Reference no: EM132825679

Case Five Organizational Change

Kings University, a major institution of higher learning situated in a large metropolitan area in Ontario has used a proprietory, in-house, information system called GAUNTLET for all of its HR, finance, student enrollment and course allocation processes for the last thirty years. Unionized administrative staff who used it and first and second level managers who trained them found the system easy to use and even easier to train. New employees felt competent to use the in-house system in less than two weeks. Because it was developed in-house changes and updates could be made to the system by IT personnel quickly and efficiently because they knew the system well.

A new President arrived on scene and with the approval of the Board of Directors determined that a more robust IT system was required; one that would give the University a better HRIS system, better Planning and Budgeting access, and superior student self-service ability to enrol and manage student records all in one place. Instead of a proprietory, in-house system, the new system, INTEGRATOR, was 'out of the box'. The President saw his job as driving INTEGRATOR down throughout the organization as fast as possible. It was a massive change for an older long service work force to learn and instead of a system being responsive to the needs of its users, the new system required that users were responsive to it. It was entirely inflexible. It was never built specifically for education application. Worse than that, training would be a major, and frustrating undertaking.

Change at Kings University was headed for serious trouble.

1. List and explain the major resistance to change factors in this case.

2. What strategies could be used by Kings University to minimize the resistance to change.