Solomon Business School Implementing The New Strategy Case Solution

After several years of success and top ranking among the other Universities, the Business School tends to face a number of problems in regards to the positioning of the school. The School suffers from a threat to their MBA program by the tough competitors and therefore, a task force was setup in order to find ways to overcome the threats. The Business School expects to face a major shift in the strategy. This shift comes with a number of constraints from the stakeholders connected to the School. Furthermore, while bringing the shift the management expects a number of hindrances in regards to the organizational change, culture and organizational politics. 

2. Analysis

As the Solomon Business School contemplates a major shift in their strategy, the School expects a number of hindrances in regards to organizational change, organizational politics and culture. In this contemporary era where industries are driven by the competition, it becomes vital to move swiftly with the speed of the fast paced era (Anderson & Linda, 2010). Move swiftly refers to responding efficiently to the ever changing needs and demands of the environment posed by several internal or external factors. An organization feels the need of change under a number of circumstances including a change in leadership, crisis situation etc. Due to its great importance, organizational change is considered to be one of the major issues to be dealt with in the organizations. Organizational change is the process of implementation of the changes in the company. In addition to that, when change is implemented within an organization, a lot of resistance is experienced by the employees. Employees tend to resist as a result of inertia. The loss of control, insecurity, uncertainty contributes to the fear of change (Cameron & Mike, 2015). A successful implementation of change does not only help in improving the performance of the employees and organization as a whole but also contributes majorly towards the growth of the employees (Hayes, 2014).

Furthermore, organizations are deemed as the social entities with a continuous struggle for personal conflicts, resources, and a number of tactics observed by the employees in order to benefit in various ways. In order to understand the organization well, it becomes quite important to know the political environment within the organization (Kacmar, Daniel, Kenneth, & Suzanne, 2011). When employees are increasingly inclined towards maximizing the self-interest, the organization is said to be politically heated up. Under such circumstances when employees are motivated to achieve just their own interests the collective goals of the organizations become nearly impossible to achieve. In addition to that, a politically heated up organization tends to portray a negative picture of the organization in the minds of external clients as well as competitors. However, on the other hand, when an organization is strategically designed with values such as compassion, collaboration, the organization tends to portray a quite positive picture in the minds of people. 

Organizational culture is made up of the various beliefs and values that tend to shape the psychological and social environment of the organization. The organization culture is composed of the experiences, philosophy that the firm follows its core values, expectations, communication style, and internal workings of the organization (Schein, 2010). Culture is the firm set of values that are set by the founding members of the organization through practice or story-telling. The organization culture becomes evident in the ways the organization tends to deal with the stakeholders such as suppliers, employees, customers etc. The culture of every organization varies from one to another as every organization tend to have a different set of values, different perceptions, and mainly, different people. In surviving the competition of contemporary era, it becomes a dire need for organizations to change continuously and embrace change (Keyton, 2011). 

In order to reposition their MBA program, a task force is setup at the Solomon Business School and held a meeting in order to reach to the core reasons for the downfall of the School. The task force is left with a small time of 60 days till the new academic year starts. The new faculty members, in the past, had retired. However, the new faculty members from the top tier business schools’ have been recruited. As a result, the average age of faculty members dropped from 54 to 41. The faculty was more inclined towards establishing them as researchers which resulted in a buy out of teachers as well as reduced teaching. The new faculty members belonged to a little business background. In 2003, when Professor Grover was hired, he kept two major issues to be dealt with. First, the repositioning of the School. Second, the restoration of the flagship MBA program. Many believed that the downfall of the MBA program was due to the failure of the faculty to be seen as the opinion leaders. 

In addition to that, the task force as setup by Professor Grover had two characteristics i.e., this was the first time that members came together to work towards a goal and secondly, the task force did not include any newly hired members except for Mr. Grover himself. After the several meetings held by the task force, many concluded that the success the School had witnessed in the past has blinded the management. Furthermore, it is important to gain insights on the customer understanding as the applications dropped. Alteration of the program activities was also required along with the requirements and the profiles of the applicants. 

The task force also tried to evaluate the reasons that had previously contributed to the success of the School. The small size of the faculty, and immense professional, as well as managerial experience, contributed a great deal towards success. Furthermore, the faculty was interconnected and collegial which benefitted the school considering the small size of the faculty. All the faculty was homogenous previously i.e., the US well trained and well educated male staff belonging to their middle ages. As Professor Grover was new he emphasized immensely on the need for openness, however, due to the fact most of the faculty members as present in the task force were friends to each other the task force lacked openness.