Case Study

Organizational Behavior

Name of the Student

30th June 2020
 Name of the Student

1. Analyze the behavioral aspects of employees between ‘active teams’ and ‘dull or inactive
teams by focusing on characteristics of effective teams.

Behavioral aspects of active teams and inactive teams have been compared below.

Active Teams: They have a higher level of mutual trust and they understand the other team members
very well. No single member is dominating; every member contributes towards the team, which
improves the morale of the entire team. Given that women are usually good at coordinating tasks and
understanding the non-verbal aspects of team culture, they have more women as compared to men.
Women tend to have a relatively more optimistic attitude, which results in synergy, because of which
they are able to produce better results.

Inactive Teams: On the contrary, inactive teams have trust issues between members. People do not
understand each other better and hence there is a lack of synergy, which results in lack of
productivity. They tend to develop a pessimistic attitude and it may be observed that more than one
team member would dominate over the whole team time and again.

2. Evaluate strategies of organizational change management to motivate the ‘dull or inactive

teams’. What strategies and initiatives will you adopt and implement to motivate these teams?

There are various strategies under organizational change management to motivate the dull and
inactive teams. Some of the strategies are:

 Setting short term goals. All the goals that need to be achieved to make the change successful
should be broken down into smaller goals that are SMART (specific, measurable, achievable,
realistic and timely). This helps in motivating the employees to achieve them, because it is
possible for them.
 Giving freedom. Change leads to loss of control and fear of the unknown, which is the inactive
teams should be granted a little higher autonomy within their spheres so that they can feel a little
in charge. They should be allowed to make their own solutions and implement them.
 Setting down expectations. The inactive teams should be told explicitly what is expected from
them. When they know the whole picture of the change, including the purpose, the goals and
expectations, and how they are relevant in the change, they will automatically start contributing
more.
 Listening. Understanding the team's perspective and knowing their pain points would make it
easier for the management to identify issues in teams. Once the team members learn to open up,
they will coordinate with one another better, and develop trust amongst each other.

In addition to all these strategies above, one more initiative I would like to include would be
appreciation and celebrations for little success. More often, inactive teams tend to get even more
demotivated when they are unable to achieve their goals and the cycle continues. So, even for
smaller goals achieved, there should be celebrations and appreciation that will motivate the teams
more.

Organizational Behavior pg. 1

 Name of the Student

3. Evaluate strategies of managing change in organizations by applying some of the approaches

towards change management.

There are various approaches towards change management, but I believe the following two models
will be most appropriate in this setting.

The 3-Stage Model: Unfreeze - Change - Refreeze

The first step in the implementation of this model is to prepare the employees for the change, by
unfreezing old practices. Then you move towards the new change and in the final stage the change is
finally implemented.

In the case of Nissan Motor Company, the company adopted the same strategy, whereby the
company first involved the employees and communicated to them as to why the change was
necessary. Then they were given time and incentives to move towards the change and embrace it,
and finally to refreeze it. The change included open feedback and performance pay.

Kotter's Change Management Theory

This theory has 8 stages for the implementation of change: Increase the Sense of Urgency, Build the
Team, Set the Right Vision, Communicate, Get into Action, Focus on Short Term Goals, Not Giving
Up Attitude, and Implementing the Change.

In the case of PepsiCo, this model was adopted, and a strategy was built. The 8 steps were divided
into 4 phases. The first phase was about conducting workshops with leaderships at local and regional
levels. In the second phase, awareness for the change was addressed. In the third phase, skills
required for change management were addressed. In the final phase, skills and tools to manage the
change were further addressed. These phases took into account the 8 steps of the theory but did not
apply the 8 steps in a linear fashion; rather they modified it and adapted it to suit their work
environment.

Organizational Behavior pg. 2

 Name of the Student

References
Appelbaum, S. H., Habashy, S., Malo, J.-L., & Shafiq, H. (2012). Back to the Future: Revisiting Kotter’s
1996 Change Model. Journal of Management Development, 764-782.
Govindarajulu, N., & Daily, B. F. (2004). Motivating Employees for Environmental Improvement. Industrial
Management & Data Systems, 364-372.
Todnem, R. (2005). Organisational Change Management: A Critical Review. Journal of Change
Management, 369-380.

Organizational Behavior pg. 3