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Please write a paper that addresses the feedback provided by
the professor and makes it a thoroughly thoughtful submission and addresses
everything the professor mentions in the feedback. Do more research on MSA
Safety. Provide any additional questions you would ask to understand more about
the organizational change.
Organizational Change Project
Feedback from the
professor:
It’s OK to use the syllabus assignment questions as a guide
for your proposal, though I’d strongly recommend against using them as an
outline for the structure of your paper. The intention of the questions is to
inform and guide your analysis.
This sounds like a retirement-driven reorganization that has
impacted the organization. Stated differently, a staffing change that has
driven changes in structure. It will be important to be as specific as possible
regarding the nature of the structural changes (e.g., org charts showing before
and after). If evaluating stakeholders, consider their goals and sort their
positions towards the change to assess potential coalitions for or against the
change. A vision for change is something different than a mission, and a
retiring CEO isn’t a vision for change.
Overall, your proposal is describing what happened in the
organization rather than proposing how you’d analyze the change using course
frameworks, concepts and tools. I encourage you to develop a plan for data
collection (who you’ll interview, and ideally do a survey), questions you’ll
plan to ask, etc. Think of course concepts and tools that will be most useful
for your analysis. Focus most of your paper on analyzing the change through the
lens of course concepts, frameworks and tools, not just describing it. Be sure
your recommendations flow logically from your analysis (e.g., alignments or
misalignments among the Ss, sources of resistance, etc.). Looking forward to
the final project!
Original Submission
1. What
was the organizational context?
MSA
Safety, a safety technology company headquartered in Cranberry Township,
Pennsylvania, underwent a significant organizational change with the retirement
of former CEO Nish Vartanian in April 2024. With this retirement, former VP of
the Americas, Steve Blanco, stepped up as the new CEO. As Steve’s role had to
be replaced, this shuffle in the executive team led to an overall change in the
executive team’s roles and responsibilities and the way the entire company
would be structured. VPs took on new functions and reporting structures that
trickled the change throughout MSA Safety. In addition to Vartainian’s
retirement, several other executives, including CMO Dave McArthur and COO Anne
Herman, announced their retirement. With former CLO Stephanie Sciullo taking
the new VP of the Americas position and VP of Product Development and Strategy
Greg Martin expanding his role to take on the responsibility of the IT group,
the organization saw significant change in operations, legal, R&D, and
marketing segments of the company. 
2.           Why
was the change initiated?
Nish
Vartanian announced his retirement in early 2024, but the changes to the
organizational structure began in mid-2023. Vartanian prepared Blanco to take
over the CEO position and expanded his role to have most executive members
report to him. This allowed Blanco to make restructuring changes to the
organization and appoint new roles.
3.           Who
were the relevant stakeholders and what are the implications?
The
entire executive team was most directly impacted by the change in structure,
but this was just the start of the changes to come for the remainder of the
organization. Each VP took the opportunity to restructure their part of the
organization in a way that better aligned international business units with the
Americas, consolidating roles in areas where there was overlap, promoting
others into vacant roles as the entire organization shifted upwards into
positions previously occupied, and opening new roles across functions such as
engineering, operations, and marketing globally.
4.           What
were the objectives/vision for the change?  
With
Vartanian ready to conclude is 30+ year career at MSA, his succession plan
focused heavily on putting individuals in roles that would ensure the success
and continued single digit year over year revenue growth of the company. With a
heavy focus on investing in new technology development in addition to
maintaining the existing portfolio of products, the shift in the executive team
and the remainder of the company was done to ensure the mission of advancing
safety and safety technology was being led by those in the company with not
only strong competencies in their new roles, but also years of experience and
dedication to the company. As these leaders assumed their new roles, the
changes across the organization included aligning global functions, promoting
cross-functional and international collaboration, and introducing new roles to
focus on inorganic growth strategies such as M&A and partnership
strategies. 
5.           How
was the change implemented?
Initially,
the change began in mid-2023 with Blanco assuming most of the executive team as
direct reports, enabling him to start to restructure the organization with his
vision of success. In early 2024, Vartanian and other executives coordinated
the announcement of their retirement with the appointment of Blanco as the
incoming CEO. As the new and existing VPs stepped into their new roles/expanded
their responsibilities, each took their own approach to restructuring their
segment of the organization. In marketing, new leadership positions were
created to oversee global marketing strategies. In R&D, strategic
partnership leadership roles were created to allow those with technical skills
to evaluate new technologies for partnership and acquisition opportunities.
Across the organization, existing employees stepped into rolls in different
functions or moved upwards to fill vacant positions. Changes within the company
are still ongoing as the restructuring of the organization is executed through
a phased approach.
6.           How
would you assess the effectiveness of the change and why?
While
it’s early to recognize the impact of the organizational change due to the
recency of the transition, MSA continues to report successful metrics in
earnings calls with investors. Incoming and invoicing remain on track, with new
strategic corporate initiatives focusing all employees on key growth and
sustaining plans. 
7.           What
recommendations would you make about the change process?
The
process itself has been difficult for employees due to the multi-phased
approach of restructure the new executive team has taken. Employees are
uncertain if their roles will stay the same or be eliminated, potentially
creating some fear of job security within the organization. A recommendation
would be to be upfront with the changes coming up and communicate clear
milestones and progress during the change. It should be treated as a program
and a Sr Program Manager should be 100% assigned to this so it can help ease
the transitions.