LDR-615 Contemporary Organization Evaluation Example

Contemporary Organization Evaluation

Grand Canyon University: LDR-615-O500

Contemporary Organization: Description of Organization and Responding to Change

The disruptive nature of the immediate changes that were necessary to ensure the safety and quality of services that is provided to all stakeholders needed to be addressed promptly. Change is inevitable with in the business world today.  The recent pandemic That the world is facing today has only forced many organizations to respond to disruptive changes within their organization.  Kroger Co. has also been faced with many challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic. They have had to implement many change initiatives in order to ensure the continued success of their business. “The Kroger Co. traces its origins back to a business called the Great Western Tea Company, founded by Bernard H. (“Barney”) Kroger and B.A. Branagan in Cincinnati in 1883. Kroger, a former coffee-and-tea salesman, soon bought out Branagan’s interest, and by 1885 he had a chain of four groceries. (Lewis, 2017) Over the years, Kroger acquired many different chains and became the largest retail grocer in the United States in 1999.  The acquisition included many well-known retailers such as Ralphs, Smiths, Fry’s and Food-4-Less.  The goal of the organization is to become a one-stop food shopping experience.  “Our mission is to be a leader in the distribution and merchandising of food, pharmacy, health, and personal care items, seasonal merchandise, and related products and services.” To accomplish its mission, Kroger has six values that provide guidance to its employees about how they do what they do every day. (Farlan, 2019) Kroger’s values directly support the vision of the organization.  The values include honesty, integrity, respect for others, diversity, safety and inclusion.  The recent pandemic posed a lot of challenges to the current organizational structure of Kroger. 

Immediate state regulations were mandated, and it was imperative that Kroger comply.  The CDC stated that they were not aware of any reports that suggested that COVID-19 could be passed from directly handling the food, but precautions should be made.  The Southern Nevada Health District made recommendations of lower the risk of contracting and spreading the infectious disease. These included providing designated shopping hours for high-risk populations, installing barriers, practicing social distancing and provide disinfecting wipes or other methods of for the customers to sanitize carts, handles, and other items that are frequently touched.  Capacity of the stores should only operate at 50% capacity as well that way it would allow for proper social distancing practices.  Frequent sanitation and cleaning practices will be implemented throughout the stores.  Maintaining a strict employee health policy is also mandated to ensure the safety of all stakeholders.  The employee health policy should consider using an employee screening questionnaire and follow the CDC recommendations if employees show any symptoms. (SNHD.org, 2020) The recommendations and mandates that are necessary to implement in order to stay compliant cause immediate disruptive changes to the current operations or Kroger.

Effects of Change, Organizational Response and Strategies Utilized

“Our stores are the center of our communities and face a higher rate of exposure than most businesses. As an essential business, we’ve learned how to provide a safe environment in retail stores, food production facilities, distribution centers and more.  As an extension of our values, we decided early on to be transparent, share what we’ve learned, what went well, where we could improve. We have learned a lot from others as well. We learned that being proactive in our decision-making helped us keep our business open safely was a direct comment from Kroger CEO Rodney McMullen.” (Watkins, 2020) Kroger presented to many state COVID responses task forces and shared their best practices and how they were able to stay safe and profitable during the crisis.  It is was important to stay true to the core values of the organization while instituting changes.  They encouraged collaboration and involvement of all stakeholders to ensure that the employees and customers feel secure.  Kroger was extremely transparent when developing the communication plan for the change initiative to respond to the pandemic.  They released a timeline that described the steps that were taken to implement the changes.  As the government announced how the pandemic was progressing, Kroger developed a rapid response to align to the updates.  The timeline covered areas of operations such as adjusting store hours to accommodate more at risk populations, developed employee support hotline, expanded emergency leave guidelines, installation of partitions and educational floor decals, mandated personal protective equipment and extended the work-from-home policy for all corporate and division offices.  Kroger developed response teams that focused on all areas of operations that would be affected by the quickly evolving situation.  Some of the areas of operations that were focused on where business continuity, health and wellness, human resources, retail operations, safety and compliance teams and facilities.  Kroger developed their own response teams with the understanding that they are responsible for nearly half a million employees and how they responded was extremely important.

When Kroger developed an action plan for employees that were affected by COVID-19 they utilized the information and analyzed it for trends to help make improvements.  “The process begins when a manager is notified that an employee must quarantine due to COVID-19. This included those who have a confirmed diagnosis, have symptoms, may have been exposed to the virus or have been asked to quarantine by a healthcare provider due to a health-related reason. Once notified, a member of our Human Resources team contacts the employee to off er support and gather additional information, such as when the symptoms began, when they were last at work and other relevant details. The information is then entered into a secure online questionnaire tool, which feeds the aggregate data and analyzed for trends.” (McMullen, 2020)

Kroger also put a lot of focus on retail operations within the stores.  They focused on promoting healthy habits, encouraging physical distancing, enhancing their cleaning procedures, embracing contact-free checkout and curbside grocery pickup services.  “Kroger strived to balance their urgent mission—to provide a safe environment for the associates and customers—with being here for the communities when they need us most. This often meant being flexible to quickly adapt to new ways of working. At other times, it meant slowing down to provide a refresher on basic best practices, including proper handwashing techniques and steps to promote physical distancing.” (McMullen, 2020) Education was a huge component of change strategy.  It is important that Kroger educate both the employees and the customers. 

Educating the stakeholders included how to follow appropriate cleaning procedures, employee safety practices, monitoring employee health and providing support to employees for difficult situations.  During the pandemic crisis there were many changes that were implemented but because of the transparency it was a much smoother transition and the stakeholders were more willing to embrace the changes.

Stakeholders and the effects of change upon them and their response to change

The COVID-19 pandemic has created some uncertain times in all areas of the world today.  Kroger’s success in implementing the required changes has been directly attributed to leading with the company’s values.  The CEO was very diligent and expressed the importance of incorporating the values with the changes.  “Be guided by your purpose and values while displaying strong leadership and trusting in your employees and partners. Many things will be outside of your control, but it’s still important to be understanding and show empathy toward your employees.” (McMullen, 2020) There were many changes that were implemented throughout the Kroger organization. It was critical for Kroger too support educate and be open for feedback during the implementation of the changes. Most of the resistance was from the customers and the fear of not being able to obtain their necessities. In the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic there was a huge rush for the vast number of products that people felt were necessary to sustain their quality of life. It was quickly identified that Kroger had to implement limiting the amount of goods that were sold to ensure that all customers would have access to their products. Customers were frustrated with the required face masks and social distance scene limitations that they were subjected to when visiting these stores, but they were mandated.  It was even more imperative that Kroger educate and support the employees on how to respond to the frustrated customers. Overtime when the new policies were implemented the customers adapted an appreciated their efforts to ensure their safety and quality of their products that they purchased.  When resistance occurred throughout the organization Kroger referred to the values in order to come up with solutions.  “values alignment may not just be an important integral part of organizational change strategies; it could well be the bedrock, the foundation, on which all truly successful organizational change depends.” (Branson, 2008)

Interdepartmental Collaboration and the effects of change

During the development of the COVID-19 response change initiative, Kroger quickly identified the importance of interdepartmental collaboration. The entire organization relies on how each department works together.  It one department struggles adapting to the changes then it is possible that the entire organization will collapse.  Kroger developed response teams for each different department and broke down the changes that were going to be implemented on a departmental level.  “Cross functional collaboration is critical to improving business performance.” (Kainexus, 2020) Kroger broke down the change initiative in order for the departments to work together cohesively.  When the entire organization works together and support the changes then it is more likely that the changes will be embraced and successful.  It is important that the department remain flexible during all of the changes.  Kroger developed a strategy that implemented multiple touch points per day to manage and possible issues.  They also started cross-training employees that way they would be able to work in different departments.  This strategy alone greatly improved the interdepartmental collaboration within the organization.  Kroger also ensured that the stakeholders understood the regulations that made the changes necessary as well as providing up to date accessible information.

Evaluation of the response of the leaders to change and the strategies presented by leaders

When evaluating the response of the leaders to the recent pandemic they were extremely successful and supportive during the uncertain times period they understood that they had to serve the customers and employees in order to continue to achieve their goals the employees remained on the frontline and were able to properly and safely serve the customers. They took steps to ensure employees safety as well as engaging the employees and the pandemic. They were involved and completely were open to any resistance to change. Kroger’s leadership also implemented a recognition strategy during the change initiative. They encouraged their employees to be warm and welcoming and this overall improved the environment of their organization. They understood the importance of engaging their employees an allowing them to provide feedback. This helped to identify problems and they were able to quickly respond to their needs.   Kroger was able to lead with a purpose be transparent have clear communication and receive feedback which proved to be successful when implementing the change initiatives.

What was successful and what was not successful

Overall, Kroger’s leadership team was extremely successful in developing an effective change strategy to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. They understood the importance of interdepartmental communication throughout their organization and developed teams to respond to each of those departments. Say I believe that they were also very successful because they publicly announced their action plan and shared their best practices with other organizations to help them be successful. I believe that this is an example of true leadership and how they support the values of all their stakeholders. The only suggestion that I would have made is that they would have had a more rapid response to the demands on certain products and implementing more restriction to allow the customers to have more access.  Kroger was also a little slow to implement curbside services which would have made the transition a little smoother for customers. Overall, during the pandemic Kroger was able to remain true to their values and all of their stakeholders resulting in their continued successful business. 

Recommendations, Suggestions to Better Address Change Dynamics & Additional Strategies

Kroger’s change initiative to respond to the pandemic was extremely detailed and successful. Suggestions that I would make would be to support the customer’s needs as well. It seemed as though they did not refer too much too what the customers experience was nor were they to open to listening to their suggestions or concerns in the change initiative.  I would have instituted a customer relations component to the change initiative. It is critical that all stakeholders are happy with their experience in order to ensure the change will have a positive outcome. Also identifying key change agents within each department could have made the transition a little smoother during the uncertainty. It seemed as though key agents were not a focus within the leadership decision making. When employees identify that the key agents are supportive of the changes, they will be less likely to resist the changes.  Overall, during the pandemic Kroger was able to remain true to their values and all of their stakeholders resulting in their continued successful business.   

References

Branson, C. M. (2008, May 09). Achieving organisational change through values alignment. Retrieved from https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/09578230810869293/full/html

COVID-19 Guidance for Food Establishments. (2020, September 18). Retrieved from https://www.southernnevadahealthdistrict.org/permits-and-regulations/food-establishment-resource-library/covid-19-guidance-for-food-establishments/

German, J. (2020, April 14). Grocery workers sought protection from COVID-19. New guidelines should help. Retrieved from https://www.reviewjournal.com/investigations/grocery-workers-sought-protection-from-covid-19-new-guidelines-should-help-2003748/

KaiNexus. (n.d.). Cross Functional Collaboration in a Culture of Continuous Improvement. Retrieved from https://www.kainexus.com/employee-engagement/cross-functional-collaboration

Lewis, R. (2017, September 08). Kroger Co. Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/topic/Kroger-Co

McMullen, R. (n.d.). Sharing What We’ve Learned: A Blueprint for Businesses (pp. 1-72, Publication).

KrogerBlueprint.com Watkins, S. (2020, April 22). Retrieved from https://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2020/04/22/kroger-shares-blueprint-for-covid-19-success.html

Paper details

In today’s fast-paced and global community, most organizations are faced with constant change. Research contemporary organizations that are currently responding to a significant change within the industry, such as disruptive technology; state, government, or industry regulations; environmental constraints; judicial or legislative rulings; etc.

Choose one organization from your research that has recently responded to major change, or is currently responding to change. Write a paper (1,250-1,500 words) discussing how well the organization is responding to the change dynamics. Include the following:

1. Describe the organization and the change to which it is responding.
2. Discuss the degree to which the change has been disruptive and how the organization has responded to the dynamics created by this change.
3. Evaluate the strategies the organization used in its change plan and determine the level of success the organization experienced with the strategies.
4. Determine the effect the change had on stakeholders, and to what degree stakeholders have resisted. Assess how well stakeholder resistance was addressed.
5. Evaluate the overall implications the change had on interdepartmental collaboration.
6. In your opinion, how well did the leaders of the organization respond and prepare for the change? What worked and what did not work with the strategies they implemented?
7. What modifications would you suggest the leaders of the organization make in order to better address the change dynamics? What additional strategies would you recommend to assist the organization through this change?

Prepare this assignment according to the guidelines found in the APA Style Guide, located in the Student Success Center. An abstract is not required.

This assignment uses a rubric. Please review the rubric prior to beginning the assignment to become familiar with the expectations for successful completion.