Assignment
READ THE FOLLOWING SHORT CASE AND ANSWER ONE OF THE QUESTION
WHICH FOLLOWS.
Zippy Insurance Ltd is a medium sized insurance company, employing
approximately 250 people in the north of the country. Its main lines of business
include home, business, and motor insurance. Zippy operates primarily in two major
cities, and has always taken pride in its level of customer service, its local
knowledge, and its ability to offer a flexible service tailored to individual client needs.
In this regard, the company employed 25 customer service reps across its two main
locations. It was the responsibility of these staff to deal with customer enquiries,
manage customer relationships, and provide a first point of contact for customers
claims. All of this required that they liaise closely with other departments in ensuring
that customer needs are met. The 25 reps were all very experienced, knew many of
the clients by name and were able to offer a very effective, tailored service. In
addition, customers and prospective customers were free to drop in to one of the
company’s offices to sort out enquiries and claims face-to-face.
Although the company has always been profitable, eight months ago, largely at the
behest of the Finance Director, the Board of Directors decided to instigate a move to
online selling only, and to switch the customer service department to an online
facility – in future, all customer interaction would be online, with all enquiries,
notifications of changes and claims either directed automatically to the relevant
department or responded to with an automat reply generated by the computer
system. The Board believed this move WOUIWW
toexpgnd nationwidfie. Further, they believed that the change would enhance
customer service and ensure prompt response to enquiries. The change was
planned exclusively by the Board, who worked closely with Ace Systems, a software
design company in the design of the new online system. Staff were made aware of
the proposed change via a mass email when the new system was almost ready for
use, although they had suspected for a long time that major changes were imminent.
Four weeks before the changeover all staff were required to attend a mandatory one
hour online training programme on the new system, and despite the fact that the
change would have a significant impact on everyone’s work, this was all the support
which was provided. Twenty two of the 25 customer services reps were informed via
email that they would be given the opportunity to retrain for transfer to other
departments within the company, while the remaining 3 would remain as
telephonists.
It is now two months since the change was made. Staff morale across all employees
has decreased significantly for a number of reasons – not least the facts that they
cannot see what benefits the new system was intended to deliver, and the system
itself is unable to cope with the variety of different customer needs. In response,
many employees are now usingmanual ‘work-arounds’ to overcome shortcomings in
the system and are effectively continuing with old working practices, while others are
‘working strictly to rule’ and are quite content when the new system fails to cope with
a customer’s needs to simply ignore the issue. Concerns have been raised with
senior management but these have been largely ignored, or been responded to with
generic references to the system’s technical manual. Employee absenteeism is
increasing, and senior management have noticed the development of a less
cooperative attitude on the part of employees. For example, staff are less willing to
take on voluntary additional duties, or work flexibly (such as staying late to deal with
backlogs). Customer dissatisfaction is also increasing, in relation to both the failings
of the new system and the loss of personal service. Finally, staff feel that they have
made significant efforts to make the new system work, but in return have received no
recognition or rewards from management for their efforts.
Questions (answer ONE of the following): 7 s‘
1. Planned change has been defined as “a situation where a change agent takes
deliberate actions with the aim of moving the organisation or part of one from
one state to another” (Senior and Swailes, 2010). Using a planned change
model of your choosing, critically evaluate the approach adopted by Zippy’s
Board, discussing in detail the steps which could have been taken to make the
process more effective.
2. Using the case for illustration, critically analyse the reasons why individuals or
groups might resist change. How is resistance typically manifested? Critically
evaluate the options which are available to management in attempting to
overcome resistance.
Management of Change Assignment
Choose Q1 to answer.
Topic:
Q1. Planned change has been defined as “a situation where a change agent takes deliberate actions with the aim of moving the organisation or part of one from one state to another” (Senior and Swailes, 2010). Using a planned change model of your choosing, critically evaluate the approach adopted by Zippy’s Board, discussing in detail the steps which could have taken to make the process more effective.
1. Introduction should followed by why planned change occur, define planned change, critic analysis – Lewin, why essay choose Lewin
2. Body should followed by 3 parts. (Case Zippy fist? Lewin’s model to describe, recommend)
Lewin’s 3 step as the main model and 3 parts, and Kotter’s model to assist.
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