Case Analysis alice in wonderland

Case Analysis
A different approach to organizational change
(Alice in wonderland)

INFORMATION
LVV (luijk and Van Vaest) was founded in 1796 by Bastian Luijk and Marie Loise van Vaest in Antwerp, Belgium). From the start it was engaged in the transportation of goods, percel, and people, even before the introduction of public rail-transport. Thirty years later the company opened it’s the first offices in the Netherlands but it didn’t over all its activities to the Netherlands until the years during the first World war. The core business of LVV was the collection and distribution to customer of goods and parcel shipped by rail to central depots in 1928, LVV was taken over by the DutchAtional Railways (De Nederlandse Sporrwegen) and in 1986, it was acquires by Neerlandia.
Neerladia, a shipping company particularly active in maritime container shipping, was created in he 1970s by a large scale mergerin the Dutch shipping Industry. From 1977 onwards it operated under the name of Royal Neerlandia, and in the following rapidly developed into an all-purposetransport company. In 1997 Neerlandia formed a new management team for the remaining land business, called executive Committee European and was about to make its first profits.

CASE ANALYSIS

This case study (Alice in Wonderland; A different approach to organizational change) told us about Emma van Nijmegen who was appointed to lead Luijk & Van Vaest which its core business was providing logistics solution to the customers, and this typical male-dominated industry land transportation business was completely new to Emma. The situation in LVV prior to Emma was a rocky one and described as the management team wasn’t a team at all and they set a questionable strategic decisions with a focus on volume growth quickly led the company downhill. People were pushed to do work they didn’t believe in, working under pressure without trust in their management team.
The LVV was very fossilised and hierarchical in the way it was run, and there was a huge communication gap between the head office and the regional offices To make it even worse, people warned her that it was one great snakepit (highly political, no cooperation) and they thought she was a woman, too young, and don’t know the business, so how she can turn it around.
Emma’s key actions in handling LVV were:
1. She started with gathering the right people around her and establishing a cohesive team
2. Together with her team she developed a vision and figured out which way to go, what products to use, in which markets to compete and which clients to serve
3. She convinced the LVV people that a corporate culture of innovation and opennes was in their best interest
4. And as a pre-requisites Emma created an open communication culture and gained trust from her people
5. She did management by walking around, go to the shopfloor and open for suggestions as well as criticisms
6. She told her management team to not hide their feelings and admit feeling as a fact to move forward
7. She had a consultant from outside as personal coach and had a mentor within Neerlandia who stayed in the background, quietly but surely supported her Her personal qualities could be described as intuitive
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This case shows how the new managing director of LVV transformed this trucking company from a "fossilized" and "arthritic" minor subsidiary of a Dutch shipping group into a revitalized organization. The case looks at how her own leadership characteristics contributed to the development of an authentizotic culture of trust, affiliation, and meaning for employees, and how the financial situation of the company was turned around as a result. Emma van Nijmegen is a rare example of a female top executive in a typically male dominated industry (Shipping and Transport). This case aims to show how LVVs remarkable turnaround from a loss making company in 1996 to a very profitable market-focused organization, was facilitated by van Nijmegen's focus on a change of culture, a change of image and a drive for open communication.
In our discussion of the case and how it is related to the organizational behavior theory, we are going to talk about Authentizotic Organizations, Female Top Executives, Leadership, Corporate Culture and Corporate Transformation.
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In an article entitled "Creating authentizotic organizations: Well-functioning individuals in vibrant companies," Kets de Vires (2001) asserted: "When we look forward to the new millennium there are many themes in the world or work that are disquieting. A major preoccupation will be stress in the workplace. Statistics about illness, underperformance, and absenteeism tell a dramatic tale of dysfunctionality at work. (...) Work, however, does not necessarily need to be stressful. On the contrary, work can be an anchor of psychological well-being, a way of establishing identity and maintaining self esteem". Then, the author proposed the concept of "authentizotic organizations" to mean the workplaces where people can experiment seven senses: sense of purpose, sense of self-determination, sense of impact, sense of competence, sense of belonging, sense of enjoyment, and sense of meaning
This is the first of a two-case series. Alice in Wonderland (A) shows how the new managing director of LVV transformed a trucking company from a 'fossilised' and 'arthritic' minor subsidiary of a Dutch shipping group into a revitalised organisation. The case looks at how her own leadership characteristics, as well as Dutch leadership styles, contributed to the development of an authentizotic culture of trust, affiliation, and meaning for employees, and how the financial situation of the company was turned around as a result. Alice in Wonderland (B) case follows Marike van Lier Lels as she takes on the position of COO (Chief Operating Officer) of Schiphol Airport. Despite her brilliant previous career successes, her tenure there ends acrimoniously. This case series explores leadership in different contexts, and highlights the management of disappointment. Alice in Wonderland (A) was a disguised case, but at the time of writing the (B) case, Marike van Lier Lels gave permission to use her real name. Emma van Nijmegen (Marike van Leir Lels) is a rare example of a female top executive in a typically male dominated industry (shipping and transport). The (A) case aims to show how LVV's remarkable turnaround from a loss making company in 1996 to a very profitable market-focused organisation was facilitated by van Nijmegen's focus on a change of culture, a change of image and a drive for open communication. The (B) case focuses on the problems that her authentizotic leadership style created within the executive team of Schiphol, and shows how she managed her disappointment when her vision could not be carried out. The teaching objectives include: (1) insight into the dynamics of female leadership and its influence on the corporate culture; (2) an opportunity to discuss the importance of emotional intelligence in leaders; (3) an opportunity to discuss the ways in which corporate culture is shaped and changed; and (4) management of disappointment.