Richard Murphy and the Biscuit Company

Question 1.

Organizational change interventions often face resistance from employees. Even though almost all managers know this, not all pause before making a change to assess the situation and determine what kind of resistance they are going to face and from whom. All of which could help them to plan the right strategy. Instead most organizational development practitioners start making assumptions about possible restraining forces based on their past experience. This kind of mindset for change intervention can cause costly problems. The most common reason people resist change are parochial self-interest, misunderstanding and lack of trust, different assessment, and low tolerance for change (Kotter, Schlesinger, 2008).

One of the main problems Richard Murphy faced at Biscuit & Co when he tried to initiate a transformation was the fact that the company was not ready for him at all. Even though it was supposed to be a planned change that was to be initiated by Richard Murphy upon the company's managing director's request, there was nothing planned about this change. For instance, they have not even prepared Richard Murphy's office when he arrived. They have put him in an office, which everyone referred to under someone else's name. Employees were not looking at Richard Murphy as one of their own who was trying to improve the company's performance. Instead, they were looking at him as an outsider who was trying to intervene with their company's business which has been proven to be a successful method for years. It was clear that they were not very aware of the need for change, most of them were still believing the success of their current regime. Even though the management was aware of the necessity for a change to a certain degree, they have not explained it to the employees sufficiently, thus resulting in misunderstanding and mistrust. Therefore, in order to get the employees' trust and make them see that he is not just an outsider but someone who needs to be...