Dell – Change Initiative

An organization needs change in order to maintain a continuous competitive advantage over it competitors. This change is needed because the competitors can copy the competitive advantage of the organization but organizational culture can be an obstacle in this path to change. The same is the case with Dell Inc., it has to manage a continuous process of change.

Cultural Implications of Change Initiative

The change initiative that Dell is planning to take is to shift the employees from formal training and development process to individualized learning process.

Continuous process of change is a critical success factor for Dell as the employees are always prepared for change. Therefore any change initiative in the organization Dell Inc. will not affect its culture and most probably the change initiative of individualized learning by implementing learning contract will be successful. In the case under study, Dell is implementing learning contract for its employees to enhance the effectiveness of the continuous process of change.

Dell wants to maintain its culture of a learning environment for employees in the organization and the culture will be improved by the change initiative of individualized learning that Dell is planning to implement.

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At Dell, employees are involved in a project from the early stage that is why most of them are successful. So if the learning contract is implemented, the employees will be involved in it right from the beginning. Dell has a culture of early involvement of employees in every change. This culture will contribute positively to the implementation of learning contract.

Managing change is one of the most important tasks of the management of Dell and this type of culture will surely support the implement the learning contract. The implementation of ‘fully self-directed’ learning will allow the employees to perform their own learning process. They will be setting their own objectives and learning goals under the supervision of manager which will keep them aligned with the strategic focus of the organization. This will change the culture of traditional conferences and training sessions in Dell and will encourage self learning of the individuals. Without this change initiative, there used to be standardized learning for all employees but this change will enable the employees to use their own learning methods and organizational culture will change in a positive way.

Change Initiative Efforts

Following is the list of change initiative efforts that will be directed against the implementation of learning contract

- Employees are not involved in the process of implementing learning contract right from the beginning

- HR manager has the right knowledge and experience to motivate the employees on the learning contract. If these managers do not play their role to create an organizational structure that keep up the employee morale, the change will have resistance from the employees

- Departmental supervisors are directly involved in the implementation of learning contract. If they are not involved, there will be not enough guidance for the employees to undertake learning contract

- The HR managers do not play their role of facilitating coordination between different departments of the organization

- The line management and HR managers do not collaborate to guide the employees

- The methodology for assessing the learning outcomes is not accurate

- The employees are not given power to conduct their own learning process

- The managers of departments are unable to identify practices and norms which require change and hence they are unable to guide the employees properly on the changes that will take place (Kotter, 1996)

- There is a lack of communication between the employees and the manager because of which employees are not able to achieve their learning goals

- The organizational managers are not serious about the learning contract implementation and they do not see the learning of employees as major success

- The managers do not give enough time for the change to take place and expect the outcomes to be accurate and as the anticipated (Stanleigh, 2008)

Effects of Initiatives

Short-term effects

In short term the employees might shift their focus away from their job to the learning process. This will cause Dell Inc. to lose its customers, have increased costs and inefficient processes. When the employees are involved in the change right from the beginning, they will feel that nothing is going against them. The feedback from the employees will be helpful in shaping the next phase of implementation, and hence the initiatives will be successful.

Awareness among the higher managers of the organization will be created through employee interaction. The employees in return will be able to gain knowledge while working under the guidance of senior management. The employees will learn about the strategic focus of Dell Inc. from their managers as their work will be supervised by these managers. Learning of the employees will be maximized as they will be allowed to choose their own learning methodologies (Hitt, 2007).

Long-term effects

Through these change initiatives, true partnership and understanding will be created between all organizational levels. The flexible organizational culture at Dell Inc. will be revived as the employees are encourages to learn whatever they are willing to learn through learning contract. The management will be able to save costs through avoiding formal training sessions and development programs. Heavy investments are needed if there are formal training sessions and learning programs, these investments can be hoarded. Individualized learning will mean that there is no standardized learning for all the employees, therefore the employees will have diverse knowledge and each employee will have different knowledge than the other. Through cooperation of the line managers and HR management, the best organizational structure will be created by which employees will feel motivated.

Conclusion

Consideration of organizational culture and possible employee resistance will be very helpful in the success of implementing a change in organization. Identification of the norms of the organization and implementing the change accordingly will support the achievement of change initiative.