Running head: M4_ A2: APPLYING OB THEORIES 1 APPLYING OB THEORIES 4 Sahar N. Aly B7401 Organizational Behavior Argosy University, Washington DC Dr. James Glenn April, 2015 The paper will discuss an organizational change in management in order to resolve the problem within the organization. The first part of the paper will address different strategies used to maintain successful change and the second part will address how to overcome the resistance of change to achieve the new goals for the benefits of the organization. Problems exist when something unexpected happens and for any organization to function effectively these problems must be resolved. Leaders and supervisors must identify the current situations and try to find out where the problem exists. McNamara (2010) states “Significant organizational change occurs, for example, when an organization changes its overall strategy for success, adds or removes a major section or practice, and/or wants to change the very nature by which it operates. It also occurs when an organization evolves through various life cycles, just like people must successfully evolve through life cycles”. It is the leaders’ role to facilitate changes since it is not an easy process, and be able to assist in the organization’s adoption of opportunities and threats. Case study: International Cargo Carrier Co. (IACC). The company is one of the cargo companies in Egypt. Their primary activity is concentrated in Suez and Alexandria ports. It provides shipping services to North America and southern Asia. The company lately was struggling and suffered the worst year in its history due to losses in income and layoffs. The company needed to gain back its image among the cargo business thus change in management, and a transformation was applied. The company today became successful and gained back its position as one of the well-known cargo carrier companies in Egypt. The organizational change was successful because their mission was accomplished. Making sure that packages were delivered on time, improving the information system in order to speed up the orders process, establishing good customer relationships, monitoring shipping orders and loading and unloading of trucks. Different strategies were used to maintain this success and are addressed as follows: • The company’s awareness for urgent change and the recognition of the threats allowed them to make others in the company aware of the need for change. The company was scanning the internal and external environment to identify competitive situations, profits and losses, updated technology, and market trends which was an asset for leaders to communicate with their subordinates. • A new strategy was developed to formulate a vision for the change and applying different strategies to reach new goals and make the change happen. McNamara (2010) states “It is important to know the reason for change, plan for new goals, needs to reach these goals and how to estab.

1. Running head: M4_ A2: APPLYING OB THEORIES 1
APPLYING OB THEORIES 4
Sahar N. Aly
B7401 Organizational Behavior
Argosy University, Washington DC
Dr. James Glenn
April, 2015
The paper will discuss an organizational change in management
in order to resolve the problem within the organization. The
first part of the paper will address different strategies used to
maintain successful change and the second part will address
how to overcome the resistance of change to achieve the new
goals for the benefits of the organization.
Problems exist when something unexpected happens and for any
organization to function effectively these problems must be
resolved. Leaders and supervisors must identify the current
situations and try to find out where the problem exists.
McNamara (2010) states “Significant organizational change
occurs, for example, when an organization changes its overall
strategy for success, adds or removes a major section or
practice, and/or wants to change the very nature by which it
operates. It also occurs when an organization evolves through
various life cycles, just like people must successfully evolve
through life cycles”. It is the leaders’ role to facilitate changes
since it is not an easy process, and be able to assist in the
organization’s adoption of opportunities and threats.

2. Case study: International Cargo Carrier Co. (IACC).
The company is one of the cargo companies in Egypt. Their
primary activity is concentrated in Suez and Alexandria ports. It
provides shipping services to North America and southern Asia.
The company lately was struggling and suffered the worst year
in its history due to losses in income and layoffs. The company
needed to gain back its image among the cargo business thus
change in management, and a transformation was applied. The
company today became successful and gained back its position
as one of the well-known cargo carrier companies in Egypt.
The organizational change was successful because their mission
was accomplished. Making sure that packages were delivered on
time, improving the information system in order to speed up the
orders process, establishing good customer relationships,
monitoring shipping orders and loading and unloading of trucks.
Different strategies were used to maintain this success and are
addressed as follows:
• The company’s awareness for urgent change and the
recognition of the threats allowed them to make others in the
company aware of the need for change. The company was
scanning the internal and external environment to identify
competitive situations, profits and losses, updated technology,
and market trends which was an asset for leaders to
communicate with their subordinates.
• A new strategy was developed to formulate a vision for the
change and applying different strategies to reach new goals and
make the change happen. McNamara (2010) states “It is
important to know the reason for change, plan for new goals,
needs to reach these goals and how to establish good
communication and coordination between all parties involved
and not individually”.
• Transformation needs good communication skills in order
to have all parties involved during the change. Erozkan (2013)
highlighted that “communication is an understanding of needs
and wants by both the sender and receiver, which contributes to

3. effective communication and solving problems”.
• Individuals become empowered with resources and
knowledge. Updating the information technology of the
company gave the employees the chance to be on the front lines
and help in solving their customers’ problems and thus the good
customer relationship was established. The new system gave the
employee the chance to make decisions without waiting for their
leaders or supervisors that built trust between both parties.
• The organization after a short time from the change started
to look for creating a bigger change and started on evaluating
the previous phase. It started making new adjustments by hiring,
promoting, and making more improvements to support the entire
change and work on the bigger one.
• Leaders and managers in the organization were monitoring
the change to make sure that new changes were implemented as
required. Changes should be viewed as an integral and
permanent part of new changes for the organization and not just
a temporary change.
Changes are considered to be hard to accept and sometimes
employees resist these changes for different reasons such as
uncertainty to the need of change, different self-interest, and
different vision and goals for the organization. Resistances yet
can be overcome by applying the following steps:
• Communication; communication makes the need for change
clear, and employees know the benefits of the change thus
enhance their skills in order to cope with change.
• Involvement; it encourages all employees to be engaged in
the process, and no one left behind and they become more
committed to achieving new goals successfully.
• Job satisfaction and rewards; there are two types of job
satisfaction; intrinsic and extrinsic job satisfaction. Intrinsic job
satisfaction is when employees think about the kind of their job
and the task that make up the job. Extrinsic job satisfaction is
when employees believe the conditions of their employment,
such as their workfellows, salaries, and supervisors.
• Equity; Adams Equity theory (1965) states “Any perceived

4. inequity becomes a motivating state of mind. In other words,
people are motivated to behave in ways that restore or maintain
equity in situations”. It is also important to consider Adams'
Equity Theory factors by considering the balance between the
employee’s inputs and outputs. Such as effort, skill, loyalty,
hard working, and flexibility concerning the employee’s outputs
such as rewards, recognition, responsibility, and job security.
• Organizational culture; Schermerhorn (2011) mentions that
organizational culture is “The system of shared actions, values,
and beliefs that develops within an organization and guides the
behavior of its members” (p. 348). A high culture and value
system mean a real understanding of the rules, policies,
procedures, and job duties. Employees and managers within this
system have beliefs for what they are doing and its value and
thus share information and ideas to reach their goals and for the
benefits of their organization. All individuals within the group
work together to achieve common goals, and it is the managers
and leaders’ role to make these goals clear to reach.
• System thinking; the advantages of systems thinking
according to Gharajedaghi (2006) are "a specialized language
and a set of tools that can be used to address the most stubborn
problems in organization and enables us to understand the
structures and dynamics of complex systems and designs
strategies for greater success". It also can actively influence
events and from the surrounding environment rather than
mechanically react to environmental changes. Senge (1990)
argues that systems thinking simplify life by helping us see the
deeper patterns lying behind the event and the details.
• Applying Open System; the organizations that are highly
engaged with their environments are called open systems
organizations. The organization should be characterized by
being able to adapt threats and opportunities, and interact with
other systems or environments and perform in a more flexible
process than those of closed systems, which are inflexible and
vague. Constant change and incorporation of the unique
personalities of the organization call for the open approach as

5. opposed to a closed system approach (Sitkin, Cardinal &
Bijlsma-Frankema, 2014).
• Use of Power; the use of power is crucial, as mentioned in
the textbook “Leadership theory and practice” by Northouse,
(2012). Reward power can be applied with an increase in pay,
promotion, or assigning an attractive task to subordinates to
keep them motivated. Armstrong (2002) indicates “money acts
as a motivator because it can contribute directly or indirectly to
the satisfaction of many other needs. He points out that not all
individuals are motivated by money in the same way and to the
same extent”.
• Management by Objective (MBO); Maslow states a leader
needs to know the needs of those in the organization and how
they can work towards achieving those needs to satisfy them.
Peter Drucker says the MBO includes cooperation from all
levels of employees, to include management, and that
employees should be viewed as resources and not costs. MBO
is a motivational tool and can be used in any organization,
whether a public or private organization. Drucker stated that
managerial actions were important to employees, rather than
just supervising employees. Implementing MBO within an
organization can lead to better communication, an
understanding of goals and objectives, and the results of
employees.
Since the level of knowledge and skills vary from a leader to
another, no one ideal leadership style can be applied. Leaders
who believe in change are more willing to accept feedback from
their subordinates to maintain the best leadership style
according to situations. Hersey & Blanchard (1993) Said, “From
a teamwork perspective, one of the most important leadership
theories is the situational leadership theory.”
Leaders/ managers make their decisions according to the
situation and chose the suitable approach that work effectively
especially if the change is required to achieve the mission of the
organization.
In conclusion, any change in an organization can create stress

6. and uncertainty to the organization’s employees. Management’s
efforts during this time should be keeping retained employees
motivated and productive during this time of stress. It is
difficult when employees feel betrayed by the organization, fear
for their jobs, and perceive an uncertain future with the
organization (Elmuti et al., 2010; Schermerhorn, 2011; Schillen
& Steinke, 2011). Motivational strategies will always vary
according to the context of the organization, the culture, and the
current motivational system applied. Finally, any organization
seeks success and improvement should establish trust among its
members as it plays a significant role in an organization's
existence and to enhance employees’ motivation.
References
Armstrong, M. (2002) Employee Reward, Trowbridge,
Cromwell Press.
Drucker, P. F., Collins, J., Kotler, P., Kouzes, J., Rodin, J.,
Rangan, V. K., et al., (2008). The Five Most Important
Questions You Will Ever Ask About your Organization, (54).
Elmuti, D., Grunewald, J., & Abebe, D. (2010). Consequences
of outsourcing strategies on employee quality of work life,
attitudes, and performance. JournalofBusiness Strategies, 27(2),
177-203.
Erozkan, A. (2013). The effect of communication skills and
interpersonal problem solving skills on social self-efficacy.
Educational Sciences: Theory & Practice, 13(2), 739-745.
Gharajedaghi, J. (2006), Systems Thinking: Managing Chaos
and Complexity, Elsevier, North Holland, NY.
Macnamara, J. (2010). Public communication practices in the

7. Web 2.0-3.0 mediascape: The case for PRevolution. 7(3).
Schermerhorn, J. (2011). Organizational Behavior (12th ed.).
Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons Inc. Retrieved from
https://digitalbookshelf.argosy.edu
Senge, P. (1990), The Fifth Discipline, Currency Doubleday,
New York, NY.
Sitkin, S.B, Cardinal, L.B., Bijlsma-Frankema, K.M.
Consequences and antecedents of managerial and employee
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approach. Cambridge University Press. 396-433.