BBC Organizational Change Challenges

Brief Description of the Case Study

This particular paper is based on the case study of BBC, regarding organizational change it had brought and the problem it is facing in doing so. BBC provides its content to its consumers, which was earlier in the printed form, and then it was broadcasted through television channels. However, the way of consuming content is changing rapidly in the last decade, and the consumers are the people, who decide when, how and what to consume (CIPD, 2015). To sustain in the market, BBC had made changes in itself, so that it does not affect its business and revenue, but had to face numerous hurdles while bringing those changes. There are new ways in which content can be consumed nowadays and adapting to it is the only way for future growth.

The organizational changes brought by the BBC was in the year 2012, where they decided to restructure the organization. Earlier it was used to be divided based on the business areas, such as production, channels, etc. However, in 2012 it was divided based on four geographic regions, to reach out to more customers and become closer to them. Due to that, some staff redundancies followed (Postigo, 2016). The reason behind bringing this change is to be better and provide such culture and environment, which enables the recruits to give their best. Lack of clarity is felt by the staff, which is why they were unable to perform a task to their best of ability.

Moreover, they felt their concerns were not looked after when the change is taking place. With better communication, this could be solved. Appropriate organizational culture could be formed by aligning it with the business objectives appropriately.

Theories and Models of Organizational Change

For sustaining in the competitive business market, a business institute needs to adopt the concepts of change management theories models into consideration while making strategies or decisions. There are numerous change management theories, among those theories; Kurt Lewin’s Change Management theory is the simplest change management theory. It is important for internal stakeholders of an organization are to understand the needs of change within the organization for improving its financial performance. This change management model has three different steps, such as unfreezing, changing, and refreezing (Cummings, Bridgman and Brown, 2016).

It is the nature of most of the human being is not to accept change very spontaneously. For this reason, the main aim of the unfreeze stage is to identify the actual needs of change within a business organization and then spread awareness among employees regarding the importance of change for the betterment of the organization along with their career. Communication plays a very important role in the first of change management theory. Through proper communication mediums, the management of an organization can clarify the reason for implementing change within the organization to employees (Gelaidan, Al-Swidi and Mabkhot, 2017). In the second stage of Lewin’s Change Management Model, the management of an organization tries to involve more employees in the change implementation process for improving the position of the company within its operating market. For successfully implementing the change, education, support, communication and time are the most promising factors. Without having the assistance of these factors, an organization can't transform an innovative idea into business practice (Hussain et al., 2018). Refreezing is the last step of Kurt Lewin’s Change Management Theory. For maintaining the organizational performance after implementing changes, every organization conducts training for its employees and also gives support and assistance to employees to carry out their work efficiently. For motivating and retaining employees, management design clear reward policies. It is considered as one of the parts of the refreezing phase (Cummings, Bridgman and Brown, 2016). Therefore, it can be said that BBC Worldwide must consider this change management theory for not only meeting its business purposes but also addressing internal business conflicts efficiently.

The Implication of Theories to the Selected Case Study

After joining as the CEO of BBC Worldwide, Tim Davie clarifies the actual business purpose of BBC to the stakeholders precisely. With the help of clear business strategies, the CEO of the BBC tries to improve its brand reputation, which helps this company to become the topmost digitalized media company. According to the views of the CEO, it can be said that the reason for employees’ unhappiness is the lack of clarity. Because of having clarity issues, employees cannot perform well and cannot meet the expectation of their superiors.

On the other hand, considering the employees’ words, it can be stated that management should make wise decisions based on their problems and for identifying problems, management personnel should communicate and listen to their subordinates (CIPD, 2015). As this company is a worldwide company, so while executing the overall business performance systematically, WEx is primarily responsible for designing an appropriate working culture. It is not so easy for WEx. Before making plans, the key executives of WEx communicate with the team members of WEx. After having a strong working environment and culture, the managerial associates can efficiently bring change within the organizational premises for organizational growth.

From the previous section, it can be stated that before channelizing any innovative ideas, every business organization and its stakeholders must understand the importance and necessity of change within organizations for sustaining in the intense market competition. After spreading awareness among employees and other stakeholders about the necessity of bringing changes within organizations for improving business efficiencies, it is easy for BBC Worldwide to channelizing its innovative ideas. Before continuing the change management process, the executive members of WEx conducts a virtual worldwide conference, namely the GLT conference. Through this conference, BBC Worldwide can present the actual business goals to its stakeholders and also took interested employees for the worldwide workshops. After getting feedback from the GLT, it is easy for the members of WEx to make effective plans for implementing innovative ideas into business functions (CIPD, 2015).

In the year 2014, GLT organized a worldwide workshop program for its team members to educate them regarding business purposes and the role of organizational change management for meeting business purposes. The main reason for conducting a worldwide workshop is to prepare employees to work under a team. While providing the information related to the importance of change implementation within the organization for the betterment, BBC worldwide conducts training programs. In the training programs, the HR personnel of this organization used written content, videos, and pictures. The average time of the workshop is three hours. In the workshop, BBC Worldwide discussed the reasons for the challenges, which the organization has currently faced. For addressing those challenges, the organization has taken and implemented certain measures. This confidential information is also discussed in the workshop for preparing to employ for accepting changes spontaneously. In the workshops, BBC Worldwide encouraged its employees to speck without having any fear of their superiors (Jathol and Rüling, 2019).

Simultaneously, leaders play the most important role in change management. For this reason, BBC Worldwide involves leaders in the change management process. Before implementing change within the organization, the first responsibility of a leader is to identify the needs of required changes within the organization for addressing business issues. After that, the company proposed behavior change and divisional action plans for successfully implementing changes (Fernandez and Rainey, 2017). After successfully implementing changes, the company fixed the change appropriately for maintaining organizational performance. By using Kurt Lewin’s change management model, BBC Worldwide can improve its brand reputation and create a distinct place in the global market.

Theories and Models of Leadership or Motivation

To analyze the situation at the BBC and the changes taking place there, the leadership models that best suits the context can be chosen. BBC has 18 offices spread in different regions all around the world, and more than 1800 employees are part of it. Proper leadership methods need to be chosen so that the leaders can handle the employees in such a manner that they are satisfied and at the same time, contribute to the achievement of the objectives of the BBC (Villoria, 2016). Among the different leadership theories, some of them are better suited for the change happening at the BBC and the current situation. That is why the Contingency Theory of leadership is chosen, which gives the leaders or the managers the scope to choose a leadership style that best suits a certain situation.

The selection of leadership style depends on some factors of the environment, which are variables. That is because, it is believed by the managers and leaders of BBC that there is no single leadership style, which could be applied in any and every situation. The factors, which form the leadership style of a leader starts with the person’s inner qualities, and add up to the needs of the situation, the context and the behaviors of the leader (Kulkarni, 2017). According to the Contingency theory of leadership, a good leader is considered that person, who carries on a thorough assessment of the needs of subordinates and the situation, and based on that adapt and adjust the behavior towards them.

In BBC, the leaders understood that there is a lack of clarity of the objectives among the staff, which made the leaders provide clarity on their strategy, and build up a culture where input from the employees is encouraged. That is because it will allow the leaders to pinpoint the staffs’ concerns, and take steps accordingly while aligning them with the organizational culture (Burns, 2016). As contingency theory explains that the effectiveness of the leadership style can be achieved fully when apart from the leadership factors, the employees of the organization have the quality to adapt to the changes, and are willing to take any measure, which helps them achieve so. However, the situation at which the leadership is applied is given on the highest priority for deciding its efficiency.

Compared to other theories or models of leadership, this is considered the right theory for BBC’s organization change and its effect, because it highly takes into consideration the needs and problems of the employees, and being a content company, the employees is the greatest resources they need, and satisfying them will lead to better achievement of its goals.

Analyze the Importance of Those Theories on the Betterment of the Selected Company

The leadership theory chosen here is the contingency theory of leadership, and it is highly important for the selected organization. BBC is a content company and provides its content to the consumers through different media such as radio, television, and in recent times through the online media channel too. It had been established almost a century ago and has been providing customers with content since. However, with the spreading and easy availability of digital media, many other new content companies are coming into the market, which is providing it in many other ways (Hunt and Fitzgerald, 2018). These new companies are competitors of the BBC, and it needs to compete with them to sustain in the content market. That is why the BBC needed to bring some drastic changes in its structure, culture, and operations. As it is a content company, the collection, sifting, editing and providing the content for consumption all need human interventions. These factors make the employees of the organization the most valuable resources, which is why providing them the perfect environment where they can give their best for the organization in the responsibility of the leaders and managers of BBC.

The CEO of the BBC can be considered one of the leaders of the organization who encourage the other leaders to act according to the need of the situation and gave the highest importance to the employees. That is because; they are the resources that would provide the content for consumption for the consumers. When they can give what the consumers want, the BBC will be able to achieve its goal and earn increased revenue, which will contribute to its growth in the future (Herndon and McCline, 2017). Around 2012, when the BBC decided to restructure its organization and bring a change in the organization, it is the leaders who had to shoulder the most responsibilities. That is because; it is through their hands that the staff members will understand what to do and how to act so that the BBC can internalize the change.

The Contingency leadership style can be seen being used in the case study of BBC. At first, when the BBC decided to restructure the organization, it divided the organizations’ operations into four regions, compared to division by business areas used earlier. For this, the company had to carry on some redundancies, which was disruptive for the employees. This created an environment, which is uncomfortable for the employees, which made the leaders think of providing them a culture and environment where they could perform their best (Henry, 2018). In 2013, the CEO understood that the staff does not have clarity about the organization, which is hampering their performance to a great extent, which is true is affecting their contribution to the organization. At that time, the CEO made the purpose of BBC clear, which is to get good financial returns, make the brand of BBC a reputed one and make the company world-class.

At the same time, to make sure the employees do not forget the purpose, a staff survey named “Pulse” was conducted every few months, to understand if the operations of the staff are aligned with the strategy of change of the organization. The WEx was in charge of form a work culture in the organization, where the staff can be at ease and, at the same time, give their best. That is why the leaders understood the need for involving the employees in conversations, individually as well as in teams (Shapiro and Bottary, 2016). With the inputs from the employees, the leader would be able to gain knowledge about the customers and audiences, with whom the employees directly or indirectly interact. This brought improvement in their operations and they were able to adapt to the changing need of the consumers, and satisfy them, which made their growth sustainable.

Conclusion

From the given case study, the way the BBC conducts its operation and the problems it faced while bringing change is mentioned. To analyze the situation, Kurt Lewin’s Change Management Model is taken, which analyzes the GLT conference and the worldwide workshops conducted by BBC. It helped in identifying the main themes, the change initiatives, and the divisional action plans. On the other hand, the contingency theory of leadership is chosen for organizational behavior change. Using this leadership theory, the CEO, leaders, and managers prepare the employees for the change to be brought in the organization. At the same time, with this leadership strategy, they provided clarity of purpose and made the culture so, which aids them to give their best and contribute to the growth of the BBC.

Reflection

For attaining business goals, every business organization concentrates on two vital aspects, such as change management and leadership. For protecting place in the market, most of the business organization must incorporate some innovative ideas within its organizational premises. However, it is not so easy for a business organization to translate innovative ideas into practices, so for this reason, most of the organizations used the concept of the change management model. From the case study, it can be asserted that there are mainly three problems, which BBC Worldwide has faced. The organization wanted to bring innovation within the business organization for maintaining its position in the market, but while implementing changes within the organizational premises, some employees have faced some difficulties with accepting the changes efficiently.

Moreover, it can be asserted that employees have not had proper knowledge about their job responsibilities, which adversely affected their performance because without having the proper knowledge regarding job responsibilities, employees cannot perform well and cannot meet the expectations of their superiors. It is another problem, which BBC Worldwide has faced in the current time. On the other hand, it can be stated that a diverse culture is also considered as one of the problems of BBC Worldwide.

Simultaneously, by employing Kurt Lewin’s change management model, BBC Worldwide can significantly implement changes within organizational premises for addressing internal business issues and attaining set business purposes. For bringing strong business organizational culture, WEx has taken certain measures. It is easy for this organization to implement changes within the organizational culture successfully. By following the concept of Kurt Lewin’s model, the company organized worldwide conferences and for this conference, the company can gather information from employees and also educate them regarding the importance of incorporating innovative ideas within the business for improving business growth rate. Moreover, the GLT team always encouraged its team members to provide their valuable comments to the management, because it helps them to make effective strategies for successfully implementing business strategies. Leaders also understand the importance of change within the organization because, based on this leaders can be able to select the right leadership approach, which helps not only motivate employees but also creates a positive impact on the business performance.

On the other hand, it can be observed that the organization followed contingency leadership theory while setting any strategies. This organization makes strategies concentrating on the employees’ preferences. Analyzing these essential aspects, I would like to say that every business organization must emphasize on various internal and external factors while bringing and managing changes within organizational premises. Organizational financial condition, employee strengths, skills of employees are other factors that must be taken into consideration while making change management strategies. Training, motivation and other factors play an essential role in overcoming the resistances of changes. Through conducting proper training programs and employee motivation programs, a business organization can implement change within its premises.

References

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