Change Resistance at Sony Term Paper

Total Length: 1064 words ( 4 double-spaced pages)

Total Sources: 1+

Page 1 of 4

Resistance to Change Within Sony Corporation

propose strategies that the current CEO Howard Stringer can Ilise to try to manage this resistance

Morgan identified eight organizational perspectives that can be used as frameworks for organizational resistance. In the case of Sony Corporation, the CEO Howard Stringer faced resistance when he tried to introduce the western way of management. The employees resisted the changes, and this brought about many other issues. Using Morgan's organizational metaphors, Howard Stringer could have managed to overcome this resistance. The machine view suggests that employees will operate as expected, work by following laid out procedures, and operate like clockwork. Using this metaphor, Howard could have initiated top-down commands that employees would have to follow (Muller et al., 2010). This metaphor works by reducing waste, increasing efficiency, and product standardization. At Sony Corporation, this metaphor might not work since most of the work is not repetitive, or simple.

The CEO could have changed the organization to become an organismic organization. Organismic organizations focus on inter-organizational relations, innovation, and have more design choices. Emphasizing on relations between the organization and its environment would have allowed the employee resistance to reduce. Once the employees were able to use their skills and understand their importance they would embrace the new changes. Sony Corporation was struggling to survive in the electronics industry. The introduction of the iPod dealt a big blow to the company's walkman, which meant that the company had to develop a rival product. Using this metaphor the company can survive and compete with its rivals.


The brain metaphor encourages people to learn, process information, and change. Using this metaphor, it is clear the employees were unwilling to learn new ways of doing things and processing information. The employees did not see the importance of software, and they insisted on hardware. This meant that software was still an afterthought for the developed hardware. Howard should have demonstrated to the employees and the management the importance of software working together with the hardware. Showing them how critical it is to consider the software together with the hardware would have allowed the employees to change their mentality and start processing the new information. This would make them adaptable and change with passing time. Combining different functions in order for them to be performed under the same department would be an effective strategy for overcoming this resistance.

Culture will play a vital role in the organization (Suddaby et al., 2011). The company held on the belief that western leadership was not suitable, and the employees preferred Japanese leaders. The society was critical of western leaders, and they had an uphill task trying to understand and reform the company. In Japan, employees had lifetime tenure at the company, which made it difficult for the CEO to cut costs by laying off people. The different misfortunes that afflicted the company like the battery recall could have been handled much better. The engineers in charge of the battery division….....

Show More ⇣


     Open the full completed essay and source list


OR

     Order a one-of-a-kind custom essay on this topic


sample essay writing service

Cite This Resource:

Latest APA Format (6th edition)

Copy Reference
"Change Resistance At Sony" (2014, November 05) Retrieved July 10, 2025, from
https://www.aceyourpaper.com/essays/change-resistance-sony-2153767

Latest MLA Format (8th edition)

Copy Reference
"Change Resistance At Sony" 05 November 2014. Web.10 July. 2025. <
https://www.aceyourpaper.com/essays/change-resistance-sony-2153767>

Latest Chicago Format (16th edition)

Copy Reference
"Change Resistance At Sony", 05 November 2014, Accessed.10 July. 2025,
https://www.aceyourpaper.com/essays/change-resistance-sony-2153767