Corning Glass Works: Electrical Products Division

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Due to untimely death of Bennett, Dr. Don Rogers took over as vice president and division manager. He was formerly a director in Corning’s Technical Staffs Division. In contrary to Bennett’s leadership, Rogers is a participatory leader. He actively participates in wide variety of complex issues ranging from technical and managerial. His technical knowledge on the business background feeds him resolutions and deliver imposing presence. He also has good communication and people skills in which he uses to impressively present his ideas both in small or big groups. Under his leadership, people are involved in solving problems and decisions were consulted unto them before finalizing. There is a sense of involvement and ownership is at stake of the members. Consequently, his leadership style still does not excuse him from criticism. Since it involves a lot of member’s participation, the overwhelming amount of ideas slowed down the process of decision making. Moreover, members felt that though they are involved, Rogers do not listen to them. There is also a case in point where Rogers seemed to avoid criticism.

To sum up, the external and internal environment surrounding electronics Product Division (EPD) is different from the time before Roger took over as division manager and after his leadership. The corporate culture is under pressure due to escalating competition among rivalry firms. In addition, the team members under EPD are trained under autocratic leadership who are driven on competing to achieve results. The aforementioned environmental analysis, both external and internal, has contributed to the tension among functional departments Roger has established.

Action plan. According to Lewin’s process of change, there are three stages in theory of change commonly referred as to unfreeze, change, and freeze[1]. Thinking of change as a common language for organization[2]. In change situations, perception, attitude and continuity are important to complement these stages.

Unfreezing. Following the process of change, it is important to understand the situation to be able to get the organization understand the need for change. The biggest part of change process is to get the involvement of the members. Time and effort must be exerted to grasp the full understanding of the process to establish clear direction. These includes the awareness of the crisis they are currently experiencing, understanding the drivers and for change, including the increased competition surrounding their environment, and developing strategic vision for the organization. To achieve understanding, creating awareness of the crisis will form part of the process. This phase shall create urgency on people to act consequently. Accordingly, changing the perception of the recipients of change is an integral part of the process. Change can be viewed differently by managers and team members. For managers, it could be setting a new direction and strategic goal for growth. Conversely, for people not involved in higher position, they can perceive change to be a minor shift in work pattern alone. Creating a change should not be perceived as a single phase of transferring from one department to another department. It is important to have alignment in the perspective of both parties in an organization. Next is to create a strategic vision for change and guiding coalition. This will set the tone of the organization to a renowned culture and be able to break from the past.

Change. Once the need for change has been established, the changes can begin. However, it cannot imply that there are no resistance for changes. It is on management’s decision to act on resilient people. To act upon the common good for the organization and involved those who are willing contributes to the success of organizational restructure. In view of this, it involves creation of leadership as guiding coalition. Good leadership must be present as a stronghold of members to see leaders setting example (Execution). During this phase also it gets to involve the members to think and take action toward the change execution. Moreover, communication is an essential process to get the people to involve (Encourage involvement). It must entail honesty from the management, openness and strong responsibility.

Freezing. Establishing and securing the continuity of change is dealt in this phase. Engaging people to practice over time and develop the change as a new norm. Behavioral changes shall take effect over the period of time and it is important to supply the members with new perspective to keep intact with the recreation of the organizational culture (Empower). Further, it is important to keep balance on the hard and soft approach in implementing change until the end of the process. Securing strategy formulation and also building trust and emotional commitment are some of ways to keep change balanced. Change has already been established. Thus, key factor for success is to sustain its stability[3] (Engage).

Step 1 – Establish clear direction. Considering the different culture EPD team members were, it is essential to set their mind set in a new perspective. They have become independent and competitive among each other. Evidently, being able to break from the past and start a new is a key procedure. Establishing a clear direction will provide the venue to set their perception to get involved not only by function but also through engagement and commitment in a common goal. The objective is to present the current situation – intense competition, price war and increasing demand from OEMs – and how it affected the organization and present compelling drivers for change.

Step 2 – Encourage involvement and Execution. The stage shall hold the venue for input from the members. Involvement from the members starts by encouraging them to provide ideas on how it will be effective for both parties. It will also include how each and every one will benefit from it and contribute to stability of the company. Further, it shall present the strategic vision for change – hard and soft approach. It shall encompass the laid out change process across the organization and fill in the gaps from one department to another. Independent division growth has grown abruptly in EPD that it hurts the profitability of the Corning. Inconsistencies in demand from each department has caused failures to address to market needs. The strategic vision for change shall address on eliminating the tension among the departments. It shall involve each representative to communicate clearly and compromise on each end. Establishing a leader to mediate communication among these departments is necessary. Knowing the background of the conflicts of each department, a third party is important to bridge ideas and create a link to provide a support base.

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