Simmons Leading changes Essay Example for Free

Simmons Leading changes Essay General Overriding Problem: The case mainly focuses on the challenges of implementing change programs at Simmons. There is resistance to change. (The sources of resistance are derived from both individuals and organization.) Besides the resistance to change, the dominant organizational culture exists within Simmons is not in consistency with the Simmons’ core organizational culture. This inconsistency further hinders the Simmons from implementing change programs smoothly. Simmons is in its toughest period of time ever in history. There are several forces (Economic shocks are the most important stimulants to change at Simmons) that require Charlie Eitel, CEO of Simmons, to implement comprehensive change program, i. e. the Great Game of Life (GGOL). However, the implementation of GGOL faces huge resistance. Individual Sources: Firstly, there is fear of the unknown among the employees and the top managers. The outcomes of GGOL are uncertain, employees feel like their safety and job securities are threatened, especially resignation of plant managers has already happened. Secondly, individuals have habits. They prefer to work in their accustomed ways. When people are confronted with the GGOL, they may think that they will shift from the environment they are habituated to. This thought will result in resistance to change. Thirdly,economic factors also trigger resistance to change. GGOL is ambiguous to most employees and managers at Simmons. They are concerned about the changes in their job tasks or established work routines. They may not be able to perform new tasks to their previous standards, especially when their pay is closely associated with productivity. Organizational Sources: Firstly, Structural inertia acts as a counterbalance to sustain stability and resist changes. The culture shared by a majority of the Simmons’ members (i.e. dominant culture) is inconsistent with the original organizational culture established by the company. The  inconsistency will further strengthen structural inertia to resist change. For example,leadership style at Simmons will be changed completely. Simmons leadership vision states that they encourage new ideas, open communication, and having fun. However, the dominant culture deviates from the core values. The actual leadership is very much motivation through intimidation. GGOL will completely revamping the company’s dictatorial form and ensure that Simmons is running on the right track. Secondly, there are resources constraints. Organizations need adequate financial resources to change. However, Simmons is not in this case. Simmons is on the brink of bankruptcy! To some extend, group inertia is also taking place. Some employees resist GGOL simply because their groups which they belong to resist the GGOL. Analysis and Evaluation: Implementation of the GGOL is controversial. It really does teach staff at Simmons how to work together and share information. The GGOL is made up by 4 phases. The first phase focuses on participation. This phase encourages employees to participate discussion. It helps improve the communication within the organization and make employees get involved. Resistance to change is positive since it leads to open discussion and debate. Change agents also take advantages of it to explain the change effort, i.e. process consultation. The second phase is aiming at establishing trust and support by using team building. The first two phases are unfreezing step inLewin’s three-step model. The last two phases are interrelated. They are usingintergroup development technique to look for the causes of disparities and try to solve them (Movement and Refreezing step in Lewin’s model). Ultimately, the staff’s full potential at work is realized. Recommendations: After Charlie Eitel is designated as CEO, he took series actions. These actions include redesigning the Beautyrest, spending $9 million on ad campaign, reorganizing management and Simmons’ structure, and implementing the GGOL. Most of them are successful. However, Eitel and the top management team still don’t come up with a plan about how to manage the company through  these tough times. Since the experiment result at Charlotte Plant is fantastic, I would like to recommend Eitel to stick on his original plan, i.e. adopt the GGOL. Creating a culture for change is the centre of this plan. I suggest the following improvements. They should pay more attention on the employees’ feedback. Feedback is incredibly essential for accessing attitudes held by employees, identifying discrepancies among employees, and solving these differences. Survey feedback also makes employees feel their opinions are valued by the company. Simmons should also adopt appreciative inquiry AI. AI focuses on an organization’s successes rather than its problem. Employees at Simmons are criticized excessively. Managers should identify the strengths of Simmons, and try to make best use of their comparative advantages and bypass the disadvantages. AI also allows managers and employees to write action plan and develop implementation strategies together. The more people engaged in, the more they are willing to implementing change. Structure of Simmons should also be reorganized. Eitel should try to de-emphasize hierarchical authority and control. This makes Simmons be more effective incommunication. Generally speaking, communication is high and effective in innovative organizations. In addition, de-emphasize hierarchical authority ensurespower equalization, which is beneficial to organizational development. â€Å"Leading Change at Simmons† shows the importance of Organizational Behavior, having a culture that respects its employees and having a transformational leader who has a clear vision for the company. Problem Statement Simmons has lost three of its most important clients due to the economic depression post the 9/11 attacks. Its products are giving off unpleasant odor because of a low quality raw material supplied by one of its suppliers. Problems As one goes through the case, one realizes that there are a lot of problems that the company is facing, right from the lack of a clear vision to the extent of one manufacturing unit competing with the other. It clearly reflects the following sources of conflict 1.Incompatible goals 2.Diversity Analysis of Problems †¢Role Conflict and No Organizational Structure One of the major problems that the company was facing was that there was no clear organizational structure for the company and role conflict existed. Most of the associates were reporting to the General Managers, who were basically Sales Managers, and who, according to Eitel, didn’t have business acumen. All the manufacturing units were running as per the General Manager’s whims. This Control vs. Commitment (Exhibit 1) situation can be clearly seen when Bob Hellyer, President and Director of Simmons, tells Eitel about the manufacturing units at Janesville and Charlotte. Lack of Implementation of Vision and Values Simmons already had four core values in place; three more were added when Eitel joined the company as its CEO. It seems that no one was following the â€Å"Simmons Code of Ethics† or the â€Å"Simmons Values.† No one was maximizing the â€Å"opportunity† to think or share and listen to others; Short Term Goals: 1.Discard the mattresses that were made up of bad foam and sue the supplier. 2.Report and communicate with partners and employees Long Term: 1.Restructure 2.Bill Wagnar should be kept in the same role.

The Treaty of Versailles :: World War I History

The Treaty of Versailles Despite Woodrow Wilson's plan for peace near the end of World War I, he failed to gain Congressional support for the Treaty of Versailles. The Treaty of Versailles was intended to be a peace agreement between the Allies and the Germans. However, once the negotiation of the Treaty, the Allies found they had conflicting ideas and motives surrounding the reparations and wording of the Treaty. The Treaty formally placed the responsibility for the war on Germany and its allies and imposed on Germany the burden of paying the debts of war. In addition to foreign opposition, Wilson couldn't even gain support for the treaty in the United States. Because of weaknesses in the treaty, domestic opposition, and failure to compromise, the treaty gained very little congressional support. The Treaty of Versailles was very controversial. Some countries opposed the treaty due to multiple weaknesses. For example, the Treaty humiliated Germany. The war-guilt clause forces Germany to accept sole responsibility for World War I. And although German militarism had played a major role in igniting the war, other countries in Europe had been guilty of provoking diplomatic crises before the war. Another weakness in the Treaty was that Russian government felt that the Treaty ignored its needs. In the Treaty, Russia was excluded from the peace conference, even though Russians had fought with the Allies for three year, and suffered higher casualties than any other country. There was also much dispute concerning the distribution of territory in the Treaty. The Treaty of Versailles established nine new countries, and changed many boundaries, and there was debate about the fairness. There was also much opposition to the treaty in the United States, which is what Woodrow Wilson faces when he returned with the treaty. Some people, including Herbert Hoover, believed it was too harsh. Others didn't think the treaty really did any good because it shifted the set of colonial rulers to another set, instead of eliminating the imperialism. Also, some minorities objected to the treaty because the new boundaries it established for some countries didn't satisfy their demands for independence. For example, Wilson hadn't tried to obtain Ireland's independence from Great Britain. Most of all, the opposition to the treaty in the United States was the debate over the League of Nations. A few opponents believed that the League of Nations threatened the U.S. foreign policy of staying clear of European affairs, the Monroe Doctrine.

Mobile Voting System Essay

Project Background Mobile Technology is most important in the world and current generation. We can get updated information using mobile devices. Such device can be used for personal and business transactions. Moreover, mobile devices functionality has evolved tremendously. Nowadays, it can be used for a variety of purposes like to locate places much like a GPS, to read barcodes, to play games, to browse the Internet, to know weather reports, to vote, and so much more. Significantly the most important uses are the voice calls, video calls and Short Messaging System (SMS). Currently various models of mobile phones have come out in the market and each one having special advantages over the others. The SMS or message facility is important in the mobile device. It allows the sender to send messages from one mobile to another mobiles device. Most business establishments advertise through print media like the newspapers, magazines, pamphlets, brochures, and so much more. They also make use of the radio to promote their product and services. Furthermore, a lot business establishments conduct market survey like allowing consumer to choose which product they like best or selecting the best brands and so on. For example, Nawras Telecommunication is one of the best communications providers in Oman. It makes the communication service very convenient to the customers. During festival or holiday, Nawras send bulk messages to its customers informing them of promotions. Using this marketing strategy, customers will be aware of exciting promos and discounts. The backbone of any business is advertisement. Companies have used mobile technology to get to customers and sell their products and services. With this technology, companies can reach customer base very easy and quickly, thus, improving the business. Problem Statement Although print media is effective in advertising products, the problem lies on the cost. It is very expensive to advertise using this medium. When businesses conduct market survey, they usually do it manually. Example, they visit households randomly and ask them questions pertaining to their product and services or they gave out questionnaires to people on the streets. As seen, it is very time and effort consuming. Project Objectives The objective of this project is to design and implement a Mobile Marketing System. It specifically seeks to: 1. Lessen the cost in advertising; 2. Lessen time and effort in conducting market research or study; 3. Use the mobile phone as a marketing strategy to advertise and conduct market study; and 4. Design, develop and test a Mobile Marketing System. CHEPTER 2: 3.1 Research Research Part is a step of scientific approach and can say as practice based research. How to collect the information, investigate for new project and understand the previous system and study the various information from books material and websites. The main aim of the research is using mobile technology to get to customers and sell their products and services . Before starting this project i read about companies and how to do promotion for electronic products Without the need to buy advertisement may cost many amounts. And read the way advertising through mobile phones So you want to snap the project 2.2 PROJECT PLANNING 2.3 Analysis and Design ANALYSIS Systems analysis is the study of sets of interacting entities, including computer systems analysis. This section will analyze the functionality the software and what programming language will it be implemented. The design section will contain screen layouts as well as the core design of the software and the way it will be implemented.. DESIGN The researcher will analyze and design the database based on the clients requirement. Modeling tools will be used to draw cases and data flows. Design phase also includes the structure of our database. Also will start by designing the site according to our analysis. Then will create the database depending on the previous design. Then will make a connection between the application itself and the database. The detailed design are at the stage of detailed design, working on the computer begins in earnest. At this stage, the design of the system becomes more organized. Are drawn inputs, outputs, and processing specifications is in the details. 2.4 Implementation and Testing After testing is completed, the system will be implemented in the client side. Testing is most important in system development. We need to test the system in all levels. First, it will be tested using unit testing which uses column level test. In this project, each and every column should be validated. Unit is the smallest possible testable software component. This project will start with unit testing by testing each module of the project. Second, stress testing will be performed. It is done when a system is tested with a load that causes it to allocate its resources for develop the product in maximum amounts, this is called stress testing. For example, in this project, bulk messages will be sent and received to and from customers and stress testing will be performed to check the efficiency of the system. It is expected that delays will happen. 2.5 Critical Evaluation It is necessary to evaluate the system after design, development and testing the system for validation purposes. Evaluation of the new system depends on the design, development and test team and users of the project. It traps future error and defines future enhancements as recommended by the user. User evaluation is of prime importance because he/she is the one who will be using the system every day, so their approval must be sought.

Symptoms And Types Of Anxiety - 958 Words

Anxiety exists in a variety of forms within humans and animals alike. Specific phobias effects approximately 10% of the population, the most common being spider phobia (Bourdon et al, 1988; Fyer, 1998). Anxieties’ and phobia’s aetiology and maintenance can be explained through learning theories. Exposure therapy is the therapy of choice when treating spider phobia sufferers (Craske Rowe, 1997). Learning is the essential factor in the aetiology of anxiety, specifically fears and phobias. Brought forward by Watson Rayner (1920) and Pavlov (1927), one learning theory that seeks to explain the origin of an individual’s anxiety is classical conditioning. Continued by Rachman (1977), conditioning is where a neutral stimulus is strongly paired with an unconditioned stimulus (US). The US causes an automatic physiological response, called an unconditioned response (UR). When the link between the stimuli occurs, the neutral stimulus, now the conditioned stimulus (CS), will bring about a conditioned response (CR), which is very similar to the UR. In the context of arachnophobia, an image, presence or thought of a spider (CS) will be linked to disgust, being bitten or a traumatic experience (US). The UR of the stimulus is fear and therefore the resulting CR will also be fear leading to the CS always eliciting the emotion of fear. Continuing Rachman’s (1977) ideas, fear acquisition can also occur through vicarious and didactic learning, where fear is observed and learnt ratherShow MoreRelatedSymptoms And Symptoms Of Anxiety Disorders1295 Words   |  6 PagesAnxiety Disorder Many people experience anxiety and nervousness from time to time, typically about a near event, something with an uncertain outcome, problem at work, or making an important decision. 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