Change Resistance at Sony

¶ … Resistance to Change Within Sony Corporation propose strategies that the current CEO Howard Stringer can Ilise to try to manage this resistance Morgan identified eight organizational perspectives that can be used as frameworks for organizational resistance. In the case of Sony Corporation, the CEO Howard Stringer faced resistance when he tried to introduce the western way of management. The employees resisted the changes, and this brought about many other issues. Using Morgan's organizational metaphors, Howard Stringer could have managed to overcome this resistance.

The machine view suggests that employees will operate as expected, work by following laid out procedures, and operate like clockwork. Using this metaphor, Howard could have initiated top-down commands that employees would have to follow (Muller et al., 2010). This metaphor works by reducing waste, increasing efficiency, and product standardization. At Sony Corporation, this metaphor might not work since most of the work is not repetitive, or simple. The CEO could have changed the organization to become an organismic organization.

Organismic organizations focus on inter-organizational relations, innovation, and have more design choices. Emphasizing on relations between the organization and its environment would have allowed the employee resistance to reduce. Once the employees were able to use their skills and understand their importance they would embrace the new changes. Sony Corporation was struggling to survive in the electronics industry. The introduction of the iPod dealt a big blow to the company's walkman, which meant that the company had to develop a rival product.

Using this metaphor the company can survive and compete with its rivals. The brain metaphor encourages people to learn, process information, and change. Using this metaphor, it is clear the employees were unwilling to learn new ways of doing things and processing information. The employees did not see the importance of software, and they insisted on hardware. This meant that software was still an afterthought for the developed hardware. Howard should have demonstrated to the employees and the management the importance of software working together with the hardware.

Showing them how critical it is to consider the software together with the hardware would have allowed the employees to change their mentality and start processing the new information. This would make them adaptable and change with passing time. Combining different functions in order for them to be performed under the same department would be an effective strategy for overcoming this resistance. Culture will play a vital role in the organization (Suddaby et al., 2011).

The company held on the belief that western leadership was not suitable, and the employees preferred Japanese leaders. The society was critical of western leaders, and they had an uphill task trying to understand and reform the company. In Japan, employees had lifetime tenure at the company, which made it difficult for the CEO to cut costs by laying off people. The different misfortunes that afflicted the company like the battery recall could have been handled much better.

The engineers in charge of the battery division did not communicate to the CEO, and he learnt of this issue from the Dell founder. This lack of communication and desire to sort out problems internally demonstrated the organizations overall culture. Previous leaders had engrained in the employees cultures that could not be applicable in the changing information age, which resulted in the company lagging behind its competitors. Engineers at Sony Corporation had the authority to develop their own ideas without seeking approval from their manager.

This freedom made it hard for the CEO to introduce changes, and the engineers followed the principle engrained in them by a Sony veteran. They saw Howard as a clueless boss, and they did not inform him of the new ideas. This was even harder considering that the leaders would fail to deliver reports, and they would drop serious news during meetings. Howard tried to introduce the autocratic leadership strategy, but the employees resisted. The employees preferred to work independently and no integration of the different departments.

With opposing interests, there was constant friction between the departments and managers. To deal with this situation, Howard could have considered the managers self-interests and tried to consolidate this interests with the company's goals. This way the managers would see as if they were achieving their own goals and still deliver on the company's goals. The psychic prisons that employees and managers at Sony Corporation held include the importance of achievement. The employees of Sony Corporation were more interested in personal achievements instead of the company's achievement (Sumi and Schuetz, 2011).

It is vital for an organization to move past the policies that led to its success. This was a huge problem, as most employees did not see the need to change when the model they have has worked in the past. The CEO should have tried to demonstrate to the employees how other companies have managed to adapt to changes and the successes they are achieving. There were many barriers to innovation held by employees and breaking those barriers was a tough challenge.

To create a culture of change, it is vital that organization leaders cultivate the culture within the.