Running head: HANDLING CHANGE IN LONGVIEW SYSTEMS

Handling change in Longview systems

Team – 3

Cohort – C

Royal Roads University

Total number of words: 1936

Author Note:

This paper was prepared for Managing Change in Global Context, due December 15th,

2019 for Sandy Walker.

HANDLING CHANGE IN LONGVIEW SYSTEMS 2

Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION 3

LONGVIEW OUTLINE AND ITS COMPETITIVE STRATEGY 3

TRANSITION FROM MOBILE WORKING TO WORK IN OFFICE 4

LONGVIEW’S OPERATIONAL APPROACH 5

MANAGING THE TRANSITION FROM REMOTE WORKING 6

ROLE OF CULTURE, POWER AND POLITICS 7

THE RESISTANCE AND WAY IT WAS HANDLED 8

AREAS OF IMPROVEMENT AND RECOMMENDATIONS 9

CONCLUSION 9

REFERENCE 12
HANDLING CHANGE IN LONGVIEW SYSTEMS 3

Introduction

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate a complex change management situation in a

real-time organization. In this paper, we have discussed about a change that was implemented in

Longview systems, the employee’s perspective towards that change and how the situation was

handled by connecting them with our course work. The flow of the paper would be company

overview, proposed change, company’s rationale for the decision, way the change was

implemented, resistance and strategy used to handle it, areas of enhancements and

recommendations that would have made the implementation of change smoother. Commented [SW1]: A good introduction that includes all of the
key elements for an introduction.

Longview Outline and its Competitive Strategy

Longview systems, is a software development firm based out of Alberta and runs its

operation in nine different cities. The company has over 1000 employees and follows a matrix

organizational structure. The person interviewed for analyzing the change management is Ken

Vimalesan, one of the team leaders from Victoria office. In Longview, staff had the liberty to

communicate with all levels of the organization.

Fig. 1 Matrix structure of Longview

HANDLING CHANGE IN LONGVIEW SYSTEMS 4

Longview had a norm of sanctioning remote working benefit to employees if they meet

certain standards which are framed by the Directors and Associate Directors. Also, while

working remotely, employees have to abide by an exclusive set of rules that are framed for

remote working. Team leaders had full authority to recommend people for the provision and Commented [SW2]: Draw from the first few chapters of Burnes
– what type of org structure is this?

cancel the same if the staff fail to adhere to the norms. The competitive strategies of Longview Commented [SW3]: Same comment.

are employee liberty and flexibility in operation. The company believed that when employees are

given their space to think and implement ideas, it creates room for new processes (K. Vimalesan, Commented [SW4]: Same comment.

personal communication, December 10, 2019).

Transition from Mobile Working to Work in Office

As a result, most of the employees who achieved the basic eligibility started to work

remotely without a single day of physical presence at the office premises. As a consequence of

this, team leaders were not able to pass updates and communications efficiently to their

subordinates, since only few of them understood the new process and few of them did not care

about it. Secondly, it became harder for Associate Directors to train the team leaders and project

managers because the virtual training proved ineffective for technical projects. On the other

hand, staff were developing incompatibility with their team members, which made them

reluctant to learn from each other (K. Vimalesan, personal communication, December 10, 2019).

Therefore, it leads to poor product quality and pending projects which made clients unhappy

with the organization. Commented [SW5]:

Hence in order to fix the issue, Associate Directors decided to revoke the remote

working scheme for all its staff. They made it mandatory to work in teams and conduct group

training sessions frequently to develop shared responsibility. Initially, there was resistance from

employee’s due to incompatibility with team members, mobility issues and communication
HANDLING CHANGE IN LONGVIEW SYSTEMS 5

problems. Therefore, the top management introduced few approaches to ease the transition and

yield results that benefit the organization (K. Vimalesan, personal communication, December 10,

2019). Moreover, the management team decided to continue to have remote working provision

along with certain conditions. The staff can work remotely but they have to be physically present

at the office thrice a week. The key stakeholders are the staff (including team leader, Project

manager, Associate Director and Director) and clients. Commented [SW6]: This is a clear description. I am concerned,
though, with how much word count you have used up here without
making connections to course material.

Longview’s Operational Approach

The associate directors design the work flow and operational procedures that includes

provisions like working from home, accessibility to information and decision-making powers.

Secondly, team leaders have direct control over their team members to allocate task. Hence from

these two cultures it can be inferred the organization follows Taylor’s classical theory (Burnes,

2017, p. 50). Moreover, the associate directors incorporated flexible working style by comparing

the results of traditional style and work from home which again adheres to Taylor’s scientific

management. Commented [SW7]: Much better

Team leaders are the first level of organizing and commanding the employees, second

and third are the associate directors and directors respectively. When we take a closer look, three

of them have similar roles that is to organize, lead, control and provide plans for the task which

concurs with Fayol’s principle which says managers should plan ahead for the actions, organize

and control their team. Since each member of the team works on different part of the project to

develop single software it adheres with Fayol’s division of work objective (Burnes, 2017, p. 57). Commented [SW8]: Good use of Fayol in this paragraph to
describe the situation.

The flexibility of working from home was granted to certain employees with fixed rules,

like working time, active participation, and higher completion volume. The same rules apply for
HANDLING CHANGE IN LONGVIEW SYSTEMS 6

associate directors and team leaders who hold authority to ensure sub-ordinates abide by these

norms, which concur with Albrow’s legitimate authority rule (Burnes, 2017, p. 60). Since,

employees who achieve target successfully are recommended for remote working by their team

leaders, there is proper exercise of bureaucracy which agrees with Weber’s bureaucratic

approach that states members who hold authority should take impartial decisions without

considering personal relationships and obey organizational regulations (Burnes, 2017, p. 61). Commented [SW9]: This is well done.

Managing the Transition from Remote Working

The proposed change was implemented to increase the ease and efficiency of training,

improve compatibility among the employees and increase the cultural value in workspace.

Secondly, Longview focused on getting all the employees of different ranks into the change

process without prior consulting. Hence this change concurs with Peters and Waterman (1982)

approach, which states the change should have a purpose that is grounded to one side and

employees have to be treated with respect as they are the competitive advantage of the

organization (Burnes, 2017, p. 122).

The top management wanted their project team to learn, evolve, and accomplish their

goals. In addition, Associate Directors wanted to train the team leaders and subordinates in

optimum time to value their effort and time. This thought of Longview falls in the Triple I

organizational approach of cultural excellence stated by Handy which explains valuing

employee’s time and learning process (Burnes, 2017, p. 137). The senior management planned to

build high performing teams, by making employee training effective and ensure employees learn

to grow their skillset which coincides with what Pang and Oliver (1988) described under

Japanese management approach (Burnes, 2017, p. 155). In addition, the management needed its Commented [SW10]: This part is really well done. I like how
you really zeroed in on one aspect here and made a direct
connection to one specific part pf the Japanese management
approach.
HANDLING CHANGE IN LONGVIEW SYSTEMS 7

employees to develop shared accountability which again adheres to the description of Keys and

Miller (1984) under Japanese management approach (Burnes, 2017, p. 155). Commented [SW11]: Same comment here.

According to Probst and Buchel’s (1997) organizational approach, Longview has created

a work culture that achieve success through individual contribution and it has developed

manpower resources that learn from their peers (Burnes, 2017, p. 170). The framework for

change in Longview lies in the Quadrant 3 (Q3). To explain this, the change proposed by the

managers focused on individual and team level, hence considered to be small-scale with

attitudinal implications. Also, the change totally depends on the culture of the organization and

the primary thing to ensure would be the performance of the employees (Burnes, 2017, p. 408). Commented [SW12]: good

Role of Culture, Power and Politics

As per Trice and Beyer’s (1984) findings, Longview has focused more on rites of

renewal to build a culture, which can be inferred from their action of redesigning job profiles and

developing strategies to involve staff into the change (Burnes, 2017, p. 225). According to

Cummings and Worley (2001) the culture of Longview can be cracked into four layers. In the

Artifacts layer, details like rules for remote working; moral values that are to be followed by

staff working remotely and the process for taking the mobile working facility are captured.

Particulars like how employees should behave when they have a different opinion to the top

management’s transition decision are detailed in the Norms layer. The Value layer makes the

employees understand, Longview’s success and reputation are more important than their

personal liberty. Basic assumption layer gives the employees simple ways to solve their issues

with the team and subsist with the organization’s decision (Burnes, 2017, p. 227). Commented [SW13]: solid connections made in this
paragraph.
HANDLING CHANGE IN LONGVIEW SYSTEMS 8

Secondly, according to Robbins (1987) Associate Directors of Longview have used their

authority to command the subordinates about the transition of work type in order to achieve

organizational goals (Burnes, 2017, p. 249). In addition, Directors had legitimate authority to

initiate and they had absolute power on the manpower to command them to adapt to the

transition which agrees with Pfeffer’s (2017) point on power (Burnes, 2017, p. 250).

Additionally, the political game stated by Mintzberg (1983) matches with Longview’s case since

the top management’s decision is to change the operation in the organization and make it

successful (Burnes, 2017, p. 250). Commented [SW14]: More specifics needed to clarify that this
is political. The power part is well done.

The Resistance and Way It Was Handled

The resistance among the employees rose primarily due to non-inclusion of employees in

the decision-making and conflict of expectations between the staff and the top management. The

resistance of employees here was due to cognitive dissonance, since the staff felt inconsistency

in their own attitude due to the change of workplace and the change was completely different

(Burnes and James, 1995; Gawronski, 2012, p. 6). In addition, the resistance expressed by

employees and the way managers tackled it matches exactly with Michel et al (2013) theory of

dispositional resistance. Components that match are, when we consider resistance among

employees, each individual had different levels of resistance against the transition, few of them

showed high level of dispositional resistance. But the managers engaged the employees into the
transition through reframing their understandings and prioritizing the goals (Burnes, 2017, p. 19).
Commented [SW15]: I’m having trouble with this sentence. In
the previous sentence, you say that the resistance matched Michel.
In this sentence you seem to be specifying which parts of Michel
are a match to the situation, but then you seem to say that there
are different levels of resistance and when it comes to dispositional
resistance, not many showed a high level.

The top management managed the staff to agree for the change by giving them access to

work remotely but under certain condition. Here, the managers have approached the change that

mostly favors the attitudes of the subordinates which stands along with Burnes and Jackson’s
HANDLING CHANGE IN LONGVIEW SYSTEMS 9

(2011) theory under depth of intervention (Burnes, 2017, p. 17). Secondly, the managers have Commented [SW16]: The reasoning is difficult to follow here.
Depth of intervention relates to how much (positively or negatively)
someone will be impacted by a chance. Just because something
used Schein’s (1988) theory of psychological contract where the managers have considered favours someone, it doesn’t mean that impacts them significantly.

implicit expectations of the subordinates and designed a new workflow that convinces the staff Commented [SW17]: What is the connection here to a
psychological contract? What unwritten belief are staff taking away
from this? Or is it the managers who have the psychological
(Burnes, 2017, p. 18). contract? Clarification needed here.

Areas of Improvement and Recommendations

Kanter (2017) stated in order to successfully implement new changes in the business, old

obstacles have to be removed, more flexibilities have to be created and closer relationship with

employees have to be made, which Longview failed to do. Hence for a smooth implementation

of the change the organization should have involved all the employees and encouraged them to

bring their ideas to the table for finding common grounds (Burnes, 2017, p. 128). Secondly,

handling the change from Kanter et al (2017) perspective, managers should have created a

common vision and directions among the employees, educated the staff about the significance

and gravity of the transition, invited all levels of employees to share their views on the change

and developed an implementation plan for execution (Burnes, 2017, p. 132). Furthermore, when

we look at the change from Senior’s (2002) perspective, organizations have to permit their

employees to make changes at their preliminary level, which gives the organization a culture and

a structure (Burnes, 2017, p. 370). Furthermore, managers and subordinates should agree with

each other and find feasible transformation to achieve organizational success, which is called the

‘systematic-jointism’ by Storey’s fourfold typology (Burnes, 2017, p. 406). Commented [SW18]: These are specific. Each one of them
could have used more rationale. They seem appropriate, but you
need to provide that justification on paper.

Conclusion

Finally, for implementing a smoother change, organizations have to bear in mind the

perception and expectation of employees, the right use of power and authority over human

resources and communication to educate the employees about the significance of change. While
HANDLING CHANGE IN LONGVIEW SYSTEMS 10

implementing change, management’s decision has to find common grounds between staff

interest and organizational norms to tackle resistance efficiently. Commented [SW19]: While this does capture the high-level
contents of the paper, it is quite cursory. More specifics about
what emerged through the paper would help to get a few more
marks.
MGMT 582
HI team 3. The spots where you went into enough depth were
really well done. You can see by comments above where you did
Rubric for Evaluation of Written Assignments that (and how) so that you can use those areas as examples for
your individual papers coming up. In the other areas, there were
logic or coverage gaps that got in the way. Most of the time I could
see where you were trying to go, but it wasn’t quite captured on
paper.
1 2 3 4 5 Wtg
You are quite a bit over the 10-minute maximum. The content is
Introduction Fails to identify Vaguely identifies Adequate Effectively Provides excellent appropriate and reflects the contents of your assignment – the
purpose and purpose and coverage of topic introduces topic overview of paper concern was more about taking up too much of people’s time if
process and lacks process with and brief overview and provides (grabs reader’s they had to watch all presentation.
direction and limited overview of paper appropriate attention)
focus of paper overview of paper
with direction and Clearly identifies
focus of key ideas purpose and
provides overview of 5/5
paper with direction
and focus of key
ideas

Body of your paper Minimal coverage Adequate Evidence of Main ideas and Effectively identifies
of key ideas with coverage of key analysis of key factors are clearly and analyzes key
major gaps in ideas with major ideas with minor identified and factors. Provides
support and logic. gaps in logic and gaps in logic and developed with
coverage. coverage. Is able key ideas in-depth and
Does not integrate to integrate the supported with comprehensive
case study with Minimal case study with logic and coverage of all areas.
course material. integration of case the course adequate Ideas are developed 7.5/10
study with the material. coverage. and supported with
course material. Demonstrates detail to achieve the
critical thinking intended purpose of
skills in integrating the communication.
the case study Demonstrates ability
with the course to synthesize ideas
material. and exemplary
critical thinking skills
in integrating the
case study with the
course material.

Conclusion Vague Evidence of Acceptable Good Excellent

consolidation of consolidation of consolidation of consolidation of consolidation of facts
facts and facts and facts and facts and and information
information information information information
Logical and well
Lack of logic Conclusion lacks Logical and well Logical and well supported conclusion
support in body supported supported
conclusion conclusion 3.5/5

Research Ineffective Acceptable Acceptable Good Excellent

incorporation of incorporation of incorporation of incorporation of incorporation of
HANDLING CHANGE IN LONGVIEW SYSTEMS 11

Documentation information and information and information and information and information and
evidence of evidence of evidence of evidence of evidence of research
Support (Reference research and research and research and research and and consolidation of
to course learning) consolidation consolidation consolidation of consolidation of ideas properly
Minor errors in Minor errors in ideas properly ideas properly sourced and
sourcing and sourcing and sourced and sourced and documented.
documentation documentation documented. documented.

7.5 /10

Logic and Flow of No consolidation Limited Adequate Effective Information flows

Information and flow of ideas. consolidation and consolidation and consolidation and logically and
No use of flow of ideas. flow of ideas. flow of ideas.
transitions and Minimal use of Average use of Good use of excellent use of
consolidations transitions and transitions and transitions and transitions and
consolidations.
7.5/10
consolidations consolidations consolidations
Clearly, concisely,
and logically written
– well suited for the
topic and intended
audience.

Syntax, Grammar, Major errors in Major errors in Minor errors in No spelling/ There are no
Punctuation and punctuation, punctuation, punctuation, grammar errors. grammatical, syntax,
Spelling syntax, grammar syntax, grammar syntax, grammar There are 1 – 2 spelling or
and/or spelling and/or spelling and/or spelling minor syntax or punctuation errors.
which makes it which interrupts which do not punctuation Excellent use of
7.5/10
difficult to read. the flow for the break the flow for errors. vocabulary to
Includes more reader. the reader. articulate ideas.
than 5 spelling/ Includes 3 – 4
grammar errors. Includes 4 – 5 spelling/ grammar
spelling/ grammar errors
errors

Total 38.5/50

1 2 3 4 5 Wtg

Fails to provide an Provides a limited Adequately Effectively Provides excellent

adequate overview of the captures the key captures the key overview of paper
overview of the paper and is either points of the points of the (grabs reader’s
paper and is over or under the accompanying accompanying attention).
significantly over time limit. paper. Is either paper while
or under the time under or over the sticking to the Could be a stand-
limit. time limit maximum time alone item in
limit meeting the 4/5
assignment
HANDLING CHANGE IN LONGVIEW SYSTEMS 12

requirements
without the paper
while sticking to the
maximum time limit.

= 42.5/55

= 77%

Reference

Burnes, B. (2017). Managing Change (7th ed.). Pearson Education Limited, harlow.