An evaluation of change communication in ensuring the sustainability of change at Barclays Africa's first "green" building
- Authors: Magubane, Nokuzola
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: Barclays Bank , Sustainable buildings -- South Africa -- Johannesburg , Organizational change -- South Africa -- Johannesburg , Communication in organizations
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MBA
- Identifier: vital:849 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1017517
- Description: The purpose of the study was to conduct an evaluation on the effectiveness of the change communications distributed to the occupants of Barclays Towers West, Barclays Africa‟s first green building, in ensuring the sustainability of the change after the move into the building. In addition, recommendations are made to improve the change communications directed towards the building occupants to ensure the sustainability of the change and for future moves to green buildings. The research paper is made up of the following three distinct sections: Section One – Evaluation Research Report: this section outlines the organisational and research context for the study, the objectives of the research and rationale for conducting the research. A brief overview of the key theories and models on change communication that were utilised in the study are discussed, and definitions of important terms are presented. The research methodology is also described which includes an explanation on the evaluation research approach utilised as well as the use of both qualitative and quantitative data in the study. In addition, the results from the research conducted are presented, based on three data collection methods utilised: document analysis, semi-structured interviews and a survey. The results are then analysed and discussed in relation to the literature reviewed on change communication. Recommendations are made on improvements that can be made to the change communications to ensure the sustainability of the change. Section Two – Literature Review: the literature, theories and important concept definitions of organisational change management, change sustainability, change communication and green buildings which are relevant for the research topic and have been used as the theoretical base of the study are explored in this section. A key component of the literature review is the description of the change communication theories and models: communication theory, Armenakis, Harris and Field (2007) Model, and the Barrett (2002) Model. An understanding of the theories and models is imperative, as the effectiveness of the change communications after the move into Barclays Towers West is assessed based on the elements of the change communication theories and models. Section Three – Research Methodology: the research methodology for the study is described in this section. Specifically, the research aims and objectives, the research paradigm, the population and sampling, data collection, data analysis and ethical considerations are outlined. A key component of the section is the explanation on how the data was collected and analysed in the study and the sequence. The post move communications and artefacts and meeting presentations were collected first. The qualitative data was analysed and used to determine the questions for the semi structured interviews. Semi-structured one on one interviews were then conducted. The qualitative data and the change communication theories and models used in this study were used to determine the questions for the online survey. An online survey tool was used to administer a predominantly five point Likert scale questionnaire with an invitation to participate emailed to the building occupants. The quantitative data was analysed using descriptive statistical analysis. Research Findings: The key research findings revealed that the messages communicated to the occupants after the move into the building have been mainly focused on operational matters and rarely on educating occupants on the green aspects of the building. A large majority of the survey respondents were aware of the building facilities, details and required behaviour. However it was found that the occupants, Line Managers and Senior Management are not displaying the required behaviour for a green building and do not know how to use some of the building facilities. A major gap was found in communicating with people moving into the building. In addition it was found that some of the information communicated to occupants is outdated. Written communications are used extensively and face to face communication is rarely used to communicate with the occupants. As a result, a number of changes are required to improve the effectiveness of the change communications to the occupants of Barclays Towers West. The improvements include communicating to new occupants; utilising additional communication channels; focusing communication messages on educating occupants on the strategic objectives for the building; rationale for building features and facilities; how to use the facilities and the impact of their behaviour on the building objectives being achieved.
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An evaluation of the implementation of Mercedes Benz production system (MPS) and the employee change readiness at Mercedes Benz commercial vehicles South Africa
- Authors: McAllister, Rozane Ronardo
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: Daimler-Benz Aktiengesellschaft , Organizational change -- South Africa , Organizational behavior -- South Africa , Employees -- Attitudes , Continuous improvement process -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MBA
- Identifier: vital:850 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1017518
- Description: The evaluation report section describes the evaluation of the implementation of Mercedes Benz Production System (MPS) at Mercedes Benz Commercial Vehicles, which is a division of Mercedes Benz South Africa’s manufacturing plant situated in East London. The section evaluates the changes the implementation of MPS brought to the Key Performance Indicators (KPI’S) of the division and evaluates the change readiness of the employees in the division prior to the change. The change implementation was initiated by the management of MBCV as a strategic organisational change to bring about continuous improvement to the KPI’s of the organisation. These KPI’s are Safety, Quality, Delivery, Cost and Morale (SQDCM). The reason behind the change at the time was deemed critical to MBCV in order to meet the annual KPI targets and remain cost competitive and sustainable. The evaluation report further describes the results of the change with regards to the organisational KPI’s and the level of employee change readiness which was conducted through a questionnaire survey. A brief literature review is included in the Evaluation Report under section one describing key concepts about Production Systems, Lean Manufacturing and Change Management. The evaluation section includes recommendations based on the results of the research findings and ends with a conclusion. The literature review section explores the literature that supports production systems, lean manufacturing and change management concepts, its definitions, importance and benefits. The literature review describes and critiques key concepts of the research such as productions systems, MPS in particular, lean manufacturing concepts and related change management topics relevant to the research. The literature review defines production systems and the concepts of lean manufacturing, highlighting the benefits of the concepts to enhance organisations’ manufacturing capabilities. An integrated part of lean manufacturing is people and the implementation of lean manufacturing into an organisation requires change management theories therefore key understanding in this particular research was to discuss change management concepts, in particular, employee change readiness. The literature will discuss different tools to assess employee change readiness and from this develop an employee change readiness tool. The change management concepts evaluated change readiness and the consequences if organisations are not ready for change. The research methodology section describes how that the research was conducted in two phases, one to evaluate the implementation of MPS with regards to the organisational KPI’s (SQDCM). This was assessed through reports from projects and presentations made by the project teams on improvements of the organisational KPI’s. The second phase evaluated the change readiness of the employees prior to the implementation of MPS. This phase of the research was intended to retrieve quantitative data with an adapted questionnaire which was distributed to employees. To evaluate the change readiness, a change model known as ADKAR was used as an evaluation instrument. The modified ADKAR questionnaire was distributed to employees in hard copies and completed during a weekly team meeting. The results were summarised and descriptive statistics were used to analyse the final results. Microsoft Excel (2010 version) was used to illustrate and display the graphs. Section three discussed the research methodology in more detail. The study shows that although there were some positive changes that came from the implementation of MPS in MBCV, especially to the following KPI’s (Safety, Quality, Delivery and Cost), real consideration should be given to employee morale and the level of change readiness of MBCV employees.
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