What are the main issues which an organisation must consider when implementing strategic change - Essay Example

? What are the main issues which an organization must consider when implementing strategic change? ABC XYZ Contents Introduction 3 Issues in implementing strategic change 4 Conclusion 6 References 7 Introduction One of the crucial instruments used in corporate enterprise is formulating and implementing strategy. Devising strategy helps in developing a favorable organizational climate and also survival in adverse market situations. Scholars have focused on certain elements encompassing strategy. These are as follows: a) Depending on uncertain market conditions, strategies are revised and reformulated. b) Strategies demonstrate the manner in which resources may be utilized to fulfill the desires of entrepreneurs c) They provide a direction to in developing the organization d) Strategies are aimed to make and develop long term prospects of success by gaining competitive edge over rival firms (Markiewicz, 2011). Implementation of strategic change is a very challenging task. Successful strategic change implementation leads to business success whereas failure in implementing strategic change may lead to catastrophic outcomes which may sometimes wipe out the business enterprise. Critical strategic change process happens when supervisors use symbolic resources and discourses in order to obliterate existing systems in meanings and find out new ones to try to set a direction to the strategy formulated and implemented (Buchanan & Dawson, 2007). In fact, a survey conducted in the year 2009, comprising of 190 staff and line managers confessed that strategic change implementation is critically significant in the strategic implementation process. The key findings of this survey revealed the following: Firms which employed strategic planning were much more comfortable in the strategic change implementation process Firms taking into account integrating social responsibility and ethical perspectives in the strategy change implementation process resulted in trying to eliminate certain issues which arose in the strategic change process Firms which involved the entire planning team to devise strategic plans and then implement them expected a splurge in revenue in the next one year (Wilson & Eilersten, 2010). Issues in implementing strategic change Some main issues which organizations must consider in the strategic implementation process are focusing on the redesigning and restructuring of the organization. Another significant issue may be caused by the ambiguous flow of communication and the manner in which information is handled. Measuring competencies and planning resources is another challenge. Most firms have resorted to utilizing shared resources and competencies. This is especially true for mergers and acquisitions or even in situations when two departments or divisions may be merged. One more critical problem in the implementation stage may be created due to the inability to translate the aims developed in the strategic change stage. In order to take care of these issues, a maturity model has been developed which is associated with sustainability and have diverse elements of evaluation and resourcing, results, managing capability and capacity, strategy and policy and managing programs. The change management maturity matrix in this case defines various stages of strategic change implementation by classifying them as immature, early maturity period, defined, managed and optimization. The last state is the one which a firm needs to attain when it has optimum allocation of resources and garners optimum levels of revenue by implementing strategic change. Another core issue in handling strategic change is lack of effective leadership in the organization. It is important to have an effective leader who is able to deftly handle change management strategy and drive motivation and employee engagement. Organizations also face issues in strategic implementation while managing the employees. Major hurdles are faced because strategic change efforts are resisted by personnel. The role of non financial and financial rewards in managing human resource to adapt to strategic change is critical. Strategic change was implemented in an organization, EngCo wherein the human resource department focused on the application of shared services in human resource and developing a service culture. This organization was one of the leading global engineering organizations. The main business concentration is in automation technology and power. Successful strategic change implementation in Engco has led scholars to discover new avenues to partnering in the international market (Raja, Green & Leiringer, 2010). Several ethical issues are presented by managers in the starting phase of the implementation process. They may develop significant business issues which do not take into consideration ethical issues. Another issue is found in not providing clear communication to employees thereby leading to separate viewpoints between the management and personnel. Starting issues and trigger problems may arise during strategic change implementation especially during the restructuring process. This creates a situation of panic in employees who fear to lose their jobs or adjust to new systems and processes. An academic study caused by the merger of two divisions in a Fortune 500 organization, Retail, Inc. showcased all the above mentioned ethical issues. Academic scholars have observed certain implications from the failure to the strategic change implementation process. Managers never appreciated the interpretive diversity and accordingly make processes and systems considering some aspirations of the employees. Another critical issue was the lack of clear communication network. Lastly, the management did not consider ethical issues while developing and implementing the strategic change in the organization (Sonenshein, 2009). Other than the above mentioned issues academic scholars have also observed some other challenges which firms face while implementing strategic change in organizations. These are hidden costs, excessive customization, lack of proper comprehension of business requirements and implications, dilemma of integrating internal departments or divisions, lack of expertise in handling change management strategies, bad quality of data collected, limited training opportunities, no proper alignment of change management strategies with organization and no proper support provided by the senior management team (Momoh, Roy & Shehab, 2010). Also it has been observed that transformation in business emerged not only from strategic but also tactical decisions. The change management strategy was discontinuous and hence it took a lot of effort on the part of the management to bring about change. However, along with the discontinuous innovation, efforts were made to also practice incremental innovation which helped organizations, processes and systems to embrace recent changes in technology, market and the overall environment. Conclusion There are several hindrances in the strategic change implementation processes. Sometimes time management in formulating and implementing the new strategy may also lead to failure in the strategic change process. The strategy implementation stage including controlling the behavior of personnel and at times altering the organizational culture and beliefs. In this stage, maximum issues are caused due to the resistance to change displayed by employees. The best solution to successfully implementing strategy is the existence of an able leader who can integrate available resources and organizational structure and processes to meet up the strategic goals formulated. References Buchanan, D., & Dawson, P. 2007. Discourse and audience: Organizational change as multi-story process. Journal of Management Studies, 44, pp. 669 – 686. Markiewicz, P. 2011. Change management in the strategy implementation process. Intellectual Economics, 5(2), pp. 257 – 267. Momoh, A., Roy, R. & Shehab, E. (2010). Challenges in enterprise resource planning implementation: state-of-the-art. Business Process Management Journal, 16(4), 537 – 565. Raja, J.Z., Green, S.D. & Leiringer, R. 2010. Concurrent and disconnected change programmes: strategies in support of servitization and the implementation of business partnering. Human Resource Management Journal, 20(3), pp. 258 – 276. Sonenshein, S. 2009. Emergence of ethical issues during strategic change implementation. Organization Science, 20(1), pp. 223 – 239. Wilson, J.W. & Eilertsen, S. 2010. How did strategic planning help during the economic crisis? Strategy & Leadership, 38(2), pp. 5-14. Read More