Running head: CASE STUDY 3: TRAVELINK SOLUTIONS

Case Study 3: Travelink Solutions

Krista Jackson
AET/560
January 25, 2016
Dr. Christine Nortz

CASE STUDY 3: TRAVELINK SOLUTIONS

Case Study 3: Travelink Solutions

Travelink needs to go through a dramatic or episodic change to address the issues facing
customers and employees within the business. If drastic measures are not taken to help with the
lack of employees, employee morale, adhering to business values and standards, following new
companies contracts, assisting customers promptly, and helping customers effectively and
efficiently as possible, then this branch of the company is likely to be shut down.
Background
The case study presented is from Organizational Change: An action-oriented toolkit as
Case Study 3 Travelink Solutions (Cawsey, Descza, & Cynthia, 2012). Lewins theory of change
with the three-stage model of change needs to start immediately to address these detrimental
issues as quickly as possible at Travelink (Cawsey, 2012). The company started off unlike most
call centers and employees that left always had good things to say about working for Travelink.
Employees were trained properly by the guidelines with enough experience to start on the
phones. Management was involved, attentive, and employees were welcomed to ask questions at
any time. Travelink had enough employees to cover the workload of customers and customers
with contracts with other companies. The call waiting time was only supposed to be three
minutes or less for customers. Employees were dedicated, happy, and they were positive and
took the time to help in any way possible. The company has gone in the complete opposite
direction because organizational changes were not implemented well and with a good business
plan. The problems have led to resistance, low morale, unsatisfied customers, and unhappy
companies who Travelink has contracts with at the moment. The values, standards, promises,
and contracts have all been broken with employees, customers, and companies who have
contracts with Travelink. There are fundamental problems with alternatives or proposed solutions

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that will be addressed in hopes of addressing and solving these controversies for a successful
outcome for everyone involved in the organizational changes.
Key Problems
When Travelink took on the two new contracts, the higher ups refused to hire new
employees because they did not have the revenue. They claimed they could not hire more
employees until they made money from the new contracts. The lack of employees is making the
workload for the existing employees impossible. People in management are answering phones
instead of doing their jobs because of the excess phone calls from the busy season and new
contracts. Travelink needs to hire more employees and move management back into their
positions they worked hard to attain.
Employees lack motivation, satisfaction, and employee morale because of the way the
organizational changes were handled. Management is not attentive to assisting employees,
keeping a positive atmosphere, employee reviews and raises are being overlooked, and
employees are not getting any feedback for their hard work. Travelinks values and standards are
nonexistent because of the changes; making Travelink a company with a high turnover rate with
employees, and possibly losing their existing contracts with other companies. Everyone
associated with the company has lost trust with the company.
Customers are suffering from the internal changes in the company because the change
made the office chaotic. Customers are waiting on the phone at times up to two hours when the
policy is at the most a three minute hold time. The customers need immediate help most of the
time, and that is why they contact Travelink. They are not getting assistance as soon as possible
during difficult, stressful, and traumatizing events. Customers are not being helped in a helpful
and professional manner because of the excess incoming calls and work environment. The

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assistance is not as effective or error-free because of the situation. All of these problems are
bringing in more calls as customer complaints, and creating more phone calls to assist the
customers.
Travelink is not adhering to the contracts made with other companies, and companies
want to break contracts because Travelink is breaching many contracts with their business
standards. Travelink is not following their standards of excellence that they take so much pride in
as a company. Now, they are losing assurance, confidence, and expectations from their businessto-business customers with contracts.
Alternatives
There are many alternatives to help fix the problems that Travelink is experiencing. There
are two big alternatives to start out in assisting the problems Travelink is having at the moment.
First, Travelink could introduce Lewins Theory into practice (Spector, 2013). They would go
through the three stages of change in his model, which are unfreezing, changing, and refreezing
(Cawsey, 2012). The theory would assist in the other large alternative, which is implementing a
dramatic and episodic change immediately (Weick & Quinn, 1999). There are so many
significant issues that the company needs a complete turnaround.
For the shortage of employees, the company could hire new employees, and train them
completely with the experience they need before they are out on the call center floor. The higher
ups could use some of their excess funds, a loan, or any extra money they have attained from the
new contracts to afford the new hires. Travelink could look into any employees in other branches
that would like to relocate for their job. They would not have to go through the costly expense of
training all new employees. Relocating employees would help with costs, and even out the
branches in expenses. Travelink could hire volunteer students for the call center, or volunteer to

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temp to hire for volunteers. The volunteers would gain experience and references on their
resumes, and the company could hire them on board later to save some money during training.
Lastly, Travelink could hire people who already have extensive experience so that the training
will be faster and an easier transition for everyone.
Employees lack of motivation, satisfaction, and employee morale can be addressed in
many ways. Employees need feedback, especially in stressful situations where they are being
overworked. The constant emails and phone calls seem like harassment, and they are all doing
the best that they can do under the circumstances the organization put them in. An alternative
would be an updated email weekly or biweekly about any issues, and positive feedback by using
the sandwiching method. The sandwich method is when one uses a positive note, something to
improve, and then end on a positive note when giving feedback to employees. Management is
not even able to manage employees, assist them with questions, and do their jobs because they
are doing call center work. The people in management were demoted because employees have
not been hired for the excess workload. Giving managers their jobs back because they deserve
the jobs they worked hard to get to and hiring employees would help employee and management
morale. Reviews could be paid more attention to because it will help employee motivation. The
employees have lost trust in the organization because the changes were not handled well.
Participation, collaboration, assistance, patience, involvement, and passion for jobs were all
established before the new contracts. Travelink could go back to the basics with their strong
values and standards as a business. Many alternatives would be going back to that atmosphere in
the organization and improving any of them if necessary.
Improving customer service is detrimental because that is what they do as a business.
Customers should not have to suffer complications because of organizational change. Hiring

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more employees could help the situation because right now the customer wait time is
unacceptable. A bigger office space for the call center for more employees could help with
addressing customers needs right away because these are critical situations they are calling in
for help. Positive feedback and reassurance for employees could help make sure the phone calls
are professional and helpful. Less pressure on employees would help with the error rates
Travelink is experiencing. A different call center space for customer complaints could help, but
this goes back to having more employees at the organization.
Travelink is in dire need to make changes, where they can meet customers demands,
including contracts they have with other businesses. The business-to-business customers are just
as important because they have contracts with Travelink. A lot of contracts are being violated at
this moment because Travelink is not giving out what they promised. Their value in business has
gone down, so any violations could be looked at and fixed to keep the contracts. Communicating
with the business about the contract, and making time for a business conversation could help
Travelink from losing contracts before they get a chance to fix the issues. Travelink would need a
business plan to propose to the contracted businesses to convince them to stay with the company.
If Travelink cannot be dependable, it will lose its good reputation with other businesses in the
future.
Proposed Solutions
The writer proposes that Robert and them self would work together closely as change
agents to find the proper solutions to the problems. We would use Lewins Change Theory, and a
dramatic episodic change to get the organization back to where it needs to be for the excellence
the organization worked so hard to achieve. We would immediately unfreeze the situation, and
start making large changes to the organization. We would become the change agents in charge of

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helping the episodic organizational change, and each phase of Lewins Theory is done by change
agents. Unfreezing the situation as change agents will make sure employees know there will be
positive changes because we know what they have been going through. They would propose a
bigger office space, or two different buildings to operate out of, and this would solve any
problems dealing with space for new employees. They would want to hire new employees,
experienced employees, and try to get a few people from other branches who wish to relocate.
The relocation would reduce the costs of attaining new employees to keep up their demands.
They would want management to go back to their normal positions to assist employees in the
changes occurring. Employees in management need their positions back because there needs to
be leadership, and they worked hard for these positions. All of these would bring up employee
morale and motivation making the changes successful. They do not see a lot of resistance that
will occur because of the organizational changes because everyone is under a lot of pressure and
stress at the moment. They would cease the phone calls and emails, and have the management
out on the floor again to help employees and give positive feedback. They would make it
mandatory for our branch to follow the organization's guidelines, and this includes employee
evaluations when they are supposed to be conducted. They would want the teamwork,
dedication, and passion back in the workplace by implementing our values that we proudly stand
by as a business. For customers, the most important part is having the right amount of staff to get
back to our three minutes hold time for customers. Customers should not have to wait on the
phone for more than ten minutes in distressful situations, and they are there to assist their
customers promptly. Employee morale improvement will help with the professionalism on the
phone calls, and limit the amount of errors that occur. Employees would get their break times
back because they need this time for extra work, and to take a break from work. They would

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offer anonymous surveys to employees, and any feedback that would help with any issues that
may arise. We welcome all change initiators and employees that want to participate and be
involved in the changes. They would come up with a business proposal with Robert, and set up a
meeting with each company that we have contracts with currently. The proposal would show
what we are doing to improve and that we do not want to lose the contracts, and we are willing to
make any adjustments to the contracts. We want the companies we work with to feel safe staying
with us, especially during our transition to make the branch better for all of our stakeholders. All
of these proposals should be researched for a strong business proposal to the executives, and it
will include a budget plan to show how much we are capable of changing in our current state.
Once the changes occur, we should refreeze the changes until everyone settles into the new
environment.
Recommendations
Travelink went from a reputable and successful organization, and they are falling down
the hole that businesses go into sometimes. Falling shows the organization that changes need to
occur, and with the extreme situations at this present time show they, change is essential. The
biggest issue that is seen is the lack of employees, which is affecting current employees,
customers, and contracted businesses. More employees need to be implemented in the
organization to assist the situation because at the rate Travelink is going, and the business will go
under soon. They have proposed a few solutions that could assist with the current problems
facing Travelink, and They think it is a good starting off point for the future and improving
Travelink back to a reputable and trustworthy business.

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9
References

Spector, B. (2013). Implementing organizational change: Theory into practice (3red ed.). Upper
Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Tupper, C., Deszca, G., & Cynthia, I. (2012). Organizational change: An action-oriented toolkit
(2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Weick, K. E., & Quinn, R. E. (1999). Organizational change and development. Annual Review of
Psychology, 50, 361-86. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/205830411?
accountid=458