Focused in the independent retail market throughout the United States and Canada, Sunflower Incorporated is a popular distributor of salty snacks and liquor. In an attempt to limit variations in profit margins across regions and to protect their company image after finding that certain profitable divisions were using lower-quality products to maximize profit levels, headquarters established a new financial reporting system aimed to standardize pricing and purchasing policy within the organization. 1. How well did Albanese manage the pricing and purchasing changes at Sunflower? Agnes Albanese, the newly appointed Director of pricing and purchasing may have been a bit hasty in her management approach and failed to follow through with her planned change. Without a comprehensive understanding of company structure and culture, she suggested a solution after a mere three weeks. After a mere three weeks, she suggested a solution but did not (25) Managers and staff specialists must work with and through people to achieve organizational objectives, and OD can help them form effective relationships with others. Planned change involves four sets of activities – entering and contracting, diagnosing, planning and implementing, and evaluating and institutionalizing 2a. Were the changes implemented successfully?
Albanese' approach may be typical for many organizations but unfortunately it doesn't return anticipated results for numerous reasons. Organizational development theory tells us that change, in order to be effective, must be led and managed. Albanese only provided a quick solution to what she regarded as a simple problem while making no efforts to establish a change plan that would have included such elements as providing the leadership and vision to promote the change, cultural assessment to align behavioral norms, communication and stakeholder management, performance management, training and development, and...