Week6nr-534 Response
Write a response to the classmate post below.
Classmate post: My name is MARY and I will facilitate this week’s discussion. A flat organizational structure is a structure with minimal or no hierarchal levels between employees and leadership (Alexy, 2022). Flattening a top-heavy organizational structure is a challenging task. Still, it may have benefits for example, cost-effectiveness, increased decision-making autonomy for staff, improved communication between top-level leaders and staff, the broader distribution of power, less bureaucracy, and a more transparent work environment, (Alexy, 2022). Organizational Change is necessary for growth, and organizations need continuous adaptation to survive, (McLaren et al., 2022). Change management is a key determinant in the success of the change, (McLaren et al., 2022). Restructuring the department to flatten the structure will require the elimination of some middle management positions. In planning the restructuring, my first step would be to do a thorough review of the organizational hierarchy and analyze the potential impact on the department of eliminating positions, including consideration of work redistribution and the effect on day-to-day operations.
As a framework to guide change management, I will utilize Kotter’s 8-step change model because it is the most appropriate to help prepare staff and key stakeholders for this type of change and provides a simple step-by-step guide on how to implement change. Change is inevitable and can be very difficult for staff, (McLaren et al., 2022). The change needs to be well-planned, well-communicated, and carefully implemented, (McLaren et al., 2022). Support from key stakeholders is necessary for the success of the change. This restructuring will involve the redistribution of the workloads that the people in the eliminated positions had and it will require the remaining staff to acquire some additional tasks, therefore staff understanding of the benefits and rationale for the change is critical. My leadership profile is team leader and a characteristic of the team leader is to build trusting relationships with the teams they lead to achieve goals and implement change. Trust and transparency are necessary for a change like this to be successful.
