Executive Summary
Change will always be a part of any business operations. Change is done whenever there are flaws in how a company provides services to the clients. Change occurs in various sectors such as retail, banking, manufacturing, airline and others. One company that allowed change to transpire in their organization is PCCW. In implementing change, the company will have to make sure that the change will be managed well to prevent any complications. This paper will continue the discussion on the initiation and management of change. This paper will feature the drivers for change. This paper will determine the nature of change and its scope. Moreover this paper will discuss the barriers to change and how to contradict the resistance. The paper will also give a recommendation on what should be done when the firm wants to introduce change in the future.
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 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 led to ecological and environmental problems to the whole world. With more paper being used means that there are additional wastes for every company that uses paper products. An increase in demand on paper by companies means that more trees will be cut in various parts of the world. Companies that care and wanted to show that they have corporate responsibility started to make actions with these issues. Various companies decided that they want to reduce paper consumption. One company that wants to reduce 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 & campaign. The reduction of paper consumption will try to solve the ecological and environmental problems. The reduction of paper consumption will create actions that can benefit the company operation by cutting the usage of paper and lower the cost of waste management. The paper intends to design a small sustainability improvement project for PCCW Hong Kong to reduce 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 in 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 done 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 a driver for change is the issues on waste management. The increasing paper consumption poses a problem for the waste management. The accumulated waste can cause problems on how to throw out such waste. If the company would not decrease its consumption of paper it would need to determine newer means to manage its waste. A driver for change is ecology/environmental issues. Paper consumption is an environmental issue in the world because the materials used in making papers are mostly consisted of wood. As more papers are used, more trees tend to be cut. 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 reduce the increase of waste. This led for the company to think about determining actions to reduce paper consumption.
Nature and scope of the change process
When the concept of change management first took root, change was treated as a deliberate intervention by specified change agents who set out to design and implement new strategies and operational procedures in order to enhance organizational functioning (Naylor 1996). While some researchers recognize that even planned, strategic change has a processual and emergent character, there is still an underlying assumption in the change management literature that change is top-down and executive-driven. To the extent that change management is now very much associated with downsizing and reductions in headcounts (Cunha, JV, Cunha, PE & Kamoche 2002). The change process is not an instant thing that will have an instant effect. It takes a lot of months for the change process to show its result. Organizational change is not just about work processes.
It’s also about what people feel and believe their hopes and expectations. And these feelings and beliefs are so strong that they can make or break a change effort. All too often, however, managers remain unaware of what their people really feel during organizational change. And it’s not because they’re bad managers (Butkus & Green 1999). There are certain companies that can be easily persuaded to fall into competitive traps and problems. These kinds of companies relax too much and are unprepared for changes in its environment. On the other hand there are some companies that know how to be creative enough to revolutionize their strategic thinking and innovate. Revolutionizing a company’s thinking can be good to counter any changes coming. Various changes come to a company; these changes can be in the form of expansion or the resurgence of more problems. The problems vary on its effect on the firm and its operations. Corporate change will be no easy transition marked by minor modifications of a firm’s current lifestyle and ways of doing business (Benveniste et al. 2000). Usually when a company experiences more problems at shorter intervals this means the company has to undergo changes. These changes can bring both benefits for the company. The benefits that the company will acquire from the changes it has made may be present after some time. The changes can bring a better future for the company as long as it is gradually completed. Organizational changes should be finished with less time wasted and without any knowledge management, information tends to be scattered and disorganized causing more time wasted for the learning process. Organizations with the purpose of starting change need to have good leaders so that the learning process would be uninterrupted and cannot be influenced by outside forces. Outside forces can be in the form of questions about the change process and contradictions from different sectors in the firm. The change process is environment oriented in nature. The change process focuses on doing something to change some practices so that it can change the environment. The scope of the change process includes only the company’s paper materials and how it is used by different individuals from within and outside the firm. The change process will gradually introduce the need for change amid the benefits that one will achieve from the change process.
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 affected because they will have to reduce their use of paper, it might be inconvenient to them because they need to change their work habits. The customer will be affected because the various printed documents/ information they want would not be accessible or would be in limited numbers. The customers would have a hard time in accessing monthly bills/statements, promotion pamphlets, reply forms and application forms because it would all be converted to electronic document format. Paper reduction means that PCCW would not send any hard copies to the customers. A party that will be hit by the change proposal is the paper suppliers and the printing companies. This group is the ones that makes and sells paper products, the reduction of demand for paper would cause the 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. The persons that will benefit from the change are the government and the environment groups. The change will provide an opportunity for the government to work with PCCW to build a pilot scheme in order to build good image. The change can help the government be a pioneer to start the campaign to save their environment, this would build a better image for the government and it will help the government a successful start in creating change in their environment. The government will also receive lesser complains and criticisms from the environmental groups. The reduction of paper use will solve the issues raised by environmental groups and it will appease their demands. It will make the environmental groups give respect to PCCW.
Kotter Process of change
In every process 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 an excellent management.
1. Establish a sense of urgency
To establish a sense of urgency, there would be posters containing facts on 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 would be placed in various bulletin boards on the companies’ offices and subsidiaries. The intended target viewer of the poster would be the PCCW personnel located in their different offices. For the clients there would be informative notes and suggestions on the PCCW’s website. The informative notes would contain the increase in paper use, the increase in waste for the company and the proposed paper reduction scheme. The informative notes in PCCW’s website will also include the new policies on paper use and paper consumption by the company. For the paper suppliers PCCW would send out corporate letters informing them about their reduced orders for paper products. The letters would contain the reasons for the reduced orders of paper products.
2. Form a powerful coalition
Coalitions will be made 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 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. The coalition will happen in the beginning of the change process and will not end until the objectives will be met. The coalition will create further plans for the change process. The coalition will begin with communication with the concerned authorities.
3. Create the vision
The vision is to reduce paper consumption in PCCW and its subsidiaries. By 2010 PCCW and its subsidiaries would have reduced their use of paper products by 80%. 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 on what is the vision and how it will be attained. The members of the coalition will know the vision through the use of various communication strategies and instruments. The vision will be communicated via personal correspondence or conversations during the meetings of the coalition. The employees and the customers would know the vision through the use of bulletin board postings and website postings. The paper makers would be informed of the vision through corporate letters or corporate e-mails.
5. Empower others to act
PCCW would initiate some sort of contest wherein the department who can reduce paper use after three months would be given a special commendation or a special 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. One personnel would be assigned to monitor, document and consolidate the change process and how it has affected the firm. The personnel would make sure that every part of the change process is documented and recorded.
8. Institutionalize the new approach
In this step the coalitions have finished making sure that the personnel and the customers have minimized 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.
Resistance and Strategies to overcome the resistance
Most people are afraid from the unknown. They often assume that the change may cause inconvenience 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 model, systems model, institutionalized model and culture model. In the psychological model the personnel may feel anxiety or fear. The reduction of paper usage may increase the employee’s workload because they will have to convert documents into a format accepted in 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.
In the system model employees sees the change process as impractical given the existing systems. The file system and document circulation system may tend to still use an actual paper for keeping record of salary bill or tax documents of employees. For clients, they may not like to change their practices and then synchronize it with the change process. PCCW can remove such resistance through redesigning systems and make sure that these systems support new changes. In the institutionalized model organization members resist change when they believe that it is not necessary because the change would force them to learn new knowledge to replace the traditional 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. In the culture model members resist change that is contrary to their dominant beliefs 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.
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 would 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 would check whether the employees followed the paper reduction scheme. After all records are collated, it will be analyzed to see if there is an increase or decrease in paper consumption. During the change process, the management would 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 would check for the total consumption of paper for a certain year it would be compared with the paper consumed 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.
Recommendation for future changes
The company should fix communication lines between those that will be affected by the change process. Communication between the leaders of the change process and the stakeholders of the change process is vital so that the change process will have lesser barriers and lesser issues. The company should make sure that the personnel they will hire will be amiable to any change they will suddenly introduce. This will reduce the need to adjust to change. Adjusting to change costs some time and can cause the loss of interest towards the change process. Having amiable personnel will prevent problems between the leaders of the change process and the personnel.
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