will be more apt to accept and implement change if they know that their future within the organization depends on it.

• Provide employees with proper and adequate training for any new process being introduced. Training efforts should include classroom sessions, one-on-one hands-on training, and perhaps even checklists, to monitor each employee’s progress with the training. Training methods should offer guidance and simplify adoption of the process as much as possible.

• Prove the validity of the process’ benefits to employees by showing proven results from other companies to employees. Proven results speak the loudest. Before introducing new processes, research other companies or departments that have had success with their attempts to implement similar changes within their organizations.

• Provide the opportunity for employee feedback and ideas for improvement. The best way to diffuse resistance to using applications or tools in support of a process is to provide a feedback mechanism for enhancements. Allowing employees the opportunity to offer suggestions yields better working applications and less reluctance to them.

• Do not allow for exceptions to be made. The quickest way to develop variation within a process is to allow exceptions. Furthermore, once an exception is made, there is a tendency for more to follow, to the point that the process quickly becomes diluted. A policy that allows no exceptions is the best preventative measure.

• Implement the change as soon as possible. A common tactic in the face of change is to attempt to delay implementation efforts, claiming the timing is not right. The reality is that

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