GovServ Case Study

BY JUDY FRENCH, MACQUARIE UNIVERSITY

Belinda Anderson, the chief executive officer (CEO) of GovServ, was a driven, successful woman who was held in high esteem by other colleagues in her industry. She was one of the few female CEOs in a government-owned business enterprise. She had risen to this high political level during an era in which society talked a lot about equal opportunity for women in the workforce but was not actually practising it. During her previous work experiences she had dealt with organisational 'boys' clubs' and stereotyping, managing to rise above this to her current position. To this day she claims that in order to be competitive in a man's world a female needs to be far superior to her male colleagues. She needs to be perceived as powerful and intolerant of inefficiency and mediocrity. Her decisions must be devoid of emotion.

Not long after Belinda was selected as CEO, the then elected government decided to commercialise its business enterprises, requiring them to become commercially viable. This placed a lot of strain on these enterprises and required a whole new vision and strategy for the companies. Belinda, always believing she needed to lead the way, was excited about the challenge. She was, however, also aware that to be successful in this venture she needed to bring about great change, and quite quickly.

Change was needed throughout the whole organisation. As the first step, department by department, people were offered redundancy or replaced. Belinda felt that she needed employees with vast work experience from large commercial businesses rather than government agencies. She wanted staff who were focused on money making and performance, rather than fostering GovServ's traditional comfortable family feel. As each department was reviewed and modified to suit the new goals, a replacement executive member would be selected. Those who were not seen to be up to the challenge were replaced with little notice.

Belinda was a woman of action and did not feel the need to explain her choices. This lack of communication meant that the staff did not trust their CEO and were scared for their own jobs (even if they had just been employed). Those still in the departments yet to undergo change were particularly stressed, not knowing what to expect, yet fearing the worst. They began to focus on survival rather than on organisational goals. They were scared to make decisions and were constantly looking after themselves. Teamwork became non-existent and the staff's performance was declining. Some staff members even began using work time to look for new jobs.

When Phillip Thomas was appointed as the new information technology (IT) infrastructure manager, his team was barely performing. He had had many years as an IT manager and had successfully completed many large projects Australia wide. He had been seconded overseas to give IT advice to large projects in developing countries. He was known as a pioneer in his field, always finding new ways to solve problems. Belinda hired him on the provision that during his three-month probation period he was to achieve a PC rollout Australia-wide (i.e. all the hardware was to be replaced while also upgrading the software) without interrupting the business operation of the company.

Phillip accepted this challenge with excitement, quite confident that it could be achieved.

Once the employment contract was signed, Belinda informed Phillip that she doubted it could be doneespecially given the quality of his IT team.

Phillip started work at GovServ two weeks before Christmas, keen to meet his team and get the project started. Phillip had found in his work life that managing by walking around was a successful management technique and it was best suited to his personality. Consequently, he started his first day by introducing himself and talking to his team, member by member. They were short with him, some even dismissive, and showed distrust. This was something new for Phillip, who did not usually have problems connecting with people.

He went home from his first day feeling despondent and worried. He had had a look at the personnel files of his team and discovered that he had the most talented IT team he had ever managedand they were an IT manager's dream. However, they were not talking to him, and worse still, they were not talking to each other. They were sitting at their desks not lifting their heads. Their body language revealed that they had given up. They even looked uninterested in their new boss. This certainly was a new challenge for him.

Phillip did not relax or sleep well that first night. Work problems went round and round in his head. His three-month project had hit a major problem on the first day. Despite having the expertise to complete the PC rollout, the performance of his team was dismal. This was undoubtedly why Belinda had said she felt the job could not be done in the timeframe required.

Phillip went in on his second day even more determined to get to the bottom of his problem. He needed to gain the confidence of his team, and fast. In reality, he had only two working months to achieve the goal once you considered Christmas and holidays during the summer vacation. Time was of the essence. In addition to that, he needed to find out why his team had a poor reputation when they were so talentedand what else had been going on in the organisation. He had an idea, but he needed to talk to the other managers. He called a mid-morning office meeting of all his team.

He wanted to know more of the history of his team and why they were on a vicious spiral of decline. What he learned helped him in his approach to his team and the project. He learned that they had had two IT managers in quick succession. The reason for these managers' departure was not communicated, which caused even more uncertainty in the team. He also learned that due to the poor image and performance of the IT team, they were unable to secure the budget necessary for the improvements in the system. This meant that in addition to new projects being on hold, the current system was not being maintainedit was deteriorating and behind the times. Consequently, his team was attracting negative attitudes and demoralising comments from the users of the systemwho were also experiencing frustration with the decline of the IT system and substandard support. He needed to get budget advice and assistance to enable his large upgrade to get through. He needed to learn the politics of the organisation quickly, in order to overcome the negative perception of his team.

1. What is the title of your case study? Who is the "client" in the case? (1 mark)
2. What are the key issues/problems that need to be addressed in this case study? Make sure you explain the root causes/reasons behind these problems.
3. Describe the change that you want to achieve in the organisation as the OD consultant in this case. In other words, what are your goals as the OD practitioner? Be specific. (Answer in about ; 4 marks)
4. What are the barriers (resistance) to change evident in your case? What are the reasons behind this resistance? Please give specific reasons for resistance to change that are mentioned in the textbook and discussed in class. (Answer in about 5 marks)
5. Briefly explain two change models that are appropriate for your case study. Use one of the models and explain how it can be applied in your case study. (Answer in about 10 marks).