The internal consulting team at the company conducted several change initiatives to address problems with the back office operations, including high costs, inefficiencies, and customer dissatisfaction. They restructured workflows based on geographic markets instead of functions, implemented job enrichment, and began performance measurement. However, personnel issues and low cooperation remained problems. As external consultants, we would commend the analysis and redesign work done, but note that not all factors for change were fully addressed, such as resistance to change. We would recommend focusing future efforts on change management strategies to better handle resistance and create conditions for effective change.

1. As an External Consultant… – Top Premier Essays
Background: International AccountingThe situation:Back office operations ing the global
operations were all in HQ in the United States. While some countries had financial staff, the
majority of business financial services were supplied from this HQ
group.Problems:Processing expense and budgetary costs for this unit were skyrocketing
(over 20% a year).The operation is very people intensive and is seen as highly inefficient
(by management, the workers in the unit are frustrated too, and the “internal customers”
are clearly not satisfied with the quality and timeliness of the work).One measure of the
problem is that the regions and local countries vociferously complained about the charge
backs from the unit. Better services could be gotten locally, for less cost.Internal interviews
and a questionnaire uncovered backlogs in work, especially in answering customer
inquiries. Audits showed proof problems, and records did not match. There was high
turnover and poor training of newer staff. Errors were increasing, and adding a quality and
compliance staff did not seem to help at all.Actions:When the problem was first raised, the
internal OD team conducted a series of interviews with management and customers. They
suggested that the employees take a survey to assess motivation and identify problems
from their view. The survey used was a Job Diagnostic, derived from the work of Hackman
and Oldham on job enrichment. It measured the five classic elements: task significance,
variety, and identity (along with autonomy and feedback).The survey was mailed to the
employees’ homes so they would not feel threatened, but no announcements at work were
made. The return rate was so poor, several meetings were held (by management without a
consultant) to explain why they were sent and what they were hoping to do. Given all the
problems and concerns raised at these meetings, the internal consulting team was asked to
hold team building sessions. They did, and the same issues were raised—everything
seemed to be back at square one (which, essentially, it was). This time, however, the
questionnaire was explained and time at work was given to fill it out. With 100%
participation, the internal staff was able to see that restructuring the work would improve
and address most of the “complaints” raised by management and the
workers.BackgroundWorkflow was mapped and it was discovered that many of the
problems arose from a “functional” structure: each specialty function doing work and
feeding it into a coding and routing group. Questions came into the coding and messaging
group (part of routing) who could only check on the numbers and had no expertise to
understand the real issues. They would call the supervisors of the functional units who
would then involve the compliance and quality people to investigate, frequently taking

2. weeks to get back to the message center with a definitive answer (usually the problem was
already resolved, but the customers hated getting the explanation weeks after the
resolution occurred).The operations were restructured around market/geographic groups.
The specific jobs were realigned to comply with the tenets of Job Enrichment with a
complete customer focus rather than a functional expertise bent. This worked well, but
improvements were still needed. Measurement was instituted to help focus on service
quality and improving productivity. This worked very well, but personnel problems were
still rampant and cooperation was low.Staff levels were decreased, but expenses were
not!The head of finance has asked you, as an external consultant, to evaluate all that was
done and recommend how to proceed. He is ready to fire everyone and distribute the
functions to the new region offices just to get rid of his headaches. (Use this background
information of work redesign done by the internal consulting team)As external consultants,
you want to tell them what they did well and what concerns you have about their process
and recommended actions.Include the following information:Create one list to specify the
analysis and work redesign strategies used.Create a second list identifying the factors for
change that were successfully addressed.Create a third list identifying any factors that
deserve more attention. For at least one of these factors, identify how you might have used a
different change management practice to handle it.Remember that no matter how many
individual items are raised, feedback should be focused on the top 2 or 3 actions to change.
Pay particular attention to issues related to handling resistance because they pertain to
creating conditions for effective change. What they did well could be a longer list and does
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