Problem Solution: Intersect Investment Services Corporation

Problem Solution: Intersect Investment Services Corporation

Change is necessary for survival. Only those species able to adapt and evolve will avoid perishing in an environment constant change. Competition, globalization, regulations, and increased demands from employees and customers require businesses to change to keep pace or risk stagnation. The ability to direct a change effort requires leaders with the ability to recognize when change is necessary and identification of the factors that necessitate change. Factors that necessitate organizational change may include external or internal forces. There are four

key external forces for change: demographic characteristics, technological advancements,

market changes, and social and political pressures. Internal forces for change come from inside the organization and include low job satisfaction, low productivity, and conflict. Internal forces for change come from both human resource problems and managerial behavior/decisions (Kreitner & Kinicki, 2003, pp.674-7675).

Leaders must motivate and inspire others to share the vision and remove obstacles, such as resistance to change, to ensure successful change implementation. “Resistance to change is an emotional/behavioral response to real or imagined threats to an established work routine. Leaders must be able to learn to manage resistance because failed change efforts are costly and include decreased employee loyalty, lowered probability of achieving corporate goals, a waste of money and resources, and difficulty in fixing the failed change effort,” (Kreitner & Kinicki, 2003, pp.685).

The ability to successfully implement change is supported by creating goals that are tied to business objectives. Motivation to achieve the goals established is aided by an equitable rewards system that reinforces preferred behaviors and recognizes superior performance.

The motivational impact of performance goals and goal-based reward plans has been recognized for a long time. A meta-analysis of Management by Objective (goals) programs showed productivity gains in 68 of 70 different organizations. Research consistently supports goal setting as a motivational technique. Setting performance goals increases individual, group, and organizational performance,” (Kreitner & Kinicki, 2003, p.305).

Intersect Investment Services is an organization that must change to survive. Successful change efforts are contingent upon identification of the issues that may adversely impact the change process and defining the issues that may be transformed to opportunities for success. Successful change is also dependent upon identifying competing stakeholder values that prevent realization of the change effort, defining a problem statement that is open and flexible enough to aid the development of a number of different solutions, and projecting a desired end state that is accompanied by end-state goals to help achieve the vision for the future.

Situation Background (Step 1)

Intersect Investment Services has struggled to survive during the last four years and resisted making strategic changes to the company’s current business model. A new vision was identified a year ago for the company that was developed to meet customer demand for a variety of products coupled with expert advice, restore customer trust, and maintain credibility with Wall Street. The new vision is to provide a broad set of products and services to consumer and small business customers using a model of customer intimacy that will build long-term relationships based on trust and value to the customer (University of Phoenix, 2005). Driving successful change will require identification of the issues that may adversely impact the process.

Issue Identification

Intersect Investment Services is facing a number of issues that will prevent a successful change effort. Issues are centered on the concepts of managing change and motivation through equity, expectancy, and goal setting as well as no formal change plan and no strategic plan to define actions and direction. The absence of formal plans may prevent a successful change effort because there are no clearly defined steps or goals for implementing the new vision. Organizational changes should be consistent with an organization’s mission, vision, and resulting strategic plan. Strategic plans contain the detail needed to create organizational change and outlines an organization’s long-term direction and actions necessary to achieve planned results (Kreitner & Kinicki, 2003, p.679).

Current reward and feedback systems are not sufficient to motivate individual performance. A lack of motivation to perform leads to lowered productivity, which adversely impacts organizational success. “The motivational impact