Transfusion
This case explains about a company, producing and bottling alcoholic drinks at various locations that adopted a strategy to change the relations among the employees. As they are known with a history of conflicting employee relations and as they felt the pressure of the increasingly competitive environment, they came up with a ‘change agenda’. The change agenda involved change to flexibility, shared responsibility, continuous improvement, more customer focus and team-working. They linked a process of intensive and extensive HRD to this change agenda and called the change event ‘Transfusion’. To implement the change, the HRD event was planned and designed as a series of three-day workshops for all employees. These workshops were designed to help the employees adapt to the new organizational culture which is needed to improve the relationships and collaboration among the employees. To achieve this, the workshops included dramatic techniques to challenge and change the old norms of rule-following and task orientation. A dramatic technique is something used on stage to enhance the impact of the play. For example, one dramatic technique maybe a freeze frame, where the characters freeze to represent the stopping of time or the thoughts of the character. The sessions included guided fantasy exercises, Tai Chi exercises, and the use of forms of dramatized group interaction. It was necessary for the change that barriers were taken away and that people felt freer to express their opinions and their beliefs. These workshops were designed in a way that people lose their fear of speaking what is bothering them.
The focus of these workshops was on the importance of the engagement of the whole person instead of only focusing on certain elements of knowledge and skills. At the end of the workshops, the directors of the company felt that Transfusion was a success and that it really had broken down the barriers, taken away inhibitions, and has given people a new...