13) Managing Organisational Change

Question 1

Identify examples of external triggers for change:

Answer 1

INDIRECT TRIGGERS (PEST)
Political:
Changes in gvt 
New environmental protection policies
New labour laws
Economic:
Growth or recession
Changes in currency and interest rates
Local labour costs
Disposable income 
Social:
Attitudes to work and leisure
Environmentalism
Attitudes to health/education
Fashion trends
Changing national culture
Technological:
Growth in Internet
Public use of IT
Global sourcing/call centres
Innovations

DIRECT TRIGGERS (porters 5 forces)
Competitive rivalry- powerful rivals may force the firm to adapt to survive, through innovation, differentiation or cutting costs.
Power of customers- could trigger a firm to consider forward vertical integration.
Power of suppliers- could encourage a firm to redesign products in order to reduce the reliance of specialist products and thus facilitate multi-sourcing.
New entrants- may force firms to improve quality to maintain market share.
Substitutes- new tech may result in existing products becoming obsolete. This could lead to factory closure and reorganization.

Question 2

Identify examples of internal triggers for change:

Answer 2

• Philosophy:
  New ownership
  New CEO
  New management style
• Reorganization:
  Takeover/merger
  Divisional restructuring
  Cost reduction
• Personell
  Promotions/transfers
  Rules/procedures
  Training/development
• Conditions
  Location change
  Outsourcing
• Technology
  New procedures/systems
  Changing info demands
  Integration of roles

Question 3

Types of organizational change:

Draw diagram and explain

Answer 3

Pg 471 and 472

Question 4

Managing the process of change - draw and explain:

• Lewin’s three-stage model
• Lewin’s force field analysis
• Beer and Nohria’s Theory E and Theory O

Answer 4

Pg 475 - 480

Question 5

Reasons for resistance to change:

Answer 5

Job factors

• fear of unemployment
• fear of changes to working conditions
• fear of demotion or reduced pay

Social factors

• resistance to change current social environment
• personal dislike of ppl implementing
• lack of consultation leading to rejection of change

Personal factors

• implied criticism of current working methods
• feel less valued
• work becomes more monotonous

Question 6

Kotter and Schlesinger’s four reasons that explain why certain people resist change:

Answer 6

• parochial self-interest: some ppl are concerned with how change might affect their own interests rather than considering the effects for the success of the business.
• misunderstanding: communication problems, inadequate information
• low tolerance to change
• different assessments of the situation: some major disagree on the reasons for change.

Question 7

Kotter and Schlesinger set out the following approaches to deal with resistance to change:

Answer 7

Draw diagram and provide advantages and disadvantages

Pg 483, 484, 485

Question 8

Changes agent is useful in helping the organization to:

Answer 8

• define the problem and its cause
• identify solutions and select appropriate courses of action
• implement change
• transmit the leaning process to others and the organization overall

Question 9

Kanter suggested that change-adept organisations share three key attributes:

Answer 9

• the imagination to innovate
• the professionalism to perform
• the openness to collaborate

Question 10

Skills that leaders should possess in change-adept organizations:

Answer 10

• tuning into the environment
• challenging the prevailing organizational wisdom: looking at matters from a different perspective.
• communicating a compelling aspiration: leaders should have a clear vision and should communicate it with conviction.
• building coalitions
• transferring ownership to teamwork
• learning to persevere
• making everyone a hero

Question 11

Some companies have succeeded by seeking to create a climate of continual and radical change. Peters called this ‘thriving on chaos’.

He suggested that:

Answer 11

• incremental change is the enemy of true innovation, because it makes an organization less willing to be truly innovative.
• excellent firms don’t believe in excellence, only in constant improvement and change.
• a constantly changing environment does not necessarily mean chaos, it may mean that companies can handle the introduction of change successfully.

Question 12

Peter suggested advantages of having a climate of change:

Answer 12

• innovation and the introduction of new products and methods are actively sought and welcomed.
• people who are use to change tend to accept it without resistance.
• employees develop an external outlook and are less defensive in their outlook.

Question 13

Peter’s disadvantages of having a climate of change:

Answer 13

• without a climate of change morale might be damaged.

- office politics and conflict because of their concerns about the possible changes.

Question 14

Peter Senge outlines 5 disciplines that individuals and groups should be encouraged to learn to create a learning organization:

Answer 14

1) systems thinking - ability to see problems as part of a wider whole and to devise appropriate solutions.
2) personal learning and growth
3) mental models - deeply ingrained assumptions. Learning org can use a no of group techniques to make these models explicit and to challenge them.
4) a shared vision that does not filter knowledge
5) team learning - teams must be trained to learn because there are certain factors in group dynamics that impede learning.