
MBA – International Business Sample
May 27, 2022
Organizational Development | Case Study – The Newspaper Company Sample
May 27, 2022Organisational Development
Case Study – The Newspaper Company
The scene is a newspaper group in the early 1980’s. Profits were falling towards danger level because of the ever-rising cost of producing the newspapers. Technological development had been made in the past ten years that could have reduced the costs and given more flexibility, but the print workers and their union has kept a stranglehold on how newspapers were produced. They either refused to accept any changes or ensured that manning levels were kept at old levels, while wages rose because of the new skills. New technology was now available that would cut out the need for many of the old processes, with journalists imputing their own stories into computer systems, which could then be used more directly to make up the content of the daily newspapers. Many of the old skills of the print workers were therefore redundant, and almost everyone in the company would have to operate differently.
However, fear of strikes and sabotage – which would have been a consequence of any attempt to change without agreement or the print workers – had held the company in check. However, at this point the managing director is being forced to act because the bottom line position is deteriorating and a new company has entered the industry, producing newspapers using the new process and therefore gaining immense competitive advantage.
Questions:
Using the theory Kotter’s 8 Steps to Change Model
1. What is to be developed, why and how?
2. Discuss how you would manage the organisation’s behaviour, dynamics, culture and change in order for success