Assignment 1

Objectives

The aim of this assignment is introduce learners to some of the ideas underpinning the field of Change Management. It seeks to help you understand the answer to a broader concern and that is - why does change management matter?

Instructor Comments

Why should learners study change management? Well think about the role of the U.S. government in bailing out the U.S. financial sector. Literally overnight, some of the biggest companies in the world were faced with the threat of bankruptcy and the loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs if they did not change their ways. Think about Michael McCain, CEO of Maple Leaf Foods, a man who needed to act very quickly and adeptly to save his company following a listeria outbreak in Ontario that caused numerous deaths from contaminated meat products. Think of the B.C. forest industry whose companies needed to deal with not only softwood lumber sanctions from the U.S., but also the economic downturn of 2008/2009 and the infestation of Pine beetles that threatened to wipe out its major source of supply. Michael McCain and his colleagues in the banking sector and in softwood lumber needed sage advice and had to take steps were out of the ordinary in order to enable their companies to survive. It would be an oversimplification to suggest that the public reaction of these companies to these crises was but the tip of the iceberg in terms of what was going on behind the scenes in these companies. Without these hidden activities, it is a safe bet that many more of these companies would not have survived. The readings for this assignment focus on why change is important to understand.

Assignment

You should base your responses to the following questions on the insight found in the following readings:

• Miller D. 1990. The Icararus Paradox - How Exceptional Companies Bring About Their Own Downfall, Harper Business.
• Hofstede G. 1993. Cultural Constraints in Management Theories, Academy of Management Executive. 7(1) 81 - 94.
• Adrian J. Slywotzky and John Drzik, Countering the Biggest Risk of All. Harvard Business Review April 2005.

Please answer the following questions:

• For each paper, please use one paragraph to summarize the main ideas.
• Please use one half page to summarize the ideas that are similar among all of these papers.
• Why is the effective management of organizational change important?
• Words: 1200-1300

Assignment 2

Objectives

The aim of this assignment is to suggest to that all not all change efforts are the same. It seeks to help you understand the answer to a broader concern and that is - how do change efforts differ?

Instructor Comments

Are all responses to different business situations the same? Well think of the following situations all of which fall under the heading of organizational change. The business school of a small liberal arts, English speaking, university located on the East Coast of North America is surprised one year by a dramatic increase in the number of students enrolling from the Peoples Republic of China.The rise is so dramatic that in the space of one year its body of international students increases from 10% of overall enrolment to 30%. A division of General Motors is spun off and finds itself with a new owner, a company headquartered in the PRC. Revenues fall dramatically over the course of a few months for a forestry company resulting in layoffs accounting for over 10% of its workforce. A domestic restaurant chain doubles its size by expanding out of its base in Newfoundland and opens five new locations in Vancouver, a metropolitan local whose demographic make-up differs dramatically from that of St. John's. All of these situations necessitate different behavior, skills, and understanding than what is normal for each company. They involve companies and their executive teams doing things that are different. This module offers a series of readings that offer learners insight as to why different situations elicit different responses from organizational decision makers.

Assignment

You should base your responses to the following questions on the insight found in the following readings:

• Dunphy D. and Stace, D. 1993. The strategic management of corporate change Human Relations, 46(8), 905 - 920.
• Nadler, D.A. and Tushman, M.L. 1989. Organizational Framebending: principles for managing reorientation. Academy of Management Executive, 3(3), 194-204.
• Sathe, V. 1983. Implications of Corporate Culture. A Manager's guide to action. Organizational Dynamics, 5 -23.
Please answer the following questions:
• For each paper, please use one paragraph to summarize the main ideas.
• Please use one half page to summarize the ideas that are similar among all of these papers.
• How do change efforts differ?
• Words: 1200-1300

Assignment 3

Objectives

The aim of this assignment is to offer learners an example of how the competitive environment can serve as a catalyst for change and how companies signal their understanding of these challenges.

Instructor Comments

Along with suggesting important frameworks and ideas associated with change management, this course also seeks to offer learners a tool kit of important online information sources along with the knowledge to use these sites to undertake practical research. In this assignment, you are pointed to three sources of information that will enable you to understand the competitive dynamics of an industry. Hoovers.com, in its industry overview section offers clearly written descriptions of the make-up of many competitive landscapes. Yahoo!Finance offers detailed financial information for the industry along with the identities and profiles of companies operating in an industry. Corporate Annual Reports or 10K documents filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission offer detailed assessments of the risks of operating in specific industries. Knowledge of these three important sources of information enables students to quickly understand what is going on in an industry from the point of view of investors and participants.

Assignment

You should base your responses to the following questions on the insight found in the 10K SEC filing of Helen of Troy Limited and the following websites.

• U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission http://www.sec.gov.
• Yahoo! Finance http://finance.yahoo.com.
• High Beam Business http://business.highbeam.com/industry-reports/.
• Plunkett Research http://www.plunkettresearch.com.

The 10K Form is the Annual Report filing to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission of a company whose shares trade publicly on U.S. stock exchanges. 10K Forms offer a discussion of risk factors that might potentially affect a company's bottom line and hence bring about change.

Please answer the following questions:

• High Beam Business and Plunkett Research offer overviews of industries on their websites. Please cite and briefly describe in your own words the competitive landscape of this industry using either of these information sources.

• Using the 10K filings for the most recent year and for 2000, please examine the risk factors for your company and two of its competitors. For each company, please identify three risks that have remained the same, three risks that were present in 2000 but not in the most recent filing, and three risks that are present in the most recent year but not in 2000.

• Using the 10K filings For all three companies, please identify three risks that were common in 2000 and three risks that are common in the most recent filing.

• Words: 1200-1300

Assignment 4

Objectives

The aim of this assignment is introduce learners to the importance of leadership in the context of change management. This assignment seeks to help you understand the answer to a broader concern and that is - what is the role of a leader in the management of change?

Instructor Comments

Do leaders matter? Well three authors of papers tied to this assignment think so. Whether change is forced up an organization or an entity proactively alters itself, someone needs to be in control of an organization's activities and responses. Rosabeth Moss Kanter is a well known Harvard University business professor. She suggested that possession of a specific set of skills helps to differentiate effective leaders from ineffective leaders. John Kotter is the author of what is probably the most influential model or process of leader driven corporate change. Few business schools fail to make use of his eight step model in their curriculum. Michael Watkins fame is more recent. He researched and has written a compelling article on what leaders need to do during the first 90 days of their tenure as CEO's. In times of dramatic economic upheaval, CEO turnover typically escalates. In those instances, Watkins ideas serve as a useful guide for key decision.

Assignment

You should base your responses to the following questions on the insight found in the following readings:

• Simon, R., Mintzberg, H. &Basu, K. 2002 Memo to CEO's. Fast Company. June 2002?http://www.fastcompany.com/44965/memo-ceos
• Kotter J.P. Leading Change: Why Transformation Efforts Fail. Harvard Business Review, January 2007??THIS IS AVAILABLE THROUGH VAUGHAN LIBRARY.

• http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/careers/careers-leadership/how-to-hit-the-ground-running-in-your-first-90-days/article11751971/

Please answer the following questions:

• For each paper, please use one paragraph to summarize the main ideas.
• Please use one half page to summarize the ideas that are similar among all of these papers.
• What is the role of a leader in the management of change?
• Words: 1200-1300.