Small Presentation on the movie – “Gung Ho”

  You will need to rent or purchase a copy of the movie. Your task is to create a PowerPoint presentation that you will post at the beginning of Week 10 by noon on Monday to serve as the basis for our discussions. I will assign groups in the beginning of Week 1. Gung Ho is a comedy about a Japanese car company that buys an American plant. However, it is really about change – diagnosing change, creating a new culture, and leading change – and all the related issues and challenges. Consider your small group a team of change consultants brought in to assess the change process used and help the management team understand the process better for the future. You will compile your findings in a 10-20 page PowerPoint presentation to the leadership team at the plant; include speaker notes so that I understand your direction and purpose. Your presentation should draw on the models and processes we learned about this semester. It is up to the team to decide the contents of the presentation and how to organize it, but it should touch on the following: 1. Who was leading the change? What was the leadership actually trying to change? What was the nature of the change? 2. Was there a guiding coalition? Was the change communicated well to employees? 3. What kind of culture (reference Cameron and Quinn) was the leadership trying to create? What were the key values the leadership was trying to drive? 4. Using the Burke-Litwin model, were the factors aligned in support of the desired culture? 5. Which of Kotter’s steps were followed successfully and why? In the end, your presentation should tell a logical story about the change. The outcome, from the leadership team’s perspective, is that they will be able to think about and see what transpired at the plant through the lens of change management. They will have learned what they did right, what they did wrong, what they were actually trying to accomplish, and what they can do better next time.