Internal Change Management through the introduction of a Quality Management System

Table of Contents

Image Index

1 Starting situation

2 Analysis of the Situation

3 Discussion of Suggestions/Solutions for the Case

Biography

Image Index

Figure 1: before and after analysis

Figure 2: organisational chart

Figure 3: Psychological Change Phases

Figure 4: Actors in a Change Process

1 Starting situation

Nothing is as constant as change. Companies are influenced by a variety of factors which made changes necessary. The cause of changes could be internal or external. External factors could be a change of business partners, an economic crisis, the globalisation or a change in laws.

In this case the change was internal. The whole company was unorganised, for example without any overview of current figures of incoming labour of the day, any written work instruction, how the tasks has to be done, or an overview of complaints from customers. The employees had no targets to achieve or some instruction how much work they have to do at one day. So everybody can work how he likes and as much as he likes.

The management decided to introduce a Qualtity Management System in a part of the company to get an ISO certification. With an ISO certification it would be possible to get more orders from other business sectors, because the certification stands for trust and reliability. To enable the certification, it was necessary to change the whole working situation of the company. For example processes, work instructions, forms, organisational charts, a Quality Management Manual, an internal error management and a complaints management were needed. Furthermore a system for the different work, which is done at that day, was needed to plan a strategic future. Through a quality management system, the company has to establish a vision. It contains targets for the company. From these targets the process key data for processes were derived. These process key data become the targets of the employees. The following graphic summarizes the whole situation on the basis of a before and after analysis:

illustration not visible in this excerpt

Figure 1: before and after analysis

Source: own picture

The organization of the part which should be certified was as following:

There were five groups which are all in friendly relations. There are many employees who are friends in private life or even married. Each team has a group leader and hierarchically above the group leaders is the head of the company. The organisational chart shows the hierarchic structure of the part of the company which will be certified:

illustration not visible in this excerpt

Figure 2: organisational chart

Source: Own picture

The teams itself are very heterogenic. Within the formal groups there are a lot of subgroups and the subgroups of the teams are in friendships with other subgroups or persons of other groups. There are little “war-stories”, but nothing which is considered seriously. The work of the groups is very different and at the moment incomparable.

To implement the quality management system a business consultant with experience in Quality Management Systems was hired. The head of the company at first informed the group leaders about the planned change process. After that there was a team meeting with all the employees of the relevant part of the company to inform them.

2 Analysis of the Situation

At the beginning of a change process, there stands the vision of someone. In my case the change is implemented by a top-down approach from the management. Visions were demonstrated by the management. The employees put the visions into practice, but they do no planning.^[1]

If the vision is communicated, the first reaction is often defensive. This rejection is human. Some people are easier to convince than others, because they go through the different phases of a change process differently. Because of this it is important to know about the seven phases of a change process shown in the figure below:

illustration not visible in this excerpt

Figure 3: Psychological Change Phases

Source: (cf. Cook;Macaulay;Coldicott2004,p.80)

In the following I would like to describe the seven phases of the change process in which the employees have been at that time:

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^[1] (cf. Green2007,p.151f)