Previous Exam Questions Flashcards
Managing Change is a vital part of ensuring the success of a large scale organisation. Analyse possible driving and restraining forces which might cause change in a large scale organisation. Illustrate your answer with references to an issue or organisation that you have studied this year.
Change refers to any alteration to a business’s workplace or environment. One change issues is technological development. Technological development is the development, invention or implementation of new technology in an LSO. This can include automation (robotics) or digital products (web design, online apps) which can partially or fully replace humans in some part of their jobs. One company that has changed because of technological development pressures is Australia Post. Australia post has shifted its focus from letters to parcels and ecommerce. There were many driving and restraining forces for this change.
A driving force is a factor that pushes in support for the change, encourages and fosters the change. One driving force is the rise of technology, technology has made it much easier for consumers to communicate with friends and family, diminishing the need for letters. For Australia post this tells them that they need to implement technological developments as soon as possible to keep up with modern technology.
Another driving force is competition. Competition involves businesses who are in the same market. Businesses often can’t raise prices or make certain changes when competitors are offering cheaper options. Australia Post hasn’t got any competition in the letters business, this allowed the, to raise the price of stamps while they were investigating into ecommerce opportunities.
Restraining forces for change are factors that hinder successful implementation. One restraining force is employees. Employees are often hesitant to work towards changes especially if it involves job cuts. For Australia Post, moving towards a technological focus means that they needs to cut jobs that were no longer needed under the new focus. This was causing employees to be worried about their positions which decreases morale and makes changes hard to implement.
Another restraining force is Customers. Customers are the people who purchase the products. Businesses need to stay in tun with customer needs. For Australia post, when they were investigating in drone technology, a survey was carried out that showed that only 10% of customers actually want drones. This shows Australia Post that they need to ensure they are only implementing technology that customers actually want or they could be wasting money.
Overall change is necessary for any business wishing to stay competitive. Australia Posts change led to some job cuts but it has resulted in a significant increase in net profit.
A writer for a business magazine recently stated ‘Change is a process that must be managed effectively to lead to success’. Management theorists have provided guidelines to assist managers with their change processes in order to achieve desired outcomes.Explain four steps from Kotter’s 8-step theory of change management. Discuss how the effective use of Kotter’s change theory could impact on the internal environment of an organisation.In your answer refer to an organisation or a signi cant change issue you have studied this year.
Kotter’s theory of change management outlines a series of steps necessary to undertake to implement change successfully. Australia Post moved towards becoming a more technological focused business which inflated on the internal environment. Technological development is the development, invention or implementation of new technology in an LSO. This can include automation (robotics) or digital products (web design, online apps) which can partially or fully replace humans in some part of their jobs. To implement this change, Australia post used Kotter’s theory.
The first step is to create a sense of urgency. Convincing people within the organisation of the need for change. This can help getting them on board if they see the real urgent purpose. Australia post informed employees (from the internal environment) of the losses they were facing, employees then saw the real urgent purpose and were encouraged to accept the changes.
The third step is to create a vision. A clear vision can help give direction on where the organisation is headed. Clarify how the vision will be better than what has happened in the past. At Australia Post a vision was created “getting future ready”. This Involved investigating the best methods of implementing technology and employees (from the internal environment) had something to work towards.
The fourth step is to communicate the vision. Being open and honest with stakeholders and talking about the vision regularly. Everyone must understand and accept the strategy and work towards achieving the vision. At Australia Post, the vision was communicated to the media and is available online. Employees (from the internal environment) were told of the changes and the motto “getting future ready” was frequently said around the business. This reduced the restrains form employees and encouraged them to work towards the changes.
The last step is to anchor the change in corporate culture (a part of the internal environment.) Create a new culture so that the changed state becomes normal. Making continuous effort to ensure the change is seen in all aspects of the organisation. Australia post ensured that the new culture values technology and the motto “getting future ready” stuck as part of the culture. This ensured that the changes were anchored into the business for the long term.
The use of Kotter’s change management theory has an impact on the internal environment. For example many businesses change their culture to reflect the changes and often have to terminate employees to implement the changes. Australia post had to hc she their culture to reflect the new technological focus and ensure that the changes were successful. They had to make redundancies from the letter business to focus on ecommerce. They had to update their recruitment and selection to hire new employees with the skills to implement ecommerce. Their operations changed as schedules for delivering letters were adjusted to focus on technology.
Change management theories provide a template for successful change in large-scale organisations. Explain how Kotter’s change management theory could be used to• promote driving forces for change• reduce restraining forces for change• promote the use of low-risk practices.In your response, include an example from a large-scale organisation or significant change issue that you have studied this year.
Kotter’s change management theory provides organisations with eight steps on how to successfuly manage change within an organisation. It can be used to promote driving forces, reduce restraining forces and promote low-risk practices.
Firstly, driving forces are those which move with change and encourage it to occur. In an organisation like Australia Post, these driving forces are the increased need to keep up with technology which has come about through increased customer usage of online shopping, ecommerce and a decreased usage of letters. Kotter’s theory is all about ensuring the entire organisation sees the benefits of the proposed change which will make it easier for the organisation in the long run. This is done in step four, by clearly communicating the vision of change to all stakeholders concerned. By explaining the reasons for the change and what is hoped to be achieved, thereby promoting the positives, these are driving forces for change. By doing this, Australia Post’s management is able to more easily get the employees on side as the change has been seen as the correct thing to do. Australia post published their vision online and they communicated with employees to ensure they understood where the business is heading.
Restraining forces are factors that work against change and slow down the process. This might include legislation and owners that make it difficult to implement changes. Kotter’s theory says that after communicating the vision to all stakeholders, that you should then remove obstacles to the change process. At Australia post due to laws and the fact that their only shareholder is the government they had to lobby any planned changes to the government. This takes time and slows down the process of implementing the changes. Using the step in Kotter’s theory of communicating the vision, the government was more accepting of the planned changes and made overcoming the obstacles a quicker process.
Kotter’s change management theory is also used to promote the use of low risk practices when establishing change. These low- risk practices are those things like actively communicating with employees. Step three of Kotter is to create a vision for change and then step four is to communicate that vision to stakeholders. Good communication is a low risk practice as allowing employees to understand clearly what is going on is a simple method of encourage change. Through their communication with employees, management at Australia Post used low risk practices and allowed employees to feel comfortable about the change process and where it was heading. Step five of Kotter, which is where they remove obstacles is also a low risk practice. Empowering employees and giving them responsibility results in employees feeling supported and accepting of change. They also will feel valued and this boosts motivation and productivity. This was the case at Australia Post as their employees were encouraged to support the change and come up with new technological ideas.
Explain a significant change issue that you have studied this year and describe two ways in which it impacts on large-scale organisations.
A significant change issue is technological development. Technological development is the development, invention or implementation of new technology in an LSO. This can include automation (robotics) or digital products (web design, online apps) which can partially or fully replace humans in some part of their jobs. The first way in which technological development can impact on LSOs is that many consumers enjoy shopping online and this has decreased the usage of many retail businesses. Organisations need to come up with new strategies to ensure they do not get overtaken by online stores that are purely web based. Secondly, organisations that begin to use technology often struggle to find a reason to keep employees when technology can do their jobs. This means that many employees at LSO’s face redundancies.
Explain how Kotter’s theory of change management can be used to support the ethical and socially responsible management of change.
Kotter’s change management theory refers to an eight-step theory that helps an organisation to efficiently and effectively implement change by providing the use of low-risk strategies and maximising driving forces. One step of Kotter’s theory is ‘Communicate the vision’ which is step four and involves managers communicating all aspects of the change and its advantages to all stakeholders who will be affected by it. This will ensure that change is handled ethically and socially responsibly by ensuring that employees are fully aware of the change and are not left in the dark. This also gives them time to understand and brace themselves for the change, ensuring that their welfare is looked after in this stressful time. Another step is to ‘overcome obstacles by empowering people to fulfil the vision’ which involves managers motivating employees to adopt desirable behaviours to fulfil the new vision. This may be completed through extra training. This will ensure that the change is handled in an ethical and socially responsible way as employees have the necessary skills and knowledge to implement the change, ensuring their safety, while also ensuring that stress levels are decreased, once again ensuring that the safety and welfare of employees is looked after and taken into consideration.
Describe two driving forces for change and analyse their impacts on the internal environment of a large-scale organisation that you have studied this year.
Organisational change refers to the planned or unplanned response to internal and/or external pressures. Driving forces are any factors which support and promote change. Two driving forces at Australia Post have been competition and the rise of digital communications which resulted in the introduction of ecommerce services such as securepay, a service offered by Auspost to other business’s that makes selling online easy. Competition refers to the quest of organisations to retain and gain customers from other similar businesses in the same industry. As Australia post do not have any major competitors in the letters business they are able to increase the costs of stamps and slow down deliveries without losing many customers. These are decisions made by management from the internal environment. Another driving force for change impacting on Australia Post is the rise of digital communications. The increased use of emails and online shopping has decreased the usage of letters and Australia post has been encouraged to investigate technological opportunities. This has however decreased the need for many employees who work in the letters business which has had a large impact on the internal environment. This has caused a large number of redundancies and changes to the recruitment and selection process to hire employees with skills relating to technological developments.
In response to an increased customer demand for air conditioners, AusClean Air’s CEO, Hilary Lopez,
has announced that ‘environmentally friendly and noiseless units’ will be produced in the company’s manufacturing plant to gain a substantial competitive advantage and increase AusClean Air’s market share. Employees have heard rumours that AusClean Air will be introducing new technologies and many of them do not welcome the change. The Human Resource Manager has been called in to help the employees cope with the transition. The Operations Manager welcomes the change.
a. Describe one driving force or one restraining force for change that is affecting AusClean Air.
Driving forces are those forces acting on a situation that are pushing in the direction of/supporting a proposed change. One driving force at AusClean Air is customers, who are the people purchasing and consuming an organisation’s product/service. Because customers are now increasingly demanding air conditioners, this places pressure on AusClean Air to implement the change to produce new air conditioners (driving force) in order to meet customer demand and thus attract more customers/improve market share.
In response to an increased customer demand for air conditioners, AusClean Air’s CEO, Hilary Lopez,has announced that ‘environmentally friendly and noiseless units’ will be produced in the company’s manufacturing plant to gain a substantial competitive advantage and increase AusClean Air’s market share. Employees have heard rumours that AusClean Air will be introducing new technologies and many of them do not welcome the change. The Human Resource Manager has been called in to help the employees cope with the transition. The Operations Manager welcomes the change.The Human Resource Manager is expecting some employee resistance to the change, which involves the implementation of new technologies.
Identify one low-risk practice and one high-risk practice for dealing with resistance to change. Discuss
both practices and suggest which one would be more effective when AusClean Air introduces the
planned new technologi
To tackle resisting forces to change, management may decide to implement high-risk and low-risk strategies. Low-risk strategies refer to methods of approaching change in an incremental, steady manner which can reduce levels of anxiety and fear during the stressful process of organisational change. A low-risk practice can involve employee involvement or teamwork through the process, and enables employee input and two way communication. This practice could enable the HRM to discuss and ask employees their ideas for the process of implementing the new technologies. This strategy can also reduce anxieties as the situation is clearly explained so there are no misunderstandings. One disadvantage is that it is very time consuming to get employee involvement. A high-risk practice enables for the immediate implementation of change, and is appropriate for critical situations, though may increase resisting forces rather than eliminate them.The HRM of AusClean Air may choose to coerce or use threats to convince employees who are against the change. They may do this through threatening mass redundancies or wage-cuts. The disadvantage of high-risk strategies are that it fosters a negative corporate culture which breeds mistrust and a bad employee-employer relationship. It is beneficial for quick change implementation though. Low-risk strategies would be more effective as they supportively manage the implementation of change.
Management in a large-scale organisation is faced with the challenge of managing change effectively.
Describe two possible effects that change may have on the internal environment of a large-scale organisation. In your response, refer to a signi cant change issue that you have studied this year.
The significant change issue I have studied this year is technological development. Technological developments often require a change in corporate culture. If a business wants to remain competitive in a digital world they need to ensure that their culture values technology. Getting all people within the organisation to share the new values and belief in technology is important to the long term success of the changes. Technological developments also has an impact on human resource management. When a business is implementing technology, especially automation, it significantly decreases the need for many employees. Organisations often have to make many employees redundant when implementing technology. Organisations also need to update their recruitment and selection processes to ensure that they are hiring new employees with the skills required to implement or develop new technologies.
Outline and explain two management skills managers would need to possess the successfully implement change.
One management skill and manager would need to successfully implement change is communication. Communication is the transfer of information between the sender and the receiver. Two communication should be utilised so that employees concerns can be addressed. When implementing changes, managers should explain why the changes need to be made and what affects it will have on the organisation. Managers should also answer questions employees have and listen to their concerns. This insures that employees except the change I know what is required from them. Another skill that should be utilised is negotiation. This is when two parties into discussions to solve a dispute or produce an agreement on a course of action. Yeah come satisfying to both sides. When implementing change in quantity is open resist the changes and refuse to work productively. Manages could use negotiation to produce an agreement with employees such as offering flexible working conditions if the employees accept the changes. This helps ensure employees work towards thechanges and reduces restraining forces.
Identify one driving force for change and one restraining force for change that could affect an organisation. Explain the importance of managing and implementing change effectively.
Driving forces are those factors that help works towards the change and support it. Competition refers to the quest of organisations to retain and gain customers from other similar businesses in the same industry. Competition can be a driving force as when a competitor makes a change such as a reduction in prices, other businesses often follow to ensure they remain competitive. Also, a lack of competition can give room for an organisation to implement changes their consumers might be unhappy with such as an increase in prices, this is because consumers will have nowhere else to go. One restraining force is employees. Employees are often hesitant to work towards changes especially if it involves job cuts. Employees who don’t support the change can be a difficult obstacles to overcome and businesses can use high risk or low risk practices to try and get employees to support the change. It is extremely important to manage change effectively. The ability to manage and, in many cases, embrace and adapt to change will increasingly determine an organisation’s competitive advantage and survival. Successful managers are the ones who anticipate and adjust to changing circumstances rather than ones that get swept along passively or, worse, get caught unprepared, if a business doesn’t react to external forces and make changes, or make changes too late, consumers might choose to shop at competitors if they offer lower priced items or they might move onto different products if an organisation fails to implement new and improved products to keep consumers satisfied.
Analyse how two factors of the internal environment and two factors of the external environment of a large-scale organisation may act as sources of change. In your response, refer to a signi cant change issue that you have studied this year.
Change is considered dynamic because the sources of change are dynamic, and LSOs must adapt to changes from internal and external environments in order to stay competitive.
External sources for change are those that LSOs have little to no control over. When Australia Post underwent organisational change to become more competitive in a digital world, a major external source of change was customers. Customers are the people purchasing and consuming an organisation’s product/service. Organisations need to make changes to ensure that they are able to meet customer demand. At Australia post they noticed that customers were not using letters as much as they used to and that they were now using technology for communications. This was a pressure for change for Australia Post to make changes to stay competitive in a digital world such as raising letter prices and implementing technological developments.
Another external factor is the rise of digital communications and technology. Technology has made it much easier for consumers to communicate with friends and family, diminishing the need for letters. For Australia post this tells them that they need to implement technological developments as soon as possible to keep up with modern technology. Australia post implemented the mypost system to allow consumers to have more control over their letters and the SecurePay system which allowed businesses to use Australia posts system of online payment for their organisation. This was done to keep competitive in a digital world.
This push for change can also be found inside the organisation, for example, management can act as a driving source for change. The productivity and profitability of an LSO is critical to managers and so if they believe a change will help them reach their objectives they will take action to promote it. In Australia Posts change to become more technologically focused management was pivotal in introducing and encouraging the change by implementing policies and recruiting in line to meet the technological needs and wants of consumers. By communicating the change in a way that all employees understand through the use of a slogan “getting future ready” management was a source for change as they believed technological development was in the organisation’s best interests.
A second internal factor is the employees who play a vital role in implementing the change. If employees see that a change is necessary they will embrace and promote it. For example, if they are concerned about technology leading to redundancies they are likely to demand change to job security policies and thus become the source for change for long term employment contracts. At Australia Post, employees were seen to resist change as they knew that a technological focus could result in redundancies, this caused a drop in morale and many employees were unsure of their future.
