The Case Organisation Description and Why It Was Chosen

The case organisation (HDHY) examined in this paper was established in 1989, and in 1994 a joint-venture was founded with a firm from the United States. However, the US partner was an investor who only shared the equity and the dividend and did not intervene in any management of the case organization. Thus this feature has no impact on the organisational change events examined in this study. The company was founded at almost the same time as the industry emerged in China and it experienced all the dramatic economic, technological and political changes in China. The organisation quickly expanded from a small filter fabric producer into a multiple protective products manufacture, with four main product series, and around 50 varieties, i.e. a wide range of products covering air-filter media, dust masks, respirators, disposable overalls and work protective uniforms. Currently, it is one of leading manufacturers with registered capital of ten million US dollars, 75,000 square meter workshops, 1,800 workers and 50 technical engineers in main branch. They have several professors as consultants from Beijing Qinghua , Shanghai TongJi and Tianjin Universities. It has been certified by ISO9001: 2000 and ISO14001: 2004. The masks have conformed to NIOSH 42CFR84 (approved by NIOSH/CDC in USA ), EN149: 2001 (notified by BSI ± CE 0086) and AS/NZS 1716: 2003 (certified by SAI Global, Australia). The non-woven coveralls have conformed to EN ISO 13982-1: 2004 and EN13034: 2005 (Type 5 and Type 6 certified by STFI in Germany).

This study focuses on all three branches of the firm. Following the development, SJZ branch was founded in 2003. It has about fifteen to twenty persons in total, and all have good degree background. The office building is located near Beijing - the capital of China, about two hours away from main branch. SJZ is mainly responsible for the

international business, for the products produced in main branch, as well as for outsourcing orders as a trading company. Simultaneously, SJZ branch is responsible for research and development for the whole company. It attends all the major domestic and international exhibitions in the industry, brings back information of market trends, and the feedback from the international customers, to supply design and data for further product development.

SZ branch was founded in 2007 in order to solve the problem of high freight cost. The main branch was in the North of China, while many customers were in the South, and the products are getting more popular in South. Because the filter material is a kind of product short in volume weight, means the freight costs are more obvious per unit in quotations to the southern customers. In order to reduce the freight cost for customers and supply the goods in a timely manner, SZ branch was founded. It only produces two main products: filter material and disposable dust masks with the basic level of filtration efficiency. Initially half of the workers in SZ were transferred from main branch from North to South of China, the other half were hired locally, in order to keep a stable quality of product and shorten the run-in period of the new factory, the accounting was not separately with the main branch at the beginning, but the management is controlled by itself. In total, there were about five hundred workers. SZ has about one third of production capacity as the main branch. One manager was originally from the main branch, and all the other managers were hired national wide. They are responsible for domestic market exploration in South of China, and the product supervision.

FZ factory was invested in 2005. It is within the main site of the main branch, following the launch of new product - T/C, cotton work uniform. It has a separate business account, financially totally separated, but the management is partly supervised by the main branch. FZ factory is responsible for the production of disposable coverall and T/C or cotton work uniforms. It has two sewing production lines and all the accessories facilities, with around 150 workers.

accountings. FZ factory has the separate accounting. The functions of each branch are represented in a chart in Appendix VIII. They do cooperate more closely than other business partners, however the change events in one branch have no effect on change event in other branches. The two branches other than the main branch have short change histories, thus the number of change events selected in those two new branches reflects this fact. Only two change cases from each of them were chosen. Ultimately the interview numbers also reflected this situation. The branch establishment itself was taken as a main change case - plant expansion change - to be investigated in this study. In total, fifteen change events from three branches were chosen covering the time from founding until present lasting about fifteen years, in order to make it possible for achieving logic of replication. The change events were referred from multiple levels. Details about the change events selection are presented later. After explaining the general conditions of three branches of the case organization, we next discuss the reasons why the case organisation is an appropriate setting for organisational change study.

The case organisation was chosen for a number reasons. As was discussed previously, this paper presents a rival theoretical discussion and competing arguments from both organizational adaptation and selection theories. It tries to find a coherent way to reintegrate the well formulated theories of organizational studies in Western countries but with little related empirical work seeks to test them in a specific context. This case organisation represents a critical case for testing because it is a unique case which is worth documenting and analysing, and the historical information and macro level data of the safety and filtration industry are unlikely to be found in any possible database or in any format and WRWKHDXWKRU¶VNQRZOHGJHit has never been examined before. At the same time, the history of the case organisation is almost as long as this industry in China, it has been through all the typical changes and is one of the few safety and filtration organisations still surviving. It is typical also because it is in the first generation of this industry and represents the first generation of private enterprises after the open door policy was introduced in China in 1978. It can supply sufficient change events to study, especially product expansions. The historical information about change

events in the case organisation can be traced and are available and the financial data of the case organisation can be fully accessed. Thus, the propositions in this study can be tested to confirm, challenge or extend the theory, demonstrating whether the proposition is correct or whether an alternative explanation would be more appropriate. The research question how and why do organizational changes lead to different consequences for performance can therefore be answered.

Moreover, the author worked for this organisation for eight years. One of the aims of this study is to assist in resolving the problems existing with managing change processes in the case organisation. It is one of the main practical implications in this study. This work is funded by the case organisation and has their full cooperation. A bULHI LQWURGXFWLRQ DERXW WKH PDLQ SURGXFW¶V GHYHORSPHQW DQG SUREOHPV LQ +'+< reflecting the information regarding the FRPSDQ\¶VGHYHORSPHQWLVDVIROORZV

Products of HDHY: 1) Filter material

Filter materials have been produced since 1989 and are supplied to over 500 domestic companies, mainly filter facilities manufacturers. In 2007, the production capacity of HDHY is 5% of all producers in this industry in China, the market share of melt blown filter material is around 15±20%, and 25±30% for needle punch filter material in mainland China. The amount of filter material exported is only a very small portion of +'+<¶V yearly production, having begun only in 2004 following an inquiry from a global company.

This product was selected when Yang (the founder of HDHY) was seeking a market opportunity to found a business company of his own. He attended a high-technology products exhibition in Beijing and was absorbed by a presentation by professors from Qinghua University. Their topic concerned the production technology of one kind of super fibre polypropylene filter material which did not exist in China at that time. The university was seeking a factory to produce it. If successful, the material would be a

substitute for a very expensive import material. Yang decided to purchase this technology and began to seek a factory which could create the relevant production IDFLOLWLHV $IWHU VHYHUDO PRQWKV¶ KDUG ZRUN with the guidance of the professors and consultants for several companies, the equipment was assembled and installed successfully; the investment only cost approximately USD 60,000, which was far less than the six million dollar investment required in the United States.

Following more customer demanding, their facilities expanded to ten workshops, seven production lines of punch-needle polyester filter material, and 20 machines of melt blown polypropylene non-woven fabric. There are four main types of filter fabrics and six types of production processing methods now in HDHY. However, there is no separate R&D (Research and Development) department; most new ideas come from the owner and his son who attend conferences and international exhibitions, explore and update customer samples, communicate with professors and confer with their laboratory staff. The facilities are modified by in-house WHFKQRORJ\ VWDII EDVHG RQ SURIHVVRUV¶ advice for product development. The laboratory equipment for testing the material and respirators are primarily imported from the United Kingdom, USA and Japan. The key staff are supplied with many training opportunities in both China and abroad.

2) Respirator

Based on some inquiries for nuisance dust masks from existing customers, and also in order to further utilise the non-woven filter material they produced, Yang decided to enter the dust masks and respirator market. The workshop and production facilities were available in 1992. At that time, nuisance dust masks were only produced for the domestic market. A series of particulate respirators were developed around 2002. Now there were over 40 types of dust masks and respirators with a production capacity of 500,000 pieces each day. Some accessories and raw materials used for respirators are imported from the USA and United Kingdom. The compound respirators are all for exportation, covering the market of North and South America, Europe, South-East Asia, and Australia. The respirator provides 40% of annual turnover of HDHY. A big

investment in hermetically sterilised workshops for one kind of respirator was launched during the Swine Flu period.

,Q JHQHUDO 5 ' IRU UHVSLUDWRUV DOVR GHSHQGV RQ µFXVWRPHU UHTXLUHments¶ DQG µVHOI-invention¶ )RU H[DPSOH XVXDOO\ a higher filtration efficiency will cause higher breathing resistance. The filtration efficiency of a FFP3 respirator for European CE standard is up to 99% against solid and liquid aerosols where the breathing resistance is higher, which might cause the consumers difficulty in breathing. In order to solve this problem, some manufacturers enlarge the size of the respirator. Instead, HDHY provides a unique pleated design for the FFP3 respirator. The folded design can create a larger effective filtration area which can obviously lower the breathing resistance. When HY 85/89/92/93 new series fold-flat respirators were new to the market, most consumers were used to, and still like to wear, traditional cone-type respirators. However, the benefits of fold-flat respirators such as easy storage, individual hygienic packaging and a good facial fit, have increased their popularity.

During the products expansion process, HDHY achieved several patents and Chinese honour certificates, such as anti-bacterial nanotechnology filter dust masks which contributed greatly in preventing a SARS explosion in 2003. In addition, they were honoured to achieve the quality standard to bid for a French government order in 2005 for over 300 containers, 33 million dust masks to protect against bird flu. HDHY won the bid and these items were exported to the French government for every single FLWL]HQ¶VSURWHFWLRQ