Managing Strategic Change (3.10) Flashcards

Question

(How to Implement Strategy Effectively) - Allocation of... - Set clear... - Manage and... - Predetermine... - Adapt as...

Answer 1

- Allocation of responsibilities & resources. - Set clear standards. - Manage and coordinate resources. - Predetermine monitoring points and success criteria at each point. - Adapt as necessary.

Answer 2

Effective leadership is essential throughout the process of strategic implementation. - Leaders will be responsible for things like : - Clearly defining the strategic direction. - Communicating the strategy, clear vision. - Overcome resistance to change. - Allocating resources. - Monitoring progress against pre-set targets.

Answer 3

- Strategy needs to be shared with stakeholders. - Reduce resistance to change. - Gain support from external organisations, e.g. investors/TV. - Help everyone to understand their role during the implementation stage. - Co-ordination of all key parties, e.g. suppliers and employees.

Answer 4

- Span of control (ease of communication). - Chain of command (time it takes to communicate). - Decentralised or centralised. - Allocation of roles during implementation. - Power distance index.

Answer 5

- Introduced with foresight. - What a manager wanted to implement. + Provides a clear sense of direction. + Easily communicated. - However, may lack flexibility.

Answer 6

- Developed over time. - Responds to changes in internal/external environment. + Greater flexibility. - May create feeling of mistrust amongst stakeholders due to frequent revisions leading to a lack of confidence, e.g. Viagra, originally for high blood pressure.

Answer 7

- When a strategy fails to adapt to changes in the internal and/or external environment making it no longer fit for purpose. - Incremental Change, Strategic Drift, Flux, Transformational Change OR Demise. - e.g. Blockbuster fails to compete with Netflix, Kodak, once an extremely valuable brand but failed to keep up with digital cameras & change in leadership, unable to change company culture.

Answer 8

EXTERNAL environment : - Technological advancements. - Changing priorities in society. - Competitive nature of market. - Glolbalisation. INTERNAL environment : - Change of leadership. - Updated corporate objectives. - Change in size.

Answer 9

Divorce between ownership and control refers to the situation that arises when one group of people own a business (i.e. the shareholders), but a different group makes the day-to-day decisions (i.e. managers).

Answer 10

- Managers making decisions to maximise interest, e.g. pay rewards at the cost of profit margins. - Short-termism vs Long-termism, e.g. managers wanting to grow the business at the expense of immediate to shareholders.

Answer 11

Refers to the formal policies and procedures that are instrumental to the running of a business. - Communication. - Board of directors + committees. - Legal and regulatory. - Business practices and ethics. - Disclosure + transparency. - Risk and performance management. - Management

Answer 12

Flexible working refers to a group of employees who have the ability yo adapt to changing work demands and schedules. - Ability to work remotely, flexible hours etc. + Save costs, e.g. on an office. + May improve retention, better work-life balance. + Take advantage of development in technology. - Additional administrative work involved in setting up. - Lowers employee productivity, may create decreased sense of belonging. - Potential communication issues, could demotivate.

Answer 13

Describes a new organisation structure composed of three leaves. - Core Workforce : Permanent employees essential to the organisation. - Contractors : Specialists or outsourced providers of non-core functions. - Flexible Workers : Part-time, temporary, or freelance contributors who offer adaptability.

Answer 14

+ Save costs, e.g. on office. + May improve retention. + Take advantage of development in technology. + Potential benefit from a better work-life. - Additional administrative work involved in setting up. - Lowers employee productivity. - Potential communication issues. - Decreased sense of belonging. E.G. SPORTS DIRECT

Answer 15

- There are two opposing forces when change is being implemented. - Driving force who are in favour for change. - Resisting Forces who are against change and fighting against it happening as they prefer status quo.

Answer 16

- Balance of power between the two forces. - The key decision makers. - Those people for change and those against it.

Answer 17

Driving Forces : - Large losses. - Successful rivals (e.g. Apple & Samsung). - New President Tsuga. Resisting/Restraining Forces : - Existing brand recognition. - Lack of knowledge in new markets. - Financial position & costs. - Employee resistance.

Answer 18

- Parochial self-interest. - Misunderstanding and fear. - Different assessment. - Prefer the status quo. - LINK : These 4 can cause restraining forces (Lewin).

Answer 19

--- Prefer the Status Quo : - Stakeholders are happy with the way things are and therefore just want to keep it as it is. --- Parochial Self-Interest : - Stakeholders fear that change will result in them being personally worse-off and therefore want to protect themselves against this. --- Misunderstanding & Fear : - Stakeholders believe that the motives for change are wrong and they therefore mistrust the decision makers. - Different Assessment : - Stakeholders believe that the proposed change is not the correct course of action and that they could suggest a better solution.

Answer 20

- Goes from less powerful to more powerful. - Education and Communication. - Negotiation and Agreement. - Facilitation and Support. - Participation and Involvement. - Manipulation and Co-option. - Explicit and Implied Coercion.

Answer 21

- Education and Communication : Providing stakeholders with all the information they ned to understand the change. - Negotiation and Agreement : Increase two-way communication by bargaining with stakeholders and if necessary compromising change process. - Facilitation and Support : Providing the necessary skills and resources to help stakeholders feel more confident with the change process. - Participation and Involvement : Providing a sense of ownership to stakeholders so they feel part of the change process. - Manipulation and Co-option : Use of project champions (someone who agrees with change) who may receive incentives and are tasked with winning around others. - Explicit and Implied Coercion : Pushing change through despite resistance, may be a last resort.

Answer 22

Organic Structure : - Informality. - Flexible. - Favours informal, e.g. verbal, communication. - Associated with decentralised decision-making & employee empowerment. - Find change easier to handle. However : Won't work in all businesses.

Answer 23

- More formality and bureaucratic. - Associated with centralised decision-making & supervision. - Reliance on formal communication methods. - Favours standardised policies and procedures. - Little perceived need to change. However : Greater resistance to change and restricts creativity.

Answer 24

Is a method of interpreting marketing data from overtime. - This reveals underlaying patterns by recording and plotting data over time, e.g. recording sales over time. e.g. could reveal if marketing campaigns are working.

Answer 25

- It looks for trends which is a long-term movement of a variable. - Trends can be upward, downward, constant (usually with fluctuations).

Answer 26

- Links between sales and marketing activity. - An efficient and clear way to look at data. - Make decisions on future projects.

Answer 27

Seasonal : e.g. easter eggs & Christmas trees, repeat on a regular basis. Random : Have no pattern, e.g. Prime.

Answer 28

- Means getting opinions from a number of people, form of market research. 3 types : - Quota : Predetermined number of specific population segments, e.g. high-street fashion. - Stratified, divide group into subgroups based on their characteristics then random samples, e.g. football match. - Random : Created by chance, everyone has equal chance, e.g. supermarket.

Answer 29

+ Provides insight/estimates. + Directly related to business. + Reduces risk. - People may lie. - Time-consuming.

Answer 30

Using past data to extend an identified trend into the future. - A useful technique when trends can be clearly identified and market is relatively stable. HOWEVER, the past is not always a good indication of the future as PESTLE is always changing, e.g. competitors actions.

Answer 31

Dealing with unexpected and usually unwelcome events. - e.g. Whirlpool faced crisis when their dryers were linked to household fires, they had bad crisis management as they delayed a full product recall.