question archive Running head: TESLA ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE 1   TESLA ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE 2                       Tesla Organizational Change Cindy Perez, Hooman Pourbakhtiar, Jessica Romo-Tovar, Sean Leddie       California State University, Northridge Management 450 13937 Dr

Running head: TESLA ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE 1   TESLA ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE 2                       Tesla Organizational Change Cindy Perez, Hooman Pourbakhtiar, Jessica Romo-Tovar, Sean Leddie       California State University, Northridge Management 450 13937 Dr

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Running head: TESLA ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE

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TESLA ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE 2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tesla Organizational Change

Cindy Perez, Hooman Pourbakhtiar, Jessica Romo-Tovar, Sean Leddie

 

 

 

California State University, Northridge

Management 450

13937

Dr. Drew Foley

December 8, 2018

 

Introduction 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 are some problems 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 of the change.

Organizational Analysis Report Summary This report was made to analyze Tesla’s needed organizational change. Through analysis of several reports, we found that Tesla’s workforce needs change. We found that Tesla has not been treating their employees well, and have been ignoring employee injuries and harassment. Our findings have analyzed that the public is a driving force for the change, as well as the possible lawsuits that can be avoided. These are both reasons Tesla would want to change their work culture. Restraining forces include those who are Elon Musk supporters who do not believe change is necessary, as well as Elon Musk sending out an email stating that his employees should grow thick skins when it comes to the harassment.

Our analyses has also found that resistance to change shows itself where employees do not feel like any change is going to come. They need to believe in the company’s vision and mission before they could implement any change. Changing the company vision is also a risk on Tesla. This would mean a complete change in daily operations, which may affect the way Tesla is run. This is a change which we believe would benefit the company overall. Through analysis, we have come to realize that through Tesla’s change, there would be less injuries. Less employees will be reporting harassments and dangerous work conditions. While more employees will feel like they are included in the success of Tesla and its culture. Overall, the company will benefit from motivated employees who truly believe in Tesla’s vision.

Change with the Workforce

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

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. 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 it took so long for them to resolve the issue. In addition to that, 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.” (Wong, 2017) 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.

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”(Wong,2017). 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.

Desired Outcome

By Tesla improving the work-life balance of its employees’, that sense of balance will improve job satisfaction among employees. Employees will not feel as if they are overlooking other areas of their lives which are critical to the quality of service they render to the company. Tesla’s management will be responsible of rewarding employees who maintain good work-life balance habits. By Tesla creating a positive work environment, employee safety records and customer satisfaction will improve (Carnall, 2018). When there is a positive working environment in Tesla, the company will benefit with increased productivity, low turnover, and increased profitability. Employees will take pride in what they do for Tesla and the company will give the employees the need to belong and identify themselves with the company.

Tesla will attract better quality employees by having a secure working environment. Securing the work environment will increase competition among applicants and decrease employee turnover because employees will feel needed. Changes in the working environment will reduce healthcare costs for the company. A reduction in accidents in the company will reduce the costs the company spends after accidents happen in the company involving employees. Tesla’s organizational culture is part of its brand and business. Improving the workplace culture will increase the company’s marketability and this will also impact how the company hires talent. The company will attract employees who fit with its culture because employees are attracted by companies that fit their lifestyles.

Each strategic implementation needs to be evaluated on the basis of expected results. Tesla can use tools to analyze the success of improving the work environment of the company. One-on-one conversations, focus groups, employee surveys, exit interviews, and leaders roundtables are some of the tools Tesla can use to evaluate the success of the change. These tools can focus on Tesla’s organizational culture, management practices, workplace environment and flexibility, training and development opportunities, and career advancement options among other factors affected by the changes (Todorovi? & Petrovi?, 2015). Addressing employee satisfaction will not be an easy task for Tesla because the management will have to improve its understanding on employees’ general feelings about the company. Constant engagement with employees will be the best option of evaluating the success of the change.

Tesla’s change management team can track change management activities based on the plan and expected results. The team can track the number of employee accidents happening after securing their working conditions. The company can also track the number of complaints forwarded by employees regarding the quality of the working conditions. The company can introduce training tests and effectiveness measures to ensure they get accurate feedback on the success of changes made (Houston & McIntire, 2016). Tesla can also assess the communication deliveries because they are a reflection of the nature of the employee cohesiveness. The change management team can also implement metrics of tracking performance improvement to ensure the changes bring positive changes to the productivity of the employees.

The culture Tesla will develop will determine how well the company holds itself together. The general values, behaviors, mindsets, and work environment are the best tools of sustaining the results of the changes. Tesla will have to regularly perform a culture audit to identify potential challenges which may affect the results of the changes (Houston & McIntire, 2016). The company should start and maintain a philosophy of continuous improvement that will not allow employees to get complacent with the changes. Tesla should constantly notify employees of the success realized from improving the work environment because it will make the change more popular. The management can also manage the drivers of culture, for example, talent management measure, systems, and incentives for the change to be aligned with the new direction. Tesla can track change management activities to ensure they can monitor the plan as the results start becoming evident. Tracking will ensure the plan adheres to the laid down timeline and maintain a consistent speed of execution. Call to Action (Conclusion) Other than the job scope itself, the work environment significantly affects and influences how employees feel about work. Tesla needs to pay attention to employee and stakeholder concerns on the quality of work environment in the company. Creating a positive and safe work environment will make Tesla employees to feel good about their relation with the company and will feel good coming to work. A positive and healthy working environment will sustain Tesla’s growth by offering the company motivated and productive employees. Improving employee safety will reduce their anxiety and increase innovation within the company. Assessing and improving the work environment should be a compulsory step for Tesla in the quest of improving its operations and performance.

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