change management: integrating a mobile application in newspaper distribution

Change Management Integrating A Mobile Application in

Newspaper Distribution Company

Author: Hafez Shurrab

Contents

1. Introduction _______________________________________________ 1

1.1. Company X: Background ____________________________________ 1 1.2. Purpose for the change ______________________________________ 2

2. Theoretical Framework ______________________________________ 2

2.1. Improving the Information Flow ______________________________ 2 2.2. Distribution Planning (Physical) ______________________________ 3 2.3. Different Scenarios for the Physical Distribution _________________ 4

2.4. Change Management _______________________________________ 5 2.5. Change Types _____________________________________________ 5 2.6. Changes Timing ___________________________________________ 6

2.7. John M. Fisher's Change Model _______________________________ 7 2.8. Kotter’s Eight-Step Change Model ____________________________ 8 2.9. Change Process Model ______________________________________ 9

3. Methodology _____________________________________________ 18

4. Results and Analysis _______________________________________ 19

4.1. The Challenges and Need for a Change ________________________ 19 4.2. The Compatibility of the Proposed Distribution Model ____________ 20

4.3. Mobile Application as a Change Initiative ______________________ 20

5. Change Management Plan ___________________________________ 23

5.1. Introduction to the Change __________________________________ 23 5.2. Change Action Plan _______________________________________ 24 5.3. Recommendations ________________________________________ 35

6. Discussion, Hinders and Possibilities __________________________ 36

7. Conclusion _______________________________________________ 38

References ___________________________________________________ 39

Appendix A: Exploratory Interview with the General Operations Manager 40

Appendix B: Validating Interview with the General Operations Manager _ 45

List of Tables and Figures

Figure 2-1: Newspaper Distribution Planning Physical ......................................... 4

Figure 2-2: Different Scenarios for the Physical Distribution ............................... 5

Figure 2-3: Characteristics of the Organizational Change ..................................... 6

Figure 2-4: Fisher's Process of Transition Diagram .............................................. 8

Figure 2-5: Kotter’s Change Management Model ................................................. 9

Figure 2-6: An Eight-Step Change Model: Organization Development.............. 10

Figure 2-7: Change Flow Diagram ...................................................................... 16

Table 5-1: Fisher's Process of Transition and Suggested Reactive Actions ........ 26

Table 5-2: Change Implementation Plan ............................................................. 29

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1. IntroductionThe fact that the world is changing in a high pace enforces many businesses to

keep abreast of relevant updates, and then integrate what may make a business

more sustainable from a marketing perspective. The need to change may stem

from technological breakthrough that becomes part of market requirements and

customers’ needs afterwards. Additionally, changes in a national and global

economy may also impose some organizational adjustments or even radical

changes (Bharijoo, 2005). An interesting example comes into the play is the

cassette industry that became obsolete after CD and DVD technologies have been

integrated in our life to a high extent. At the moment, the rapid development of

web computing and cloud industry along with the same pace of development for

telecommunication systems, as found in 4G, makes it high risky to keep investing

in CD and DVD technologies. Instead, big companies study and set endless

scenarios for the development of overlapping technologies that may affect the

future of their industries, and thus they found themselves obliged to keep their

infrastructures, values, visions, regulations and policies updated. For that, the need

for organizational change depends on the nature of industry. It becomes more

necessary if it is more connected to a technology with high changing dynamics

such as telecommunication systems and related services (Kotter, 2012).

1.1. Company X: Background

Company X has been established in the first place as a Newspaper Company. As

part of their spontaneous business behavior, Company X expanded their business

operations to be a third party logistics company for different production and

service providers. More than 1000 employees in Company X are dedicated to

deliver different types of products including morning newspapers, printed

advertising products and other courier services to households, businesses and

government agencies in areas around the Lake Mälaren in Södermanland and

Bergslagen broken into 3 regions, north, western, and southern region. In addition

to that, Company X is a part of a nationwide network called MTD network,

“MORGONTIDIG DISTRIBUTION”, see Appendix A.

The way Company X delivers morning newspapers comprises well-

functioning distribution through networks of cars, microbuses and newsboys that

drive every night. During two and a half hours, 650 newsboys distribute over than

200,000 newspapers. Some newsboys has as many as 19 different newspapers to

keep track of. Every newsboy has responsibility for a district. Newsboys distribute

newspapers by cars for big districts, while other smaller districts are covered by

walking. To assist each newsboy, there is a guide, called in Swedish “budbok” that

contains all information about districts’ subscribed newspapers and the possible

changes in each subscriptions and routes. Furthermore, about 35 subscribed

newspaper titles, usually handed out in the morning, are distributed in cooperation

with the morning newspaper providers. All papers have to be handed to the

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subscriber in the morning hours before 06:00 am, see Appendix A.

The company has four separate units including the following:

● Company X Tidningsdistribution is responsible for the distribution of 35

subscribed newspapers/magazine titles to customers.

● Company X Effect is responsible for the distribution of commercials,

unaddressed mails.

● Company X Optimal is responsible for Mail Distribution.

● Company X Påväg is responsible for courier and transport service.

The company is environmentally certified according to ISO 14001, see Appendix

A.

1.2. Purpose for the change

Company X wants to change in a way it distribution flow becomes smoother, more

consistent and traceable. This study suggests a change management plan for

integrating a mobile application into the current distribution system of Company

X.

2. Theoretical Framework 2.1. Improving the Information Flow

For improving the information flow of newspaper distribution, in order to deliver

the morning newspapers, there are different types of information flows involved

to know if the subscribers get the newspapers, and that the distribution has been

carried out. There are different departments involved in the printing and finalizing

departments. Truck drivers must know how many bundles should be loaded and

unloaded and how many copies should be delivered to each particular point. The

information is very important when some problems occur during the distribution

process. As shown in figure 2.6, the flow includes different pieces of information,

departments and employees in the distribution process. A new mobile system

should be introduced to overcome the challenge embedded in information flow to

facilitate smooth performance and communication in the field. This system should

be carried out for the truck drivers and carriers. According to Rehn et al (2000),

this mobile system should be categorized into three different processes including

process management system, information resources system, and automated

vehicle system (Rehn et al., 2001).

Mobile system should be used in the distribution process for exchanging the

information between the operation center, customer services, truck drivers and

carriers. Moreover if this system is merged with the field using the potential of

geographical information systems, it would be easier for drivers to locate the truck

as well as the carrier. According to GSM for handling the devices, mobile network

should be connected to the GSM network. GSM network is the most common in

the Europe. The exchange of information in the distribution process between the

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field worker and the organization should be oral and textual (Rehn et al., 2001). In

this regard, Frank and Pedersen (2012) discussed how mobile applications and

platforms can support logistics administration, which was not common

phenomenon when Rehn (2001) proposed his model. Therefore is also another

aspect that could be added to this model.

The main benefit for introducing this technology in the field system is basically

improving the information flow and communication patterns within the

organization and outside in the work field. People that are involved in this system

will certify that required information should be available in the earlier stage. This

system should increase the dynamics of problem solving that may occur during

the night shifts. There is also improvement in the operation center for introducing

the mobile system in case some certain drivers experience failure with their trucks

or other technical problems and a help is needed. In other words, GSM is

extremely helpful for controlling the flow of material and organizing resources

(Rehan et al., 1998).

2.2. Distribution Planning (Physical)

To deliver a newspaper, there should be generally some effort given for setting

predefine time period like when the production starts and when to deliver the

newspapers to the subscribers. Rehan et al. (1998) state that the output of a printing

process is a variable worth to be paid attention to, due to the number of pages of a

newspaper. When loading the newspaper bundle on a truck, there are two different

strategies related to the physical distribution planning. The first strategy is to load

the bundle online with different sequences according to the printing process and

mailroom activities, whereas the second strategy is to preload the bundles on the

pallets, and thereafter, these pallets should be directly loaded onto the trucks (Rehn

et al., 2001). Figure 2.1 summarizes the type and direction of information that are

important for each party in the distribution process.

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Figure 2-1: Newspaper Distribution Planning Physical - source: (Rehn et al, 2000)

2.3. Different Scenarios for the Physical Distribution

To improve the physical distribution performance, newspaper providers should be

completely aware of which product is distributed to the specific address.

According to the Rehn et al. (2000), by evaluating the different scenarios, different

advantages and disadvantages become more obvious, and therefore considered for

a trade-off analysis. As illustrated in figure 2.2, different scenario nodes of the

physical distribution process may include product from the press, product form the

mail room, product from the distribution center, distribution center, customer,

transport and carrier.

According to figure 2.2, the first the product come from a press agency, the first

it will be delivered to the mailroom or delivery. These products are delivered to

the distribution center by trucks. They are then reloaded directly to the customers.

Through switching between different scenarios, newspaper distribution services

find a new way for distributing newspapers with high flexibility. As a result,

rectifying unexpected errors is more possible.

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Figure 2-2: Different Scenarios for the Physical Distribution for the Newspaper

Distribution Companies - source: (Rehn et al, 2000)

2.4. Change Management

Nicklos (2007) discussed change management core definition as “making the

changes in the organization in the planned and systematic way”. Change

management is a discipline that improves and refines the work and efforts by

spotting flaws in the current system and also fixing them (Gordon, 2006). Before

the implementation of any change in an organization, managers should address

reasoning need for employees to change, how they were doing before, what they

are doing now, and also how the suggested changes would be of business interest

leading to a worth changing end (Nicklos, 2007). According to Jashapara (2005),

organizations are about the people, and therefore, in order to make changes in

effective manners, organizations need to understand how the changes are going to

affect the people in the organization in both emotional and cognitive levels. Due

to managers neglecting how different kinds of users will be reacting to a particular

change (or underlying effects from that change), the suggested changes become

more apt to fail in bringing in the potential benefits to the organization.

2.5. Change Types

Slack et al. (2010) categorized the change in the organization in two ways, on the

basis of an organizational timing and the scope of a change. The scope of a change

could be based on continuous (incremental) change, discontinuous (radical)

change, or a mix of them both.

Incremental change method in an organization is basically allowing

incremental adjustments and modifications to the current operating system of that

organizations as a main framework of evolving and development. Incremental

changes are focused on the improvement of the current efficiency by eliminating

the existing problems in an organization gradually (Slack et al., 2010). According

to Senior (2006), these changes even involve the modification to the corporate

business plan, company structures and management process. Moreover, they are

built upon different areas of business and in different ways to achieve tactical goals

such as expanding the sale region, optimising shifting and prioritizing among

products, improving the production process and technology in the organization,

modifying statements, mission, policies and procedures to adapt the employees,

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and adjusting the organizational structure within or across the boundaries to better

link the product.

Nadler (1997) argues that the process of radical change is rather more focused

on the subparts than the whole organization including organizational culture,

structure and job necessities, and activities.

2.6. Changes Timing

The change to be injected into a company should occur in the right time, usually

under competitiveness circumstances (Kotter, 2012). According to Senior (2006),

change timing consists of two categories including anticipatory change and

reactive change. Anticipatory changes are the changes that the company requires

without having an immediate need to respond. On the other hand, reactive change

refers to the direct response required for an organization to make it happens due

to a changing environment. The responses to such changes, whether they are

anticipatory or reactive, are mainly divided into four types of responses shown in

Figure 2.3.

Senior (2006) defines tuning in this context as the incremental change built up

without having an immediate need to respond. He adds that the fine tuning

basically occurs between the organization process, structure and people, whereby

a change should be based on the departmental or individual level such as the

following:

● Refining processes, policies and procedure, and methods

● Creating units and linking mechanism to increase productivity and

improve quality and cost-saving

● Promoting the confidence in beliefs and values

Figure 2-3: Characteristics of the Organizational Change

Senior (2006) also discusses adapting through the incremental form of a

change whereby by an immediate need calls an organization to respond. This

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response or creation of change is taken place in order to keep abreast of growing

development in the business environment such and new technologies and concepts

paying attention to the external thread or opportunities (Senior, 2006).

According to Nadler (1997), the big change required for an organization to

fulfil a non-immediate change could be necessary for redirecting the company

toward a new plan and initiating a new organizational structure. This step involves

major changes in people and also the entire generation of the management and

having the ability to work in the new plan. Finally, Re-creation refers to a major

change needed to an immediate response (Nadler, 1997).

2.7. John M. Fisher's Change Model

Fisher's Process of Transition model describes how people respond to change.

Fisher (2000) identified eight stages that people successively follow through a

change process as shown in figure 2.4. Each reaction is expected to be passed

through. To start with anxiety, individuals are unable to sufficiently imagine the

future due to the lack of information they have for what is going to be required

and changed accordingly and why. Therefore, anticipating how to behave in the

future and knowing the questions they should be asking are still blur in this stage.

Once the information required are available, a feeling of relief comes over since

there is always something wrong needs to be changed and hopes will be hung by

individuals for making up the overall situation. Therefore, Fisher (2000) expects

that a feeling of excitement will come into the play in the happiness phase whether

the past is perceived positively or negatively. The main problem in this phase is

that different levels of expectations appear, which means that most of these

expectations should be satisfied in order for the change momentum to be kept up.

Therefore, Fisher (2000) recommends that the organization should carefully

manage this phase to make sure that the outcomes are communicated realistically

using unified understanding if the organizational terms with twisting them into

individual preferences. Then, feelings develop from fear, threat, guilt and

depression as individuals start to walk the talk and experience the change. They

might end up very early in the disillusionment phase after the feeling of guilt,

deviating toward hostility phase after the feeling of depression, or proceeding

toward the gradual acceptance and moving forward phases (Fisher, 2000).

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Figure 2-4: Fisher's Process of Transition Diagram - source: (Fisher, 2000)

2.8. Kotter’s Eight-Step Change Model

Kotter (2012) suggested a model, shown in figure 2.5, for managing changes

within organizations. He observed the behaviour of more than 100 companies and

proposed eight steps to be followed to increase the likelihood related to a success

of the changes to be integrated. The order of the eight-step model is important to

be followed. The first step is establishing as sense of urgency whereby change

managers try to push people out of their comfort zones and increase their work

efficiency and effectiveness. The second step is to form a powerful change guiding

coalition by which change initiatives are set among the top organizational

priorities, and challenges are overcome. Then, Kotter (2012) believes that creating

a sound vision for a change initiative comes as the third step and is quite important

to guide and inspire the efforts given by the change team. This vision has to be

smartly formulated so that it is easy to communicate. Therefore, the fourth step is

to improve a change vision until it is understandable, simple, clear, and strongly

relevant. After that, Kotter (2012) expects that someone from the change

management team, supervisors, or executives will try to undermine the efforts

dedicated to implement a change whenever it is to a certain extent incompatible

with their convictions. Therefore, the fifth step is to empower the change

actors/employees for broad-based action so that no one individual’s focus is lost

and shakeable for any similar reasons. Subsequently, in planning, Kotter (2012)

recommends to avoid postponing the harvest time of a change project that leads to

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generating long-term wins. Instead, the sixth step entails that short-term wins, 6-

12 months, has to be a basic part of the change management plan because people

are naturally impatient, and realising their efforts in relatively short-term regular

basis will fuel their energy to continue. However, celebrating wins should be

balanced so that gains are consolidated and the momentum of the progress are not

lost, and that is the seventh step. Finally, Kotter (2012) believes that since each

singe change carries within it new cultural aspects, the eighth and final step has to

be anchoring and integrating these aspects to the organizational culture, otherwise,

a great part of the efforts and resources that have been used to prepare a change-

enabling organizational culture will be lost.

Figure 2-5: Kotter’s Change Management Model

2.9. Change Process Model

McArdle (2006) believes that to plan and implement an effective organizational

change, two things are required including a change agent (a knowledgeable and

skilled facilitator) and relevant tools. Thus, McArdle (2006) proposed a practical

model for change process, shown in figure 2.6, comprising a systematic two-

phased process that consists of eight steps. The first phase introduces the steps

required to market the change idea to the client or colleagues and to determine the

necessity and feasibility of a change project. The second phase addresses the steps

succeed the approval of the client to initiate and launch a change process.

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Figure 2-6: An Eight-Step Change Model: Organization Development – source (McArdle,

2006)

2.9.1. Step 1: Partnering

To actually “partner” allows you to fit your service or product to a requirement.

Your top crucial task would be to run preliminary research such as reviewing

organization’s annual reports, system graphs, strategic plans, procedure, process

blueprints and manuals along with other associated materials. Another main point

of partnering would be to attain a strong relationship together with client/internal

colleagues (McArdle, 2006).

McArdle (2006) suggests focused and trenchant questions to be asked as

another method to detect any emerging issues. Below you will find some basic

questions that one could apply to the first discussion while interviewing the client:

What is the business idea of the firm?

What issues do you deal with?

What are the principles of the firm?

Who are the heroes or champions within your firm?

Partnering Planning Guide

Below are a number of questions suggested by McArdle (2006) that can assist in

setting up a process and allow establishing a successful relationship with client:

Organization Needs What are the needs of my client’s?

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What issues require high attention to?

What could be the top three needs/problems?

Organization Culture

What exactly is the mission of the company (business focus)?

Who happen to be the heroes or leaders of the company?

What are the practices or daily routines that make this company distinct?

What does this organization value?

Readiness for Change

How able is this company to change?

How effective is this company?

2.9.2. Step 2: Entry

According to McArdle (2006), the process of entry sets the rostrum for a lot of

work come after highlighting the main issues of the company. Meanwhile, you

figure out why a current situation is an issue, phrase an obvious problem statement,

and communicate the way in which situation would look in case the organization

implemented a change intervention to restore the deficit. Here are the basic

elements in this step:

Describe the challenge. Identifying a challenge is in fact midway toward

resolving it.

Determine the necessity of the change. Keep in mind, not all problems

call for change as a solution.

Imagine the way in which the change may look like. Whilst on your

preparatory discussion with the client, inspire them to fantasize what the

prevailing scenario could be in case the problem were worked out.

Find out how the change would influence the company. Review the value

of the change to the company and the costs and resources relevant to

carrying out the change.

After that, think about the following questions:

Are we (the client/colleague and I) agreed on the expression the problem?

Do we agree on the considered reasons for the problem?

Do we have a similar understanding of the future state?

How committed am I to this particular change chance?

What is the commitment level sensed from the managers of the

company?

What is needed to correctly integrate this change?

What resources and assets are available?

While you are preparing an abstract report of your preliminary client interview,

work with those particular questions to guide your writing. The abstract report sets

up the primary project capabilities. Make sure you describe the client’s perception

of the impact and significance of the change (McArdle, 2006).

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2.9.3. Step 3: Contracting

Before even thinking about any kind of functioning relationship, McArdle (2006)

suggests that you need to set up an agreement, which explicitly defines tasks, roles,

and processes with the client. The enough time you invest in advance to discover

those important areas is sure to save your time throughout the entire change project

when you face whatever disagreements that require resolution. Ensure that you do

pinpoint the client's expectations and that the client. Add the following basics as

part of contract:

Project objectives

Boundaries of your analysis

Deliverables

Schedule

Forms of information you want

Consultant’s role

Client’s involvement and support

Confidentiality deal

Payment arrangement

Signatures

Termination stipulation

Even though it would be uncommon to develop a contract in case

the client is internal, this step is able to minimize the risk of future conflict.

2.9.4. Step 4: Diagnosing

McArlde (2006) lists three elements within the diagnosing track including

planning what data to collect, gathering the data required, and finally analysing

the data. Such mentioned steps enable you to open, narrow, and detect the problem.

1. Plan for Data Analysis

Developing an approach to the data analysis is without question essential. It is

important for you to have guidance if you want to create a description that plainly

explains the problem. Get hold of input from multiple sources. In order that

everyone is concentrated and working within the same issue domain, spend

amount of time in figuring out the real problem and evaluating your problem

description based on the original assessment of the issue. If the existing statement

is not similar to the original assumption, find out the key reason why it is different

and the way the new data may influence the future state. That reasoning should

help look at the causes of the problem (McArdle, 2006).

2. Collect the Data

Gathering the information in accurate ways would aid ensuring the change process

success. Developing a real problem diagnosis is only possible by making use of

real facts (McArdle, 2006).

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Numerous techniques to gather the data can be used. Based on the context, one

may use verbal techniques such as interviews, culture analysis, focus group, and

diagnostic probes; written techniques such as surveys, questionnaires self-

diagnostics, diagnostic probes, and cultural analysis; document analysis

techniques such as financial results, performance reviews, performance

assessment, test scores, exit interviews, and culture analysis; and observation

techniques such as critical incident, environmental scanning, performance

assessment, and cultural analysis (McArdle, 2006).

McArdle (2006) thinks that employees, managers, internal customers, external,

suppliers and customers are invaluable information sources.

3. Analyse the Data

Consider reviewing for the last time the problem statement with many parties. If

the problem gets a consensus, the causes can be discussed and identified by the

group (McArdle, 2006).

2.9.5. Step 5: Feedback and Recommendations

McArdle (2006) emphasizes that to be sure one is ready to give the feedback and

recommendations, s/he should pay attention to the following questions while

gathering the information:

Who is your company's audience?

How would you prefer to get a hold of feedback from the audience?

What potential influence will the audience have on the change?

Who has to prepare the presentation?

How the data will be present?

How the data will be validated and after that presented?

Is any data available related to benchmarking?

Does the data prove any need to integrate any change? If yes, how? If no,

how?

What could be the challenge to realising a change in compliance with the

findings?

What are your recommendations regarding integrating/ not integrating the

change into the company?

Once the feedback on the data findings is gathered, and there is agreement

between you and the client on the results of the findings, the next move is to

discover your analysis in terms of what it indicates to along with what it

concerning the necessity of the change. Based on the outcomes and

recommendations, the client/internal colleagues might decide that there is not

sufficient data to back up the change or maybe the change is not cost effective

(McArdle, 2006).

According to McArdle (2006), effective feedback ought to be relevant (ensure

information is meaningful), understandable (illustrate the outcomes in a manner

that is sensible to the audience), descriptive (connects the information with real

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behavior), verifiable (ensure information is accurate and valid), well-timed

(answer instantaneously), limited (do not result in information overload),

significant (ensure the circumstances could possibly be changed), comparative

(engage benchmarking to present wider perspective), and unfinalized (feedback

should motivate additional diagnosis and problem solving).

2.9.6. Step 6: Action Planning

McArdle (2006) suggests that the inital actions one should be considering to

trigger action planning include setting project goals, determining the benefits of

the suggested intervention on individuals and the company, developing project and

task activities, formulating a project schedule, developing a monitoring and

controlling system to gather and react to feedback, setting up an approach for

coping with project resistance, and estimating the resource requirements.

Change Implementation Plan

To help in coordinating the change implementation plan, McArdle (2006) suggests

the following basic steps:

Define what tasks have to be involved in the implementation.

Determine the resources required for each task.

Identify the human resource required to be involved.

Define the deliverables and how it is possible to know when a task is done.

Assign people to be in charge for each task/step.

Estimate each task duration.

Further, McArdle (2006) confirms: “The more staff involvement in the change

project, the more likely the project will be successful”. Particularly, if the change

owner receives buy-in early in a change project, s/he will come across much more

participation, ownership, and collaborative action than resistance.

McArdle (2006) emphasizes the significance of optimizing people-

management skills. For instance, in order to avoid rumours and mistrusting, he

recommends opening the lines of communication to build a trusting work climate.

He also recommends to assign people with the ability to escalate problem-solving

techniques based on the situation. Albeit people with the highest experience in

doing something should be assigned to relevant positions during the change.

McArdle (2006) also recommends recognizing t early experience of individual’

success in order to encourage others to do the same or even better. Finally, it very

important to push conditions to be quickly stabilized.

2.9.7. Step 7: Implementation

Through this step, McArdle (2006) sees that many tasks will be carried out

including making the organization prepared for the change, presenting and

introducing the change, implementing the activities of the change, monitoring the

process of the change, providing consulting help to anyone who is implementing

the change and individuals who are influenced by the change.

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1. Prepare the Organization

The moment the status quo is troubled and the company is starting to move toward

its desired goals, it's possible to support by taking actions including providing

guidance, structure, trust, and confidence; enabling the new behavior and

expectations; ensuring the desired state, and promoting acceptance (McArdle,

2006).

2. Present the Change

To maintain the track of the project and ensure equilibrium within the company,

McArdle (2006) thinks it is best to continually support and celebrate the change.

The following are things to consider:

Continue to stress the necessity of change, and repeat the benefits if the

desired state is successfully achieved.

Explore the possibilities to make symbolic decisions that convey obvious

signals emphasizing the change.

Keep the communication lines open by providing as much timely and

accurate information as possible.

Allow employees who definitely are the change targets expel their

anxieties, worries, and insecurities, and take care of the feelings as

legitimate.

Pay attention to the future.

Reward employees that reinforce the change, and put high pressure on

those who resist it.

Assign tasks, roles, and responsibilities so everyone seems to feel

demanded.

Grant the logistic, political, and economic resources required to implement

the tasks assigned to employees.

3. Implement the Change

According to McArdle (2006), most important task comprises developing the

change implementation strategy and making sure all completed operations and

actions are according to that strategy.

Build a strategy

Due to the fact that the environment vary among enterprises, organizational

change strategies may also vary accordingly. Likewise, the elements of strategy

developing may vary from company to company. At the most basic level, change

agents ought to be eagerly sensitive to standard change dynamics every company

encounters. For instance, change can possibly be defined driving three-step model

that starts with the disturbance of the status quo, the development of the change,

successively accompanied by the stabilizing of improvements settled on

throughout the change project. Figuring out this along with other fundamental

change theory makes it possible to better keep control of and apply an efficient

strategy (McArdle, 2006).

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Determine objectives

To better describe change objectives in quantitative and behavioural conditions,

you must guarantee that the objectives are relevant to, and in line with, the

particular company. Very often a change agent triggers standard operations

without deciding on what should be realized or modified. By spending some time

on finding out objectives, you improve the likelihood for success and improve

your reputation as a contributor to the company (McArdle, 2006).

Decide upon an approach/build a plan

When deciding on an approach and organizing the implementation, you are

worried by which procedures employ. Naturally, you will need to determine where

to get started on and who is to get involved. It is important to determine how much

time is needed, and the way the job will be monitored. Organizational change is a

process, and you should continue to be responsive and flexible. For that reason, it

can be helpful to build up a flow diagram that represents each step. It enables you

analyse the development and decide if you are headed on the right path. Moreover,

a flow diagram allows your client or colleague to become well engaged with the

process (McArdle, 2006). Figure 2.7 shows the Change Flow Diagram discussed.

Figure 2-7: Change Flow Diagram – source (McArdle, 2006)

4. Monitor the Process

One important task that needs to be given time to grow is the plan for declaring

the change. The more ready one is for the reactions of the audience, the more

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successful the mission will be at relieving anxieties, ambivalence, and resistance,

and at acquiring the help needed to achieve the change. One should keep an eye

on the essential indicators that are already set, and make continuous adjustments

to make sure that the change does not astray the right track.

5. Provide Support

No matter organising a meeting to acquire support for change or arranging a

meeting to declare the change, one needs to think through the presentation and the

expected feedback from the audience. Urge the client/colleagues to be ready.

Consider how the change can impact the company along with its employees in the

period of time ahead. Make an effort to expect the probable concerns and questions

of the audience, and prepare answers. In addition, figure out the way in which

audience might be useful to achieve the change. (McArdle, 2006).

2.9.8. Step 8: Evaluation

As for the evaluation step, McArdle (2006) recommends selecting the most

suitable type of evaluation, which will then define how and when one does the evaluation and to whom findings will be presented. According to McArdle (2006),

there are four types of evaluation including short-term, long-term, immediate

application, and bottom-line.

1. Short-Term Evaluation

A short-term evaluation tool is mainly used simply to manage those people in their

endeavours to share their experiences, receive assistance, learn from others, and

come to a certain mutual agreement to know what the present state of the project

is. Two tools that are suggested to do short-term evaluation including oral reviews

and project sessions (McArdle, 2006).

2. Long-Term Evaluation

Long-term evaluation is a complete and comprehensive process which measures

the whole lifetime of the change initaitve as well as post-change actions. Each

single anticipated outcome of core indicators shall be examined against what

actually occurred (McArdle, 2006).

3. Immediate Application Evaluation

This sort of evaluation involves medium-term feedback loops that might be

examined throughout the change process occasion. This degree of evaluation

typically involves paying attention to the task performance within the project

(McArdle, 2006).

4. Bottom-Line Evaluation

To switch to a proactive status from a reactive one, the change team needs to

become an important part of the strategic planning in the company. How can that

have an impact on the project? It means that one need to evaluate the change

project in regards to the bottom line. If for example the change is to generate a

18

positive effect on the company, there should be proof of quantitative and

qualitative data (McArdle, 2006).

Before everything, whenever the change team opts to engage in such type of

evaluation process, it should set up a relationship between the cost of the present

situation and the way the change project is going to make a contribution. This

exercise do not merely rationalize costs; it demonstrates that there exists a value

for making the change project. The planned change recognizes the budget, the

mission statement, the project outcome, or department goals. The reasoning

behind the bottom-line evaluation is to scrutinize precisely how the change project

worked and the way that success was examined. In the end, such an evaluation

measures the effectiveness of change on the company (McArdle, 2006).

Evaluation Planning Guide

McArdle (2006) provides guidance for how to plan for evaluation. He suggests the

following questions

What key performance indicators were you and the client able to set up in

step 6, action planning?

How can you develop these type of measures?

How effective was the monitoring method?

How effective was the process?

How effective was the change?

What might you have carried out in a different manner?

How effective were you as a change agent?

Who needs feedback on the consequences of the change and the change

process?

How will the evaluation feedback be reflected? When? By whom?

What were the lessons learnt from this change?

3. Methodology Our study approach was mainly based on several stages of qualitative inquiry, and

tackled using inductive reasoning. However, in the first stage of research we

gathered some initiating information from Company X through a phone interview

with the general operations manager to discuss some serious challenges

encountered by the company that call for changes. The questions, shown in

Appendix A, were essentially based on stage 1 “partnering” and stage 2 “entry”

from the change process model proposed by McArdle (2006). After that, we

searched for and nominated a relatively contemporary theoretical framework

proposed by Rehn (2000), which represents a solution corresponds with both the

challenge and context that had been selected. This theoretical framework is titled

“Modelling Process of Newspaper Distribution in Sweden”. At this point, we

investigated the validity of the model integration idea through presenting the

challenge addressed as input for step 4 “diagnosing” and step 5 “feedback and

19

recommendations” from the change process model proposed by McArdle (2006).

That included gathering relevant information through conducting another

interview, see Appendix B, with the general operations manager that led to

considering one aspect of the new model, which is the mobile application idea.

Then, we conducted a comparative analysis between the root causes of the

challenge and the capability of the solution to confirm its effectiveness. Next, in

order to prepare an efficient change management plan for the mobile application

to be integrated, we evoked general change management theories including the

definition (Gordon, 2006; Jashapara, 2005; Nicklos, 2007), change types (Nadler,

1997; Senior, 2006), changes timing (Kotter, 2012; Nadler, 1997; Senior, 2006).

Further, we recalled Fisher's process of transition model (Fisher, 2000) and

Kotter’s eight-step change model (Kotter, 2012) to enrich the analysis of change

psychology for both individuals and organizations, respectively. Based on that, we

took both models’ considerations into account while action planning, which was

chiefly based on step 6 “action planning” from the change process model proposed

by McArdle (2006). After that, we provided recommendations related to the

implementation and evaluation parts of the change initiative based also

respectively on step 7 “implementation” and step 8 “evaluation” from the change

process model (McArdle, 2006). Finally, we have discussed some key hinders and

possibilities and then summed up the whole study in the conclusion.

4. Results and Analysis 4.1. The Challenges and Need for a Change

Company X currently experiences several challenges and concerns related to

different parts of the business. One challenge is with the IT department. There are

regular issues that disturb both the employees and newspapers’ subscribers such

as visibility of the material flow. There are also many technical errors that occur

with both the employees and subscribers, see Appendix A.

The major challenge Company X faces is in the delivery process. There are

numerous complaints from subscribers that they do not receive their products

within the allocated timeframes and in some cases, products do not get to their

intended destinations. Besides, there are some cases where newspapers, magazines

and other types of goods get lost or damaged. When investigated, it has been found

that the main causes of that may include delays in the shipment of the products,

the lack of capabilities in information systems used, the lack of standardized

working methods and tools, the inefficiency of communication network design,

and the lack of reactive planning and capable change management plans, see

Appendix A.

Another challenge that makes the business getting more complicated to retain

customers and subscribers is the growing tendency of readers toward digital

magazines and newspapers. This adds much pressure on the current business to

focus on a competitive advantage that may retain at least a profitable market

20

segment, see Appendix A.

4.2. The Compatibility of the Proposed Distribution Model

McArdle (2006) recommends in the fourth step of the change process

“diagnosing” that the relevant data to the suggested solutions or proposal should

be gathered based on a plan. Since we do not have luxury of time offered by the

general operations manager, we decided to discuss with him the model of

newspaper distribution proposed by Rehn (2001). By doing that, we investigate

the value-adding aspects of Rehn’s model that could be later considered for the

change management plan.

According to the Rehn’s model, there are different types of information flows

involved to know if the subscribers get the newspapers. Furthermore, Rehn (2001)

suggests that truck drivers must know how many bundles should be loaded and

unloaded and how many copies should be delivered to each particular point. Many

other information should be delivered according to figure (2.3). Company X

already adopts this approach according to the general manager (see Appendix B).

However, the mobile system configurations suggested by Rehn (2001) and mobile

applications and platforms suggested by Frank and Pedersen (2012) for logistics

administration are not considered in the current operations of Company X. The

answers of the operations manager, in Appendix B, shows how attractive sounds

the ideas of mobile to him. He said that from operational perspective, this idea is

really outstanding. Besides, he did not show any reservation when asked if there

are enough resources for such ideas. Instead, he was mentioning different possible

ways of funding it.

Rehn (2001) discussed different scenarios of physical distribution of

newspapers and other goods, but the operations manager seemed more attracted to

the idea of building redundancy in the system itself, which means that he might

have different thoughts of how flexible capacity can be built in the system. As a

result, we decided to focus on mobile applications or platforms as to be the suggest

change and presented as a change management plan.

4.3. Mobile Application as a Change Initiative

According to McArdle (2006), the audience of any change has to be defined.

Moreover, the ways of how the feedback will be obtained from the audience

should be discussed and outlined. Also, the impact audience may have on the

change initiative should be addressed and considered in the change project plan.

Further, the communication with each party regarding the change initiative should

be determined including who will make the presentations of the valid data, and

who will be the audience category. Besides, the reason for the change should be

made explicit enough to be understood and comprehended by all parties. Finally,

the expected potential obstacles should be highlighted and the recommendation

for proceeding or not proceeding with the change should be outlined (McArdle,

2006).

21

The feedback from the operations manager, Appendix B, reflects that both

reporting and physical distribution systems the model of Rehn (2001) seem good

to consider for future improvements. However, they cannot be progressed because

the need enabling infrastructure, which is not available for Company X. Therefore,

the operations manager is more tempted to the mobile idea as it also supports the

future possibility of integrating the both reporting and physical systems. His

enthusiasm makes sense since also Rehn (2001) emphasizes that the main benefit

for introducing this technology in the field system is basically improving the

information flow and communication patterns within the organization and outside

in the work field. In other words, the ability to manipulate the flow and reconfigure

it will be much easier in light of such technology, and that make it a first priority

from a strategic point of view.

The operations manager suggests two main ways to fund building and

connecting this mobile application to the national telecommunication system (4G)

including insourcing and outsourcing, see Appendix B. Since it is difficult to know

the tendency of Company X due to the flat aspect of decision making process, we

assume to that Company X has enough budget to outsource this part of the change

initiative.

McArdle (2006) emphasize the importance of having effect feedback in order

for the action plan to be based on valid data. Effective feedback has several

characteristics including being relevant, understandable, descriptive, verifiable,

timely, limited, significant, comparative, and unfinalized.

According to the operations manager, the audience for this change initiative are

customer service, operation center, truck drivers, carriers, readers/customers, and

resellers. Each category has to be involved in the system differently. He also

suggested to create certain user account configurations that match the functions

and needs of each category. Furthermore, each category of this audience has its

own suitable way of communication. Representatives from customer service and

operations center can be involved in meetings with unit managers when this

initiative is to be presented. They can directly pose any question, and thus be

answered accordingly. Extra space in time can be offered, while they disseminate

the initiative in their departments so that everyone is aware of the idea and can

show up and comment on it. Similarly, separate meetings are recommended to

have with greater representatives’ number of truck drivers and carriers. Workers

in the field have different mentality from the office workers. Therefore, the

communication approach has to be different. As for customers/readers and

resellers, a survey can be established especially for their recommendations and

needs, which is recommended to be outsourced, see Appendix B.

As for the impact of each category of the audience, the general manager thinks

that the impact varies among the different categories. However, in general, all

categories will be connected to each other through this application from the point

at which a customer/reader/reseller places an order until the item is received by

22

him/her. However, customers/readers have to own smartphones, tablets, or any

similar devices that enable using this application. The customers of Company X

are mixed. There are probable difficulties in attracting the elderly to use the

application if they do have the suitable devices in the first place. Additionally, the

simpler and friendlier to use is the application, the easier to be relied on for all

categories. Less challenging is the case for the employees to use the application.

Besides, regarding recruiting carriers, Company X can add a condition that makes

owning suitable devices mandatory for the job. As for the current carriers that have

no suitable devices, Company X can invest in securing cheap qualified devices

that can be kept in-house for emergency situations, see Appendix B.

Regarding how the change proposal should be presented, the general operations

manager said that it depends on the audience of each meeting. He confirmed that

it is better that he himself prepares the presentation together with the required data

and answers to possible questions when the audience involves the unit managers

and representatives from customer service and operation center. As for the truck

drivers and carriers, the representatives from the operation center can help in

presenting the initiative in coordination with the unit managers. The operations

manager also expects that there is a need for enough time to turn perceptions and

thoughts into a complete graphed system that resembles the future-state of

Company X when the change is fully integrated. As for the positive implications

of the change on the work nature and economy, the operations manager thinks they

could be presented in animated and textual forms. Moreover, he emphasizes the

significance of showing success stories in logistics services include similar

examples to the change idea. He believes finding examples as benchmarks needs

some effort though he heard of progressive application of similar ideas before two

years by FedEx, see Appendix B.

As for the degree of effectiveness of mobile application integration, the

operations manager confirms that using this mobile application will undoubtedly

enable avoiding the IT failures, diagnosing the possible delivery failures, and

applying future progressive distribution models with minimum cost. However, the

thinks that there are two main challenges including getting the consensus on

escalating this proposal to be the first priority of the company, and designing a

valid software that experience no errors or problems with any audience category.

Furthermore, the operational cost of the telecommunication services may fail the

whole idea. Finally, the budget is absolutely limited, and building this application

should be wisely managed from economical perspective. The operations manager

suggests that one success factor could be preparing the right tender specifications

for the mobile application and customers/readers/resellers surveying to be

outsourced. The other success factor is the degree of preparations for the meetings

of the change initiative to be presented. Contacting bankers to put them in the

picture might be helpful in case the expenses exceed the budget. Besides, the

employees have to be suitably prepared and trained for the change. Each individual

should be clearly aware of how and when to use the application while doing the

23

job, see Appendix B.

McArdle (2006) recommends to further analyse and study the data findings,

feedback, and recommendations provided by the client, who is in this case the

operations manager of Company X. Practically, we should consider each

organizational element before action planning, but we assume the operations

manager represents the whole organizations, and therefore, the data gathered

directly from him is assumed to be valid representation of each organizational

element.

5. Change Management Plan 5.1. Introduction to the Change

There is a unique aspect in change initiatives that makes them different from our

project types. Nicklos (2007) described change management as a planned and

systematic way of making changes in organizations, while Gordon (2006) focused

on the instrumental aspect of it, whereby flaws and deficits in the current system

are highlighted and subjected to upgrades or elimination. In our case, the mobile

application could be seen as a replacing solution for many elements in the system,

such as some administrative paperwork, as well as a supporting solution that

enhance other element in the current operations of the system, such as the

automatic frequent reporting and live monitoring of activities.

For any change, Jashapara (2005) and Nicklos (2007) emphasize the crucial

importance of considering the human aspect of the organization in terms of

explaining the need for a change, conducting a comparison between the past and

present situation, and shedding the light on the implications of the suggested

change on the future-state of the organization. The third and fourth step of the

change model proposed by McArdle (2006), diagnosing and feedback,

respectively, give great attention to the human interaction with a change. The steps

are applied on our case as shown in the previous chapter.

Slack et al. (2010) discussed the timing and scope of a change as two ways by

which organizations change. They added that the scope of a change could be based

on continuous (incremental) change, discontinuous (radical) change, or a mix of

them both. Further, Nadler (1997) argues that the process of radical change is

rather more focused on the subparts than the whole organization, whereas the

mobile application is aimed at being diffused within the whole organization.

According to Senior (2006), incremental changes are built upon different areas of

business and in different ways to achieve tactical goals such as improving the

production process and technology in the organization. This is in line with what

the operations manager of Company X (see Appendix B) said that the mobile

application initiative is closer in nature to be applied incrementally. A good

example is that the change could be applied in one unit in the beginning until it

reaches to the state of full integration. The operations manager suggests to start

24

with the smallest unit in size, age and activity frequency, which is Company X

Effect for the distribution of commercials, unaddressed mails. The reason is to

apply the change more quickly so that the success can be claimed sooner than it

would be for the other units. Moreover, the errors show up from the new system

would much less influence customer statistician since commercials and

unaddressed mails are not critical. Therefore, there is more space for trial and

error. Then, Company X Optimal for Mail Distribution can be the next target since

it is still smaller and younger than Company X Tidningsdistribution for

subscribable newspapers and magazine. The reasoning to consider unit age based

on ascending order is because it is easier to be changed since core competence

usually turns into core rigidity. Finally, Company X Påväg for courier and

transport service could be made the last unit to change because its scope is rather

wide. As for when a unit is considered to be done, the operations manager said

that it could be so when the new system operates flawlessly for at least one or two

weeks, and when the benefits can be proved in terms of performance measures,

see Appendix B.

Kotter (2012) believes that the right time to consider changes is under

competitiveness circumstances. Since Company X is already experiencing fierce

competition with Posten and Bring Mail in the regions where it operates, and they

increasingly lose customers/subscribers, it makes sense to start implementing the

project as soon as possible since there is an immediate need to meet. This case

corresponds to what is termed by Senior (2006) as tuning reactive incremental

change.

5.2. Change Action Plan

According to McArdle (2006), in the sixth step (action planning), the first actions

one needs to take include setting project goals, determining the effects of the

proposed intervention on individuals and the organization, defining project and

task activities, establishing a project schedule, creating a monitoring system to

gather and respond to feedback, developing a plan for managing project resistance,

and determining the resource requirements.

5.2.1. Change Goals and Effects

After investigating the findings gathered from both the interviews with the

operations manager and literature, the main two goals for this change initiative are

as followed:

Integrating a mobile application into the current information and physical

distribution systems of Company X fully and in a way leads to increasing

the traceability of either flows through live monitoring of items being

delivered and automatic reporting of activities that are supported by the

application.

Preparing the whole organization to the change psychologically and

practically through opening discussions with the audience and conducting

25

the required training.

The effects on the company are expected to be generally as followed:

Immediate detection of delivery errors and failures as well as their root

causes. Therefore, faster corrective actions can be done, and thus more

potential damage on customer satisfaction can be rectified earlier.

Customers can receive automatic immediate information via the mobile

application about when it is expected they will receive their items without

customer service follow up. As a result, the mian focus of customer service

employees will be concentrated on maintaining current customers’

satisfaction and attracting new customers.

Customers can immediately leave their complaints using their devices

through the application, which in turn piles up the complaints on the

customer service platform of Company X to be dealt with according to

different protocols.

The application will enable customers to edit their subscriptions, and

customer service to automatically inform customers regarding their

subscriptions updates and changes.

The operation center will be enabled to both manually and automatically

schedule the items required to be delivered all relevant information such

as date, time, and place. As a result, both truck drivers and carriers will

receive automatic notifications with stepwise action plans in advance.

The operation center will be able to live monitor all activities being done

by both carriers and truck drivers to check that everything is going

according to the generated plan. As a result, the main focus of the

employees in operation center will be shifted from just setting plans to

ensure the delivery of items within loose time internals to ensuring high

tempo and accuracy of items delivery. This will greatly minimize the lead-

times required, and thus improve the competitiveness.

5.2.2. Change Resistance Plan

A plan for managing project resistance should be developed and considered while

developing the change implementation plan that should according to McArdle

(2006) include tasks to be involved in the implementation, resources to be used,

people to be generally involved and specifically responsible, monitoring and

progress measures, and end date of each task. However, the change model

proposed by McArdle (2006) does not provide a systematic way of developing

change resistance actions. Therefore, we here recall two different models proposed

by Kotter (2012) and Fisher (2000) to develop main resistance actions that have

to be considered in the change implementation plan.

Fisher (2000) identified eight stages (shown in figure 2.6) that people

successively follow through a change process. Table 5.1 presents the causes of

26

each stage and our suggested reactive actions to be adopted by Company X in the

change project.

Table 5-1: Fisher's Process of Transition and Suggested Reactive Actions

Stages Causes Reactive Actions

Anxiety Due to the lack of information for

what is going to be required and

changed accordingly and why

Forming informal small team from

trustees

Preparing impressive comprehensive

presentation materials include

animation and infographics

Conducting different meetings and

distributing introductory leaflets

beforehand:

- Meeting with unit managers

- Meeting with representative from

office departments

- Meeting with field working

representatives

Distributing documents tell about

specific realistic change effects on

each department and the training will

be provided and the abstract of

project plan

Official project team formation

Assigning supervisors specially for

enabling people to do their new jobs

Declaring that failures will be dealt

with tolerantly over a definite period

of time

Applying the change on units in

series

Declaring success progress at the

project milestones and recognizing

personal contributions as motivation

Conducting an entertaining activity

for everyone to celebrate the success

of the each unit

Happiness A feeling of relief since there is

always something wrong needs to be

changed

Different levels of expectations

appear and should be satisfied

Fear Worries related to the future impact

on individuals

Threat Worries regarding doing mistakes

and asking for help

Guilt Doing many mistakes

Depression Experiencing small or no

improvements in performance

Gradual

Acceptance

Growing adaptation to the change

and achieving great improvement in

performance

Moving

Forward

Experiencing the positive difference

between the current and previous

state

27

Awarding individuals for their use of

and contribution to the application

Our plan will not consider the other tracks of failure discussed by Fisher (2000)

due to the relatively low degree of difficulty this change requires for each

individual. It is after all about how to do the job using the mobile application. The

reactive actions in table 5.1 are inspired by Kotter (2012). First, he suggests

creating urgency even if that means to fabricate a crisis. This could be included in

the meetings’ details and presentation materials by providing figures explaining

the increase of both the gap between Company X and other competitors, and the

loss current subscribers and customers.

Kotter (2012) recommends forming a powerful coalition as the next step and

that is why we suggest that the operations manager of Company X has to select

some trustees to build informal small team, as shown in table 5.1, even before

conducting the official meetings. As for creating the vision as the third step

suggested by Kotter (2012), we assume it will be added to the documents to be

disseminated to everyone in the company. We suggest the following vision for the

change:

“The new mobile application will enable everyone in our company to see

everything going on live, know what needs to be done before as long time as you

wish, and do the usual job excellently, timely, in a very simple stepwise manner.”

As suggested in table 5.1, and as Kotter (2012) recommends, the vision will be

communicated through introduction and project meetings, all materials and

leaflets, and all events aimed at declaring any progress within the whole company.

As for the fifth step of Kotter (2012) (empower action), we suggest assign

supervisors specially for enabling people to do their new jobs. Everyone succeeds

in doing the new jobs efficiently will be selected as a supervisor, meaning that the

number of supervisors will be increasing over time. In this way, we ensure

engaging as many individuals as possible, which is also recommended by McArdle

(2006). Other ideas we suggest to empower actions is declaring that failures will

be dealt with tolerantly over a definite period of time, and recognizing personal

contributions after achieving fair progress.

As for creating the quick wins, the operations manager suggests to apply the

change in units separately and in series, which makes achieving short-term gains

possible. After that, building on the change discussed by Kotter (2012) is

suggested to be realised by declaring the success progress at the project milestones

and conducting an entertaining activity for everyone in the organization to

28

celebrate the success of integrating the change when it is done for each unit.

Finally, to instill the change in the organizational culture as Kotter (2012)

recommends, we suggest allocating a small portion of the company budget to grant

annual/periodic awards for individuals that efficiently use the mobile application

and creatively contribute to its development.

29

5.2.3. Change Implementation Plan

Table 5-2: Change Implementation Plan

Task Time Required Team Resources Deliverables Evaluation Criteria

1. Building small informal team of

trustees

1-2 week(s) Responsible: The

operations manager

at least 4-6 members

Meeting rooms The team to be built Skills to be required for

preparing the presentation

materials and surveys

The degree of trust

Confidentiality

Time required to comprehend

the whole idea

2. Preparing the meetings and

presentation materials

2-4 weeks Responsible: The

operations manager

at least 4-6 members

Workshop rooms

Computers with the software

required

Printers and paper sheets

Presentation Materials

Documents to be distributed

Feedback surveys for employees

and customers/resellers

Communicability of the

information to be presented for

all audience categories

Time required to prepare the

materials

Confidentiality

3. Inviting unit managers and board

members personally to the first

meeting

2-3 days The operations

manager

- Invitations are received by the

unit managers

Availability in the same period

of time

4. Conducting the first meeting 1 day The operations

manager

Conference room

LCD Projector

Computer to run the required

software

The idea is conveyed completely

Questions and concerns are

answered

Feedbacks are gathered

Presentation skills

Communication skills

5. Inviting representative from office

departments

2-3 days Any team member Conference room

LCD Projector


software

Invitations are received by the

unit managers


of time

6. Conducting the second meeting 1 day The operations

manager

Conference room

LCD Projector



answered

Presentation skills


30


software


7. Inviting field working

representatives

2-3 days Any team member Conference room

LCD Projector


software

Invitations are received by the

unit managers


of time

8. Conducting the third meeting 1 day The operations

manager

Conference room

LCD Projector


software



answered


Presentation skills


9. Feedback surveying 1 week at least 4-6 members Questionnaires in paper form

and stationary

Spread sheet with the real data

and statistics

Time required to distribute the

questionnaires

10. Discussing the overall feedback and

forming official project team

1 day Unit managers and

board members

Meeting room Confirmation to be issued

Official project team to be

assigned

Skills required to estimate the

skills needed

Communication and persuasion

skills

11. Planning/outsourcing the mobile

application programming and

installing project

4 weeks 2-3 members from

each unit

2-3 members from

each department

The operations

manager

Stationary

The full specifications of tender

requirements will be defined

IT consulting firms will be

invited

Skills required to do the

investigation and gather the

right and complete data

Familiarity with suitable IT

firms offer both good quality

and affordable prices

Project management and

leadership skills

12. Discussing the offers, selecting the

best one, and signing the contract

2-3 day(s) The unit managers

The operations

manager

The board members

Conference room

LCD Projector


software

The firm is selected

The contract is signed

Skills required to compare from

economic and quality

perspectives

Skills required to develop good

contracting conditions

13. Open call for tenders regarding the

devices and telecommunication

service required for the use of

different departments

2 weeks 2-3 members

Stationary

The full specifications of tender

requirements will be defined

Device and telecommunication

service providers will be invited

Skills required to turn the

specifications into tender call

Familiarity with suitable device

telecommunication service

31

providers offer both good

quality and affordable prices

14. Discussing the offers, selecting the

best one, and signing the contract

2 days The unit managers

The operations

manager

The board members

Conference room

LCD Projector


software

The device provider is selected

The telecommunication service

is selected

The contracts are signed

Skills required to compare from

economic and quality

perspectives

Skills required to develop good

contracting conditions

15. Conducting training 2 weeks Trainers from the IT

firm

Conference room

LCD Projector


software

Mobile devices

All trainees know well how to

use all the features in the new

app efficiently

Training and communication

skills

Learning and comprehension

capacities of the trainees

16. Applying the required organizational

adapting changes before testing the

app

1 week Company X Effect

unit manager

Project members

belong to the unit

It depends on the type of change

required

Company X Effect unit is

changed so that it only relies on

the app to administer, control,

and monitor the flow

Skills required to recognize and

apply the changes required for

the new working style

17. Testing the app on Company X

Effect unit and confirming readiness

to officially use the app

2 weeks Company X Effect

unit manager

Project members

belong to the unit

The operation manager

The IT consultants

The daily required resources in

addition to the devices with the

app installed and


active

The follow works according to

the plan with no singe failure

Coordination skills

Troubleshooting skills

IT, networks and

telecommunications skills

Leadership skills

18. Conducting an entertaining activity


of Company X Effect unit

1 day The whole change

project team

It depends on what the activity

is

The success is declared

The results are declared

Individuals are recognised and

awarded

Entertaining event management

skills


Optimal unit and confirming

readiness to officially use the app

2 weeks Company X Optimal

unit manager

Project members

belong to the unit




app installed and


active



Coordination skills


IT, networks and


Leadership skills

32

The IT consultants


Tidningsdistribution unit and

confirming readiness to officially

use the app

2 weeks Company X

Tidningsdistribution

unit manager

Project members

belong to the unit


The IT consultants



app installed and


active



Coordination skills


IT, networks and


Leadership skills


Påväg unit and confirming readiness

to officially use the app

2 weeks Company X Påväg

unit manager

Project members

belong to the unit


The IT consultants



app installed and


active



Coordination skills


IT, networks and


Leadership skills

22. Conducting an entertaining activity


of the whole project and declare the

award for using the mobile

application and creatively contribute

to its development

1 day The whole change

project team

It depends on what the activity

is

The success of the whole project

is declared

The full integration of the

mobile app is declared

Individuals are recognised and

awarded

Periodic award based on the use

and contributions to the app is

declared as active

The criteria for the award are

declared

Entertaining and ceremonial

event management skills

33

Table 5.2 shows the abstract of the change implementation plan of the mobile

application. The time required for each task is a rough estimate that has to be

studied and determined by Company X as they know better the real circumstances

of the company. The same applies for the resources and individuals required as

well as the person to be in charge of each. Moreover, we develop probable

scenarios that nonetheless might be far from what occurs in reality. The evaluation

criteria for each task may include abroad set of variables, but we only consider the

most relevant ones from our perspective.

We assume that the operations manager adopts the change idea takes full

responsibility to realise it. The first task he has to do is form a small informal team

of trustees to help him in preparing for the presentation of the change officially.

Kotter (2012) also discussed the role of trustees in the early stages of the change.

He said that trustees usually believe in the change owner and are therefore easier

to be convinced. The challenge the operations manager will encounter is not only

how to convince his trustees, but also how long it will take until they imbue the

whole idea and its folds. The quantity for this team is not as important as the

quality. We suggest that there should be at least 4-6 members to be involved who

possess the required skills for preparing the right the presentation materials and

documents. It is recommended to keep this team confidential as Kotter (2012)

recommends in order not to give the potential resistance enough time to grow by

circulating fragmented facts about the change before the official presentation.

After that the team is formed, they will together decide on with aspect of the

change idea should be presented using particular media. We recommend using

infographics to include figures related to current situation and how catastrophic it

is compared with the competitors, and what implications are to be expected if this

continues. The need for the mobile application should be sculptured really well

and smartly before presenting the app as a reaction. Kotter (2012) also referred to

the legitimacy of this matter in change management by for instance fabricating

crisis so that the suggested change becomes normal reaction. We also recommend

using animation to portray the future status of Company X when the application is

fully integrated, as McArdle (2006) emphasizes the conformance of perceptions

when a change is introduced. The benefits could be presented using again

infographics, while the full information of the proposal could be handed out in

paper form. We recommended earlier to include the specific realistic change

effects on each department and the training will be provided in order to avoid the

negative psychological effects of the early phases of Fisher’s transition model

(Fisher, 2000). Moreover, since McArdle (2006) emphasizes paying a special

attention to the feedback, we recommend that the same team designs special

survey inquiries for each audience category to gather their feedbacks. Once

everything is ready, it is recommended that the operations manager personally

invite unit managers and board member for the introduction meeting. Giving the

meeting less mysterious background would be by avoiding putting anyone else the

operations manager in the picture in order not to trigger the resistance of some

34

individuals with higher organizational positions. As for the other meetings,

representatives could be invited by anyone from the team. As McArdle (2006)

recommends, the operations manager has to prepare very well to the meeting and

expect every person’s questions to be unhesitantly unanswered.

Once the introduction are presented and the issued discussed are answered

doing the best effort and considering all notes, conducting a survey to gather the

feedbacks from each audience category becomes necessary to hear from the voices

that will be not involved in the meeting such as customers/resellers and other

employees. Additionally, the survey will also give those who will be involved in

the meetings another chance to reflect their opinions after a second thought. Then,

the results should be articulated and summarized so that the operations manager,

unit managers and board members can make a decision out them regarding the

change destiny at Company X. Discussing the overall feedback and any other

issues can be done in a special or regular meeting. If yes, the operations manager

should be prepared to nominate names for the official project teams, preferably

the same informal team plus who might be qualified, interested and motivated to

participate since McArdle (2006) emphasizes assessing how the audience can

support implement the change, and engaging as many individuals as possible.

Also, the reason the trustees have to be reconsidered again is that Kotter (2012)

thinks they would have higher determination to complete the mission and see the

change being realised due to their early involvement.

The project team together with the project manager (recommended to be the

operations manager) will work on the options required to be embedded in the

mobile application for each department and functions. It is very necessary to

gather such needs through observations and interviews. The drafts then will be

documented to open call for tenders and invite IT consulting firms to participate.

After receiving tenders, the unit managers and board members will be invited to

several meetings to discuss and decide on which offer fits Company X conditions

the best. After that, the contracting is done according to the contracting stage in

the change model McArdle (2006) suggested, which cannot be considered in

details in our case unless the project is realised. Nevertheless, we recommend that

the contract should involve training on how the software should be used for each

department. The individuals that will be involved in the training will be engaged

with the change implementation as facilitators and supporters for those who will

not be selected for the training. Additionally, the contract might involve future

maintenance and development.

After the IT firm defines the specifications of the required devices

telecommunication service for using the app in each department, another call for

tenders should be developed by the project team accordingly. After selecting the

device telecommunication service providers, it is recommended that signing the

contract should consider long-term future maintenance and replacements.

Since relying on the app might need slight changes in the current system, it is

35

still important to define the system pattern that will become redundant or required

in the light of the new app, which is also mentioned by McArdle (2006) who

emphasizes preparing the organization before introducing the change. Once the

app is built, connected with the company system, and installed in all devices, and

once the telecommunication service is active, the predefined modifications will be

added to the first unit (Company X Effect). The work under the new conditions

will be tested and both the app and the unit will be adapted to each other so that

the flow is as smooth and traceable as possible. The iterations will last until no

single technical or organizational problem arises. The facilitators will play

significant role helping the other unit workers to quickly and efficiently get to use

the new app.

Kotter (2012) recommends allowing short-term wins to be achievable, and

celebrating the integration of the app in the Company X Effect unit could be an

example. We suggest conducting an entertaining activity for everyone to celebrate

the success of Company X Effect unit and recognize personal contributions. That

would encourage the next unit to be ready for the change and undermine the

potential resistance to be released. Then, the same scenario will be applied on the

rest units before the final ceremonial event will be held to declare the project

success, personal contributions, and periodic award based on the efficient use of

the app and the creative contributions to it. It is worth mentioning that both

McArdle (2006) and Kotter (2012) highly recommend rewarding workers who

support the change, and apply pressure to those who resist it.

5.3. Recommendations

McArdle (2006) recommends building a trusting work clime, use problem-solving

techniques through experts, recognizing an early experience of success, and

quickly stabilizing and spreading success. Similarly, high attention while

integrating the mobile app at Company X should be given to extending the trust

climate. Furthermore, workers and employees that achieve early success in using

the new app should be recognized and selected for supervising responsibilities in

order to enable stabilizing and spreading the success.

To better prepare the organization for any change, McArdle (2006)

recommends encouraging the new expectations and behaviour, confirming the

desired state, and promoting acceptance. Likewise, if the feedback results after the

survey to be conducted lack the acceptance, a great effort should be exerted in

order to understand reason and modify the proposal accordingly.

While presenting the change, McArdle (2006) emphasizes the importance to

continue reminding employees of the benefits of successfully achieving the

desired state. Even if that seems repetitive and boring, the operations manager

should also keep reminding individuals of how the work would be away easier and

better after when the app will be based whenever they meet. McArdle (2006) also

recommends activating the lines of communication by providing accurate and

36

timely information. That is why we also recommend considering facilitators and

can be of great help when needed. The strategy of selecting good implementers as

facilitators and supporters simulates the same idea of the spread of viruses but in

a positive way.

McArdle (2006) recommends providing task owners with the required political,

economic, and logistic resources to achieve their tasks. That is one purpose for

why we suggest involving the board members and the unit mangers in addition to

resistance issues. However, as outsiders, we definitely lack the knowledge of the

political equation at Company X, and that why we recommend further

improvement on what we suggested. Similarly, McArdle (2006) believes that

building a change strategy varies among organizations. We have mainly built our

change strategy according to a basic theoretical framework that also needs further

improvements and modifications so that most of/all contextual folds are taken into

account.

Keeping eyes on the indicators previously established as success criteria is quite

important (McArdle, 2006). Therefore, we recommend further work on breaking

down the success criteria included in the change implementation plan so that they

can be quantifiable, and thus visualized.

To evaluate the change progress, we suggest considering the oral reviews,

project sessions, follow-up sessions, surveys and bottom-line evaluation that

McArdle (2006) suggests as discussed in the theory section.

6. Discussion, Hinders and Possibilities As many other changes, this change plan has many hinders and possibilities to

deal with these hinders. The first challenge is to select the right people for the

small information team that is supposed to work under high confidential

conditions until the change idea is introduced. We called trustees, but if they do

not prove their trustworthiness, the change idea might be leaked to resistance

agents such as the unit managers. As a result, the resistance will keep growing

before even introducing the idea during the first meeting. Therefore, picking these

members should be carefully done.

Another issue could be the availability of the informal team members. Even

though the operations manager has wide authority at Company X, it does not

necessarily mean that once he asks particular employees to help him, they will be

freely able to do that. Therefore, the ability of trustees might reduce the

productivity of the informal team. However, having low productivity is still better

situation than rushing selecting less trustworthy members that might be more

available.

Flat organizations in our opinion take longer time to change due to the limited

authority for managers to forcibly instill and defuse ideas. Similarly, Company X

is expected to take longer time than it would be less flat. To alleviate such delay,

37

setting strategies and tactics to convince everyone in the organization to accept if

not adopt the app idea. For reaching this overall level of acceptance, tackling

employees’ and customers’ feedback could be helpful.

The financial risk is always considered a change constraint as it can blow up

the whole idea through the board members in our case. Therefore, the presentation

materials with all figures related to the benefits and competition are in our opinion

the most important aspect in the change initiative. The idea should be introduced

using developed scenarios that present how the change could realised by different

budget limits. This kind of flexibility would make it more sound to shareholders.

Another challenge stems from forming an effective official team to manage the

change project. It is expected that personal preferences will be prominent while

discussing who should be involved. In the same time, the informal team notion

cannot be used as a claim to select them once again in order to avoid any possible

resistance out of this matter. Nevertheless, if the operations manager already has

a detailed study of the people that should be involved with the reasoning, he might

end the controversy before it even starts. Therefore, the secret sauce for any change

initiative is to be prepared very well by predicting different scenarios and prepare

suitable reaction for each scenario. The issue applies when selecting the IT

consulting firm, the device provider, and the telecommunication service provider.

The operations officer should always take steps ahead before anyone else in the

company.

Apart from the need to be prepared, what if things do not go smoothly under

the conditions where the operations manager do everything as he wishes. The

project team assigned may not be efficient. The selected providers may fall short.

Anything could basically go in the opposite direction that it is thought to take.

Therefore, the contingency place and redundancy should be smartly included to

the overall change plan. Additionally, as discussed earlier, if the results of the

study are not promising, or not encouraging enough to undertake the project, the

resistance against the change will become significantly higher, and it will become

extremely difficult to discuss it more. Therefore, the progress of the change project

should be closely supervised from the beginning until the end.

The contract conducted with partners embed also some risks stemming from

the compatibility of the service to the system and culture of the company. The

project team along with the operations manager should fairly study all offers and

features attached to each service of these offers before the board members and unit

managers are invited to the event.

As for the training, there is high risk stemming from the quality of trainers

themselves and if they will be giving the right information to the right segment of

employees and in the right speed using the right illustrating methods. These are all

constraints and failing in fulfilling them may represent more obstacles to motivate

the employees to use the app. The motivation could be also consolidated by

38

connecting the incentive system to the attendance to the trainings.

7. Conclusion This study suggests a change for one of the newspapers distribution companies in

Sweden. The company encounters hard time with IT failures and customers’

relationship as there are many cases of delays and damages in the items. The

investigation of the company circumstances revealed a lack of visibility for how

the company controls the goods while being delivered by both the truck or van

drivers and the carriers/newsboys. Moreover, the company adopts some

management and planning practices that are regarded nowadays as old fashion

such as planning successively instead of following the reverse planning of physical

distribution.

Some studies have been conducted on the distribution of newspapers in

Sweden. One study presented a new model for newspaper distribution service to

improve the performance of the classical model Company X adopts. One of the

interviews that have been conducted with the operations manager revealed his

special interest toward using mobile applications to manage the flow. As a result,

the change management plan was totally based on the integration of the mobile

application into the flow so that the entities along the flow can be visible for

everyone involved.

The change initiative is suggested to be led by the operations officer with the

help of his trustees until he effectively introduces the change idea to everyone in

the company. The realisation of the change is suggested to be done through an

official project team. Lots of psychological and organizational considerations have

to be taken into account in between tasks and activities in order to minimize any

potential threat against the change momentum.

39

References

Fisher, J. 2000. Creating the Future? In: J. Scheer, ed., The person in society:

Challenges to a constructivist theory, 1st ed. Giessen: Psychosozial-Verlag, pp.

428–437.

Frank, L. and Pedersen, R. 2012. Integrated distributed/mobile logistics

management. Springer, pp.206-221.

Jashapara, A. 2006. Knowledge management: an integrated approach, Harlow:

Financial Times Prentice Hall, 2004

Kotter, J.P. 1996. Leading Change. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.

McArdle, G. (2006). An eight-step change model. 1st ed. [Alexandria, Va.]: ASTD

Press.

Nadler, D.A. 1997. Champions of Change: How CEOs and Their Companies are

Mastering the Skills of Radical Change. California: Jossey-Bass Inc.

Rehn J., Stenberg J., Hedin B. and Fällström F. 2000. improving Metropolitan

Newspaper Home Distribution,Presented at taga’s 52nd Annual Technical

Conference, April 2000, Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA. Publiched in taga

2000 Proceedings, taga Office, Rochester, New York, USA, pp. 349-364.

Rehn, J. 2001. Information Flow and Physical Distribution Planning in

Newspaper Delivery. Licentiate Thesis. Royal Institute of Technology.

Slack, N., Chambers, S. and Johnston, R. 2010. Operations management. 2nd ed.

Harlow, England: Financial Times Prentice Hall.

40

Appendix A: Exploratory Interview with the General

Operations Manager 1- What is the business focus of Company X? What problems does it you solve?

Company X has been established in the first place as a newspaper distribution

Company. As part of their spontaneous business behavior, Company X expanded

their business operations to be a third party logistics company for different

production and service providers. More than 1000 employees in Company X are

dedicated to deliver different types of products including morning newspapers,

printed advertising products and other courier services to households, business

offices and government agencies located nearby the Lake Mälaren in

Södermanland and Bergslagen, broken into 3 regions, north, west, and south. In

addition to that, Company X is a part of a nationwide network called MTD

network, “MORGONTIDIG DISTRIBUTION”.

The way Company X delivers morning newspapers comprises well-functioning

distribution through networks of cars, microbuses and newsboys that drive every

night. During two and a half hours, 650 newsboys distribute over than 200,000

newspapers. Some newsboys has as many as 19 different newspapers to keep track

of. Every newsboy has responsibility for a district. Newsboys distribute

newspapers by cars for big districts, while other smaller districts are covered by

walking. To assist each newsboy, there is a guide, called in Swedish “budbok”

that contains all information about districts’ subscribed newspapers and the

possible changes in each subscriptions and routes. Furthermore, about 35

subscribed newspaper titles, usually handed out in the morning, are distributed in

cooperation with the morning newspaper providers. All papers have to be handed

to the subscriber in the morning hours before 06:00 am.

The company has four separate units including the following:

Company X Tidningsdistribution is responsible for the distribution of 35

subscribed newspapers/magazine titles to customers.

Company X Effect is responsible for the distribution of commercials,

unaddressed mails.

Company X Optimal is responsible for Mail Distribution.

Company X Påväg is responsible for courier and transport service.

The company is environmentally certified according to ISO 14001.

2- What are the values of your organization?

41

Company X as newspaper distribution company and third-party logistics takes the

environmental responsibility seriously. Therefore, we try to deliver the required

goods and services with the minimum carbon effect. Moreover, we also all our

employees to be comfortable while working. Finally, building long-term

relationships with customers in the regions our operations serve, i.e. we want to

steadily satisfy our customers and subscribers.

3- Who are the champions or heroes within your organization?

Company X is hierarchically flat, and therefore, very few things are done in the

light of one-man show theory. However, unit managers are mostly familiar with

both macro and micro components of the organizational system. Before doing

anything new, they directly investigate its impacts on employees by discussing with

them and gathering their opinions. I would not consider them the heroes from the

hieratical perspective. I would consider them altogether as on hero since there

should be consensus on anything to be undertaken.

4- What are your top three challenges that need attention?

There are three main challenges that Company X is encountering:

IT failures: Company X is currently having challenges within the IT department

in areas such as software issues, interaction with employees and subscribers. The

challenge is to setup an IT system that can resolve such issues.

Delivery Issues: a major challenge is to ensure that all subscribers receive the

products at the time scheduled for delivery. Numerous complaints from

subscribers that they are not getting products within the allocated time frame and

in some cases, the products don't get to them

Customer Retention: The continued fall in subscribers due to the movement of

people to digital print. The challenge is how to retain current subscriber levels

and how to ensure that previous subscribers return to paper prin. Another

challenge is to increase the number of companies currently using Company X as

a distribution medium and to ensure current customers do not move to other

distribution mediums such as Posten and Bring Mail.

5- What are the rituals or practices that make this organization unique?

We have very friendly and flexible work environment. Everybody work at

Company X is totally welcomed in the office including newsboys and truck drivers.

We are not as large as other competitors, but we still offer cosy environment. We

42

conduct seasonal trips and celebrate together feasts like Christmas. We show high

flexibility to young workers to give them the opportunity to learn and develop

themselves.

6- What does this organization value?

As you know that the turnover of field operators such as newsboys is very high due

to the high degree of difficulty of their job and the frequent changes in youngsters’

lives. It is very difficult to keep them with you for a long time, which influences the

steadiness and stability of the whole work. You know that whole work may go

unheeded if newsboys miss finishing the job by sorting and delivering the right

package to the right place. Therefore, we try hard to maintain the stability of the

work within all operational lines from office services to field services. We have

limited geographical distribution to focus one and succeed in, and we want not

only to compete in this area, but also make it our own market.

7- How ready is Company X for change?

It depends on the type of the change. If it is operational and will facilitate better

doing of job, there has to be rooms for this kind of changes, especially if they are

economically reasonable. Otherwise, I would guess it very difficult to change the

strategy of the company to be for instance more expandable.

8- How effective is Company X?

As operations manager, I can objectively say that Company X needs to change in

a way that both of their information and material flows become smoother, more

consistent and traceable. No better major changes will be considered realistic

than suggesting ideas in this area, otherwise, Company X has long experience as

organization to not accept any risky ideas even if they are promising. There is

great lack of ambition, and no single manage seems to be excited by such solution.

9- Can you tell if all or most of unit managers and office employees agree on the

definition of the problem of the information and material flows?

Well, this is not something you can be 100% sure about. But I can tell that the

meetings and discussions reflect that we have to consider some changes and

integrate new technologies sooner or later to better control and monitor the

operations and make the flow more visible. There is a risk that competitor already

have technologies that we still lack. Moreover, we believe that the quality of our

services is directly influenced by smoothness and traceability of the flow.

43

10- Do we agree that the causes of the problem include deficits in the current

adopted model of the distribution, which goes back in time before the

emergence of some relatively cheap technologies such as the GPS

technology?

Yes, we have discussed this many times. Our organization is not ready though to

investigate with model or method might be suitable for both our customized

industry and tight economy.

11- Does what you said regarding the consensus that you have to integrate some

changes in the flow sooner or later reflect the same perception we have that

the future state of Company X represents a newspaper distribution company

and third-part logistics that have smoother flow in both direction with high

degree of traceability that enables troubleshooting and quick corrective

actions?

Yes, it true. We believe that it is our destiny to do this in order to survive in the

market.

12- How committed is it expected for the top management to be toward any

effective change opportunity in this context?

As I told you earlier, it is not easy to drive an initiative without answering many

questions from different levels, including office and operation levels. This might

take sometimes, but once it is approved, commitment is definitely guaranteed.

13- What is needed to successfully achieve any suggested change?

First, it has to be presented in a meeting that involves unit managers. The

presentation has to consider the holistic view as well as the some significant

details. Answering their questions is very crucial, and frankly, if one of them seems

to be unpleased with the proposal, it would be impossible to get confirmation.

Next, the unit managers will take this proposal to the operational levels to see how

it would impact each element of their units. It is expected to experience some

incompatibilities here or there, and process owners can though offer cooperation

to decide if the new proposal might need some modifications, or it is the current

process that has to be adapted to the proposal. We usually take all critiques

seriously, but they have to be based on logical reasoning. Once every mentioned

step confirms the level of acceptable compatibility, I personally work on turning

the proposal into action plan. We have already reporting systems in place, which

helps in monitoring the progress of such change projects.

44

14- What resources are available to apply new distribution model?

We might have some space for training, relatively inexpensive IT solutions, and

limited budget for highly significant devices. However, we cannot go for a radical

change that makes the organization turns into a totally new one in overnight. For

instance, if the change asks for providing truck drivers with certain devices, we

can initially do that limitedly based on priority. So, the trade-off here is how much

it does cost to change one organizational pattern along with free changes in the

overall system. The most expensive the change for this pattern, the smaller it is to

and the slower is the change process. This is how I think our resources can support

the change in the flow as well.

45

Appendix B: Validating Interview with the General

Operations Manager

1- The new distribution model we want to discuss with you suggests for better

delivering the morning newspaper that there are different types of information

flows involved to know if the subscribers get the newspapers. Truck drivers

must know how many bundles should be loaded and unloaded and how many

copies should be delivered to each particular point. As shown in document I

handed out to you (figure 2.3), the flow includes different pieces of information,

departments and employees in the distribution process. Do you have the exact

ways of distribution?

Practically, I cannot say that we literally follow this model. The main difference

is in the resolution of reporting. We do not report activities as frequent as this

model recommends. We have stores wherein products and newspapers are placed

in inaccurate amounts. In other words, we follow push systems and provide truck

drivers with guiding sheets telling how many items they should load and where

they have to be loaded. For each district, the carriers take care of how the items

should be distributed, which means they are free to organize the packages and

items in a way they like, and then start from the street they find comfortable to do

with.

2- How good is it to consider for your current way of working? How do think this

fits your current flow patterns?

This is a general model that has to be carefully studied indoor because I can

clearly see the implications on some units. This kind of frequent reporting

behaviour may be considered annoying by some workers. However, it has a point

related to detecting failures more quickly than the current performance. I am not

sure if the training costs required is a good investment for this such information

pattern. I feel that it has been designed to fit general needs, and our case might

need more attention to other dimensions.

3- The model suggests that a new mobile system should be introduced to

overcome the challenge embedded in information flow to facilitate smooth

performance and communication in the field. This system should be carried out

for the truck drivers and carriers and categorized into three different processes

including process management system, information resources system, and

automated vehicle system. Moreover if this system is merged with the field

46

using the potential of geographical information systems, it would be easier for

drivers to locate the truck as well as the carrier. According to GSM for handling

the devices, mobile network should be connected to the GSM network. GSM

network is the most common in the Europe. The exchange of information in the

distribution process between the field worker and the organization should be

oral and textual. Apart from the model, there are many researcher who called

for using mobile apps and platforms in logistics administration. Do you have

such systems and how good you think this idea is?

No we do not have such a system. I find it really appealing to be honest. Mobile

applications are very widespread nowadays, and connecting this with our

monitoring system is a brilliant idea. Furthermore, we in Sweden have good

telecommunication services, which makes this even more applicable solution.

4- How do think this fits your current flow patterns? Do you have enough

resources to integrate this mobile system according to the proposed model?

I can now admit that in light of this idea, detailed reporting could be much easier

and applicable. There are different ways of funding such projects. We can either

secure this sum after estimating how much the project might cost, or we can

manage to have the software in-house by hiring permanent specialists that can

build and maintain a system that can be compatible with the telecommunication

services. It is a matter of top management that can make decision around.

5- According to the same figure in the model document (figure 2.3), when loading

the newspaper bundle on a truck, there are two different strategies related to the

physical distribution planning. The first strategy is to load the bundle online

with different sequences according to the printing process and mailroom

activities, whereas the second strategy is to preload the bundles on the pallets,

and thereafter, these pallets should be directly loaded onto the trucks. Do you

follow any of these strategies already and how effective you think they are?

Yes, we actually preload the bundles on the pallets located in stores, and

thereafter, these pallets are directly loaded onto the trucks. However, we did not

use the pull system before to judge if it is more effective or not.

6- According to the second figure in the model document (figure 2.4), different

scenario nodes of the physical distribution process may include product from

the press, product form the mail room, product from the distribution center,

distribution center, customer, transport and carrier. The first the product come

from a press agency, the first it will be delivered to the mailroom or delivery.

47

These products are delivered to the distribution center by trucks. They are then

reloaded directly to the customers. Through switching between different

scenarios, newspaper distribution services find a new way for distributing

newspapers with high flexibility. As a result, rectifying unexpected errors is

more possible. Do you have such flexible capacity and how effective you think

it is?

The idea of having redundancy in the system is really impressive. Nevertheless, I

am not sure if we can simply do it according to the model. Again, the model review

this logic from a generic perspective, which is not as simple as it needs to be on

ground. Flexibility is an advantage for any logistics system due to the contingency

plans that can be derived out of it. However, I still believe that every case is

unique, and the backup that needs to be attached to our system has to be carefully

studied by the business specialists.

7- Do you have enough resources to initiate this capacity?

It depends on how this redundancy will be built into the system. I have to know

first the level of integration in order to roughly estimate if we have the resources

to build a flawless flexible system. Roughly, we might have the minimum resources

to initiate the plan to integrate this system.

8- If it is suggested to integrate a mobile platform to be integrated into your current

system, who will be the audience?

If I want to use the same terms used here in this model, I would say they would be

customer service, operation center, truck drivers, carriers, readers/customers,

and resellers. Nonetheless, each category will be involved in the system differently.

A suggestion may be to create levels of user accounts that integrate these

categories with the system according the need for it.

9- How will you obtain feedback from this audience?

Each category of this audience has its own suitable way of communication.

Representatives from customer service and operations center can be involved in

meetings with unit managers when this initiative is to be presented. They can

directly pose any question, and thus be answered accordingly. Extra space in time

can be offered while they disseminate the initiative in their departments so that

everyone is aware of the idea and can show up and comment on it. Similarly, a

separate meeting is recommended to have with greater numbers of trouble-making

truck drivers and carriers. From experience, workers in the field have different

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mentality from the office workers. Therefore, the communication approach has to

be different. As for customers/readers and resellers, a survey can be established

especially for their recommendations and needs. If you ask me how I would do, I

can simply say the survey work will be outsourced.

10- What impact will the audience have on the change?

I think that the impact varies among the categories. However, in general, all

categories will be connected to each other through this application from the point

at which a customer/reader places an order until the item is received by him/her.

However, customers/readers/reseller have to own smartphones, tablets, or any

similar devices that enable using this application. Our customers are very much

mixed. I can only expect some difficulties in attracting the elderly to use the

application if they do have the suitable devices in the first place. Additionally, the

simpler and friendlier to use is the application, the easier to be relied on for all

categories. I expect no difficulties in urging employees to use the application.

Besides, regarding recruiting carriers, we can add a condition that makes owning

suitable devices mandatory for the job. As for the current carriers that have no

suitable devices, we can invest in securing cheap qualified devices that can be kept

in-house for emergency situations.

11- Who needs to make the presentation?

It depends on the audience of each meeting. From my experience, it is better that

I prepare the presentation together with the required data and answers to possible

questions when the audience involves the unit managers and representatives from

customer service and operation center. As for the truck drivers and carriers, the

representatives from the operation center can help in presenting the initiative with

the coordination of the unit managers.

12- How will you present the data and show validation of the data?

I expect that I need enough time to turn my perception and thoughts into complete

system. This means that I have to come up with what would best resemble the

future-state of Company X when the change is fully integrated, and then follow

that with all the positive implications on the work nature and economy. I would

prefer using animation for reflecting my perception, while the benefits could be

both animated and textual. Before that, I need to come up with similar examples

applied in logistics services, which is not a difficult task.

13- Is benchmarking data available?

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I do not know to be honest. I would guess that it is so. I heard before two years

that FedEx for instance has progressive integration of both social media and

mobile application into their operations.

14- After reviewing the benefits the new change can bring to the company, do you

think there is still a need for it?

As I told you last time when we had the phone interview, we have IT and delivery

failures and increasing voices of unsatisfied subscribers. Using this mobile

application will undoubtedly enable avoiding the IT failures, diagnosing the

possible delivery failures, and applying future progressive distribution models

with minimum cost.

15- What might be the roadblock to achieving a change based on the findings?

There are two main challenges including getting the consensus on escalating this

proposal to be the first priority of the company and designing a valid software that

experience no errors or problems with any audience category. Furthermore, the

operational cost of the telecommunication services may fail the whole idea.

Finally, the budget is absolutely limited, and building this application should be

wisely managed from economical perspective.

16- What are your recommendations for proceeding or not proceeding with the

change?

I think that one success factor could be preparing the right tender specifications

for the mobile application and customers/readers/resellers surveying to be

outsourced. The other success factor is the degree of preparations for the meetings

of the change initiative to be presented. Contacting bankers to put them in the

picture might be helpful in case the expenses exceed the budget. Besides, the

employees have to be suitably prepared and trained for the change. Each

individual should be clearly aware of how and when to use the application while

doing the job.

17- Do you think that integrating the mobile application into your system could

be regarded as incremental or radical change?

I would say that applying the model you showed me earlier could be more of

radical changes. Since the mobile application initiative can be applied and

operated on one unit in the beginning, as I would recommend, it has to be more of

incremental changes.

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18- Which order do you think the change should follow and why?

I would start with the smallest unit in size, age and activity frequency, which is

Company X Effect for the distribution of commercials, unaddressed mails. The

reason is obviously to apply the change more quickly so that the success can be

claimed sooner than it would be for the other units. Moreover, the errors show up

from the new system would much less influence our customer statistician as

commercials and unaddressed mails are not critical from our experience.

Therefore, there is more space for trial and error. Then, Company X Optimal for

Mail Distribution can be the next target since it is still smaller and younger than

Company X Tidningsdistribution for subscribable newspapers and magazine. The

reasoning to consider unit age based on ascending order is because it is easier to

change since core competence usually turns into core rigidity. Finally, Company

X Påväg for courier and transport service could be made the last unit to change

because its scope is rather wide.

19- When do you think the change should be taken to the next unit?

When the new system operates flawlessly for at least one or two weeks, and when

the benefits can be proved in terms of performance measures, I can be really

confident about move to the next unit.