Introduction
Paper is one of the most energy-intensive commodities since it has large direct energy requirements, as well as substantial indirect energy use through its reliance on chemical inputs. Paper production and consumption are growing most rapidly in developing regions at nearly double the world average rate (Duchin et al., 1994). The demand for paper and the increase in its consumption have caused alarm to most countries and businesses in various regions. The raising paper consumption has led to ecological and environmental problems for the whole world. More paper being used means that there are additional wastes for every company that uses paper products. An increase in demand for paper by companies means that more trees will be cut down in various parts of the world. Companies that care and wanted to show that they have corporate responsibility started to take action regarding these issues. Various companies have decided that they want to reduce paper consumption. One company that wants to reduce its paper consumption is PCCW Hong Kong. Being a caring company that has Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), PCCW decided that it needs to do something and call for action & campaigns towards the cause. The reduction of paper consumption will try to solve ecological and environmental problems; it will also create actions that can benefit the company operation by cutting the usage of paper and lowering the cost of waste management. This paper intends to design a small and sustainable improvement project for PCCW Hong Kong to reduce its paper consumption. The paper will make use of various tools and methods to introduce change in the company.
Background/Drivers for change
PCCW is recognized as the largest telecommunication enterprise in Hong Kong. PCCW operates in many small business units. PCCW offers products and services in fields like Telecommunications services, Television and Media Content, IT Services, PCCW Solutions and Infrastructure. PCCW has made contributions to ICT and IT; such contributions include landline telecommunications, mobile telecommunications, broadband internet and PCCW solutions. The ICT and IT contributions provided innovation for the industries in Hong Kong and other parts of the world. There are various drivers for change; one is increasing innovation/IT knowledge. Change should be implemented because there is an increase in innovation and such innovation increases the demand for paper.
Another driver for change is the change of value, operation cost & effectiveness. PCCW is changing its values, operation costs and effectiveness; by reducing paper consumption the company can slowly achieve the changes it desires.
Moreover, the issues about waste management are another driver for change. The increasing paper consumption poses a problem for waste management. The accumulated waste can cause problems regarding the disposal of such waste. If the company does not decrease its consumption of paper it will need to determine newer means of managing its waste.
Ecology/environmental issues are also drivers for change. Paper consumption is an environmental issue for the world because the materials used in the making of paper are mostly consisted of wood. As more paper is used, more trees tend to be cut down. This causes the flooding in some countries.
Lastly, a driver for change is the corporate responsibility of the company. Like all other corporations, PCCW has a social responsibility to refrain from abusing the environment and to reduce their waste. This led the company towards thinking about determining actions to reduce paper consumption.
Stakeholder analysis
The parties that will be mostly affected by the proposed change include the employees, customers, paper suppliers/printing companies. The employees will be greatly affected because they will have to reduce their use of paper. This may be inconvenient as it requires them to change their work habits. The employees are the ones that will have to adjust to the changes in the use of paper thus their cooperation will be required once the change process starts.
The people who will gain considerable benefits from the change are the government and the environmental groups. The change will provide an opportunity for the government to work with PCCW to build a pilot scheme in order to build a good image. The change can help the government to become a pioneer by starting off the campaign to save their environment. This would build a better image for the government and it will help them have a successful start in creating change in their environment. The government will also receive fewer complains and criticism from the environmental groups as the reduction of paper use will solve the issues raised by environmental groups and appease their demands. This will also allow PCCW to gain respect from certain environmental groups. The government can create a huge impact the change process, this will only happen once the government becomes interested in the effects of the change process.
There is a small chance that the customer will be affected by the change process because the various printed documents/ information they want may not be accessible or be in limited numbers. The customers will have a hard time in accessing monthly bills/statements, promotion pamphlets, reply forms and application forms because they would all be converted to an electronic document format. Paper reduction means that PCCW will refrain from sending any hard copies to their customers.
Two similar parties that will be minimally hit by the change proposal are the paper suppliers and the printing companies. These groups are the ones that make and sell paper products; the reduction in the demand for paper would cause a decline in the business growth. The reduction of the demand for paper products would cause the company to implement personnel reduction or close down the printing business.
Issues Diagnosis & Overcome Strategies/Solution Finding
Force field analysis is an exceptional tool developed by Kurt Lewin that provides managers with the opportunity to effect change (Gottlieb 2001). The next figure shows an analysis using force field model.
One driving force for the change process is minimized environmental issues; less paper use means less damage to the environment. Another driving force for the change process is cost reduction for businesses. Less paper use could mean reduced supply expenses on paper products. Moreover, a driving force for the change is energy preservation in terms of product delivery. The lower demand for paper makes paper companies reduce their delivery schedules and helps in minimizing energy use. Reduced use of energy can be beneficial to the environment. Lastly, a driving force for the change process is the belief that paper reduction will show that the company has social responsibility. Paper reduction will give a brand new image for the company and how it wants to provide responsible service to clients.
One restraining factor is that it causes an inconvenience to personnel and their clients as they will have only a limited use of paper products. Paper reduction will force the employees to use limited paper supplies. Paper reduction can result to reduced quality of work. The change process may compromise the quality of work done by the employees. Some employees depend heavily on paper products and the reduction of such office supplies may lead to them downgrading their services. Paper reduction in PCCW could result to unemployment. When delivery schedules are reduced it means that the company will have to reduce the paid work hours of the personnel. If things grow worse, the alternative for the company is to terminate some personnel. The change process may result into habit change which may be the cause of strained relationships between the firm and the personnel. The change process will require the employees to change some of the things they do to perform their tasks, the employees will not like the change and this will result to arguments within the company. The change process may also lead to a forced discovery of alternatives to paper. Examples of alternatives can be in the form of electronic documents. The alternatives will dramatically reduce the number of paper consumed without sacrificing the quality of the employees work. The alternatives may give the company higher expenses due to the cost of researching and implementing the use of alternative technologies to paper. .
Resistance and Strategies to Overcome These
Most people are afraid of the unknown. They often assume that the change may be inconvenience as it requires them to change their habits. Resistance to change is an emotional/behavioral response to real or imagined threats to an established work routine (Sims 2002). People in the organization might resist change because of psychological modes, systems models, institutionalized models and culture models. Employees feel fears and anxieties when they are informed about the change process, this is an example of the psychological mode of resistance to change. The reduction of paper usage may increase the employee’s workload because they will have to convert documents into a format accepted by electronic documents. For clients, they will worry about the security issues when they use the electronic document systems. PCCW can solve these issues through consultative and empowering activities that can help in overcoming their anxiety and fear.
Sometimes employees believe that the change system is impractical; this is an example of restraining to change through the system mode. The file system and document circulation system may tend to still use paper for keeping records of salary bills or tax documents of employees. For clients, they may not like to change their habits and to then synchronize it with the change process. PCCW can remove such resistance through redesigning systems and making sure that these systems support new changes.
When employees think that the change is unnecessary that means they are practicing the institutionalized mode of resistance to change, This mode gives them a belief that the change would force them to learn new skills to replace the traditional way of paper documentation. It is vital for PCCW to demonstrate the value of the proposed change or the urgency of change for organizational success or survival.
Employees have their own beliefs and principles, once they see that the change is different from their beliefs they will resist the change. This shows that they practice the cultural mode of resistance. Organizational culture is one of the toughest resistances to change. This type of resistance cannot be easily removed since it is embedded in every employee of PCCW. The employees should be given a clear explanation on why such change is needed and what are the proposed alternatives to paper.
Kotter Process of change
In every process in life and business a procedure should be followed; Kotter’s process of change will be used to provide an organized means to initiate change within PCCW. The process of change needs to make use of a multi-step process that will create power and motivation that is sufficient to overwhelm all the sources of resistance to change. The process of change will only be successful if it is driven by high-quality leadership, not just by excellent management.
1. Establish a sense of urgency
To establish a sense of urgency, there will be posters containing facts about the increase of paper consumption, company expenses on paper products, environmental decay due to increasing waste and what the company wants to do with such issues. These posters should be placed on various bulletin boards in the companies’ offices and subsidiaries. The intended target viewers of the posters are the PCCW personnel located in their different offices. For the clients there will be informative notes and suggestions on PCCW’s website. The informative notes will contain the figures for the increase in paper use, the increase in waste for the company and the proposed paper reduction scheme. The informative notes on PCCW’s website will also include the new policies about paper use and paper consumption by the company. For the paper suppliers PCCW should send out corporate letters informing them about their reduced orders for paper products. The letters will contain the reasons for the reduced orders of paper products.
2. Form a powerful coalition
Coalitions will be formed with the organization Conversation Association of Hong Kong. This association is a champion of sustainable development and is dedicated to the protection of the environment. PCCW would also involve Hong Kong’s Environmental Protection Department in the coalition. The coalition assists each other in making sure that paper usage will be reduced. The Conversation Association of Hong Kong and the Environmental Protection Department would help PCCW in gathering data that will explain why there is a need to reduce paper use. The two organizations will help PCCW reach the intended viewers of the message.
3. Create the vision
The vision is to reduce paper consumption in PCCW and its subsidiaries. By 2010 PCCW and its subsidiaries will have reduced their use of paper products by 50%. The vision is to motivate the personnel and the clients to reduce their usage of paper products. The project also aims to motivate the personnel to use electronic documents.
4. Communicate the vision
The members of the coalition will first hand information regarding the vision of the company and how it will be attained. The vision will be communicated via personal correspondence during the meetings of the coalition. The employees will know the vision through posters that will be placed in the office bulletin boards. The customers will know the vision through articles and postings in PCCW’s website. The paper makers will be informed of the vision through corporate letters.
5. Empower others to act
PCCW should initiate some sort of contest wherein the department which can reduce paper use after three months will be given a special commendation or a discounted price. PCCW will also install in its website a portion where clients and employees can suggest alternatives to paper products. This portion of the website would encourage the customers and the employees to determine means to reduce paper reduction without causing them much discomfort.
6. Plan for short term wins
To achieve short term wins the management of PCCW needs to reduce the paper works by minimizing some of their processes and recording procedures. The management would have to determine means to reduce the steps in making records about transactions made by the company.
7. Consolidate improvements and produce further change
The improvements that have transpired will be consolidated and analyzed to see whether additional change should continue. It will then be consolidated with other changes that have happened. Recordings of the changes within PCCW will be documented through electronic documents.
8. Institutionalize the new approach
In this step the coalitions have complete assurance that the personnel and the customers have minimized the use of paper. In this step a strong system is being implemented to institutionalize the use of paper. When the people have been institutionalized they will not be tempted to make use of paper and they will rely on the use of electronic documents.
Change leadership
For change to be a success it needs to be run by a competent person or a person that knows how to lead. Change is not a process that automatically gains its goals; it needs proper guidance and direction for its goals to be reached. The leadership on the change process is a hard task since one needs to know how to overcome the barriers and resistance to change. Those who are assigned to lead the change process needs to know how to establish change with the use of the organization’s culture. To manage change, leaders need to have an established direction. In the case of PCCW, the focus of the management should be on making sure that paper use will be reduced by 2010. To manage change leaders need to align the people. Through the website and bulletin board postings about the need to reduce paper consumption the managers of PCCW can try to motivate the personnel to think of means to reduce paper use. The manager should give additional information about why the change is necessary for the company’s survival. To manage change the leaders need to inspire the employees. The managers of PCCW should be the first ones to reduce their use of paper products so that the employees will follow them.
Evaluation Approaches
In evaluating the change process, two approaches are used and those are formative and summative. In the formative approach the effects of the changes will be observed and taken note of while the change process transpires. In this approach the initial issues and effects of the change process will be known and actions will be taken to prevent complications. During the change process the amount of paper used by PCCW should be recorded according to the different departments and subsidiaries. Each department would email their records of the number of papers used over the number of papers available in a department’s inventory. By doing this the company can check whether the employees followed the paper reduction scheme. After all records are collated, they will be analyzed to see if there is an increase or decrease in paper consumption. During the change process, the management should coordinate with the waste management group to determine how much paper has been put in waste bins by each division of PCCW.
In the summative process the effects of the changes will be observed and taken note of after the whole change process has expired. In this approach the change process has been completed, the evaluation serves as a concluding part of the whole process in this approach the overall effect of the change process is seen and notes will be taken on what should and should not be done on the succeeding change processes. In the summative approach the strong points of the change process will be recorded for future references. After the change process the managers should check for the total consumption of paper for the whole year; it will be compared with the paper consumption for the previous years. After the change process, the paper waste of the company before the change process will be compared with the paper waste of the company after accomplishing the change process.
Conclusion
To reduce the paper consumption the PCCW should make sure that its managers are willing to reduce their use of papers. The managers would then motivate the employees and the customers to change their practices regarding their use of paper. The managers need to make sure that the change process will be followed and if any change needs to be made, they will be ready to integrate it to the process. The managers need to be wary of the risk exposure while the change process is being implemented. The managers need to be ready for the resistance by some of the employees, customers and suppliers. The best thing the managers should do is slowly reduce the paper supplies allocated for each department; by doing this each personnel would not be tempted to consume paper products.
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Appendix: Time line for the change process
Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com
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