Unit 10 Flashcards
What are the causes of change?
-Meet objectives (gain market share, increase shareholder worth)
-Respond to external forces (Technological advancement, consumer demand, political and legal change)
-Respond to internal forces (Employee pressures, owner’s power, Experience curve)
-Gain competitive advantage (economies of scale, market development)
What are the types of change?
-Internal change
-External change
-Incremental change
-Disruptive change
What techniques can a business use to manage change?
- Project champion
- Project group
What is Lewin’s force field analysis?
- Driving forces who in favour of the change
- Resisting forces who are against the change
Value of change to maintain competitive advantage?
- Engage employees as a result of responding to their changing needs
- Flexibility
What does organisational culture affect?
- Staff motivation
- Decision making
- Competitiveness of the business
- Brand image
What are the four cultures in Handy’s task culture?
- Task
- Role
- Power
- Entrepreneurial
How can flexibility of an organisation be improved
-Restructuring
-Delayering
-Flexible employee contracts
What are the 4 reasons for resistance to change according to Kotter and Schlesinger?
-Parochial self interest-stakeholders fear that the change will lead to them being worse off
-Prefer status quo-like things the way they are
-Different assessment of the situation-stakeholders believe that the proposed change isn’t correct course of action
-Misunderstanding/misinformation
what are the 6 ways to overcome resistance to change according to Kotter and Schlesinger?
-Education and communication
-Participant and involvement=ensuring stakeholders feel apart of the change process
-Facilitation and support=providing necessary skills and support to help stakeholders feel more comfortable with the change
-Negotiation and agreement=increase two way communication by bargaining with stakeholders and making compromises when required
-Manipulation and cooption=using project champions who receive incentives and are tasked with winning around others
-Explicit and implicit coercion=pushing change through despite resistance
How can culture affect how a business operates?
-Decision making
-Organisational structure
-Communication
-Leadership styles
-Attitude towards work
-Workforce performance
Why is organisational culture important?
-Impact on staff motivation
-Effects decision making
-Competitiveness of the business
-Brand image
What are the 6 parts of Hoftstedes cultural dimension?
-Individualism & Collectivism
-Masculinity & Femininity
-Long term & Short term orientation
-High power & Low power distance index
-Avoiding & Embracing uncertainty
-Indulgence & restraint
What are the influences on organisational structure
Mission statement and corporate beliefs
Personal attitudes
Norms in society
Ownership and organisation
What are the influences on organisational structure?
- Mission statement and corporate beliefs
- Personal attitudes
- Norms in society
- Ownership and size of the organisation
- Geographical scope
- Competitive environment
What are the reasons for changing organisational structure?
- Change in owners or leaders
- Change in corporate objectives
- Change in size
- Responding to market conditions (competition, economic climate)
What are the problems with changing organisational structure
-Resistance to change
-Lack of trust
-Period of adjustment
-Alienation of suppliers, customers or other stakeholders
What are leaders responsible for?
-Defining strategic direction
-Setting, sharing clear policies and procedures
-Communicating strategy to everyone to provide a clear vision
-Overcome resistance to change
-Allocating resources
-Monitoring Progress against targets
-Taking action when necessary
Factors that affect the ability to implement a new strategy?
-Span of control
-Chain of command
-Decentralised or centralised decision making
-Allocation of roles during implementation
-Power distance index
What’s network analysis?
Technique used to identify the order in which all activities need to be completed when planning a complex project
what’s the critical path in a network analysis?
Activities that will lengthen duration of whole project if they’re delayed.
how is earliest start time (EST) calculated?
Adding duration to the previous EST
How to calculate the latest finish time (LFT)?
Calculate right to left
Previous LFT minus duration of activity.
How to identify the critical path in a network diagram?
Earliest start time=Latest finish time
What are the advantages of a network analysis?
-Identifies critical activities
-Shortens overall time of a project
-Improve focus on project
-Greater productive efficiency
-Allows for just in time
What are the disadvantages of network analysis
-Only a starting point for a successful
-Relies on estimations
-Doesn’t take into external influences
-Large projects can be too complex for CPA
What are the difficulties of strategic decision making?
-Unforeseen circumstances
-Changing external environment
-Hard to predict competitors actions
-Changing nature of the global market
-Lack of knowledge or expertise
-Poor leadership
-Poor management of resources
-Resistance to change by the workforce
-Brand dilution
Features of a planned strategy
-Introduced with foresight
-Strategy is one the manager wanted to implement
-Provides a clear sense of direction
-Easily communicated
-May lack flexibility
Features of an emergent strategy
-Developed over time
-Responds to changes in the internal/external environment
-Greater flexibility
-May create a feeling of mistrust amongst stakeholders dues to frequent revisions leading to a lack of confidence
What’s strategic drift?
When a strategy is no longer fit for purpose due to changes in external/internal environment
Reasons for strategic drift
Internal environment
-change of leadership
-change in size
-updated corporate objectives
External environment
-technological advancements
-changing priorities in society
-competitive nature of market
-globalisation
What does ‘divorce between ownership and control’ refer to?
When one group of people owning a business but a different group make the day to day decisions
What’s corporate governance?
The formal policies/procedures that are important for running a business
Benefits of strategic planning
-Clear sense of direction
-Consideration of SWOT
-Logical process
-Allows for progress to be reviewed
-Identifies and gives consideration to a range of strategic options
Cons of strategic planning
-May be too constraining
-Needs to be monitored and reviewed
-Requires resources
-Can’t predict the future
-Can’t deter the unexpected
What’s contingency planning?
Where organisations try to prepare for unexpected events that may harm the business
What’s the value of contingency planning?
-Sense of security
-Limits damage
-Speeds up recovery process
-Informs staff training
-Preventative measures can be part of CSR
What are limitations of contingency planning?
-Costly and time consuming
-Needs reviewing
-Lack of predictability
