INTERVENTION PLAN – MACMAN OUTFITTERS

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The concept of organisational change is in regard to organisation-wide change, as opposed to smaller changes such as adding a new person or modifying a work programme. In the case study, organisational change needs to takes place due to the takeover of MacMan Outfitters by Men's Wearhouse. MacMan must undertake organisation-wide change to evolve from a highly reactive, entrepreneurial organisation to a more stable and planned development.

Successful change must involve buy-in from top management and this is illustrated in the intervention plan detailed in this report. Usually theres a champion who initially instigates the change by being persuasive and consistent and in this case, Thomas and Henderson of Men's Wearhouse fulfill this role. Change is usually best carried out as a team-wide effort as is pursed in the intervention plan. Communications about the change should be frequent and with all MacMan employees.

The best approaches to address resistance to change have been proved through increased and sustained communications and education. A plan should be developed and communicated.

Cheap College Papers on INTERVENTION PLAN – MACMAN OUTFITTERS

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page number

Introduction 5

Short term intervention plan 6

Summary 6

Specific objectives 6

Analysis of short term objectives 6

Medium term intervention plan 10

Long term intervention plan 17

Conclusion 1

Appendix A 0

INTRODUCTION

Men's Wearhouse, an American based company, has succeeded in achieving a progressive financial growth despite the declining economy of the clothing industry showing an annual growth of 6%. The company has achieved success through recognition of its staff and reinforcement of its operational values.

Men's Wearhouse has grown into the South African market and acquired MacMan Outfitters (Pty) Ltd. This report outlines recommendations, based on the fundamentals of the Lewin's change model, on how to implement an intervention plan at MacMan Outfitters over a two year period. The report outlines the short term, medium term and long term strategy recommended for the takeover of MacMan Outfitters.

The Lewin's change model includes three stages of change management unfreezing, changing and refreezing. The unfreezing stage creates the motivation to change and this includes interventions like benchmarking. The changing or movement stage involves learning and providing staff with new information to assist them to learn new concepts. The refreezing stage is when change is stabilised by helping employees to integrate the changed behaviour into their way of working.

One has to bear in mind that MacMan Outfitters has been long established in the clothing industry and it will not be easy to implement new changes and values in the organisation. But owing to its current financial status and business strategy changes have to be made to ensure the future for the company.

This report is based on the assumption that Men's Wearhouse has conducted a pre-survey of the various aspects of MacMan outfitters prior to purchasing the company.

SHORT TERM INTERVENTION PLAN (up to 6 TO 8 MONTHS)

Summary

Men's Wearhouse has a solid values system within the organisation which contributes to its success in the clothing industry. During this first 6 to 8 months of the transition takeover, staff at MacMan Outfitters need to be introduced to the benefits of working the way staff do at Men's Wearhouse. In other words, benchmarking exercises need to be implemented to create motivation to change.

Specific objectives

 Disconfirmation - must arouse what we can call survival anxiety or the feeling that if we do not change we will fail to meet our needs or fail to achieve some goals or ideals that we have set for ourselves (survival guilt).

 Unfreeze employees attitudes and motivate staff to change

 Men's Wearhouse needs to devise ways to reduce barriers to change keeping in mind the South African culture

 Early stages of implementation of change intervention

Analysis of short term objectives

Month 1

Initial contact with management

 Staying in line with the Men's Wearhouse policy of providing in-house training, Thomas and Henderson need to introduce themselves to the management of MacMan's outfitters at a seminar. Management from the 85 stores nation wide should be invited to attend a four day seminar introducing Men's Wearhouse. This should be held on neutral ground, for example, at a remote conference facility providing an idyllic setting.

 At this four day seminar, videos and open discussions should be used to convey the values and policies of Men's Wearhouse. Bearing in mind that change starts at the top and without buy-in from the management team, it would be difficult to have buy-in from other staff.

 Day1 Introducing Men's Wearhouse and Thomas and Henderson as the champions of the organisational change intervention.

Media used could include Videos, interactive exercises showing how the values and policies work for Men's Wearhouse.

Networking sessions within the group is also important and time should be set aside on each of the four days during the seminar to accommodate this.

Day Introducing specific strategies at Men's Wearhouse Marketing, Staffing structure, Compensation, Training and career development, Performance management, Leadership and communication.

Provide a planning session on these issues to encourage management to identify ways that these policies could be implemented within the organisation within the South African context.

Day Continue discussions on implementation and devise strategies for implementation.

Gala dinner - social reinforcement of what has been discussed in the formal sessions.

Day 4 Presentation of different ideas on implementation and presentation of a plan on the way forward for the organisation, including a vision and mission statement. Thomas and Henderson need to present the way forward for the intervention process taking into consideration the ideas put forward by the management team. At the end of the day, management could be issued with a token of appreciation, for example, a company branded golf shirt (MacMan outfitters branding).

 When the management team leave the seminar, they should be enthusiastic about the takeover and should be convinced that by adopting the values and culture of Men's Wearhouse will not only develop MacMan Outfitters to become a leader on the South African market but also be a benefit to staff development. They should also be prepared to communicate to employees that job security should not be a concern based on the Men's Wearhouse policy on staff training and development. The issue of retrenchment would be huge concern for permanent staff that have had years of service at MacMan. By management conveying this message early, would assist with less resistance to the change intervention.

Month to 6

Contact with employees at MacMan Outfitters

 Thomas and Henderson would have to use their new found ties with the management team to set up smaller seminars to meet with staff at all the stores nation wide. These seminars would entail meeting with all staff at each store, including the casual staff to introduce Men's Wearhouse and the policies and values that would be introduced to the company. All this would be done with the backing of the management at each store. By management showing innovation during this time, would encourage staff to be open to the new concepts being introduced and would facilitate change.

 The two day seminar held at each store should be consistent at each store and the following should be communicated

1. Introduction to Men's Wearhouse. Media used could include videos and past newsletters.

. Policies and values of the company and probing for similar policies and values within MacMan's. By doing this, the "survival guilt" will be exposed as at the management seminar.

. Discussion around issues such as staffing structure, compensation, training and career development, performance management, leadership and communication.

4. Open communication should be encouraged to give staff the opportunity to ask questions and make recommendations on burning issues.

5. Clear presentation of the change intervention process.

 Employees need to come away from these seminars with renewed hope for their jobs and the survival of MacMan Outfitters and with a vision and mission for the company.

Month 7 to 8

Based on the communications with management and staff and the enthusiasm shown, Thomas and Henderson could proceed to the next stage in Lewin's change model. That is, the changing or movement stage. The following are facilitated in the early phase of this stage of the change intervention

DEVELOPMENT OF ORGANISATIONAL MISSION, VISION AND POLICIES

Once the initial contact with management and staff is complete, the vision, mission and policies of the company need to be formalised and communicated to staff. Communication could be in the form of a booklet or in-house video that is tailored to suit the South Africa context as discussed in the manager and staff seminars.

DEVELOPMENT OF THE ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE

 In liaison with the management team, Thomas and Henderson need to construct a clear organisational structure and convert key positions to full time positions, reducing the high complement of casual staff within MacMan Outfitters. The structure of individual stores would include appointing managers, assistant mangers, wardrobe consultants and tailors. This would be in line with the Men's Wearhouse concept of internal management.

 The full time staff must be sourced from the casual labour so as to keep in line with the Men's Wearhouse policy on employment but also bearing in mind the affirmative action criteria requirement in South Africa.

 Selection of store Managers must be by a strict interview process and obtain the right people for the job within the existing staff complement. Staff may be moved to other stores or suitably repositioned by attaching promotions to their status.

 Selection of store staff must be done by the appointed manager of the store in accordance with the new structure agreed upon.

 Create the concept of "wardrobe consultants", as is the case at the Men's Wearhouse group.

 Introduce training of all managers and staff using the appropriate promotional in-house videos. Managers must also be encouraged to assist junior staff with training and development in the long term.

MEDIUM TERM INTERVENTION PLAN (8 TO 16 MONTHS)

MacMan Outfitters has its own associated areas of concern within the company, i.e. salary discrepancies, lack of a performance management system and participative team building and staff turnover and absenteeism is high.

By application of the 4-P cycle of strategic results (continuous improvement) which focuses on people, products, processes and productivity the following should be facilitated in the medium term to address these issues mentioned above

People

Skills development (month 8 to 10)

 A training schedule needs to drawn up to ensure that staff are appropriately trained and have the necessary tasks to perform the job. These training schedules need to be job specific and could be sourced from Men's Wearhouse training programmes that are already established.

 Store managers' training could include media such as promotional videos and hands-on training at stores within the Men's Wearhouse chain. These managers should then be encouraged to return to South Africa and act as mentors and train store staff in the "new" techniques.

 Training for staff within the stores could also include exposure to in-house video training as well as mentorship from store managers.

Motivation

Motivation is defined as "psychological processes that arouse and direct goal-directed behaviour."

Terence Mitchell (well known OB researcher) proposed a broad conceptual model explaining how motivation influences job behaviours and performance

Individual inputs and job context are the two factors that influence motivation which then leads to motivated behaviours and then affect performance.

The model highlights four issues

 Motivation is different from behaviour

 Behaviour is influenced by more than just motivation

 Behaviour is different from performance

 Motivation is necessary but insufficient contributor to job performance.

It is important to understand motivational theories in order to guide employees to realise organisational goals and objectives.

By using Locke's Goal-setting Theory described below, Thomas and Henderson would be able to implement a similar incentive plan at MacMan as is the case at Men's Wearhouse where staff are awarded commission based on various performance criteria as described in the case study.

Locke's Goal setting theory

 • Task goals = performance targets for individuals or groups

 • Task goals can be motivating if

' properly set

' well managed

 • Goals clarify role expectations

 • Participation is important

' Increased understanding of difficult goals

' Greater acceptance & commitment to them

Thomas and Henderson should keep in mind that 1. Difficult goals lead to higher performance than easy or moderate goals but these goals should also not be impossible to achieve. . Feedback to staff enhances the effect of specific, difficult goals. . Goal commitment and monetary incentives affect goal setting outcomes. 4. Performance goals must be under the control of the employee. 5. Goals must be quantifiable and measurable.

Besides setting monetary performance targets, the following salary related schemes should also be included as part of the monthly package to encourage staff to remain with MacMan Outfitters

 Profit sharing schemes

 Bonus plans and company profits

 Retirement programme

Teamwork (Month 15 to 16)

Two effectiveness criteria for work teams are viability and performance according to the ecological model for work team effectiveness. A work group is viable if its members are satisfied and contribute to a common goal while the performance criteria are met if the group satisfies its customers. In order for group members to be satisfied, they require an organisational support system.

Effective teams are defined by the following characteristics

Clear purpose, informality, participation, listening, civilised disagreement, consensus decisions, open communication, clear roles and work assignments, shared leadership, external relations, style diversity, self assessment.

Cohesiveness is defined as "a sense of we-ness that helps a group stick together." Cohesive group members stick together because they enjoy each others' company and/or they need each other to accomplish a common goal.

There is a significant relationship between cohesiveness and performance whereby the commitment to a task among group members strengthens the cohesivenessperformance linkage. Success builds group cohesiveness.

A team building exercise should be initiated for the company starting with the management team and should then be extended across to all staff within the company and maintaining teams at store level. The ultimate objective of this exercise is to rejuvenate the staff and produce high performance teams within the organisation.

In accordance with Richard Beckhard (an authority on OB), the following four purposes for team building should be kept in mind when undertaking a team building exercise

 Set goals and/or priorities

 Analyse or allocate the way work is performed

 Examine the way a group is working and its processes

 Examine relationships among staff

The following should be resolved in the team building exercise

 A vision, mission and goal need to be clearly defined and accepted by everyone to give the team a sense of cohesiveness working towards a common goal.

 The climate should be informal, comfortable and relaxed.

 Staff must feel that they are free to participate in open discussion and be encouraged to make a valuable contribution to the organisation.

 Expectations and roles of staff must be clearly defined.

Greater self management

This habit would be encouraged by the introduction of the values being introduced from Men's Wearhouse

 Development and training of casual labour so that if there is a vacancy, it can be filled by the casual assistant rather than "new blood" as is the case with MacMan. This encourages casual staff to be more conscientious keeping in mind that they may be permanently employed if there is a vacancy.

 Learning is encouraged from mistakes rather than ridicule thus introducing a culture of continuous improvement and self development.

 Introduction of incentives for all staff members would encourage greater self management and performance

 By the company showing a genuine interest in their employees via the various mechanisms mentioned above, employees self-esteem and self-image are boosted which in turn leads to increased personal responsibility for organisational outcomes.

Products

In accordance with the 4-P cycle, with the improvement of the people issues within the company, a definite shift should be evident in customer satisfaction and quality service. Customers should be seeing a difference within MacMan Outfitters within the first 10 months of the change intervention.

The following should be communicated to store managers

 Prices are set to 0-0% below retail prices

 Only one promotional sale will be held in January of each year

 Adoption of the repair for life on a garment as per the Men's Wearhouse policy

 Advertising is only done through television and radio

Processes

Processes to be improved are as follows and these should be addressed during this medium term intervention and taken through to the long term

 Using the contingency model for selecting communication media, it is suggested that the face-to-face approach be used within MacMan Outfitters. In this case the richness of the medium is matched with the complexity of the situation. This way staff has immediate feedback and the communication is more personal.

The hierarchical communication pattern describes exchanges of information between managers and the employees they supervise. At MacMan, this communication pattern needs to be reinforced. Managers need to provide the following downward communication job rationale, organizational procedures and practices, feedback about performance, communication of goals.

This information is not being disseminated to employees as is evident in the case study.

Employees need to communicate information upward about themselves, co-workers and their problems, organisational policies and what needs to be done and how to do it.

 The communications department within the HR department of the company would be responsible for following through on the following communication within the company

 A monthly newsletter similar to Clothesline (Men's Wearhouse) could be implemented to convey news on different aspects of the company encompassing all 85 stores nation wide.

 Staying in line with communication strategies at Men's Wearhouse, videos could be encouraged in house to communicate inspirational news and sales ideas to staff spread across a wide area.

 Mentorship of staff should be encouraged by Thomas and Henderson during this phase of the intervention as this is one aspect that needs to be drawn through as a long term company objective to remain in line with an organisational culture that supports their people asset.

 Management should be assisted with setting up small off site activities for staff who should be encouraged to socialise at sessions of hockey, soccer, indoor cricket or even indoor golf.

 MacMan managers must also be encouraged and shown how to go about becoming integrated into the work systems of MacMan and being viewed almost as a peer rather than as the boss/ employee scenario. This is encouraged to create that sense of servant leadership.

Weekly and monthly internal store management meetings could be introduced to keep staff informed of store sales figures and the other day to day running of the store. Bi-annual inter-store management meetings could be set up to to discuss different trends within the organisation and promote information sharing.

Productivity

As a result of the processes above being implemented, one should see the benefits of the more efficient use of human resources by showing appreciation of this important resource within the organisation.

LONG TERM INTERVENTION PLAN (UP TO 4 MONTHS)

This long term plan would constitute Lewin's refreezing stage of organisational change where change is stabilised by helping employees to integrate the changed behaviour into their way of working.

Empowering management

 Thomas and Henderson need to monitor the culture of interest within the management team and encourage them to take an interest in their external environment and valuing the process of awareness of related industry changes

Maintaining the interventions thus far

 Communication - Performance shortfalls should be perceived as opportunities for learning and not bringing people down.

 Verbal feedback in store to staff on performance on a monthly basis will reinforce the company bonus structure and prove that a bonus strategy can work.

 Support for new ideas must be encouraged and thus remaining in line with the culture of the organisation for promoting personnel. A suggestion scheme could be introduced that either has a monetary value or some other incentive attached.

 Accessibility to information and open boundaries of communication should be instituted at management level and constantly reinforced by example to show interest and willingness for participative management. Journals or books available within the industry could be made available to staff at the common tea area for perusal and the in house video would also facilitate this kind of communication.

 Ongoing training and advancement of staff within the organisation from the casual staff to management will facilitate commitment to the organisation as staff would feel that they have a stake in the business. An induction course for new employees detailing the values and culture of the organisation, sales strategies and organisational structure should be designed to facilitate training of new employees thus maintaining the values at the entry point into the organisation.

 An annual management conference/ seminar could be initiated to review the organisation vision and mission. This could involve staff participation with management before the conference in order for staff views to be considered.

 And to end on a more festive note, in store Christmas parties are always a good long term objective to keep the spirits up and facilitates off site communications!

CONCLUSION

In order for the intervention plan to be successful, Thomas and Henderson have to implement the plan with the assistance of the existing management team at MacMan. By introducing external organisational consultants to lead the intervention, would not only be in contrast to the Men's Wearhouse policy but may also create a feeling of apprehension with MacMan employees. It could create this sense of already using external resources as opposed to working from within and thus increase the fears of uncertainty of long term employment once the takeover has been accomplished.

This intervention plan follows the Lewin's change model from the unfreezing stage where benchmarking is crucial, through to the change/ movement stage where staff motivation is vital and then to the refreezing stage where we see long term benefits of the change intervention.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Organisational behavior / Kreitner, R, Kinicki, A & Buelens, M. nd European

edition. McGraw Hill, 00

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