Preview

Sunflower Incorporated Analysis

Satisfactory Essays
Open Document
Open Document
381 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Sunflower Incorporated Analysis
Sunflower Incorporated Case Analysis
Focused in the independent retail market throughout the United States and Canada, Sunflower Incorporated is a popular distributor of salty snacks and liquor. In an attempt to limit variations in profit margins across regions and to protect their company image after finding that certain profitable divisions were using lower-quality products to maximize profit levels, headquarters established a new financial reporting system aimed to standardize pricing and purchasing policy within the organization.
1. How well did Albanese manage the pricing and purchasing changes at Sunflower?
Agnes Albanese, the newly appointed Director of pricing and purchasing may have been a bit hasty in her management approach and failed to follow through with her planned change. Without a comprehensive understanding of company structure and culture, she suggested a solution after a mere three weeks. After a mere three weeks, she suggested a solution but did not (25) Managers and staff specialists must work with and through people to achieve organizational objectives, and OD can help them form effective relationships with others. Planned change involves four sets of activities – entering and contracting, diagnosing, planning and implementing, and evaluating and institutionalizing
2a. Were the changes implemented successfully?
Albanese' approach may be typical for many organizations but unfortunately it doesn't return anticipated results for numerous reasons. Organizational development theory tells us that change, in order to be effective, must be led and managed. Albanese only provided a quick solution to what she regarded as a simple problem while making no efforts to establish a change plan that would have included such elements as providing the leadership and vision to promote the change, cultural assessment to align behavioral norms, communication and stakeholder management, performance management, training and development, and

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    Sunflower Nutraceuticals (SNC) is a privately held nutraceutical company that was founded in 2006 and is located in Miami, Florida. SNC started as an internet-based, direct to customer distributor and retailer of dietary supplements. SNC offers its customers a large selection of products from more than fifty third-party brands. Since it was founded, the company has ambitiously expanded into new retail markets and launched several private-label brands. (Harvard Business Publishing, 2014)…

    • 2005 Words
    • 24 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    MGT 435 Entire Course

    • 651 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Implementing Organizational Change . This post should be at least 200 words in length. Select one of the following approaches to understanding or implementing organizational change. Summarize this approach. Provide an example of how this information could be useful to an organization. Review several of your peers’ posts. Discuss any similar or opposing perspectives you have, with at least two of your peers. Take care to be professional and polite even if your beliefs or viewpoints differ. Dunphy and Stace’s Four Levels of Change…

    • 651 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    Implementing change in an organization is complicated. It is important that a manager understands their role and responsibilities for which could very well be the success or failure of an organization. A manager should know how to handle staff resistance, and the areas that require change. There are processes that help management with assisting their staff members with adjusting to change and concentrate on the areas of importance. This process includes planning, assessment, implementation, and evaluation. The difference between a failed organization and a successful manager is when the manager has the ability to implement change with little disruption to their staff members.…

    • 1164 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    After the organizational issues are clarified, it must be determined who the relevant client is for addressing these issues. Generally, the relevant client would include organizational members who can directly impact the change issue. Unless these members are identified and included in the entering and contracting process, they may withhold their support and commitment for the OD process and so cause it to fail. OD practitioners would need to gather information to be able to identify key organizational members and units that need to be involved in the OD…

    • 1201 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    Organizational development (OD) focuses on the research, theory, and practices committed to increasing the knowledge and effectiveness of individuals to achieve positive and successful organizational transformations. OD is the continuous process of planning, implementing, and evaluating the goals of the company by the way of “transferring knowledge and skills to organizations to improve their capacity for solving problems and managing future change” (Organizational development theory, n.d.). The beginning of OD came from studies from the 1930s, 40s, and 50s where the realization arisen about how the structure of the organization and its processes helped shape an employee’s performance and drive. In recent years, OD is helping companies align with the changes occurring in the new business environment. Key to organizational development theories and applications is the organization’s climate, culture, and strategies.…

    • 1064 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    In our rapidly changing economy, it is important for the organization to continuously redefine its strategy and planning to meet the demands of the market. Planning is another important factor for the process of change implementation. A manager should consider the outcomes he or she wants to achieve through the change process and define a clear set of goals for the department. These goals should have a clear description of how he or she wants the department to look, operate, behave, and position itself in the organization. Planning before the change is effective is very helpful. Communication must take place in some form with all the affected employees by the change. It is important that managers inform their employees why the change necessary and how it will improve things. Change will be more successful if all the employees understand the need of the change and are committed to the change. Last but not the least is evaluation. Evaluation is an important component of the change process. As part of the project planning a decision needs…

    • 1102 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the book “The Sunflower” the big question that one would get from reading it would be “What would you have done if you were placed in Simon’s position”. I of course not being born in the time in which the event took place would mean that I would have had different feelings and motives at the time. It would seem almost impossible for me to be able to think in the way that Simon felt during the situation that occurred, I would truly end up forgiving him for what he has done simply because of the current life that I live. Though I have been provided the information given from both sides of the argument in whether or not to forgive Karl, I believe in my good moral values that he should be given…

    • 815 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Evaluating “The Sunflower” While reading “The Sunflower,” the question is posed of whether or not I would have granted the dying SS soldier forgiveness. When it comes to the topic of forgiveness, most of us will readily agree that to forgive a wrong done to us, is a noble deed. Where this agreement usually ends, however, is on the question of whether we can forgive a wrong done to someone else. Whereas some are convinced that we can forgive and comfort someone who has wronged another, others maintain that we cannot extend forgiveness on behalf of someone else.…

    • 837 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    It is important to be well informed about the organization and the environment in which the organization does business. Once the objectives and reasons for change are addressed, then a plan for change should be made. Before fully implementing change it is important to have an understanding of how the change will affect the organization. Employees should also be informed of the importance of the change, how it will affect them, and how it will occur.…

    • 397 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Management’s role and responsibility when implementing change is to ensure the transition is smooth. The manager needs to be aware of the permanent and never-ending demands that a changing environment has on the staff and the work load and translates the changes to the staff (Porter-O'Grady, 2007). They should be able to distinguish the difference between short-term and sustainable change in order to move effortlessly between responding to appropriate change and implementing the necessary structure. Management also needs to be able to look at the bigger picture and draw from various personal experiences and the work of the organization to make decisions in regard to essential changes and organizational direction. Most importantly a manager needs to be aware of and open to sustainable change in their individual behavior.…

    • 1428 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    Implementing Change

    • 1293 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The manager’s role and responsibility in implementing changes within their assigned department consists of coordination that will ensure change will be successfully implemented. Managers must appropriately lead employees with a certain leadership style that will encourage employee engagement and adapt to changes. The role a manager takes in any company when implementing change has to be aware of the three distinct categories that could be changed. First there is change in people; this is how people relate to each other and how implementing a change would affect how the organization functions more effectively. To do this the manager must relay to the staff why the change is necessary to the organization. When taking the steps in implementing change, managers must represent themselves as change representatives. Acting as change…

    • 1293 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    Implementing Change

    • 2432 Words
    • 10 Pages

    Inevitable in all organizations is change and the success or failure of that change can be a result of how well the manager implements and manages any changes. According to Leban and Stone (2008, “What is change management,” para. 5) “successful change requires a critical mass of people who are committed, are willing to change, and will sustain their new behavior to align with the needs of the change.”…

    • 2432 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Q1- How well did Albanese manage the pricing and purchasing changes at sunflower? Were the changes implemented successfully? How would you find this out?…

    • 1645 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    Sunflower Incorporated is a large distribution company that purchases and distributes salty snack foods and liquors throughout the United States and Canada. The company employs over 5,000 employees and has gross sales of over $700 million. The head office has encouraged each of its regions to operate separately in order to accommodate different tastes and preferences. When studied, it was determined that the profits across the regions varied widely and the decision was made that the process needed to be standardized in order to increase profits, capture market share and ensure quality remained at an acceptable level so not to tarnish the image of Sunflower. This decision created the need to hire Agnes Albanese as Director of Pricing and Purchasing to implement the planned change throughout the organization.…

    • 1691 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Change Agents

    • 1489 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Change is vital in every organization to survive and to keep up with the ever-changing technology and environment. They include globalisation, clashing cultures and diversity, changing technology, challenging economies, the need to be more efficient, innovative and responsive to customer demands, corporate social responsibilities, and aging and growing population (Thompson, 2009). In order to survive, organizations are required to constantly change so that it remains competitive with the changing environment Organization development is different from organizational change. It is primarily concerned with change that is goaled towards transferring the knowledge, skills and expertise needed to achieve goals and solve problems. The intention is to improve the organization in terms of problem solving, quality of work life, etc and moving the organization to a better direction or position in order to have better performance, lower turnover and higher job satisfaction in employees. Organizational change whereas, is more broad in perspective and can refer to any changes in the organization from change in organizational structure to technical or managerial innovations Organizational targets for planned change include changes in strategy, objectives, technology, culture, structure, processes, management etc. These change activities in the organization are managed, facilitate and implement by change agents. There will be a discussion on why organizations enlist the help of change agents and the skills and competencies that they need to possess. There are various advantages and disadvantages for an organization in using internal and external change agents in the change processes. Lastly, few recommendations are people who bring or introduce planned change. The change agent can be manager or non-manager, employees of an organization or a consultant hired from outside (Pathak, 2010).…

    • 1489 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays

Related Topics