MBA 687 Project Guidelines and Rubric
Competencies
In this project, you will demonstrate mastery of the following competencies:
Develop a workforce
Propose an operating plan
Justify organizational change
Scenario
You are an HR consultant, contracted by the VP of an LLC in Wilmington, Delaware, to solve their internal challenges. This U.S. office is a branch of a larger Singaporean software solutions organization that has a total of 140 employees and generates $20M in revenue per year. The CEO of this organization, headquartered in Singapore, wants to explore new markets in the United States, gain access to new customers, diversify risk, leverage resources, and increase profits.
Unfortunately, the newly formed U.S. branch has been facing several problems from the beginning.
Employees at the call center and the sales and marketing division are disengaged and emotionally fatigued due to contradictory communication between the branch’s leadership and the leadership at the Singaporean headquarters.
The branch team members feel frustrated and undervalued as a result of conflicting feedback from their VP and management team.
Messages from leadership lack consistency, especially regarding policies and practices related to human resources.
There is no training for team members.
Communication problems between the Singaporean headquarters and U.S. branch are resulting in low employee morale.
Overall, the standard operating procedures (SOP) followed successfully at the headquarters in Singapore could not be replicated at the U.S. branch. As a result, the CEO’s vision of successfully furthering expansion into the U.S. market remains unfulfilled.
Your goal as an HR consultant is to create a change management toolkit that includes the following:
A needs assessment or change readiness audit
An organizational change management plan
A change management communication plan
A letter recommending strategies to ensure that the changes and their benefits are retained
To create the toolkit, you will compile your work from Milestones One and Two. So far, you have completed your change readiness audit and created a change management plan. Now, you will record and share a presentation to demonstrate your change management communication plan. This plan should include your recommendations for workforce development techniques and how you plan to communicate these to employees and leadership of the U.S. branch, as well as leadership at the Singaporean headquarters.
It is not enough to implement change successfully; efforts should also be made to sustain the change. You must also write an executive letter to the VP of the U.S. branch, recommending strategies and best practices to ensure that the changes are implemented and maintained.
Directions
Change Management Toolkit
Part One: Change Readiness/Needs Assessment Audit Report
Submit your change readiness report from Milestone One that was created according to the following criteria. Be sure to revise your report based on feedback you received on your milestone. In this report prepared for the VP, you will discuss the change readiness of the workforce and leadership, willingness and capabilities for change, and any historical barriers to change from past planned or unplanned change management experiences.
Use the Employee Engagement Survey, Leaders’ Self-Evaluations, Exit Interviews, and Forms of Resistance Grid from the Supporting Materials section to assess the change-readiness of employees of the U.S. branch.
Specifically, you must address the following rubric criteria:
Based off the Employee Engagement Survey data, create visuals that illustrate areas in need of change, specifically in the U.S. branch. Your visuals must address the following:
Appraisal, job-role stagnation, and promotion or recognition
Apathy or disinterest regarding the vision, mission, and values of the organization (Singaporean headquarters and U.S. branch)
Lack of trust in managers, especially senior leaders
Impressions about the organization’s (Singaporean headquarters and U.S. branch) attitude to inclusion and diversity
Justify your selection of data points from the Employee Engagement Survey results
Discuss employees’ confidence in change management practices.
Consider the information available through the Employee Engagement Survey and Leaders’ Self-Evaluations.
Do employees have a high degree of confidence in the organization’s leadership? Explain your reasoning.
Explain the urgency for change at the employee and leadership level.
Analyze the middle managers’ (team leads’) role in creating an adoption mindset:
How could they serve as a bridge between the senior leaders and the frontline staff?
Are they ready to take ownership of the proposed change? Explain your reasoning.
How do leadership styles and power distribution impact change readiness?
Identify opportunities to increase change readiness/trust at the U.S. branch:
Why are some employees more accepting of change while others might be more resistant?
How does the Forms of Resistance Grid explain the common reasons for resistance to change?
Use the Exit Interviews and the Forms of Resistance Grid, to discuss any two forms of resistance from this list: ambivalence, peer-focused dissent, upward dissent, sabotage, and refusal/exit.
Use Hofstede’s cultural dimension model and the Exit Interviews, Employee Engagement Survey, and Leaders’ Self-Evaluations to explain cultural considerations that may have created difficulties for the employees of the U.S. branch to adjust to the Singaporean headquarters’ SOPs.
Summarize the importance of cultural considerations using Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions Model in the context of the U.S. branch and the Singaporean headquarters.
Explain how Hofstede’s model helps analyze cultural differences based on specific evidence and not on pre-conceived notions about different cultures.
Discuss how differences in specific dimensions of Hofstede’s model may result in misunderstanding and change management frustration or failure.
Discuss individualism and one other dimension from the list below that might impact the cross-cultural communication and business practice differences among the U.S. and the Singaporean employees:
Uncertainty avoidance
Power distance
Long-term orientation
Part One: Change Readiness/Needs Assessment Audit Report
Submit a 2- to 3-page Word document with 12-point Times New Roman font, double spacing, and one-inch margins. Sources should be cited according to APA style. Consult the Shapiro Library APA Style Guide for more information on citations.
