Organizational Development Case Study: Smithfield Foods

Company Overview Smithfield Foods is a global manufacturer that produces and processes pork. The company employs 52,000 people and has offices in the United States and Europe. Smithfield Packaging began operations in Smithfield, VA in 1936 under the ownership of Joseph Luter and his son. In the first thirty years, Smithfield Packing grew significantly but then was near bankruptcy under the ownership of Liberty Equities. In 1974 Joseph Luter returned to run the company, renamed it to Smithfield Foods, and introduced many new products that returned the company to profitability. Over the years Smithfield made many acquisitions which characterized Joseph Luter’s stewardship of Smithfield Foods. In 1995 Smithfield Foods purchased John Morrell

This facility currently employs 1652 people from very diverse backgrounds and is a full kill cut facility which processes about 12,000 hogs per day. “Organizational development is the planned, organization-wide improvement of business processes to increase a company’s effectiveness and overall health” (Weiss, 2015 pg. 1.2). Change management “helps leaders to move entire organizations, or units, from a present to a desired state” (Weiss, 2015 pg. 1.2) Organizational development focuses on the processes while change management focuses on the behavior. Organizational development and change management are managed by executive leadership with the express intent of improving processes, behavior and implement improvement in organizational change. “Effective leadership is a foundational cornerstone within an organizational structure, especially while fostering an organizational change initiative” (Vanderwood, 2013 pg. 1). Ineffective leaders will see change as a threat and employees will resist any effort to make the necessary organizational

Leaders, managers, and employees must realize the advantage and value of organizational change efforts or resistance to change will be difficult. John Kotter, a Harvard professor, developed an eight-step planning method that is vital in effectively implementing these organizational changes. For the Smithfield Foods Monmouth Illinois location to effectively implement needed organizational changes, the leaders need to follow Kotter’s eight-step approach. The first step is to establish a sense of urgency. To create urgency leaders must examine markets, competition, discuss crises and opportunities. Kotter (2014) found that people with a true sense of urgency will proactively take action that will move them in the direction of the opportunity. He goes on to say that a true sense of urgency can create sustainable action toward a real opportunity. “In order to create change of real significance, to execute any new and different strategy, you need a send of true urgency among as many people as possible” (Kotter 2014,