Chapter 64- Key Factors in Change

Question 1

What drives change?

Answer 1

• Technology
• New leadership
• Competitors
• Market conditions
• Mergers or takeovers
• Changes in consumer, tasks/fashion

Question 2

The way businesses mange change depends on:

Answer 2

• Organisational culture, the way in which things are done in the organisation. Custom and practise, beliefs of organisation. It can be personalised by strong leader or founder of business.
• Size of the organisation, as firms get larger= problems such as slower decision making, diseconomies of scale, communication problems, lack of flexibility. Large firms= decentralised as they grow in size.
• Speed of change, rate of change in organisations is determined by different factors mentioned above. E.g. Apple tech, Nokia.

Question 3

Managing resistance to change

Answer 3

Businesses are likely to face a certain amount of resistance to change from parts of the workforce for a number of reasons

• Fear of the unknown. People often feel safe with familiar work practices, conditions and relationships
• Employees and managers may fear that they will be unable to carry out new tasks, may be made redundant or may face a fall in earnings
• Individual workers might be concerned that they will no longer work with their preferred colleagues or may be moved to a job that they dislike.

Question 4

Owners

Answer 4

-Owners of businesses may also be resistant to change for similar reasons. They might fear operating in unknown market conditions.

They might not want the cost of any changes. They may also fear that they might not be able to adjust to new situations and be forced out of business

Question 5

Customers and suppliers

Answer 5

-These too may resist change. They may be unwilling to change their own practices when the business they are dealing with changes.

Generally speaking, therefore, stakeholders in a business may resist change for any of the following reasons:
• Disagreement with the reasons for or necessity to change
• Fear of the impact
• Lack of understanding
• Disagreement with process involved in delivering change
• Lack of involvement
• General inertia