Organizational Design and Change

Each group or organization within a company has a stated, or assumed, mission. When a transformational project occurs such as redesigning processes around demand and supply planning, DC/FC operations, redesigning the distribution network or applying new technologies it affects how individuals within the organizations perceive their assigned missions.

This change can impact people in a variety of ways; however, one outcome is almost assured, and this is a drop in productivity. Thus, managing transition from one state to another is critical to minimize risks.

Our Organizational Design efforts are directed at assessing and reshaping an organization’s structure including its processes, methods and skills to facilitate the workflow that enables an organization’s mission. Tompkins’ methodology is designed to help our clients achieve an integrated system of processes, people, information and practices that will address a set of objectives consistently, repeatedly, and completely.

As important as identifying what the mission is and the right organizational structure, the process of achieving this is often delayed due to an ineffective change management program. By starting early, and applying a set of methods and tools, the change management process can move people along with the change in the organization, thus gaining their commitment and support.

Organizational Design

Organizational design is a step-by-step methodology which identifies dysfunctional aspects of work flow, procedures, structures and systems, realigns them to fit current business realities/goals and then develops plans to implement the new changes. The process focuses on improving both the technical and people side of the business.

For most companies, the design process leads to a more effective organization design, significantly improved results (profitability, customer service, internal operations), and employees who are empowered and committed to the business. The hallmark of the design process is a comprehensive and holistic approach to organizational improvement that touches all aspects of organizational life, so you can achieve:

• Excellent customer service
• Increased profitability
• Reduced operating costs
• Improved efficiency and cycle time
• A culture of committed and engaged employees
• A clear strategy for managing and growing your business

By design we’re talking about the integration of people with core business processes, technology and systems. A well-designed organization ensures that the form of the organization matches its purpose or strategy, meets the challenges posed by business realities and significantly increases the likelihood that the collective efforts of people will be successful.

As companies grow and the challenges in the external environment become more complex, businesses processes, structures and systems that once worked become barriers to efficiency, customer service, employee morale and financial profitability. Organizations that don’t periodically renew themselves suffer from such symptoms as:

• Inefficient workflow with breakdowns and non value-added steps
• Redundancies in effort (“we don’t have time to do things right, but do have time to do them over”)
• Fragmented work with little regard for good of the whole (Production ships bad parts to meet their quotas)
• Lack of knowledge and focus on the customer
• Silo mentality and turf battles
• Lack of ownership (“It’s not my job”)
• Cover up and blame rather than identifying and solving problems
• Delays in decision-making
• People don’t have information or authority to solve problems when and where they occur
• Management, rather than the front line, is responsible for solving problems when things go wrong
• It takes a long time to get something done
• Systems are ill-defined or reinforce wrong behaviors
• Mistrust between workers and management

Organizations Change

Organizational change is the movement of an organization from one state of affairs to another. A change in the environment often requires change within the organization operating within that environment. Change in almost any aspect of a company’s operation can be met with resistance, and different cultures can have different reactions to both the change and the means to promote the change. To better facilitate necessary changes, several steps can be taken that have been proved to lower the anxiety of employees and ease the transformation process. Often, the simple act of including employees in the change process can drastically reduce opposition to new methods. In some organizations, this level of inclusion is not possible, and instead organizations can recruit a small number of opinion leaders to promote the benefits of coming changes.