Case Study: Riordan Manufacturing

Riordan Manufacturing Customer Management System
Andrea McLelland, Kelly Feuerhak, Melissa Robinson Slaton, and Marco Elizaldi
MGT/311
February 23, 2015
Michael Ventrone

Riordan Manufacturing Customer Management System

Change Management Plan
Identify Power Structures
Organizational Structures
Potential Effects Riordan Manufacturing maintains a focus on growing its’ employees through providing a stable, team-oriented environment. The type of culture Riordan’s provide will continue to build the employees while providing the most specialized associates in the industry. This culture provides the employees with the consistency and support needed to grow as individuals and in their careers.
Resistance to Change Implementing the change
will be a long process for Riordan Manufacturing. The entire change process is estimated to take a full year to complete. Initially, the company will provide training on the new system based on a tiered training schedule. First, upper management and trainers will learn the system, followed by the department managers and leads, and ending with the rest of the associates. This type of training schedule will provide management the ability to assist in the training of the associates, leading to a better understanding of the system and less issues throughout the process. The training is allocated to take approximately six-months, leaving the rest of the time to adjust to the change. To ensure success, Riordan Manufacturing will have to complete periodic evaluations of both the process and the employees throughout the twelve-month change.
The first check will occur after the first stage of training is complete. This initial check will allow management to make any changes to the training process to improve as the tiered training continues. The evaluation will determine the possible issues as well as uncover what is working well for the organization. The next check will be approximately half way through the training process to ensure full understanding of the system is coming through to the employees. Once the system is fully functional and training has been complete, there will be an evaluation course to test the employees’ knowledge of the system. So, through the periodic evaluations, Riordan Manufacturing will ensure the process is effective while allowing time to adjust any part of the training to accommodate any special
needs.

Communication Plan
Communication Plan Communications is vital when trying to raise the level of understanding in Riordan Manufacturing during implementation of a change.
To deliver information regarding the change effectively it is essential to apply numerous platforms or media resources to convey the same point, and determine who will convey the Riordan Manufacturing need for change. President and CEO, Dr. Michael Riordan, is the most effective communicator- employees need to hear about upcoming changes from their direct supervisor. One of the biggest concerns will be developing written messages that will define organizational values and principles, and set the expectation for the workers to perform the proposed strategies, meet expectations, and accomplish organizational goals. All messages should explain the nature of the upcoming change, the process of the change, the role every employee, and department, or team will play in Implementation of this change. The next step will be identifying the communication channels. The company operates in both the United States and China; therefore arranging face-to-face communication is quite complicated. With the development of modern technology Riordan Manufacturing can utilize intranet, Internet, e-mail, online meetings, and conferences to communicate the upcoming
change. Finally, “the preliminary communications must provide a mechanism to uncover potential paths of resistance to change” (Wilson, 2012, p. 17). Receiving feedback from the Change Management and Communication Plan. 7 employees with the help of surveys or assessments will allow the leadership team to determine how each employee received the message and what possible issues maybe faced during the deployment phase. Besides, it is an excellent opportunity to determine the barriers that prevent the individuals within Riordan Manufacturing to communicate effectively. For example, the resistance to change may be triggered by the conflicting message. Employees will dishonor the expansion process or test leadership assurance when they obtain mixed communication. It is extremely important for a leadership team to be consistent. Another barrier to effective communication is information overload. When a received message contains too much information or is written in a language difficult for the receiver to understand, a barrier is often put up or the message will be disregarded altogether. To avoid the issue the message describing the upcoming change should be short and to the point.

Message

Conclusion

References
Robbins, S. P., & Judge, T. A. (2011).
Organizational behavior (14th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Prentice Hall .Retrieved June 28, 2013 from: https://ecampus.phoenix.edu/content/eBookLibrary2/content/eReader.aspx Wilson, B. (2012). Business communication. Barriers to Effective communication. College of Marin, Ca. Retrieved June 28, 2013 from: www.marin.edu