1. Read the Question 1

2. Read Student response.

3. Respond to this question after reading the students response:Do not merely agree or disagree, repeating what a classmate stated or what you have already stated. Explain the 'why or how' with supporting evidence and concepts from the course material. Include in-text citations and associated references within a reference list. BE SPECIFIC

QUESTION 1:

It is now 2015, and Smithfield's Custom Furniture has continued to grow. Its new product line of lower-priced furniture was an immediate sensation in the marketplace. The company now has 344 stores and 21,000 employees. The company now has a total of 12 international retail stores evenly divided among Spain (3), France (3), Germany (3), and England (3).

Margot Smithfield, Jonas Smithfield III's only heir, is now running the company. She has a master's degree in design and an MBA degree. She has been running the company for 3 years.

Margot Smithfield and the 12-member board of directors have been assessing an opportunity to acquire You Figure it Out, a moderately profitable 51 store chain of ultra-modern furniture. You Figure it Out's furniture and furniture-related accessories are all made in China and sold only in the United States. Their retail stores are located in Texas (6), California (13), New York (15), Nevada (4), Florida (9), and North Carolina (4).

Margot and her board have reasoned that the company has excess capacity at their 5 manufacturing plants. They know that producing a new line of furniture would mean retraining several hundred of their workers in the new production process. However, if this change is successfully executed, it would significantly increase the profitability of the You Figure It Out brand. The company also sees a market for the ultra-modern style of furniture in Smithfield's existing foreign markets and believe the current Smithfield stores in Spain, France, Germany, and England could display some of the new furniture along with their traditional lines of furniture and take orders that would be produced in the US plants. Other than that, the Smithfield Custom Furniture product line and the You Figure It Out brand would operate as they currently do.

They have decided to conclude the purchase with You Figure It Out executives and want to announce the decision to their workforce as soon as possible.

The Management Issue:Margot Smithfield is concerned she will overlook something important in her communications to employees and the board's decision-making.

Your Task for Your Initial Post

Margot Smithfield is asking for your input to help her understand and ensure she does not overlook anything important to introducing a new furniture product line to the current Smithfield product line. She has requested that you send her a single-spaced summary,using only course readings and proper citations, that addresses (in the order they are listed) the issues she believes she needs to be aware of related to communications and decision making.

1. Explaining to her, why employees need to understand the need for Smithfield to continue to be innovative.
2. Selecting the 3 "noise" factors that are most likely to interfere with the successful launch of the new product line. you will explain to Margot why you selected each of the 3 noise factors you selected, including their potential negative impact on a new product launch if it is not eliminated or reduced.
3. Identifying for Margot Smithfield the 3 most significant obstacles to change that you believe will make the acceptance of the new product line difficult for employees to support. for each obstacle to change you identified, you will explain to Margot why you selected each of the 3 obstacles to change, including each obstacle's potential negative impact on a new product launch if it is not eliminated or reduced.
4. Selecting for her and explaining, the one specific change management technique or tool you think is most likely to pave the way for a successful launch of the new product line.
5. Explaining to her, using course readings on decision making and the most likely decision-making oversight the board could make in the launch of a new product line.

You must use the following numbers and corresponding headings for each part of your response to a particular issue.

1. Understanding the Need for Innovation.

2. Significant "Noise" Factors

3. Obstacles to the Acceptance of Change

4. An Effective Change Management Technique

5. Possible Decision-Making Oversight

STUDENT RESPONSE:

1. Understanding the Need for Innovation

Innovation is good for a company to reinvent themselves as a way of staying relevant and competitive. The Smithfield company has a furniture line of high-end class, lower-priced, and with acquiring "You figure it Out", ultra-modern. This innovation will bring more attention to the company as whole that can bring sales to the other lines in the international market. This innovation will be of great profit to Smithfield custom furniture that can make the company more stable and great at providing jobs.

2. Significant "Noise" Factors

"Noise" factors that can collectively cause obstacles to the launch, success, and out-reach of the new line are emotional disconnect, semantics, and information overload (LumenLearning(a), Nd). Emotional disconnects can happen if an employee is not sensitive to the new line's purpose, resulting in emotional disinvolvement. Semantics can cause a person of a non-English speaking background to misinterpret information delivered in training. Information overload can cause an employee to not retain the information, or fully understand each detail.

3. Obstacles to the Acceptance of Change

Three most significant obstacles to change that I believe will make the acceptance of the new product line difficult for employees to support are willingness to adapt, learning of new products, and new technology. Adapting means to change something familiar, which is something most employees don't see value in right away. The learning of new products will take work, time, and practice. Learning new technology can be frightening to some, and overly complicated.

4. An Effective Change Management Technique

The management technique I would find most useful in this situation is "The Integrated Leader" style of leadership. In this style, the leader will find ways to include, or consider, employees' cultures, attitudes, and capabilities (LumenLearning(b), Nd). Here, the leader is taking into account how the employees' of the organization collectively learns and becomes engaged. This will help with "noise" factors and acceptance of, change, which will allow the new line to live it's full potential.

5. Possible Decision-Making Oversight

The most likely decision-making oversight the board could make in the launch of a new product line is the feelings of their employees. Proper communication of the change can determine how well the employees engaged to carry the mission. Training, monitoring, and counseling will also help with integrating the employees with the new line for a better rollout (LumenLearning(c), Nd). Not considering employees of the company can cause them to feel of not much value to their company and management.