Leadership approach in informing and involving employees

1.Describe how the employees in the marketing unit of the Schloss Horgen gGmbH are being informed and involved by leadership with a view to the new competition. Interpret the approach chosen by leadership in terms of information and involvement.

2. Please describe the type and nature of the change management practices and leadership styles of Peter Lohn, Thomas Unger, and Petra Ammann during the changes under way in the marketing unit. Interpret these change management practices and leadership styles of the three actors, and assess how appropriate the change management practices and leadership styles of all three actors are.

3. Characterize the culture of the Schloss Horgen gGmbH and identify relevant passages in the text that explain the key characteristics of the organization’s culture. Interpret the effects of this culture on the process of change.

4. Why is Petra Ammann not able to promote and implement the change processes she initiated as effectively as possible despite being a top performer in the
marketing unit? Name at least three barriers, and suggest ways how Petra Ammann could have overcome these, so that she could have promoted and implemented her proposed changes more effectively.

5. Reto Felder is highly motivated to take Schloss Horgen into a successful future. How would you proceed if you were in his shoes in order to achieve positive results with the coming changes? Please explain your approach.

Change management is the change of individuals, organizations, and teams from the present state to future state (Gerth, 2013) The Schloss Horgen gGmbH is an organization that was established by Peter Lohn in the late 1970s with a single boarding school with 20 students. It later registered 400 students in 6 boarding schools where the rich and famous took their children to the schools of Schloss Horgen. In this task, we will describe the leadership approach in terms of information and involvement and the management practices and leadership styles of different actors. The task will also cover the culture of the organization and its effects on the process of change, barriers to implementation of the changes and lastly what to do to achieve positive results in future

1.Following the new competition from the Swiss Boarding School Group, the leadership of the Schloss Horgen has come up with approaches that ensure the employees are well informed and involved. The CEO of the unit had to act fast, he applied the Lewis model of change management where he realized that the organization needed change, make the changes and then checking that the new changes are followed(Little, 2014). The leadership used different methods to make the employees informed; print, online, social media, networks and events. Petra Ammann, the marketing coordinator involved the employees by giving them key topics to provide solutions hence ensuring the success of the organization(Cummings,  Bridgman, &Brown, 2016)

Change management practices and leadership styles of actors

2.There are several change management practices adopted by Schloss Horgen group. They choose the best change agents who will support the change processes and ensure it runs smoothly(Little, 2014). The marketing team and the teachers are able to understand the need for changes in Schloss Horgen because they have been able to discuss problems of the current system by answering the topics implemented by the marketing director Petra Ammann hence making the concept of change management relevant in this task. Peter Lohn the CEO of the Schloss Horgen had his own leadership style as the founder of the marketing unit(Nanjundeswaraswamy &Swamy, 2014). Whenever he wanted to come up with a decision according to the text, he went to his favorite bench located on the Northern shores of Lake Constance. This helped him because he had come up with the most important decisions on that bench. After coming up with the decisions, he discussed it with the marketing team who then implemented the changes. After Sussana Grober resigned as the marketing director, Thomas Unger was appointed as the new marketing director. He also had his own leadership style; he called three long meetings every week where he looked at the activities of marketing which needed to be restructured and redesigned. He came up with new ideas and after every meeting, he would construct a new organizational chart where he would do assignments for the team. Petra Ammann was appointed as the marketing coordinator after the departure of Thomas Unger. Petra realized that the organization needed changes so she coordinated different marketing and communication tasks. Her leadership style was different from the others, she would pick the key topics and then give them to the office managers who provided solutions. She would then take the decisions. These leadership styles were appropriate for the organization because important decisions were made, there were good results from the restructuring and the office managers were involved in decision making (Drucker, 2012)

3.The culture of the Schloss Horgen was that they believed that they had no competitors and hence had nothing to worry about(Alvesson & Sveningsson, 2015). In this text Sussana Grober said “The other schools – however near they might be – are no competition for us, because they cater to a completely different clientele.” The founder of the organization Peter Lohn also said, “My frontline people – marketing, admissions, our networks in the markets – always reassured me that Schloss Horgen was above the competition, that we had nothing to worry about.” This belief affected their processes of change. By not reacting to the competition, the Swiss group took advantage and established their schools just immediate of the Schloss Horgen schools around Lake Constance. This also made the parents worried as the number of students dropped drastically and international clients also went down (Bock et al.,  2012).

Culture of Schloss Horgen gGmbH and its effects on change

4.Petra Ammann applied the Kotter’s 8 step change theory of change management which consists of; creating a team dedicated for change, building the vision for change, communicating the need for change, empowering the staff with ability to change, creating short-term goals, being persistent and lastly making the change to be permanent(Editorial team, Mindtools , 18 February, 2016). Unfortunately, she was unable to promote and implement the change processes (Bennett et al., 2013). This is because she knew that Thomas Unger was her superior so she had to do her thing as per the customs of the organization. The problems in this were; Thomas Unger leaving for the Shanghai offices which had been left empty for a long time, Schloss Horgen being committed to British National Boarding Standards without a notice and Peter Lohn retiring from his duties as the managing directors. Petra Ammann could have decided that Thomas Unger should not leave because his absence meant that the marketing would be removed from the wider executive board. Petra could have discussed the clients’ interests with the executive board as she felt the clients were not interested with the British National Boarding Standards and that it was not able to offer any additional registration. With the issue of the CEO retiring, Petra should have spoken with Peter Lohn on the importance of staying because he was the captain of the ship and the ship would sink if he left. This would mean that the marketing team would scrabble and hence look for opportunities elsewhere. By taking all those decisions, Petra could have overcome the problems and hence promoting and implementing her proposed changes more effectively (Drucker, P, 2012).

5.After Petra and Svetlana left the organization, there were problems in the marketing department and number of registrations dropped. Reto Felder was appointed as the new CEO and he believed that he could rescue SchlossHorgen gGmbH back to its shape as he was motivated to take the challenge. Being the CEO of the unit I would; ensure that I focus on the dos and not don’ts, help the marketing team and other employees to positively understand their tasks and projects, offer the employees freedom to shape their own roles and draw strength from high quality connections (Drucker,P., 2012). As the CEO, I would also engage with the middle managers for more decisions and also ensure that I communicate frequently and openly with them.

Conclusion

This task was about the marketing unit of the Schloss Horgen which is aimed at establishing international boarding schools. We have looked at how the employees are informed and involved, the leadership styles by different leaders, management practices, the organization culture and its effects, the problems the organization encounters and how they can be solved. Excellent management practices help in getting things done by the personnel as instructed by the management hence leading to increased productivity and profitability of the employees and the company at large. In school management, all managerial aspects must be set in the right perspective so as to ensure improved performance, success, and excellence of an institution.

References

Alvesson, M.,& Sveningsson, S. (2015). Changing organizational culture: cultural change work in progress. Routledge.

Bennett, Johnn L., Bush, Mary Wayne. (2013). Coaching for change. Routledge.p.172 ISBN 9781136496011.

Bock, A.J., Opsahl, T., George, G.,&Gann, D.M. (2012). The effects of culture and structure on strategic flexibility during business model innovation. journal of management studies,49(2), 279-305.

Cummings, S., Bridgman, T.,&Brown, K.G. (2016). Unfreezing change as three steps: rethinking Kurt Lewin’s legacy for change management. human relations,69(1), 33-60.

Drucker, P. (2012). Management Challenges for the 21st century. Routledge.

Drucker, P. (2012). The practice of management. Routledge.

The editorial team, Mindtools. (18 February 2016). “Kotter’s 8-step Change model”. Mindtools. Retrieved 18 February 2016.

Gerth, C. (2013). Introduction. In Business Process Models. Change Mangement( pp.1-12). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.

Little, Jason. (2014). Lean change management: innovative practices for managing organizational change professionals. Happy Melly Express.

Nanjundeswaraswamy, T.S., &Swamy.D.R. (2014). Leadership styles. Advances in management 7,no.2.