This document discusses the need for organizational transformation at Education Career Management Corporation (ECMC) due to decreasing profits, changing market demands, and declining student retention rates. It recommends completing an assessment of the current organizational culture using an assessment tool, and emphasizing certain culture types to realign values and strategies. Specific transformation strategies proposed include revamping admissions processes, focusing on student success, improving technology, and acknowledging employee work demands. The goal is to improve financial performance and retention within one year through cultural and strategic changes.
2. ABSTRACT
• Every organizational culture has a profile that
represents their fundamental traits and attributes;
this includes management style, strategic plans,
multiple environments, reward systems, means of
bonding, leadership, and basic values of the
organization, changing any of these attributes
means the culture must also change or be altered.
3. INTRODUCTION
• Education Career Management Corporation
• From its emergence in 1994 ECMC, began with two Art &
Design schools, in Arizona and California
• Today it has more than 90 campuses, traditional ground and
online degree programs in business, information technology, art
and design, allied health, and culinary arts programs
• ECMC is known and well established in the world of online
education for developing education technologies that embrace
and enhance student learning and collaboration.
4. OVERVIEW OF THE ORGANIZATION
• ECMC’s values are important to the culture of the organization
• ECMC believes through shared values they are able to manage
and respond quickly to any situation
• ECMC is a global organization, with nearly 40 percent of its
students attending distance education schools
• Since the emergence of distance education (DE), there has
been a continued growth process.
5. INDUSTRY POSITION
• The market place in 2014 is fierce with competition, as
consumers look for the biggest bang for their buck
• ECMC is not attempting to hold onto their current position and
rank as a distance education provider; they are interested in
advancing, in defeating the competition and advancing toward
their identified goals
• Execution of values and goals is the result of thousands of
decisions made by employees everyday who act according to
the direct share and flow of information
8. DIAGNOSIS OF THE PROBLEM
How does an organization know when it needs a transformation?
• Being aware of the strategic inflection point, signals a change in the
environment and emergence of new rules for staying successful is needed
• When strategies that were effective and mindsets that moved the
organization forward are no longer effective it is time for change
• In nearly every industry businesses are challenged to respond to the
demands of change, the reasons for change are numerous; changing
markets, technology, social and economic conditions are just a few of the
demands of the 21st century (Buono, Kerber, 2009).
9. DIAGNOSIS OF THE PROBLEM
• Decreasing profits are the main reasons for the needed
transformation
• As a learning institution students need more technological
advances to keep up with the changing global market in
education
• Retaining students which is an internal and external issue the
organization faces
10. TRANSFORMATION STRATEGIES
• By planning and using economic and technical criteria to gauge
trade offs or evaluate the cost versus the benefits of various
planning decisions the organization can increase profits
• Being expert puzzle solvers is a better strategy than looking to
the past and holding to a strictly rational planning strategies
• Preparing for a turbulent and unstable market and environment
11. TRANSFORMATION STRATEGIES
FINANCIAL
• Completing an assessment of the problems is the first step
• Have each person in the organization complete an Organizational Culture Assessment
Instrument (OCAI) in order to diagnose the current culture
• The idea is to get a clear understanding of what needs to change in the culture to help
develop a strategy to change key important identified elements in the transformation
• Management, employees, and team leads must reach agreement on the type of steps
necessary to overcome the problems
• Based on these findings the next step is to assess the different quadrants: Clan,
Adhocracy, Hierarchy, or Market to determine where they needed to emphasize more
energies, strategies, and new processes, which areas need less attention is described
and where what is working needs to remain
12. TRANSFORMATION STRATEGIES
• Revamp the way admissions interview students
• Design admissions protocol that help to weed out students who
are not college read therefore eliminating those who may drop
during their first college term
• Continued work on student success strategies
• Enrolling students who exhibit strong aptitudes for online
learning will help increase the organizations profits through
retention
14. TRANSFORMATION STRATEGIES
TECHNOLOGY
• Apply critical thinking skills to critically examine information and seek out ideas and
solutions which surpass common solutions
• Be inquisitive take a chance and solve for tough problems and challenges that might arise
in situations
• Establish high work standards, by setting high standards, assume responsibilities and
accountability for all
• Execute quality improvements by improving processes and practices by identifying
inefficiencies and redundancies
15. TRANSFORMATION STRATEGIES
STUDENT RETENTION
• To counter the dropping student retention rates leadership will need to think holistically
rather than in a linear fashion
• If leadership can regard challenges as opportunities rather than problems they move
toward a learning institution
• Use unteachable competences such as the innate traits of optimism (Allert & Chatterjee,
1997).
• At the forefront of any change, leadership must poses vision, cleverness, pragmatism,
and awareness which leads to a positive attitude to overcome any issues
16. EXPECTED OUTPUT FROM
TRANSFORMATION
• Performance for all expected improvements are expected to be completed
within a one year time frame
• Management will use stressors that are seen as consistent with empirical
research, the scale they used included 6 items: workload, time pressure, task
complexity, performance,
• Management will need to determine how to implement processes that can
help their employees understand why their work demand is such and
whether others in the organization deal with the same or similar stressors,
and how the organization is going to acknowledge and reward their
employees for effectively dealing with such demands and responsibility
17. REFERENCES
• Allert, J. R., & Chatterjee, S. R. (1997). Corporate communication and trust in leadership.
Corporate Communications, 2(1), 14.
• Buono A., & Kerber, K. (2009). Building organizational change capacity. Retrieved from
http://www.iff.ac.at/oe/full_papers/Buono%20Antony%20F._Kerber%20Kenneth%20W.pdf
• Google Images. September 15, 2014. Retrieved from
https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&site=imghp&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1239&bih=
603&q=financial+planning&oq=financial+planning&gs_l=
Notas do Editor
Organizations who do not embrace transformational change in the 21st century are described as recalcitrant, in the past organizations that viewed change was perceived as unstable, not meeting their status quo and uncertain about their future and believed success was accomplished by remaining the same. In the past organizations were afraid of change, they saw stability as steadiness, today organizations believe in change as a way of becoming more efficient, and are frightened of staying the same and not growing. This presentation will describe organizational structure as it relates to large scale organizational transformation. Included will be a discussion on the diagnosis of the problem: why transformation is needed. Transformation strategies: Strategies used qualitative and quantitative measures.
Education Career Management Corporation (ECMC, is a pseudonym) is rooted in a vision, “to be a trustworthy, effective and efficient adult educator leading America in quality teaching and applied technology to learning” (“Our Vision,” 2013). From its emergence in 1994 ECMC, began with two Art & Design schools, in Arizona and California, it has currently grown to more than 90 campuses, including both traditional ground campuses and online university programs in business, information technology, art and design, allied health, and culinary arts programs. Since its emergence in 1994 ECMC has become known as a leader in online education, developing its own proprietary technologies for the exclusive use in its schools. ECMC is known and well established in the world of online education for developing education technologies that embrace and enhance student learning and collaboration.
Overview of the Organization
ECMC’s values are important to the culture of the organization, it is believed an organization should provide common context for the culture to help guide performance and make choices. ECMC believes through shared values they are able to effectively manage and respond quickly to any situation that arises through communication and having fully aligned values that are deep-seated within the culture of the organization.
ECMC is a global organization, with nearly 40 percent of its students attending distance education schools. In the history of education online learning is a fairly new discipline. Online learning programs are technology based, which means in order to compete on a global stage it may be necessary to further develop, and look to new and different models of application for the online learners. Since the emergence of distance education (DE), there has been a continued growth process. DE is seen as a way to allow students who would otherwise not be able to participate in higher education. DE programs allow learners and instructor to be physically apart yet interact in real time through technology, in a learning environment. “DE is one of the most popular education types in the last decade” (Tuncay & Uzunboylu, 2010).
Competition
The market place in 2014 is fierce with competition, as consumers look for the biggest bang for their buck; organization effectiveness becomes a basic tool for survival. Consumers are demanding, selective, and interested in value. With these thoughts in mind today’s organization is in the business of “increasing its competitive position and the major task of management is to drive the organization toward productivity, results, and profits” (Cameron, 2012, p. 2011). In an effective organization clear purpose and an aggressive approach are the keys to productivity and profitability. ECMC is not attempting to hold onto their current position and rank as a distance education provider; they are interested in advancing, in defeating the competition and advancing toward their identified goals. In a market culture emphasis is placed on winning; focus is on competitive actions and achieving goals and objectives. As described by Cameron, 2011”success is defined in terms of market share and penetration. Outpacing the competition and market leadership are important”. Execution of values and goals is the result of thousands of decisions made by employees everyday who act according to the direct share and flow of information. A couple of strategies used to stay ahead of the competition are:
clarifying decision rights = decision rights
designing information flows = sharing information
aligning motivators = identifying key motivators
making changes to structure = structure, moving people around the organization chart
This slide represents the leadership culture in one of the ECMC’s 90 schools. This is the hierarchy in most ECMC schools.
The organizations key financial processes and related financial controls, are documented through the company’s financial control environment. This is done as a description that tells the story of how the company performs in each of its quarters.
Organizations like people must change because of technology deregulation in their industry, or because of social or economic required restructuring. Large scale transformation within an organization can be defined as change that impacts an organization from culture, productivity, efficiency, to how the organization deals with competitiveness. Understanding that change capacity has a direct link to management, and is reliant on conditions that exist in the organization at the time of the preconceived change, and knowing the past conditions in the organization, is a fundamental component of change capacity. Empirical research identifies several phases of change capacity (1) understanding that there is no proven strategy to initiate the change, and understanding, and accepting the need for change is the first step. Understanding the different ways to deal with the change is vital information. There are 3 interconnected tactics of implementing change, “direct change, planned change and guided change” (Buono, Kerber, 2009). (2) making sure you have the needed resources and a learning attitude is step two in the change. Making sure workers understand why we are changing X so that we can continue with our goals in accomplishing Y, and ensuring they understand the reasoning and expected outcomes. (3) Growing the culture to adapt to a facilitative approach, and continued strategizing. Lawler, Worley & McLagan (2003) emphasized that an organizations culture must embrace fluidity, openness and learning in a change facilitative organization to embrace the changing times. Change is not an easy task since we are asking employees to move away from the familiar and embrace change. The optimal essence of cultural change is to get everyone “to strive to create a shared purpose supported by a common language about change” (Buono, Kerber, 2009).
When planning a strategic transformation OD practitioners must keep in mind that the rules in business have changed, according to Emery & Purser, (1996) “values are no longer stable, and the environment itself is characterized by a high degree of relevant uncertainty.” Problems and issues today require the practitioner to use a wider viewing angle and must not be blind-sided by unexpected events and occurrences that could have possibly been prevented. Taking some of the characteristics and features of strategic planning a practitioner should rely heavily on information sharing and communication, and be ready to spring into action with strategic like actions to keep the organization moving toward the goals and environmental changes.
By using strong planned developed and integrated operational plans that clearly link to strategic objectives, and by prioritizing what is relative and important and then taking the needed actions to clarify any issues or problems the team was then able to set agreed upon goals that align key metrics in a practical and meaningful manner
Achieving business excellence requires the culture to function in a dual management approach so that the familiar and unfamiliar are manageable, while the landscape slides towards change. Transformation is the process of guiding stakeholders through real and apparent change of ideas, values and processes that have been in place sometimes for many years, while at the same time learning new skills, proficiencies and culture.
The fear of the unknown can lead people to stress, which is where a strong well informed culture can help people move through the challenges to transformational change. If leadership is able to mobilize people through challenges people will be more willing to embrace the change.
People are what drive the need for change, they change their minds, make decisions and react to their external environments, and this in turn creates a market of need. Because of globalization, deregulation, and technology changes these things create a changing competitive environment. Transformation is the process of guiding stakeholders through real and apparent change of ideas, values and processes that have been in place sometimes for many years, while at the same time learning new skills, proficiencies and culture. The fear of the unknown can lead people to stress, which is where a strong well informed culture can help people move through the challenges to transformational change. If leadership is able to mobilize people through challenges people will be more willing to embrace the change.
