Impact of Technology on Operations
Discuss about the Change Management for Kitchen Staff and Business.
The present report discusses the change management strategies, which can be adopted by the senior management in implementing the computer technology in the organization. It is an innovative technology, in which the table surface is turned into a dynamic surface. With this technology, the user can interact with digital content through natural gestures and physical objects. It is an intuitive user surface which can be used to establish an interactive medium between retail establishments, restaurants and public entertainment. The case study is about a beach restaurant, which is aspiring to adopt the technology. The technology is an innovative solution, which can reduce the waiting time and increase the efficiency of the business (Microsoft, 2007). The present technology can introduce a core competency of the organization, which will distinguish it from the competitors. The present report will highlight the challenges in change management process and strategies, which can be used to address them.
The present technology will bring several changes in the operations of the waiting staff, kitchen staff and the operations department. The employees have to learn new skills. The waiting staff has to learn how to interpret the technology and take orders from the tabletop. It will decrease the waiting time as the customers will be able to immediately order from their tables. As a result, the cooking staff will have to speed up their cooking procedure. It will increase the interaction and connectivity of the user with the waiting staff. They can order food and drinks from their table. The current technology will reduce the turnaround time of the organization. It will increase the capacity of the organization. Further, the technology will also increase the efficiency of the employees (Pugh, 2016). The company will reduce the requirement of the number of employees in the organization. Moreover, it will also reduce the probability of human error in the organization.
There are several reasons for implementing the technology within the organization. The company will be able to increase its efficiency. There will no probability of human error. It will increase the customer satisfaction with the restaurant. It will also create a positive brand image of the organization. The company will be renowned as an early adopter of technology. It will assist the organization in creating a core competency and building brand awareness. The customers will be attracted towards the restaurant to use the innovative table tops (Lawrence, 2014). Adopting technology will also increase the reliability of the customer on the organization. If the restaurant fails to adopt new technology, it will suffer eventually.
Reasons for Implementing Technology
It can be stated that the company will face several resistance by adopting this technology. The business organization will face the resistance from the employees. The waiting staff has to learn new skills; therefore, they will naturally resist the new technology. Furthermore, they will also be concerned that the technology will take their jobs. Therefore, it is essential that the organization adopt a proper change management strategy for the implementation of technology. There are other factors, such as integration of technology with the existing IT infrastructure is also a big challenge for the organization. The restaurant owner has to be convinced that the technology will be financially beneficial for the restaurant for him to make the financial investment (Lawrence, 2014). The restaurant also has to avail the services of specialized trainers to learn the latest technology.
Kottler 8 Step model has been introduced to optimize the change process in the organization. According to this model, there are eight steps to the change process, namely, creating a sense of urgency, forming guiding coalitions, developing a vision and a strategy, communicating the vision, removing challenges and empowering the employees for action, creating short-term success, consolidating gain, strengthening change and anchoring change in the organization.
The first step is creating urgency within the organization. The organization can create urgency by various methods, such as discussing the potential threats in future, which might arise if the company might not adopt the technology. It can also focus on tapping the opportunities with the intervention, initiating honest dialogues with the employees and requesting that the current internal and the external stakeholders support the organization in adopting the change. In the present case, the restaurant owner should discuss with all the employees the importance of introducing change within the organization. The company can reduce the workload on each employee as they will not require to manually going and taking the orders from the customers. Further, it will also reduce the chances of manual error. It will increase customer satisfaction and invite more customers towards the organization. Accordingly, the management should highlight the importance of the change (Smith, King, Sidhu and Skelsey, 2014).
The second step in the model is forming powerful guiding coalitions. The company should emphasize establishing coalitions between different departments and stakeholders so that the organization can smoothly implement the changes with the support of various stakeholders.
There are several ways to achieve the coalition, namely, establishing a change leader within the organization, identifying the weak areas in the coalition team and cross functional department and establishing a support system between different levels in the company. In the current situation, the company can establish an approach of appointing a change leader. The company will appoint a change leader which will handle the change process (Lawrence, 2014). He will organize the change process by reducing the resistance between different departments.
Resistance to Change
The third step is to develop a vision and a strategy for the change. The people should identify the core values, ultimate vision, and strategies to realize the change in the organization. The changes should be described in the vision in an effective manner. The CEO of the restaurant should redesign its vision and mission statement so that they the employees remain motivated to accept the new technology. The employees should realize that they need to adapt to changes in the technology so that they can remain market leader (Sofroniou, 2010).
According to the fourth step, the leader should communicate the vision to the employees. The CEO can undertake various strategies such as adapting the vision of the organization so that it becomes more powerful and convincing. The company should be able to handle all the concerns of people with high level of involvement. The change leader can use different platforms and digital media to communicate the strategy to the followers and employees of the organization (Franklin, 2014).
In the fifth step, the organization should ensure that the processes and structure of the organization are aligned with the vision of the organization. The change leader should constantly analyze the barriers to the change and the people, who are not able to cope up with the change. The organization should implement proactive actions to remove the obstacles in the change process. Further, the CEO of the restaurant can endorse the people, supporting the change. The CEO should monitor the change process and focus in training such as employee training. The employee should be trained so that they become apt in the technology (Cameron, & Green, 2015). Further, they should have control over the learning and classes should be provided in a flexible manner. The CEO should be supportive to employees to reduce the resistance to change.
In the sixth step, the company should create short-term milestones in the change implementation process. It will assure that the employees will feel better in the early stages of the change process. The organization might create short-term targets, which will be achievable and boost confidence of the employees. It will also be less expensive and reduce the chances of failures in the future. The company should enhance the contribution of the people involved in meeting the targets of the organization. The implementation of the technology should be in several stages, so that the employees have the time to adapt to the change (Reiss, 2012).
According to the seventh step, the company should emphasize that there will be consolidated gains as the company can learn from the individual experiences of the team members.
In the eight step, the company anchor change in the system of the organization. The company might anchor change in the corporate culture of the organization and imbibe them in the organization culture.
Figure: Kotter’s 8-step model
(Source: Webster, 2018)
Conclusion
The present report highlights the resistance to change and possible solutions. A case of restaurant, which is trying to introduce the technology of table top, has been taken. According to the case, the implementation of technology in the retardant will be challenging. The company has to implement a proper strategy, so that the change can be implemented in a proper manner.
References
Cameron, E., & Green, M. (2015). Making Sense of Change Management: A Complete Guide to the Models, Tools and Techniques of Organizational Change. Kogan Page Publishers.
Franklin, M. (2014). Agile Change Management: A Practical Framework for Successful Change Planning and Implementation. Kogan Page Publishers.
Lawrence, P. (2014). Leading Change: How Successful Leaders Approach Change Management. Kogan Page Publishers.
Microsoft. (2007). Microsoft Launches New Product Category: Surface Computing Comes to Life in Restaurants, Hotels, Retail Locations and Casino Resorts. Retrieved 18 May 2018 from https://news.microsoft.com/2007/05/29/microsoft-launches-new-product-category-surface-computing-comes-to-life-in-restaurants-hotels-retail-locations-and-casino-resorts/
PughPugh, L. (2016). Change Management in Information Services. Routledge.
Reiss, M. (2012). Change Management. Germany: BoD – Books on Demand.
Smith, R., King, D., Sidhu, R., & Skelsey, D. (2014). The Effective Change Manager’s Handbook: Essential Guidance to the Change Management Body of Knowledge. Kogan Page Publishers.
Sofroniou, A. (2010). Change Management. Lulu.com.
Webster, M. (2018). Successful Change Management — Kotter’s 8-Step Change Model. Leadership Thoughts. Retrieved 18 May 2018 from https://www.leadershipthoughts.com/kotters-8-step-change-model/
Order an Essay Now & Get These Features For Free:
Turnitin Report
Formatting
Title Page
Citation
Outline
