“Royer knew that to be effective in any competitive industry, an organization needed to have a strategic direction and specific goals. He decided to focus on two goals: return on investment and customer service…The competitive strategy had to focus on being innovative in product design, high in product quality, and unique in customer service…When Royer took over at Domtar, he explained to the executive team that there were three pillars to the company: customers, shareholders, and ourselves” (Blanchard & Thacker, 2007, p. 2).
Domtar simply introduced two strategies which are return on investment and customer service. To make this strategy successful Royer aligned the strategy with three sections of the company, the customer, shareholders, and ourselves. The mission is to meet the ever-changing needs of our customers, provide shareholders with attractive returns, and create an environment in which shared human values and personal commitment prevail (Blanchard & Thacker, p. 2, 2007). How the strategy and mission aligns is by focusing on return on investment and customer service, to meet or exceed the mission. The impact created by the mission statement is also being carried out by the strategy.
Given the difficulty of organizational change, what factors contributed to the success at Domtar? How did Domtar’s management at all levels contribute to reducing resistance to change? What else might they have done? Royer noted that it is only “ourselves” that are able to have any impact on changing the company. Royer hiring a Kaizen guru, which gave Domtar a process of getting employees involved by using their expertise in the development of new and more effective ways of doing things.
Royer knew that for the new strategic direction to be successful, everyone needed to understand the changes being proposed and have the skills to achieve them (Blanchard & Thacker, p. 2, 2007). “This last point reflects the belief that it is the employees’ competencies that make the difference. The “Domtar Difference,” as it is called, is reflected in the statement, “tapping the intelligence of the experts, our employees.” Employees must be motivated to become involved in developing new ways of doing things.
Thus, Domtar needed to provide employees with incentives for change, new skills, and a different attitude toward work. The introduction of Kaizen was one tactic used to achieve these goals” (Blanchard & Thacker, 2007, p. 2). The factors that contributed to the success were the strategies used to reshape the internal structure and the fact that everyone got involved in changing the working environment. The actions of hiring Kaizen lead the firm towards the achievement of goals and objectives. Management at all levels got involved by being empowered, they were able to get involved and come up with different ways to help and also empower employees.
The role of the mangers in this process is to reduce the burden of change from employees by involving them into the doing things better process. In this case I think they did everything right and I cannot see anything else that they could have done. They empowered management and employees, offered incentives, new skills, and a different attitude towards work. They even communicated the change and what needed to be done to make it happen. They possibly could of asked employees for their input.
What were the major HRD challenges associated with Domtar’s acquisitions and joint partnerships? How were these challenges addressed and what were the risks associated with these approaches? The challenges associated with Domtar’s acquisitions and joint partnerships were the attitude towards cultural change, innovative use of technology/skills, and new information and knowledge.
These challenges were addressed by focusing on training the employees to make them realize that they are the real assets of the organization and that success was in their hands. The risks were resistance to change and employees not accepting the change or valuing the training. Take the critical facts in the Domtar case and place them into the appropriate phases of the training model presented in the chapter. Begin with the triggering event and provide a rationale for why each fact belongs in the phase in which you have placed it.
There are 5 phases in the training model:
- Needs analysis phase – “An effective training system begins with the identification of the organization’s training needs” (Blanchard & Thacker, 2007, p. 7). Strategic direction and specific goals. I put this here because Royer knew that to be effective in any competitive industry, an organization needed to have a direction and goals. He knew this is what Domtar needed.
- Design phase – “The training needs identified in the Analysis Phase, in addition to areas of constraint and support, are the inputs to the design phase” (Blanchard & Thacker, 2007, p. 8). Innovative in product design, high in product quality, and unique in customer service. I put this here because it gives the needs analysis a direction.
- Development phase – “Program Development is the process of formulating an instructional strategy to meet a set of training objectives” (Blanchard & Thacker, 2007, p. 8). Hiring Kaizen guru. I put this in this phase because it was a process of getting employees involved and help come up with a strategy to meet training objectives.
- Implementation phase – “All the aspects of the training program come together during the implementation phase” (Blanchard & Thacker, 2007, p. 8). Making training a key part of Royer’s strategy. I put this in this phase because they made this a part of the strategy by creating a set of training objectives.
- Evaluation/Outcome phase – “is the evaluation conducted at the end of training to determine the effects of training on the trainee, the job, and the organization” (Blanchard & Thacker, 2007, p. 8). “A performance management system was put in place to provide a mechanism for employees to receive feedback about their effectiveness.
This process laid the groundwork for successfully attaining such objectives as improving employee performance, communicating the Domtar values, clarifying individual roles, and fostering better communication between employees and managers. Tied to this were performance incentives that rewarded employees with opportunities to share in the profits of the company” (Blanchard & Thacker, 2007, p. 2). I put this here because it is the evaluation phase. It is intended to review the performance of the change.
Reference
- Blanchard, P. N., & Thacker, J. W. (2007). Effective Training: Systems, Strategies, and Practices (3rd ed.). Retrieved from Effective Training: Systems, Strategies, and Practices.
