MG 312

PROJE
CT
ASSIG
NMEN
T NAME: Esther Sokeni
STUDENT ID: s11004900
COURSE CODE: MG312
CAMPUS: Solomon Islands

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT...........................................................................................................................3
1.0.EXECUTIVE SUMMARY.....................................................................................................................4
2.0. INTRODUCTION..............................................................................................................................5

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3.0. LITERATURE REVIEW.......................................................................................................................6
4.0. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY............................................................................................................7
5.0 FINDINGS AND CONCLUSION...........................................................................................................9
5.1. Change Process and Event..........................................................................................................9
5.2. PHASES OR STAGE OF CHANGE.................................................................................................10
5.3. OUT COME................................................................................................................................12
5.4. LEADERSHIP..............................................................................................................................12
5.5. CRITIQUE ANALYSIS..................................................................................................................13
6.0.RECOMMENDATIONS....................................................................................................................14
APPENDICES.........................................................................................................................................15
REFERENCES........................................................................................................................................16

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to acknowledge the Solomon Islands Ports Authority (SIPA) Management for
allowing student to do research on the Organization and especially Mr. Joshua and Cicilia for

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their time in facilitating the interviews and answering of questionnaires that assist in the
completion of the report.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The present report investigates the significant changes Solomon Islands Ports Authority
(SIPA) undergo for the last five years. It was identified that SIPA undergo major and

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significant changes in relation to policy and Technology in the las five years. The
Organization has changed their policies for the last five years to meet Marine time and
international Ports standards and requirements otherwise, the Solomon Islands Ports
Authority be classified as contaminated which will be resulted in loss of revenue for the
Country and Operation for the Organization because no company will be doing export and
import out of the country through contaminated port. Another change that was also adopted
to increase productivities, Reliability and safety of ships and workers is Technology. The
change theory used by the organization to facilitate the change process is the Lewin’s change
model theory where the Organization incremental change from unfreezing to movement or
transition and then to refreezing. The method used to collect data and gather information for
the report is both primary where questionnaire and interviews was conducted and secondary
where textbook and other academic journals and report was sort. The leadership role applied
by practitioners and the different form of interventions used help the organization in
obtaining measurable outcome. The recommendations for the report were based on the
activities that will help sustain the momentum of the change process.

2.0. INTRODUCTION

This report project was a major Project assignment of MG312 course commission by MG312
course Coordinator Mr. Narendra Prasad for student to do a research and report their findings
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on the significant changes process that took place in any organization of their choice and
discussed using concept, principles, practices and theories gain from the course and applying
them in the report. The course coordinator designed the assignment to test students
understanding on the concept, principles, practice and theory of change process learned by
examining the change process undergo by Organization and be able apply the concepts
learned from the course to report their findings. The chosen Organization for this research is
Solomon Islands Port Authority (SIPA). This organization undergo two significant changes;
change of policies and technological change. The main purpose of this research report is to
critically analysis and examine the overall change process Solomon Islands Port Authority
have gone through, this will be done by examining the different change phases the
organization went through, examine the leadership strategic roles of management that affect
the changes, the research will also examine and analysis the outcome of this changes in the
organization and give critique analysis and recommendations on the overall change process.
The research method that will be used for data collection and information gathering to fulfil
the term of reference set for this research project is both primary and secondary methods, for
Primary method, questionnaire and face to face interview will be conducted while for
secondary methods, relevant journals, literatures, books and academic materials and reports
relevant for the project will be sought for information, ideas and clarification. The structuring
of the report will base on the term of reference given which the report will first discuss the
change process second, the report will discuss and analysis the phases of change with the
support of relevant theories, principles and practices learned on the course, thirdly, it will
state and discuss the outcome of the change Next, the report will also discuss the and
examine the leadership role employed by management that contributed to the changes and
furthermore, it will discuss critiques of the Organization overall change process and lastly the
report will outline recommendations based on the finding.

3.0. LITERATURE REVIEW

Today Business and Organization continue to change because of the influences of the
external and internal environment they are operating in. Now change has become the norm

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for organizations to sustain their success and existence and Industrial and governmental
organizations are constantly striving to align their operations and strategies with a changing
environment (Pierce, et al., 2002). Organizations and its management are also changing the
way of response to the shift in strategic in order to effectively manage mass markets and
tangible properties to innovation, knowledge management and human resources (Al-Haddad
& Kotnour, 2015). Change is defined as “the reweaving of actors' webs of beliefs and habits
of action to accommodate new experiences obtained through interactions” (Tsoukas & Chia,
2002,). In trying to accommodate change can be risky as well as beneficial at the same time,
thus it is the roles and responsibilities of change agents to see that the change process is
successful (Waddell, et al., 2019). Employees are important part in the change process
initiatives which means they need to be well informed and trained to fully competent to be
able to assist in the completion of the change process otherwise, the process will fail. The
participative leadership system used to implement change can help reduce resistance and
build trust and acceptance. (Ford & Ford, 2012).

4.0. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

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To present accurate and genuine report, the information and data collected must be true and
accurate. For the purpose of this report, the four different approaches were considered for
information gathering and data collection were classified under the Primary and secondary
research methods. These are the four approaches;

1. Questionnaires was emailed to HRM.

2. Face to face interview was conducted with senior staff of the Organization.
3. MG312 Text book was consulted (Organizational Change: Development &
Transformation) and
4. USP Online Library (ProQuest and google scholar)
THE PRIMARY REARCH METHOD
For the questionnaire and Interview, Enquiry was made to Solomon Islands Ports Authority
(SIPA) with the Human Resource Management seeking their approval if researched on the
topic “change process” can be conducted on their organizations. Such approach enable
researcher to get primary information on change process the organization has gone through.
Upon getting their approval, the questionnaire was emailed to the Human Resource Manager
to earlier before the interview date. This was done to give HRM enough time to compile
accurate information and data relevant for the report. The questionnaire covers the five terms
of references with simpler questions to get accurate answers, the example of questions asked
are;

1. Do SIPA experience any Organization change in the last five years? If yes, what type
of changes?
2. Do these changes are plan change? Explain your answer.
3. Who is involved in the change process?
4. What leadership strategy was employed that affects the change process?
5. Is there any resistance during the change process?
6. And how do management address resistance by employees?
7. What is some positive outcome of the change process you see?
8. What is your assessment on overall change process?

For the interview, the Tok Stori method was applied to senior staff that responsible for
different department in the Organization and permission was granted to record the interview
for researcher to later refer back to it during write up. The question asked in this tok stori
interview are;

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 1. Are you happy with the change?
2. How does this change affect your work or job?
3. Do management communicate the change process to you well in time?
4. How to your department supervisors handle the change?
5. Do you see the change as a way forward for the Organization?
6. What is your recommendation on such change?

These are few simpler questions that guides researcher to easily get reliable and relevant
information for the entire report.

SECONDARY RESEARCH METHOD

For the USP online library, ProQuest and google scholars was used to search for relevant
journals, reports and academic materials for the report as it was easier to use for searching
and for familiarity of use.

Another secondary information used is the MG312 Text Book (Organizational Change:
Development & Transformation), this assists on clarification of theory, define concepts and
provides wide information necessary for the completion of the report.

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5.0 FINDINGS AND CONCLUSION
5.1. Change Process and Event.

Solomon Islands Port Authority (SIPA) is a State own enterprise which its primary
responsibility mandated by the state is to provide and oversee all the domestic and
international Shipping activities in the country. The Organization has undergone a lot of
change process throughout the years since its operation in striving to maintain public interest
as well as align its goals to the vision and mission mandated to them by the state and to meet
international standard requirement in order to achieve efficacy and efficiency on the service.
According to (Cicilia, 2022) the Main reason for this significant change took place is to
improve efficiency and to comply to International Standard requirement where every Ports in
the World to comply to. (Joshua, 2022) has also stated that significant change are changes
that Organization has to make if not there are consequences that the Organization will face,
Thus the two significant change processes the organization has encountered for the last five
years that were identified are; change of policies and Technology change.

In relation to the change of Policies, according to (Joshua, 2022), Solomon Islands Ports
Authority in 2018 to 2021 has done a major change or shift in their policies to integrate the
Green Port Initiatives and Port Security Plan that has never been in the Organizations policies
in the last five years. These two policies are major international requirement and standard
which every International Sea Ports in the world including Pacific Islands have to adopt
otherwise they are label contaminated. Any ports in the world that does not meet these
requirements are contaminated and a cease to operate.

The change of policy to incorporate the “Green Port initiative” was adopted from SPC based
on the world initiative of “Go Green” this has made a significant and major change in the
Organization in 2019 to include the Green Port initiative where every port in the world
including Pacific Islands to reduce their carbon emission (Joshua, 2022). In the Pacific,
Solomon Islands and Tonga are the two countries who piloted this project. This has cause
major and significant change in the Organization as they tried to change the way they used to
operate and adopt the new system.

Another significant change on the Organization policy is to integrate the Port Security Plan
according to the International Shipping and Ports Security Code (ISPS CODE) that started in
2018 and is still ongoing. This Port security Plan is a Marine time Organization regulation

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that govern how ports should function now as terrorism and smugglers are increasing in
today’s world.

In terms of Technology change, the Organization introduced two new system and they are;
weigh in motion Machine and Pronto. Weigh in Motion machine was introduced in 2019 by
the Organization which replaced their old system of calculating random weight manually.
The introduction of the weight in Motion machine assists the organization calculate the
weight correctly and reduce the risks of life at seas and land because it assists the
organization to calculate the right weight of containers that fits the ship capacity and can used
the right machine to lift the weights. Furthermore, it assists them to calculate the right weight
that translated into money. Another significant change in technology is the introduction of
Pronto. Pronto is an accounting system that work along with weigh in motion that calculate
and monitor the weight that picked up by the weigh in motion and convert it into monetary.
These two technologies replaced the manual ways of checking exports and import goods and
at the same time can fast track any illegal smuggle items coming in and out of the country.
For example, the Organization with the aid of this new technology manage to track down a
container of illegal items on the month of September (Cicilia, 2022). Thus, the introduction
of these two technologies is also a significant change in the organization.

5.2. PHASES OR STAGE OF CHANGE

Changes to Any Organization can be seen as threat or benefit which means that resistance
will always present in any Plan change or transformational change. Solomon Islands Ports
Authority Management have aware of this thus, in their effort to implement the change
process the Management use the general Model of Planned changes and supported by
Lewin’s theory of change model.

Entering, contracting and diagnosing.

The first set of activities carried out in the change process is entering, contracting and
diagnosing. Here, as stated by (Cicilia, 2022) and (Joshua, 2022) that, SIPA management and
board held meetings with International Organizations and employees to discussed the need
for changes and the reasons why changes should take place including the resources needed
for the implementation and the time frame for the change process to its completion and how
they will deal with employee’s resistance. Moreover, in relation to change in technology,
SIPA also communicate the problem associated with the old manual systems and the benefit

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of the new change system will bring to the organization with the employees and not only that,
SIPA also provide and allocated financial resources to cater for the entire change process.
For example, SIPA management Team meets with South Pacific Community (SPC) to
deliberate on the inclusion of Green Port Initiatives and Security Plan policies change that
will affect how the Organization operates and do things. This Entering, contracting and
diagnosing stage is supported by Lewin’s model of unfreezing where Management is
preparing organizations and people to see the need for change and are motivated to see the
introduction (Waddell, et al., 2019). This was done through partnership approach to
individual relations, open communication, regular performance feedback and enhancement of
reward recognition program that will support and promote the acceptance of the change
process (Stone, et al., 2021).

Planning and Implementation stage of change

In the planning and implementation stage, SIPA Management, employees and practitioners
jointly plan and implement the plan change and design interventions such as human process
interventions on how individuals groups and different department within the organization can
involve in the change process, they also design intervention for employees to adapt the
change in technology like for example, they do training for employees on how to operate the
two new technology in placed, furthermore, SIPA include human resource intervention
through trainings to improve the capacity of employees performance and skills to be
competent to implement the change process such as employees training after every three
months during the implementation process to see that staff are acquainted with the new
changes in place on the organization (Joshua, 2022) furthermore, SIPA do strategic
intervention which assist them to deal with their outside support such as the SPC and
International Marine time Organization. Similarly, like Lewin’s model of Movement or
Transition where management initiating action of change during this movement phase, SIPA
management do train employees for them to see clearly why change is necessary, what is
expected of them and how they will be affect by the change process. Thus, in this
implementation and movement stage of change (Waddell, et al., 2019), SIPA Management do
train employees on how to implement the change. for example, regarding the implementation
of Green Port Initiative policy, SIPA Training Officer conduct training for every employee
regarding the changes that take place in the Organization every three (3) months to
disseminate information about the change policies, what employees are expected to do to
contribute on the implementation program such as, switch off lights when living the office,

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turn of vehicle engines if not used etc. to help reduce carbon emission and educate employees
on the benefit of the change process for them, for the Government, the Country and the
environment (Joshua, 2022). (Cicilia, 2022) also stated that during the training process,
Managers educate and communicate the change process implementation to employees,
Facilitate and rendered support to employees either financially and socially so to reduce
resistance and finally they involve and let employees participate on the implementation
process, for example, SIPA involve and let employees participate on a competition with
Tonga on the reduction of carbon emission on how much the organization save per year.
These strategies facilitate the implementation process successfully as employees take pride
and ownership in seeing what they started accomplished.

Evaluation and Institutionalizing Change.

The last stage of change is evaluation and institutionalizing. In this stage Feedback is usually
done on the result of the interventions and to see if the diagnosing is done correctly to see the
success or failure of the change process. SIPA did evaluation and get feedback through audits
done by SPC, Solomon Islands Marine Time Organization and USA International Marine
time Organization to see if the change process taken was done according to the policies and
productivity (Joshua, 2022). This evaluation stage which is similar to Lewin’s Refreezing
Model helps Management to reenforce the desire outcome so that the new changes become
permanent. Its also help Organization to further their training capacity as well as identifying
stepping stones to ongoing improvement as changes never end (Waddell, et al., 2019).

5.3. OUT COME

Through proper intervention and trainings conducted monthly with employees as well as
customers regarding the changes the Organization undertaken, the outcome is incredible for
both changes. The Outcomes of the policy changes is seen in the organization, to the
employees and the customers. For the Organization the outcome is seen in terms of revenue
which SIPA Manage to save $ 96,000.00 SBD on 2018 when they first introduced the Green
Port Initiatives and in 2019, they manage to save up to $ 2Million SBD. For the Port Security
code, SIPA manage to monitor all the activities around the Premises using the CCTV
cameras thus, reduce the illegal activities and boost the Revenue collection.

For the Employees, the out of this policy has created more job opportunity for them to exceed
to the management level and furthermore, they have salary increase and staff appraisal

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included in their salary package because they save a lot from the Green Port initiatives. This
strategies help minimize the resistance from employees because money save from adapting to
new changes has increase their benefits.

For Customers, the changes have improved the environment, do business more securely and
more effective and productivity of services experience.

In relation to Change of Technology used, Government and Organization have benefit from
increase revenues while it helps employees work more effectively, efficiently and reliability
of service. In terms of customers, the outcome of this change has provided them access to
services on timely bases and information needed is reliable as well as safety of customers and
employees are guarantee. Thus, the outcome of the significant changes for SIPA is
measurable and broadly applicable in the whole organization.

5.4. LEADERSHIP

Leadership can be defined as a “process whereby a person influences and directs others to
accomplish a certain objective or achieve a common goal” (Al-Haddad & Kotnour, 2015).
Solomon Islands ports Authority leaders have utilized some of the leadership processes
identify by (Waddell, et al., 2019) such as; Clarifying organizational issues such as low
productivity and loss of the Government revenue through manual system of work, the
importance of compliance to international regulations and standard and applied the
Participative group system to translate the changes to employees and to customers or
stakeholders thus, high degree of members involvement as they want to see the outcome and
the benefit of the change process furthermore, the participative leadership strategies used by
Managers and Supervisors have achieved high level of productivities, quality of work and
members satisfaction in the Organization. Moreover, the key members of the organization in
the change process, here SIPA have hired an external consultant, a member of Union, Inland
Revenue officer from the Government and invite CEO and Managers of Kingdom of Tonga
Port Authority which are also part of the pilot project of the Green Port Initiatives to be part
of the team to facilitate the change process in the organization.

5.5. CRITIQUE ANALYSIS

The significant changes undertaken by SIPA has tremendous benefits such as installment of
LED lights in the port areas that can be monitored and switch off remotely from home or

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office which help reduce carbon emission as well as security measures. Moreover, increase of
revenue collection as seen in 2018 and 2019 indicate the diagnose change has been carried
out correctly however, there is always flaws in plan change process on ways the organization
has conceptualized and practices the planned change. The critiques for SIPA plan change are;
first, the intended outcome of the change policy for Green Port Initiative is to reduced carbon
emission however the Management focuses on beautification which is a minor part of the
initiative. Another flaw is, the Organization did not invest time, money and resources that
will fully support the change, for example, Management feels that the change in security plan
Policy is a waste of resources since Solomon Islands is not USA to consider threat like
Terrorism (Joshua, 2022). Another critique is that the availability of information and
mechanism that drive employees change is sometimes lacking like for example, staff
appraisal not instated on time the employees expected and finally, SIPA is not readily prepare
for the continuous change of technology and globalization for instance, they did not employ
technical and experts to oversee the continuousness of the change process.

RECOMMENDATIONS

The Some of the change process undertake by Ports authority is an ongoing plan change
while others have timeline such as the Green Port Initiative where the Organization promise
that in 2030, Honiara Port should be carbon free (Joshua, 2022). Thus, the recommendation
for this report will based on ways Solomon Islands Ports Authority (SIPA) will be able in
sustaining Momentum of the change process into its completion.

 In sustaining Momentum for the future SIPA need to provide additional Financial and
Human Resources such as recruiting security personal to monitor the CCTV camera
on daily bases, employed additional personal to Manage the Green Port initiative with
additional financial resources to implement the activities to achieve plan change.
 Building support system for a change agent. Organization change can be difficult as
it deals with changing people’s behaviors and attitudes, this not only for employees
but change agent as well thus SIPA should build a network of people for change
Agent can seek help to when emotional and psychologically affected and pressured by
the tension of the change process.

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 Another recommendation is for SIPA to Develop new competency and skills for
employees. Developing new competency and skills can resulted in employee’s
competence in implementing the change process as well as reduce the level of
resistance.
 Reenforcing new behavior. SIPA to reenforce to its employees the kind of actions
needed to implement the change process by linking rewards directly to the desired
actions and furthermore, SIPA must do recognitions and encouragement on staff
success.
 Lastly is Staying the course which means that SIPA must make sure they fulfill and
implement one changes before moving to another, otherwise employee’s performance
will fail.

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APPENDICES

QUESTIONAIRES
1. Do SIPA experience any Organization change in the last five years? If yes, what type
of changes?
2. Do these changes are plan change? Explain your answer.
3. Who is involved in the change process?
4. What leadership strategy was employed that affects the change process?
5. Is there any resistance during the change process?
6. And how do management address resistance by employees?
7. What is some positive outcome of the change process you see?
8. What is your assessment on overall change process?

INTERVIEW QUESTIONS
1. Are you happy with the change?
2. How does this change affect your work or job?
3. Do management communicate the change process to you well in time?
4. How to your department supervisors handle the change?
5. Do you see the change as a way forward for the Organization?
6. What is your recommendation on such change?

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REFERENCES

Al-Haddad, S. & Kotnour, T., 2015. Integrating the organizational change literature: a model
for successful change. Journal of Organizational Change Management, p. 234.
Cicilia, 2022. Senior Human Resource Manager [Interview] (Friday September 2022).
Ford, J. D. & Ford, L. W., 2012. The leadership of Organization change: A view from recent
empirical evidence. Research in Organization chand and Development, pp. 1-36.
Joshua, G., 2022. Manager of Coperate, Training and Security [Interview] (09/10/22
Octomber 2022).
Pierce, J., Gardner, L. & Dunham, R., 2002. Managing Organizational behaviour: An
intergrated perspectives. Managing Organizational change and Development, pp. 627 - 654.
Stone, R. J., Cox, A. & Gavin, M., 2021. Human Resource Management. 10 ed. Australia:
National Library of Australia .
Tsoukas, H. & Chia, R., 2002,. On Organizational Becoming: Rethinking Organizational
Change. Organization Science, 13(5), pp. 567-582.
Waddell, D. M., Creed, A., Cummings, T. G. & Worley, C. G., 2019. Organisational Change:
Development and Transformation. 7th ed. Melbourne, Australia: National Library of Australia.

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