Boeing-Case Study

Darlene Austin

Management 6681

13 November 2011

Case Study- Problems at Perrier (Chapter 6, pg 183)

1. Identify the key elements of the resistance to change described in this situation.

The key elements of the resistance to change described in the Perrier case are:

Lack of communication and the companies inability to inform the employees of what changes affected production at Perrier, the company made excessive changes, the company introduces a series of changes and the people felt the changes were unnecessary, and they were unsure if they would still have the required skills to continue to work for the company. Perrier has made quite a fair amount of changes in a short period of time and they will need to be aware that some people may not agree to the change and might not work to their full potential. Most of Perrier's employees did not think the changes were necessary for the organization to grow. There were some employees who thought Perrier's conducted unnecessary changes to impact their normal workload. The latter change was considered as the lack of conviction that change is needed. There was also the Perceived Negative Effect on Interest -this resistance to change will be affected by people's perceptions of the likely effect of the change on their "interests'', a term that can cover a wide range of factors including their authority, status, rewards(including salary), opportunity to apply expertise, membership of friendship networks, autonomy, and security. The employees at Perrier were concerned with the implication of the change for themselves and how it may affect their own interests, rather than considering effects for the success of the business.

2. Construct a change management strategy for dealing with this situation. In so doing, identify what approach (es) to managing resistance you recommend and provide a clear justification for your choice.

An article by Kotter and Schlesinger provides the classic description on managing the resistance to change(Palmer, 2009). They proposed six methods for managing change resistance for change: education and communication, participation and involvement, facilitation and support, negotiation and agreement, manipulation and cooptation and explicit and implicit coercion. The four of which that could be considered in this case are: education and communication, participation and involvement, negotiation and agreement, and explicit and implicit coercion.

A) Education and Communication. There seems to be a lack of information or inaccurate information. Instead of discussing directly with the employees that the sales were down, the managers used a form of manipulation by placing the competition's bottled water in the factory