The Keyboard Company Case Study

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- No leadership support and strategy

In The Keyboard Company case, Zoltan did not consult with top management in the company. He consulted and made decisions to start the internal OD group with a professor who he met at a seminar. Due to the fact that Zoltan did not consult with top management when starting the OD consulting group, there is no awareness and commitment to the change. This also means that the OD team does not have support from management. It is the top management that examines both the business and organizational strategies. On the business side they will review or, if necessary, develop a mission statement, strategic intent, long range objectives and critical success factors. On the organizational side, they will review and/or develop their vision of the future, shared organizational values and guiding and operating principles. Senior leadership also establishes a general framework for the redesign process that includes allocation of resources, time deadlines and other parameters they want to guide the project.

- No acceptance of the OD team

There is no acceptance of the OD team by the employees at the Keyboard Company. This could be due to the fact that Zoltan did not consult with top management before starting the internal OD consulting team. Before embarking on a redesign effort it is necessary that the sponsor of the project and senior leadership understand and be committed to the process. This step involves educating senior leadership about high performance work systems, the transformation model, the change process and needs driving organizational change. It is imperative that this group understand and be willing to commit fully the time and resources to the change effort.

For the success of a transformation project, there is need to sell the change ideas to top management and show the importance of the project. By doing so the project objectives are known by everyone and ensures acceptance of an OD team.

- Preferential treatment of OD team members by Zoltan

Zoltan shows that he prefers to deal with . This could probably be because these two are the most experienced of the OD team members. However this makes all the other team members feel isolated and they were considering resigning. The cause for this might be that the way they recruited the OD team members.

- There is division of thoughts within the OD team

The OD team members dress differently, this reflects the differences in the way they think and in the way they want to implement the transformation.

- No communication links

Zoltan attended a university seminar and subsequently brought in the professor as a consultant which resulted in the two of them appointing the OD group. All this was done without the consultation of Zoltan’s vice Presidents for them to assist and also for them to understand the potential benefits of the initiative. This explains why some of them found the exercise to be a waste of time. The OD group itself had no communication protocol that defined the manner in which the communicated their progress and requirements to the company. As such they all started competing for individual direct access to Zoltan which clearly demoralised some of the team members.

- Leadership style is not participative

The president himself drove the transformation initiative without any support. Although he should have been the custodian of the initiative, he should have had a large enough team comprising of his managers to provide a support structure. Inclusion of the top management would have removed any ill-feelings against the OD group amongst them.

- No objectives and goals for the OD team

- There is no budget

Because of the manner in which Zoltan appointed the OD group i.e without the participation of his top managers, no budget proposal was done to cater for the OD group. This resulted in the managers having to shoulder the cost as over-heads on their individual budgets. This further increased the managers’ animosity towards the OD group. The management should have agreed beforehand and taken the OD as a project, agreed on the structure the OD group would fall on and allocated a separate budget accordingly.

- It is not clear to the OD team as to who the customer is i.e. Zoltan or the organisation

After forming of the OD group, John Zoltan does not allude or communicate with the team who the main beneficiary/customer of the project they were carrying out. This gave the team the impression that the project belonged to John Zoltan. Further confusion reigns in when John Zoltan’s absence at the OD team’s meetings is being felt. The team is left in a limbo, as it does not have proper guidelines to satisfy customer requirements. Failure to provide a free-flow of information and good communication thwart trust in an organisation and this problem is attributable to behavioural strategy which is synonymous with leadership’s failure to appreciate the basic tenets of project management.

- There are no clear roles and responsibilities in the OD team

John Zoltan forms the OD team but fails define each member’s roles and responsibilities for accountability. The team does not have a team leader or contact person; instead the President himself shoulders all the responsibilities. In project management or any set-up team members must be assigned roles that are supported by their natural strengths- in relation to knowledge, skills and attitude. Individuals have unique cognitive, conative and emotional potential, which should have been assessed during the selection process. Zoltan’s behaviour exposes an inept leadership style that does not value proper organograms with well-defined reporting/accountability and communication structures.

- Composition of the OD group is not cross functional

The team is not a representation of the Keyboard Company in lieu of the functional departments. The dictates of project management stipulate that human resources should be recruited from the supporting functional departments (horizontal system that cuts across boundaries). This notion culminates in synergy, builds sound cross-functional relationships, trust and ownership of a project. To avert this structural strategy problem, John Zoltan should have enlisted the services of a qualified and experienced programme management