Unit 10

• Managing change


  Structured approach to moving individuals, teams, and organisations from a current state to a desired future state, with the aim of minimising the impact of any unintended negative outcome on people and processes
• Types of change


  • Internal change
  • External change
  • Incremental change
  • Disruptive change
• Internal change


  • Change that occurs within a business, e.g. new technology, outsourcing, reward systems, organisational structure, new owners/leaders
• External change


  • Change in the external environment of a business or its competitive environment, e.g. changes in tastes/fashions, new laws/taxes, number of competitors
• Incremental change


  Small adjustments made over a long period of time towards a desired result, usually without altering current working practices
• Radical/step change


  Achieving goals in a much shorter period but with significant and long-term effects on workplace practices
• Disruptive change


  • Irreversible change to products, processes, and markets that alters the future completely from what was expected before the change, e.g. internet, telephone, computer industry, data storage
• Lewin's force field analysis

  1. Describe current situation

  2. Describe desired situation

  3. Identify and evaluate strength of driving forces

  4. Identify and evaluate strength of restraining forces

  5. Chart the forces

  6. Develop strategy to strengthen driving forces and weaken restraining forces
• Lewin wrote that an issue is held in balance by the interaction of two opposing sets of forces - those seeking to promote change (driving forces) and those resisting change (restraining forces)
• Organisational culture


  The unwritten code that affects the attitudes and behaviour of staff, approaches to decision making and the leadership style of management, the shared values of an organisation, including their beliefs and norms that affect every aspect of their work and life, from how people greet each other to how major policy decisions are made
• Every organisation has its own unique culture
• Value of change


  • Businesses avoid losing competitive edge and fail to meet customer needs
  • Businesses take advantage of developing technologies
  • Customers' changing needs create demand for new goods/services
  • Improved working conditions and productivity
  • Opportunity for staff development
  • Business growth and competition in new markets
  • Cope with globalisation
  • Improve organisational culture, efficiency and productivity
• Organisational culture


  • It provides distinctions between one organisation and another
  • It conveys a sense of identity for members of the organisation
  • It helps to generate commitment to something larger than individuals own self-interest
  • It helps to hold organisations together by providing appropriate standards including what employees should say and do
  • It helps guide and shape the attitudes and behaviours of employees by defining the rules of their industry
• A strong culture that all employees understand and are committed to is particularly important because organisations increasingly have flatter structures and wider spans of control
• Flexible organisation


  A business that can respond quickly to changes in the external environment, including a flexible workforce structure that allows capacity to be increased or reduced quickly
• Task culture


  Power is derived from the expertise required to complete a task or project, it is usually associated with a small team approach or small organisations voice. With a direct project the emphasis is on results
• Benefits of a flexible organisation


  • Respond more quickly to market conditions
  • Make more efficient use of resources
  • Reduce costs, particularly labour
  • Make more effective and efficient use of specialists
  • Attract better quality job applicants
  • Improve customer service
  • Enable focus on core competence through outsourcing
  • Enable remote/flexible working and cost savings on premises
• Strategic implementation


  The stage when a strategic plan is put into effect to achieve the objectives for which it has been designed; the stage where strategies are translated into policies and rules, procedures, and operational targets within the different functional areas
• Task culture


  • Individuals are empowered with independence and control over their work
  • Flexible and adaptable where the culture emphasise is on talent and ideas that involves continuous team problem solving and consultation
  • Teams are formed to take advantage of individuals expertise
• Challenges of a flexible organisation

  • Overcoming concerns about operational pressures and meeting customer requirements
  • Dealing with negative attitudes towards flexible working
  • Handling concerns about impact of others' flexible working
  • Measuring/evaluating performance by output rather than hours
  • Dependence on external organisations for outsourced functions
  • Downsizing and loss of skills/experience
  • Ensuring work-life balance and support for remote workers
• Task culture organisations


  • Professional services such as accounting, law, and consulting firms
• Research suggests that over 70% of strategic plans are not implemented effectively
• Restructuring


  Designing appropriate organisational structures to meet the needs of a more flexible workforce, e.g. core permanent workers supported by temporary/part-time/outsourced peripheral workers
• External factors affecting effective implementation of strategy

  • Changes in a firm's external environment
  • Changes in a firm's competitive environment
• Delayering


  Removal of one or more layers of hierarchy from the management structure, leading to a flatter structure with wider spans of control
• Role culture


  Power is hierarchical and clearly defined in the company's job descriptions. A person's power derives from their pace or role within a highly structured organisation

  
• Being prepared to change strategy or key aspects of the implementation plan


  An important feature of a flexible and successful organisation
• Flexible employment contracts


  • Part-time working
  • Term-time working
  • Job sharing
  • Flexitime
  • Compressed hours
  • Annual hours
  • Mobile/teleworking
  • Career breaks
  • Zero-hour contracts
• Role culture


  • Detailed rules indicate how people and departments interact with each other, customers, and suppliers
  • Coordination is from the top and job positions are central
  • Predictability and consistency are highly valued, and adjustments to change is difficult
• Organic structure


  Flat organisational structure, horizontal communication, low specialisation, decentralisation
• Internal factors affecting effective implementation of strategy

  • Leadership
  • Organisational structure
  • Organisational culture
  • Communication
  • Timing and distinctiveness
  • Providing adequate resources
  • Monitoring and accountability
  • Reviewing and evaluating
• Mechanistic structure


  Hierarchical and bureaucratic, centralised authority, uniform procedures, highly specialised functions
• Role culture organisations


  • Government departments, such as local authorities, public utilities, and large well-established businesses like insurance companies and banks
• Leaders


  Involved in setting strategy, communicating, implementing, and monitoring
• Mechanistic structures represent the traditional top-down approach, while organic structures represent a more collaborative and flexible approach
• Power culture


  Power is concentrated a small group or central figure who determines the dominant culture
• Organisational structure


  Needs to be responsive to new strategies; not only a chart, but about people, positions, procedures, culture, and technology
• Power culture


  • Few rules and less bureaucracy because whatever the boss says, goes
  • Decisions can be made very quickly
• Network analysis


  A method of planning business operations to identify the most efficient way of completing an integrated task or project
• Mechanistic structures


  Features include hierarchical and bureaucratic organisational structures, central inside authority, uniformalised procedures and practices, and highly specialised functions