Rapid, Volatile and Discontinuous Change - Essay Example

? Strategic Management Assignment Overview Rapid, volatile and discontinuous changes in business environmental factors like social, political, economic, environmental and technological have been the key focused area of businesses. This essay will outline the concept of rapid, volatile and discontinuous change. Moreover, it will also assess the impact of these changes on the strategic management process of organizations. Finally the study will discuss the response of CEOs to discontinuous changes. Introduction It should be the major objective of successful organizations to achieve more than expected returns and strategic competitiveness. Now-a-days the organizations are bringing rapid, volatile and discontinuous changes. It makes strategic management more multifaceted and challenging. There are two principal drivers that influence the nature of competitors’ background. These will help the organizations to adopt and maintain that change. Technology and global economy are two important drivers of businesses. Therefore, substantial changes in these drivers can affect the strategic management process of an organization. Several models can help the CEOs to respond to the discontinuous changes. The combination of those two change approaches is suitable for the transformation of the organizations. This approach is considered as holistic approach. This holistic approach will help to produce effective flexibility to the businesses to counter the uncertain situations. It is necessary to have a strategic change plan that can be learned in order to relieve the fear of this change among the employees. Critical learning is indispensable. It will help to create a knowledge based work environment of understanding the critical problems. Moreover, transfer of knowledge will help to enhance the decision making ability in a situation of sudden change. Rapid, Volatile and Discontinuous Change Rapid and volatile organizational change is an intentional and structured approach that helps to transit the employees, groups and organizations from a current position to a significant future position. On the other hand, discontinuous change can be defined as sudden, unintentional and non-incremental change that threatens the power structure and existing traditional authority (Hubbard, 2004). The organizations implement rapid and volatile changing process to improve the internal structure of an organization. This process helps the management of the organization to capitalize on the potential opportunities and to meet with the changing customer demand rapidly by effective redesigning of product and services (Foster & Browne, 1996). On the other hand, the objective of the discontinuous change process is to identify and rectify the current organizational problems. The organizations implement this change to establish new strategies to improve the organizational performance. Leading organizations around the globe are trying to capitalize on the potential opportunities by implementing these changes. Moreover, continuous changes in the organization required for any changes in external environmental factors help the organization to maintain a healthy work environment and achieve competence in the industry. It is important for the information managers to review the environmental factors and identify the current trends. This strategic audit planning will help the organizations to understand the external and internal information services (Sutton, 1999). PEST analysis is a common tool that helps the organization to assess the external factors, such as political, social, technological and economical changes. Another important common strategic audit tool is SWOT analysis. It helps the organization to assess the internal factors. This SWOT analysis considers internal strengths, weaknesses and external opportunities and threats. Following is the strategic management model that used to assess the role, impact and implication of rapid, volatile and discontinuous organizational change. An important principle of strategic management is to make a change plan based on the external and internal business environmental factors. The assessment of external factors, such as social, economical, political and technological factors will help the management of the organization to implement effective change process (Robbins, Bergman & Stagg, 1997). On the other hand, internal environmental analytical tool will help the organization to assess internal strengths and weaknesses. An effective organizational assessment will help the organization to identify current problems and issues. This strategy will help them to rectify these issues. An effective organizational assessment includes evaluation of capacity and resources of an organization and implementation of change process for future needs (Johnson, Scholes & Whittington, 2008). Strategic direction is an important element of strategic management model. This strategic direction helps to ensure the goals and visions of an organization. Effective strategic direction helps an organization to implement effective change process. It helps to increase the capability of an organization. It maximizes the benefits and minimizes the liabilities. An effective strategic decision is the important driver for achieving success in critical situation (Meyer, Gaba & Colwell, 2005). This significant strategic direction will help an organization to implement strategic change plans and processes. Strategic management is not just developing the strategic plans. It is important for the organizations to implement these plans successfully (Kelly & Amburgey, 1991). Effective change process and implementation of strategic plan help an organization to increase its core competency in the competitive market place. Implementation of strategic plan must become a key part of day-to-day operation. Performance evaluation is the most important element in a strategic management model. Performance evaluation is the comparison between desired results and actual results. An effective performance evaluation process will help to realize the effectiveness of the change process and strategies (Jones, Roberts & Chonko, 2000). Performance evaluation will help the organization to develop better strategic plan for future perspective. The leadership of discontinuous change cannot be allotted. It is the responsibility of the CEOs that they should be personally involved in the change process. The CEOs of organization needs to provide clear strategic direction for the change process (Lant & Mezias, 1990). They need to identify the issues involved in the strategies and should rectify these issues accordingly. Effective vision and estimation level can help the CEOs to respond to the discontinuous changes. It is important for the CEOs to work with the senior employees in order to recognize the need for change. It will help the organization to overcome the current issues and challenges. The CEOs should respond to the discontinuous change effectively. It will help the organization to develop a comprehensive change agenda. Effective efforts of CEOs will help the organization to maximize its value. It is important for an organization to assess effectiveness of the change process. Only CEO of an organization can execute refinement and mid-course correction. Conclusion and Implications It is important for an organization to capitalize on the potential opportunities. The leading global organizations are trying to implement effective change process in the organization in order to overcome the current organizational challenges. Rapid and volatile organizational change is a planned and structured approach. It helps to transit the employees, groups and organization from a current state to a significant future state. Discontinuous change can be defined as rapid non-incremental change that threatens the existing traditional authority and power structure. These change processes are effectively utilized in the strategic management. It is the responsibility of the management and CEO of an organization to monitor the change process in order to increase the business productivity. Discontinuous change is important for an organization. It helps to make the CEOs understand the effective scope of change. The management of the organization should allow the senior employees in the decision making process. It will help the organization to undertake effective change decision. Implementation of specific changes in strategic planning, culture, organizational design and providing technical support will help the organization to increase the efficiency of business operation. Feedback and individual coaching will help the organization to improve the condition of work environment. Last but not the least; an organization should implement effective change cycle. It will help the organization to increase their capability. Moreover, it will help to find the next wave of destabilizing change. References Foster, J. F., & Browne, K. (1996). Principles of Strategic Management. Australia: MacMilan. Hubbard, G. (2004). Strategic Management: Thinking, Analysis & Action. Australia: Pearson Education. Johnson, G., Scholes, K., & Whittington, R. (2008). Exploring Corporate Strategy: Text and cases. (8th ed.). UK: Pearson Education. Robbins, S. P., Bergman, R., & Stagg, I. (1997). Management. Australia: Prentice Hall. Sutton, S.A. (1999). The Panda Syndrome II: Innovation, Discontinuous Change, and LIS Education. Journal of Education for Library and Information Science, 40, 1. Meyer, A.D., Gaba, V., & Colwell, K.A. (2005). Organizing far from Equilibrium: Nonlinear Change in Organizational Science. Journal of Organization Science, 13, 1. Jones, E., Roberts, J.A., & Chonko, L.B. (2000). Motivating Sales Entrepreneurs to Change: A Conceptual Framework of Factors Leading to Successful Change Management Initiatives in Sales Organizations. Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, 8, 37. Lant, T.K., & Mezias, S.J. (1990). Managing Discontinuous Change: A Simulation Study of Organizational Learning and Entrepreneurship. Journal of Strategic management, 11, 150-152. Kelly, D., & Amburgey, T.L. (1991). Organizational Inertia and Momentum: A Dynamic Model of Strategic Change. Journal of Academy Management, 27, 1. Read More