Leading change in social security organization (SOCSO)

Abstract

This case is about Social Security Organization (SOCSO), a body governed by the Malaysian Ministry of Human Resources, which is made responsible to administer the Safety Social Schemes for all employees in the country. The case revolves around the Deputy CEO (Operations) cum Project Director of Business Process Reengineering (BPR), Dato’ Mazlan Hairi. SOCSO was in the process of transferring its old Archaic IT system to a new IT system. The case describes various forms of organizational resistance in the transference process. The protagonist needs to plan and structure how to lead the change process. The case portrays the challenges that the protagonist has to overcome. The BPR is a high profile project in SOCSO, linked to the government’s transformation exercise. It receives much media coverage and the new IT system promises significant improvements in SOCSO’s service delivery. The BPR project had a bad start under the previous leader, an external consultant, which had left an air of suspicions and morality dents among the employees. The project is already a few months behind its schedule. Adding to these tense, the protagonist despite having good track records, has no prior experience in IT-related projects. Given all these factors, the assignment is a ‘break or make’ for Mazlan.