Minimal Requirements for Case Study Responses:
Identify the key and underlying issues (This is not a simple listing, but more of an in-depth analysis on how these apply to the concepts and theories you have learned within this course)
Develop the key facts to support the issues (This will require some thought with the expectation that you will only list pertinent data)
Discuss the solutions to the questions and how to implement this to become more effective (This is an analysis of the problem within the paper; make efforts to support your solutions with references from the textbook, readings, or other sources)
Demonstrate that you understand the topic and data by linking the theories and concepts highlighted in the textbook with your paper response
Solution
Step 1: Define the problem
- Low Job Satisfaction
- Low Performance
- Lower Team Performance
- Lower Innovation
- Lower financial performance (Kinicki & Fugate, 2015).
Problem 1:
The problems identified in the case study shows that the company to bring innovation to its culture changed its entire culture by implementing the halocracy structure at all levels of the firm. As per this new structure of the organization, all the management positions were erased completely and replaced it with self-managerial roles. This step completely erased the authoritative positions, the chain of command, growth opportunities, meaningful appraisals, and accountability (Kinicki & Fugate, 2015).
Problem 2:
Then the second problem which has been identified is that the implementation of the halocracy culture gave away all the authority, communication, and teamwork. The new culture is heavily dependent on rules. The halocracy website shows the constitution which outlines the governance and regulations that one must follow to implement the concept. It is known that organizational change is of the most difficult things that a firm has to undergo. And going through the change in such a large scope and for as disruptive change as halocracy is given with drastic consequences. The transition between the two worlds of halocracy and traditional hierarchy, the complexity increased with the higher governance and a regulation is only more complicating (Kinicki & Fugate, 2015).
Problem 3:
Another problem which has been identified is that under the umbrella of Amazon, the company and its financial reports are not clear for its investors. An article mentioned that the company had lowered its 2016 targets. It may mean that the company’s new culture is unraveling. The transformation from a passionate, customer focused company to a company pounding employees for more work hours with no progress is disappointing (Kinicki & Fugate, 2015).
Step 2: Identify causes of the problem
Inputs
- Organizational structure
- Organizational culture
Processes
- Decision Making
- Communication
Cause 1:
The cause of the problems is the change faced by the company employees in its structure and culture. The removal of the structure from scratch made the employees not only loses focus, but also felt uncomfortable with the new setup. The drastic change in routines made less room for actual room and took more time to finding the right way of doing work.
Cause 2:
They did not implement the model on a small scale to test its impact neither it gathered response from its company on the potential of its implementation. The result was the immense lack of trust of the employees.
Cause 3:
The employees did not have knowledge of the decision-making process and the communicating process for completing a task. The lack of clarity of the rules and complexity of regulations made it impossible to communicate the takes and make a decision in time.
Step 3-Recommendations and Action Plan
Recommendation 1:
The company naturally made a wrong decision. The company did not understand completely how the change would translate at the individual level. The one-third employees leaving a company, on giving option to leave should be considered as troublesome by the company owners. However, the opposite happened. If the implementation of halocracy was so necessary, the effects should have been assessed beforehand by using focus groups, or surveys. The company could also have used the prototype by implementing it in one department at first. Other than this, there are various other ways to create an innovative environment for the employees. Companies have historically been using compensation, incentives, vacations, profit sharing programs, etc. for the same aim.
Recommendation 2:
The company tried to implement not only a complex structure of its firm but also tried to make it less time. The author of the concept suggests ten years for complete implementation of the program, whereas Zappos limited it to two years. Furthermore, the process of halocracy is complex with all the rules and governance. For a traditional employee, this seems a big task. However, Zappos did not give the employees enough time to comprehend, absorb and adopt the change. The implementation of halocracy also builds lack of trust from the senior management. These managers had spent their lives in the company, and the removal of the traditional positions looked like unfair to them. The company should have worked on including the employees in the process and giving them enough time and leisure to adopt the change. Another suggestion would be to adopt the halocracy culture of the department where innovation was most needed like for the software development group.
Recommendation 3:
Any good leader has the trait of recognizing their mistake and taking the steps which will solve the cause of a problem. The CEO Heish of Zappos should recognize that the decision of implementing Halocracy was a horrible mistake and identify ways to go back to its traditional culture and structure with the adaptation of halocracy in its software department only.
Action Plan
| Action Plan | |
| Identify Problem | The lack of success in implementation of the halocracy structure |
| Find Root Causes | Less time for implementation, No employee support, Feeling of unneeded change in staff, focus diverted from product development and innovation to implementation of the structure |
| Suggest Solutions alternatives | 1. Reassess the decision and go back to the traditional hierarchy
2. Follow the current process by improving employee inclusion, focus on customer and employees 3. Going back to the traditional structure with halocracy structure limited to the software development group |
| Choose and implement the best solution | Going back to the traditional structure with halocracy structure limited to the software development group |
References
Kinicki, A., & Fugate, M. (2015). Organizational Behavior: A Practical, Problem-Solving Approach (2 ed.). New York: Mc Graw Hill Education.
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