Assignment Question(s):

Please refer to the case study titled Planned Change at The San Diego County Regional Airport Authority in the picture. and answer the following questions:

1. Critically discuss the organizational development process at San Diego Airport and describe its stages ?

2. Which model of planned change has been used in the case of San Diego airport from your point of view? If you were the person in charge, which model of change would you choose? and why ?

3. Discuss the main challenges faced by the transition team during the planning and implementation phases ?

4. Discuss the key success factors that played a major role in accomplishing the task in your opinion ?

5. Discuss the impact of the change on the overall performance of the Airport ?

6. Critically evaluate the change process and if you were the consultant what would you have done differently ?

PLANNED CHANGE AT THE SAN DIEGO COUNTY REGIONAL AIRPORT AUTHORITY The San Diego County Regional Airport and create a transition plan, and to conduct Authority (SDCRAA) was created by a retreats with employees from multiple organiCalifornia state law in October 2001; this zational levels. In response, Bowens chartered gave it the responsibility to establish and the Airport Transition Team to ensure the operate airports within San Diego County. smooth and seamless transfer of operations Most importantly, from Thella Bowens's and public services provided by the airport perspective, the law required the San Diego Uni- without regard to which agency was responsified Port District (Port of San Diego) to transfer ble for their provision. operation of San Diego's international airport to In May 2002, seven employees were handthe SDCRAA by January 2003. Bowens was the picked from the Aviation Division to become current senior director of the Aviation Division members of the Airport Transition Team and within the Port of San Diego that was responsi- relieved of their day-to-day job responsibilities ble for operating the San Diego International Air- so they could focus on the transition. The selecport. When the law was passed, she was tion criteria included the ability to work within a named Interim Executive Director of the process yet think outside of the box, to commuSDCRAA, and assigned an interim advisory nicate well with others in a team, and to influboard to help manage the transition. ence directors and managers without having Bowens's tenure with the organization formal authority. A one-and-a-half-day kick-off gave her an important understanding of the meeting was held to set expectations, to comorganization's operations and its history. For municate goals and responsibilities, and to initiexample, the San Diego International Airport ate the team. A "war room" was established accounted for about $4.3 billion or roughly 4% for the team to keep records, hold meetings, of San Diego's regional economy. Forecasts and serve as a communication hub. The team called for air travel to more than double to named themselves the "Metamorphs." 35 million passengers by 2030, and contribute Many Metamorph members came from difup to $8 billion to the regional economy. In addi- ferent parts of the organization and, having never tion, Bowens had participated in the Aviation worked together, needed to rely on each other Division's strategic planning process in 2001. to effectively design the transition process. She was well positioned to lead this effort. Senior team member Angela Shafer-Payne, As she thought about managing the start- then director of Airport Business and Administraup of the SDCRAA, two broad but interdepen- tion, worked closely with the Metamorphs and dent categories of initial activity emerged: led formal team-building activities throughout the developing the transition plan and dealing year. Through their work together, the Metawith the legal and regulatory issues. morphs discovered how large and daunting the DEVELOPING THE TRANSITION PLAN the unique, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to In April 2002, Bowens took the senior team make an impact. As one member put it, "How from the old Aviation Division to an off-site many times in your life can you say that you workshop to discuss the creation and manage- helped put together a brand-new organization?" ment of an effective transition process. This The Metamorphs decided that to meet their group understood the importance of SDCRAA charter, any transition plan had to be designed quickly becoming a stand-alone agency and the specifically to minimize disruption to customers need to be seen differently in the marketplace. and service, minimize airport and nonairport The group recommended revising the existing financial impacts, and properly address and strategic plan, to hire staff to research, discuss, resolve all legal and regulatory matters. These criteria guided the creation of 12 functional teams functional teams, and sometimes because of it, (which expanded later to 19). Responsibility for the Bowens also had to interface with the California legisteams was divided among the transition team mem- lature. The original legislation (California Senate Bill bers, and each team was composed of employees AB93 [2001-2002]) provided a framework for setting from the old Aviation Division and other Port of San up the new agency but left many questions unanDiego departments. Their mission was to collect swered, including issues relating to property transfer data, establish new or parallel functions for the (SDCRAA would lease land from the Port on a 66-year SDCRAA, and highlight any issues related to the lease) and the transitioning of employees from one start-up of that particular function. Once the teams public agency to another. To provide clarity and were in place, they were given tools to use and another layer of understanding, "clean-up" legislation questions that needed to be addressed. Each team (SB 1896) was passed in mid-2002. Together with the set aside time to review all of the records in each original bill, the legislation protected employees to functional area. For example, the human resources ensure no loss of jobs or benefits. This gave the Metafunctional team consisted of Aviation Division morphs additional information and guidance to deal employees, HR professionals from the Port of with employee contract issues. For example, in the San Diego, and Port attorneys; it was charged with middle of the transition planning process, the Port Disdeveloping the actual transition mechanism, HR trict had to renegotiate its union contract. The Metaoperations, and HR organizational structure. Another morphs had to work closely with the airport's external team focused on the environmental issues involved counsel, the Port of San Diego counsel, and state in the transition. They examined over 100 different senators to ensure a smooth negotiation. environmental permits held by the Port of San Diego Finally, Bowens and the Metamorphs had to to understand if SDCRAA needed a similar permit, address changes to federal security regulations outneeded to be a copermittee with the Port of lined in the Aviation and Transportation Security Act San Diego, or if the SDCRAA could stand alone. If that resulted from the September 11, 2001, attacks. it were a stand-alone situation, then documentation Those events caused a number of disruptions for would be prepared to transfer the permit. many stakeholders in the air transportation industry. To ensure that no issues fell through the They required the transition plan to include a comcracks, three distinct peer reviews were held in ponent that focused on keeping costs contained to the summer and fall of 2002 . The peer review enable aviation partners, the airlines, the gate gourpanels were staffed by professionals within the mets, and tenants, to weather the storm. aviation industry, people who had experienced a transition of some type within an organization, or IMPLEMENTATION AND EVALUATION those who were integral to the start-up of the orga- The final transition plan was presented to the nization. The first peer review panel examined the interim board and then to the Board of Port Comtransition plan and offered advice on whether to missioners for approval in October 2002. The add any other critical and/or missing components. approved plan was comprised of several compoThe second peer review panel, consisting of nents, including an IT conversion plan and the promostly human resources professionals, examined cess for formally transferring responsibility to the the proposed organizational structure. The final SDCRAA, but the key elements were human peer review panel focused on the IT systems por- resources and communication plans. tion of the transition plan because of technology's The human resources plan specified the trancritical role in the overall success of many of the sition of 145 budgeted Aviation Division employinternal processes. ees to 52 vacancies plus the 90 other positions DEALING WITH THE LEGAL identified by the Metamorphs to make the organiAND REGULATORY ISSUES to be filled by mid-2005. The human resources By January 2002, the SDCRAA was not yet a full plan also provided for the purchase of services, agency and had only one employee, Thella Bowens. like the Harbor Police, from the Port of San Diego Despite all the work of the Metamorphs and the until mid-2005. The communication plan was critical to the in the organization newsletter or live communication implementation phase. The Metamorphs regularly at "all hands meetings." In addition, the employee carried information about their progress to cowor- satisfaction survey was updated with questions to kers in their respective departments. In addition, learn about transition concerns. communication meetings with the entire organiza- Thella Bowens was named President and CEO tion, called "all hands meetings," were held to pro- of the SDCRAA on January 1, 2003. By June 2003, vide information about the transition. The Airport the SDCRAA had received awards based on superb Transition Plan contained a special emphasis on customer service and outstanding levels of perforthe needs of the employee. Bowens understood mance. The SDCRAA, based on all available the sociotechnical nature of change and did not metrics, is successfully operating San Diego's interwant the human factor to be forgotten in the national airport and serving over 15.2 million passenmidst of all the legal, technical, and other transi- gers on 620 daily flights in and out of the airport. tions. She included a number of change- Part of the success is due to the way the transition management education sessions for all employees. plan was developed. Because of the broad participaThe change-management education sessions were tion in its creation, many employees understood the developed to reassure employees; to encourage plan. When issues arose, identifying the personnel genuine, candid, frequent, high-quality communica- to become part of an ad hoc problem-solving group During the sessions, employees were "Ms. Bowens accomplished the extraordinary updated on the progress of the transition; job of leading a successful transition of the airport (1) updated on the progress of the transition; job of leading a successful transition of the airport (2) introduced to change theories, models, and from the Unified Port of San Diego to the Authority," concepts; and (3) encouraged to share their issues, said Joseph W. Craver, Authority (SDCRAA) Chairfears, anxieties, concerns, and creative ideas. man. "She is highly regarded and respected for Employee input was organized into themes, then both her breadth of knowledge of aviation managedocumented and communicated to Bowens and ment issues and her visionary leadership." Thella her direct reports. The leadership team was Bowens added, "Fortunately, we've been supported committed to answering questions and addressing by very dedicated professional employees who have concerns that emerged from the change- exhibited great resolve and sheer hard work through management sessions. Airport managers met regu- the transition process, and continue to do so as we larly to select and answer questions for publication create a 'world-class' organization." limited to the defined issues, although additional problems may be uncovered and may need to be addressed. Similarly, the change process tends to focus on those organizational systems having specific problems, and it generally terminates when the problems are resolved. Of course, the OD practitioner may contract to help solve additional problems. In recent years, OD has been increasingly concerned with fundamental change. As described in Chapter 1, the greater competitiveness and uncertainty of today's environment have led a growing number of organizations to alter drastically the way in which they operate. In such situations, planned change is more complex, extensive, and long term than when applied to incremental change. 30 Because fundamental change involves most features and levels of the organization, it is typically driven from the top, where corporate strategy and values are set. OD practitioners help senior executives create a vision of a desired future organization and energize movement in that direction. They also help them develop structures for managing the transition from the present to the