STRATEGIC AND CHANGE MANAGEMENT

 Read the following extract and answer the questions that follow Change management has been defined as 'the process of continually renewing an organisation's direction, structure, and capabilities to serve the ever-changing needs of external and internal customers'. According to Burnes (2004) change is an ever-present feature of organisational life, both at an operational and strategic level. Therefore, there should be no doubt regarding the importance to any organisation of its ability to identify where it needs to be in the future, and how to manage the changes required getting there. Consequently, organisational change cannot be separated from organisational strategy, or vice versa. Due to the importance of organisational change, its management is becoming a highly required managerial skill. Against a backdrop of increasing globalisation deregulation, the rapid pace of technological innovation, a growing knowledge workforce, and shifting social and demographic trends, few would dispute that the primary task for management today is the leadership of organisational change.' Since the need for change often is unpredictable, it tends to be reactive, discontinuous, ad hoc and often triggered by a situation of organisational crisis. Although the successful management of change is accepted as a necessity in order to survive and succeed in today's highly competitive and continuously evolving environment a failure rate of around 70 per cent of all change programmes initiated is often reported. It may be suggested that this poor success rate indicates a fundamental lack of a valid framework of how to implement and manage organisational change. Even though it is difficult to identify any consensus regarding a framework for organisational change management, there seems to be an agreement on two issues. Firstly, it is agreed that the pace of change has never been greater than in the current business environment. Secondly, there is a consensus that change, being triggered by internal or external factors, comes in all shapes, forms and sizes and, therefore, affects all organisations in all industries.

Questions: 2.1 Elaborate on the four basic strategies of change management, indicating the context in which each would be appropriate. (15)

2.2 Evaluate the following statement: "Managing change is more a matter of leadership ability than management skills" (10)

2.3 "a failure rate of around 70 per cent of all change programmes" Assess the possible reasons why change programmes 'fail'. (10)