Tesla-Organizational Change Project – (Management)

Tesla Organizational Change

 

California State University, Northridge

Management 450

 

Students will work in teams to identify and design a change initiative for a designated organization. The project has four steps:

1) Review: Review the Organizational Analysis report

Teams will be provided with a copy of a research report that analyzes the organization’s culture and identifies current forces impacting the organization.

Teams will have an opportunity to interview the researchers (authors of the analysis report).

 

2) Research: Propose an organizational change

Based upon the Organizational Analysis report, teams will identify a proposed future change that they recommend.

Purpose: The change should be related to a specific currentchallenge facing the organization

Future Orientation: The change should be a future initiative that is not yet underway

Goal Orientation: The change should be directed towards a specific organizational outcome (goal)

Benefit: The change should produce tangible (measurable) and intangible benefits for the organization

Course Learning: The change should provide an opportunity to apply course concepts

 

3)  Design: Design the organizational change (due Dec. 8)

Teams will draft a five-page summary that describes a design for the organizational change.

 

Answer

 

Introduction – Jessica A brief introduction (1 paragraph) should directly establish the purpose and focus of the executive summary report that follows.

Tesla was founded in 2003 by Elon Musk. His company has been very successful throughout the years. Tesla is well known for their electric vehicles and mission towards sustainable energy. Although Tesla has been a very successful company there is some problems that happen within the company. Throughout the analysis we will focus on the change that must be made to Tesla, the challenges it will face when implementing the change , and the outcome.

Organizational Analysis Report Summary (Executive Summary) – Cindy The paper will first summarize the key findings from the review of the Organizational Analysis report. Change with the Workforce – Sean

Tesla is a very well-known company that produces high-end electric cars. People are willing to wait months to get their hands on their own Tesla. So you would think that Tesla treats their workforce like they would their cars, wrong. There are a couple of issues going on within Tesla and their workplace. One issue that had come up, was employees being treated unfairly in the workplace and the company not taking actions to fix the problem. Another issue was not making employee injuries and worker health the number one priority. The last issue, about the workforce treatment, is on job security and assurance on positions working at Tesla. The most important change that Tesla needs to make is treating their workforce better.

The first issue that Tesla needs to focus on is unfair treatment in the workplace. Several Tesla workers stated that they have been mocked for being homosexual, threatened with violence, and had racist insults thrown their way (Houser, 2018). It is Tesla’s duty to make sure that workers feel comfortable at the job and to minimize encounter stressors. By enforcing this will make for a work culture that focuses more on the wellbeing of their employees making for higher moral. Another issue that Tesla needs to address, is making sure workforce health and safety is their number one concern. A lot of their workers have been experiencing time stressors, that have been placed upon them by Elon Musk’s aggressive production projections. Some of the employees have even stated, that the stress and long hours inhibited having a family life. One of the workers said, “They were trying to drive home that if you want to go work for a company that will give you enough time to do your job, then this isn’t the place” (Wong, 2018). Tesla needs to hire more workers to meet these aggressive quotas, which may help with environmental stressors. The final issue that Tesla needs to figure out, is how to improve workforce culture and ensuring job security. In June of this year, 2018, Tesla laid off a large portion of their workforce. They laid off about 9 percent of its workforce, which was about 4,100 jobs, and they were mostly salaried positions (Kolodny & Ferris , 2018). Therefore, Tesla needs to implement changes by focusing on its workforce. Treating their employees badly causes low morale, high stress, and unhappy workers. Implementation – Cindy & Jessica

There are driving forces that can help to support the needed change. Driving forces are forces that put pressure on the organization to change. There is an obvious pressure to change how injuries are managed in the workplace. There were high injury rates shown within the company, and it warranted a statement from Elon Musk. He said that future injuries will be taken seriously, and that he will personally account to each of them. In the end, workers said that Musk never followed through with his statement and that it was all just PR (Wong, 2018). The fact that Musk had to release a statement on this situation, shows that the public is a driving force putting pressure on him to change how injuries are handled. Other driving forces for change include the inevitable lawsuits and the major investigation the Center for Investigative Reporting’s Reveal did. Their findings found that Musk has not written out all the injuries that occurred within Tesla, which evoked the government opening its own investigation. Avoiding future lawsuits and investigation should be a driving force for the company to change its ways.

Tesla also has some restraining forces that represent obstacles for the change and how they can be managed. Restraining forces put pressure on the organization not to change. Elon Musk has his own supporters, who claim that even if Musk were to perform the jobs of those injured, he would not truly understand the dangerous conditions they entail. This is a pressure that does not support the changes Tesla must make. Another restraining force, is when Musk sent out an email about the harassments writing, “In fairness, if someone is a jerk to you, but sincerely apologizes, it is important to be thick-skinned and accept that apology.” (Wong, 2018). Many described this as a green light for continued harassment and discrimination. This green light is a pressure put on the organization, where the harassment and discrimination may not get fixed by the company. The company continues to believe that the only thing necessary to fix this problem, is a simple apology that must be accepted.

Resistance to change is anticipated when changing a company’s organization. A form of resistance is the management’s motivation to change. As previously mentioned, Elon Musk has been hiding some of the reported injuries from statements and releasing statements that he does not follow through. When Musk’s words do not mean much to the workers, they will have no impact on the management team to implement any changes. Musk has shown that he does not sincerely care about the work conditions, therefore the management team will reflect the same attitude. A way to respond to this change, is for Elon Musk to create a clear articulate vision and enforce it. By doing this, “This will help to give direction to a change program and to provide a benchmark to evaluate the success of the change. Without a well-understood vision, the change is likely to go haphazardly in many unintended directions,” (Brown, 2011). The vision must be communicated throughout the company, otherwise no one will believe in the vision and the change will not occur.

What are the possible risks or unintended consequences of this change? How can these risks be managed? With new ideas of changes to implement to the company comes possible risk factors that Tesla can encounter. A risk that Tesla will go through by making a change to the work environment will be receiving backlash from the people. Although the change is good, people will probably question why did it take so long for them to resolve the issue. Not only that but the company will have to recreate their image in order to create a more positive environment.

This means changing guidelines that the company has been following for years. People will see this as a poor management from part of Elon Musk for barely resolving an issue that has been out in the open for the past year back in 2017. Elon Musk had mentioned back in 2017 that he “believes in doing right and that extends to caring about the health and safety of everyone at the company.”(add citation) People will probably see it as a false claim made by Tesla once again.

Having new changes to the work environment for Tesla can create the risk of increasing or lowering the reputation of the company. One way that Tesla can be affected negatively by these new changes is that it will be viewed as a company that provided poor working conditions to their employees. The other risk that Tesla can face is that these new implementations can create a positive image and show Tesla as a company that has listened to their employees and cares for them. Furthermore, Tesla can be viewed positively as a company that wants to retain their employees and create an enjoyable work environment for them. By creating these changes to the work environment, Tesla runs the risk that consumers will see them in a negative way as the company that did not care about the working conditions of their employees or in a positive way as the company that cares and values their employee. Although if these changes aren’t implemented Tesla has the risk of facing lawsuits from people have been injured in the job and ignore. They will also face lower productivity because of the health of the employees which can drive them to not want to work as efficiently and feeling stressed out.

Supporting elements incremental change

In order to implement a change in Tesla we will need to have a plan and a process. First we will need to come up with a vision which is improving the work environment and safety of the employees in Tesla. We need to figure out what concerns are the people voicing about the working conditions in Tesla. For example, employees are saying “superiors put the production numbers ahead of the safety and wellbeing of the employees”(add citation). This will provide us some feedback about how exactly they feel and what actions need to be taken in order improve the company. Next, we implement a process on what steps need to be taken to have improvement. Management will need to be aware of how important it is to have a positive work environment and that the safety of the employees is valuable and shouldn’t be ignored. Once that’s established, this will allow workers to feel more comfortable and won’t feel like they have to work through their injuries just to complete productions. Having a positive work environment in which the safety of the employees isn’t ignored can lead to higher productivity and less stress.

 

 

What are the supporting elements (plan, process and people) that are required for the change to be successful?

(Make a plan and process to solve the situation )

· protocols/guidelines/sexual harassment

· Verbal warnings write up, suspended leave and firing ,work safety ,injury

 

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/may/18/tesla-workers-factory-conditions-elon-musk

Desired Outcome – Hooman The paper will describe the desired outcome (goal) for the change and the criteria by which the success of the change can be evaluated (1 page). Consider the following: How will the organization be different as a result of the change? How can the organization evaluate the success of the change? How can the organization sustain and build upon the results of the change (next steps)? Call to Action (Conclusion) – Hooman The paper will conclude with a call to action for the organizational change (1 paragraph). For this project, you are attempting to persuade the audience (the reader or the organization) to agree with your approach and to take action.

References

Brown, Donald R. (2011) “Chapter 6 – Overcoming Resistance to Change.” An Experiential Approach to Organization Development, by Donald R. Brown, Prentice Hall, 2011, p. 154.

Houser, K. (2018, February 14). Three Problems Tesla Has to Face Down Before Becoming the Company of the Future. Retrieved from Futurism: https://futurism.com/three-problems-tesla-company-future

Kolodny, L., & Ferris , R. (2018, June 12). Tesla to cut 9% of jobs in ‘difficult but necessary’ reorganization. Retrieved from CNBC: https://www.cnbc.com/2018/06/12/tesla-to-cut-about-9-percent-of-jobs-across-company-report.html

Wong, Julia. (2018, June 14). Tesla Workers Say They Pay the Price for Elon Musk’s Big Promises. Retrieved from The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/jun/13/tesla-workers-pay-price-elon-musk-failed-promises