Crafting Strategy, Theories of Organizational Change - Coursework Example

Reflection: Strategy & Change Learning Journal Name Institution Professor Course Date Introduction In today’s competitive business environment, the success of a firm increasingly depends on the ability of the organisational leaders to influence employees to follow them. . Effective leaders ensure maximum productivity through implementing feasible strategies and ensuring good change management. An essential part of leadership is change and strategy management. Evidently, leaders are responsible for generating and communicating strategy, but their role does not stop there. They must manage change for implementation of strategy. This requires them to ensure that employees comprehend the strategy, fit in it and align leadership actions and decisions amicably. The topics learned in weeks 6 to 11 have broaden my skills in management of change and strategy, besides giving me insights on good change and strategy management. By and large, the weeks have enlightened me on the importance of management and how leadership impacts implementation of change and strategy. Drawing on the class materials and discussions between week 6 and 11, this essay provides a reflection of how I related to every topic, and lessons learned. The lessons learnt in the whole unit have sharpened my skills on leadership, change and strategy. The unit has helped me realise that change and strategy in an organisation are an incremental process that entails learning and reflecting about the processes that leaders utilise and how these processes can be enhanced. The reflective journal focuses on the meaning of strategy, strategic analysis, grafting of strategy, theories of leadership and change, methods of managing change and leading change. Through the journal, I wish to underscore areas that I have gained skills in and those that need further learning. Although I have gained skills in the broad area of leadership, change and strategy, I believe I need to further my learning on change management having realised that change management rather than change itself, is essential in the attainment of operational effectiveness in a firm. Week 6: What is Strategy? In response to the competitive environment, that negatively affects business performance and profitability, organisational managers develop a concrete strategy of establishing a rational business strategy aimed at helping a firm to remain competitive. According to Mintzberg (2011), strategy integrates process, products, markets and mission into some consistent theory of a firm. From this definition, I have learnt that strategy integrates and coordinates various activities of different unit sin a firm to attain long-term objectives. A focused and clear strategy is essential for sustainability and productivity of a firm. This is because good strategies facilitate the attainment of a competitive advantage. I have realized that a strategy is different from decisions, programs, policies and goals that follow it. Instead, a strategy guides these decisions, goals and programs (Thompson, Peteraf, Gamble, Strickland & Jain, 2013). In reality, people express a strategy as a plan that is guided by organization’s values and purpose. A successful strategy offers action plans and directions, align and prioritizes activities and offers a platform for decision-making. I have learned that a strategy is a plan designed to help a firm to attain its major objectives and goals. It provides a general direction of a firm with its different elements aimed at attaining the desire future of a firm. A good strategy requires that managers integrate the activities of an organization besides using and allocating the resources within the firm’s environment to attain the set objectives (Mitroff & Linstone, 1993). As a result, managers should not capitalize on previous or past designs, as this does not reflect strategic change. Taking the future of a firm as an extension of past cannot help a firm to stay ahead of its competitors. More so, a strategy should not be viewed as a discourse model because this is a dubious view that legitimizes the views of people thereby furthering their personal agendas. I have come to realize that most managers recycle past designs of strategy that fail to help in the attainment of the prospective goals of a firm. Managers cannot just produce discourse to correspond to their immediate needs. They should use discourse as a strategic resource and must locate their discursive actions within an evocative context. This allows strategist to construct and shape action. I believe that a good strategy should predict the future in order to allow a firm to address uncertain events that may affect the productivity of the business. A good strategy should focus on long-term development instead of normal operations (Ackermann & Eden, 2005). It should deal with probability of novel products and innovations, new production methods or new future markets. As a defined roadmap of a firm, a strategy should define the direction, vision and mission of a firm and focus on maximizing the strengths of a firm while minimizing competitors’ strengths. I have learnt that a strategy should be a source of a firm’s competitive advantage and can be emergent or planned/ intended. An intended strategy is as a result of panned activities by leaders to introduce policies that are suitable for attaining predetermined objectives. In the course of implementation of the intended business strategy, other blueprints of actions can emerge hence, an emergent strategy. An emergent strategy is influenced by a firm’s daily actions. For instance, information systems processes and needs can unintentionally direct a firm to a certain future. Given that emergent strategies arise from ongoing activities within a firm, they promote the provision of what the market want, hence less resistance. However, because the strategy emerges from ongoing activities in a firm, it does occur by accident. It helps in addressing unexpected problems in a firm. On the other hand, a planned strategy is imposed and can be met with resistance. Week 7: Strategic Analysis Strategic analysis is an interesting topic, which brings into live several tools of analyzing a firm’s strategy. Week 7 has broadened my skills on analysis of a firm and I now understand why some firms are successful while others are not. Firms that are good at managing their strategies are always successful. Week 7 has provided me with a lot of insights on how to assess the external and internal environment of a firm in order to come up with the best strategy. The process of strategic analysis requires managers to formulate, implement and evaluate business strategies to attain future objectives. Strategic analysis involves all activities that promote attainment of a firm’s objectives (Johnson, Whittington & Scholes, 2011). Therefore, I have learnt that the most important thing in strategic analysis in the establishment of strategies, plans and activities that meet the objectives of a firm. Insights from week 7 have enlightened me on the importance of evaluating how successfully a firm is as well as how the firm utilizes its resource overtime to attain its laid down objectives. It is evident that firms that are more successful than others employ analytical mindset of their strategies. It can be said that the management in these firms uses collaborative, worldly, reflective and action attitudes in order to attain their strategic objectives. For instance, Apple Inc. continues to work on offering its customers innovative products. The company’s strategy is analytical and it allows the firm to benefit from collaboration and input from other people. Week 7 has given broader view of strategic analysis besides highlighting the commonly used strategic tools. With the rapid changes in the business environment, firms need to assess their internal and external environment. The technological advancements require firms to be innovative, but how?. To ensure that firms remain innovative and competitive, they must assess their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Drawing on Apple’s strategy, I have realized that a firm can spend a lot of money on innovation, but without proper strategic analysis, the spending cannot guarantee success. It is not huge spending that guarantee success; it is the capacity to develop the correct innovation abilities that connects with the general firm’s strategic goals besides other critical abilities. There are several analytical tools that firms that can use to provide a structured and systematic view of the business environment. Some of the tools available for analytical approach to strategic planning include PESTEL analysis, SWOT analysis, Porter’s Five Forces analysis, Stakeholder analyses and Scenario analysis. PESTEL analysis evaluates the effects of political, economic, social, technological, environmental and legal factors on a business organization. With respect to PESTEL analysis, the potential of Apple Inc. lies on technological and social factors. Although other analytical tools are used when developing strategies in firms, the commonly used are PESTEL and SWOT analysis. These two analytical tools assess the current environment of a firm. With regard to analysing the industry and sectors, Porter’s Five Forces is the commonly used analytical approach to a firm’s strategic planning. The week 7 topic has helped me understand that strategies are not just developed and implemented. In fact, several evaluations are required in ensuring development and implementation of feasible strategies. This includes assessment of a firm and its strategic abilities, culture, structure, technology and systems; its internal and external environment, its stakeholders and their expectations and its financial position (Johnson, Whittington & Scholes, 2011). I have realised that a firm’s culture, structure, systems and technology influences the formulation and implementation of a firm’s strategy. The analytical data derived from the analytical tools should align with a firm’s mission, vision and goals. Given that strategy is subjective and can be influenced by factors such as biases, it is essential to focus on objectivity. While subjectivity entails the emotional aspect of a business, objectivity entails information and data side. Week 8: Crafting Strategy Week 8 has provided me with insights on how to craft a strategy. Overall, the topic in week 8 gave a broader view on how to construct a practical strategy that fits well in a business. Apparently, good strategies should always aim to attain the objectives of a firm and get the firm ahead of its competitors. I have realized that one cannot craft a strategy without considering the data derived from the analytical tools such as the SWOT and PESTEL analysis. These tools are essential in development of strategies because they provide strategist with essential data that informs the strategic decisions. Apparently, when crafting a strategy, managers requires to understand the core of their strategies which include capabilities, commitments, capital and customers. This explains why it is essential to conduct a thorough analysis of the internal and external factors affecting a firm, industry and sector analysis, financial analysis and stakeholder analysis. A good strategy should be coherent and adequate. Drawing on successful companies such as Apple, a good strategy calls for strategic leadership. This may include leaders who command the direction of the firm, create a general vision of the firm and exert symbolic presence in the firm. Formulating a strategy calls for analytic decision making where views from different sources are evaluated. In my view, I would prefer crafting a strategy based on a more analytic decision-making process as opposed to a strategy that is commanded by a CEO or a strategy that is informed by leaders who do not consider the views of their followers. Prior to crafting of strategy, leaders should ensure good strategic planning (Johnson, Whittington & Scholes, 2011). It is essential that strategist plan their strategies in a way that protects their firm’s resources as well as grow them. Apple is arguably one of the most successful firms in the technology sector. With the rapid changes in the modern world, the firm ensures that it plans ahead in order to uphold and extend its market share. According to Reynolds (2015), Steve Jobs created a vision for Apple. He created a strategic plan that propelled the firm into its outstanding market position. However, due to victimization by competition, the firm has always forged ahead with both planned and emergent strategies. Drawing on the weeks reading I have learned that strategic planning does not only entail provision of a laid down plans and policies, but requires firms to coordinate through aligning their firms objectives, and communicate and engage the stakeholders by providing a sense of ownership. As a result, good leadership is essential in strategic planning and implementation (Senge, 1990). However, I have learnt that an emergent strategy is better compared to planned strategy. This is because a planned strategy is always detached from reality, lack ownership and is not conducive to innovation and adaptation. Initially, Apple only focused on planned strategies that made it a victim of competition. However, with the rapid and constant changes in the world, Apple ensured a continual approach to establishing its long-term objectives and direction. I have learnt that imposed strategies do not always work or last for long. The knowledge I have gained from the unit is that good strategies are not always planned, but instead should be a continual approach of establishing a firm’s long-term direction (Lampel, Mintzberg, Quinn & Ghosahl, 2014). Good strategies emerge from action and do not come before action. As a result, emergent strategies are effective as they allow organizational learning. Generation of strategy involves dedication, experience, mastery of detail, a sense of integration and harmony and involvement with resources. It requires strategist to detect discontinuity, understand their firms well, manage emerging patterns and reconcile continuity and change. Week 9: Theories of Organizational Change The shifts in the contemporary business environment have triggered intense competition that requires firm to embrace change. Change in organizations is inevitable (Price, 2009). Change can be triggered by many factors among them alteration of business strategies. The insights from week 9 give me a broader perspective of change; and how change is a challenge role for managers. Apparently, due to shifts in the modern business world, change is constant and requires proper management. I have learnt that organizations should not just embrace change, but must learn to manage the change effectively. Responding to change is one of the greatest challenges faced by organizations. Despite these challenge, firms that need to remain ahead of others must learn to adapt and manage change. Apparently, those affected by it do not always accept change, but it can be met with resistance. The unit has made me realize that even leaders can resist change and as a result, these leaders need to change themselves before changing others (Mintzberg, 2011). Organizational change is paramount for organizational growth. Growth is a major motivation for human beings and change is not option (Samson & Daft, 2012) . Insights from week 9 have helped me understand that change is not always bad, but necessarily good. However, some firms change for worse because of misjudgment and lack of proper change management skills. Change is unpredictable just like strategy an aspect that requires managers to demonstrate skills of adapting change based on the context. Evidently, managers cannot just establish change and expect that subordinates will blindly get on with it. Acceptance of change by subordinates requires managers to interact with those affected by the change at all levels. Change cannot bring the expected results if employees are forced to accept it (Gosling & Mintzberg, 2003). Instead, change requires interaction with a firm’s stakeholders and the business. It is important that managers embrace good change management skills. Key among them is understanding the type of change, reason for change and change agents. For instance, a few years ago, Apple Inc was not doing well in the technology industry. The company was presumed dead with Microsoft taking over the sector (Govindarajan & Trimble, 2010). The management at Apple realised that it needed to change through adopting growth strategies that brought in innovative gadgets such as smartphones. The organisation needed improved systems and processed. Drawing on Week 9 insights, change calls for action and collaboration with stakeholders. More so, the change forces must be balanced with stability forces. Week 9 has made me realise that all firms in the contemporary business environment require changing their focus, extending or contracting their actions and rethinking their services and products. All these call for change which can either be planned or unplanned, hard or soft and intended or unintended (Balogun, 2001). All these changes are triggered by several factors such competition, technological shifts, desire for growth, the need for process improvement and government regulations. Firms like Apple have adapted change because of intense competition from Microsoft, IBM and other major competitors. I have learnt that firms change and embrace major reforms to improve their position in the market. Change is also requisite when firms are unbalanced and their practices and measures are ineffective. Week 10: Hard and Soft Methods for Managing Change The lessons learnt in Week 10 are not only instrumental to organisations, but also to people’s lives. Just like organisations changes, so do people. It is interesting to note that there is no problem without possible solutions. All what people need to do is to embrace the problems, assess them and devise ways of dealing with them. Similarly, organisational changes can be embraced, evaluated and logical ways of implementing the changes devised. People can be convinced to change through logic, but their analytical minds demand more details and possibly defer. How then do people address change when it is resisted or when people do not want to adapt it?. From the week 10 insights, big problems are not always solved with commensurately big solutions, but are in most cases solved through a sequence of small solutions. Through focusing on small solutions, managers can work towards solving big problems through involving their employees. In assessing change, managers need to understand and think through the complex issues. With respect to the course materials, change brings challenges and opportunities to firms. As a result, the soft and hard approach can be used to develop better change management system. The hard systems approach to change management treats firms like machines. This approach calls for effective data collection and analysis besides creativity in imagining solutions and causes when data proves ambiguous. The soft system approach to change management views organisations like people. The soft system approach considers firms as entities that hold messy and complex systems of interlinked parts that are not easily diagnosed with hard analytic tools. In this perspective, the soft system approach stresses the importance of collaborative learning among all the stakeholders in the organisation. In my view, the soft-system approach to change management in a firm is effective because the approach entails extensive collaboration making decisions on the problems ,and how to fix them. However, this approach calls for good leadership skills besides skills in emotional intelligence, trust development, listening and empathic communication (Peters & Waterman, 1982) . With this approach, I have learnt that change agents should hold pertinent expertise particularly knowledge of organisational culture. Although both soft system approach and hard system approach hold their place in different organisations, change management experts focus on soft issues such motivation, leadership and culture. However, managing these aspects only is not enough to execute change projects. Apparently, soft issues do not influence the upshots of change programs directly (Senior & Swales, 2010). However, this does not suggest that organisations should not ignore soft issues. In this view, I have learnt that while managing change, change managers should first pay attention to hard issues before soft problems come into play in order to prevent failure of change programs. It is therefore, important for change managers to integrate both soft and hard system approach to change management. While soft system approach is more general, hard system is effective when the problem becomes highly defined. It is the role of the change manager to understand how to design the correct change process drawing on the cost and benefits of the two approaches. The hard system approach is applicable when there is no need to consider human emotions and where technical complexity of the task is needed. This approach is effective in firms like Apple and other knowledge firms. The approach focuses on the context and content of change. Contrary to hard system approach, the soft system approach is suitable for situations that affect a firm and its internal departments. The approach calls for collective ownership and deals with the context, content and process of change. Week 11: Leading Change Week 11 has been engaging. Having learned about what change entails and how it is diagnosed in the previous weeks, Week 11 provided an extensive view of how to manage change. Particularly, the topic focused on human dimensions that affect change management, key among them conflict, resistances, and central concerns for leaders. Apparently, change is a crucial element in everyday life. It is the only constant thing in life and its adaptability strongly depends on how it is managed. There are two approaches to change management and they include the top-down approach and bottom-top approach (Senior & Swales,2010) . Drawing on the course material, the top-down approach comprises of eight steps that are divided in three portions to include establishing a climate for change, engaging and enabling the organisation and implementing and sustaining change. However, one of the disadvantages of top-down approach is that it does not consider the human element. This approach does not consider the views of the subordinates. The approach implies imposed change because the initiatives come from the top leaders with decision-making centralised at the top. Contrary to the top-down approach, bottom-up approach is collaborative and involves shared vision and actions that leads to the creation of cohesion and consensus. In my opinion, the bottom-up approach is advantageous and effective as it involves those affected by change. Ideally, the bottom-up approach is founded on collective decision-making. This approach allows the affected people to adjust and adapt to change and is usually linked to emergent change. Although the bottom-up approach to change management may be slow, it is ideal and avoids drawbacks of imposed change. Scores of firm prefer the bottom-up approach when there is a call for innovation. Apple Inc, Microsoft and IBM are major firms that seek innovative ideas from their talented employees. It must be noted that innovation requires participation and depends on diverse ideas from different people. Bottom-up approach is used when a lot of information is needed that in turn prompt collective-decision making. However, when firms are under crisis, the top-down approach is suitable given that crisis require fast and immediate solutions. Whether a firm uses top-down or bottom-up approach to change, sometime changes are met with resistance. Resistance to change may include non-compliance and people may become defensive or argue (Lampel, Mintzberg, Quinn & Ghosahl, 2014). Resistance to change can be reflected through reduced morale and increased turnover. I have learnt that managers should not blame resistors, but should take change resistance as an opportunity. Change resistance can be addressed through dialog, employee engagement, provision of positive feedback relating to the change and explanation of the change process to the employees. Regular and honest communication is paramount in change management. I have realised that organisational culture can hinder or help change. In this regard, change managers should first lead the change by considering the human factors, creating a vision that engages and motivates employees, decide the process and provide the strategic justification of change. They should then manage change by assessing the business environment, allocating resources, planning, changing policies and systems and monitoring and assessing the process and upshots. Conclusion Lessons learnt from week 6 through week 11have demonstrated that leadership entails more than just leading people, leadership style and leadership behaviour. Leadership is the capacity of a person to create a vision or destiny and more essentially offer the essential processes that facilitate attainment of change. It is the quality of managers’ leadership that determine the failure or success of a new strategy. Generally, insights from week 6 through week 11 have demonstrated that change is constant and it becomes a condition for survival in most organisations. Companies recognise the need for change, and as a result seek to get effective ways of adapting change and upholding its vitality. In the contemporary business environment, change and strategy are words that are commonly used by managers. The two words are tantamount. Throughout the unit, I have come to realise that without the call for change, there is no need to produce strategy. This is because usual operations only require an operating plan. In week 6, I learnt about strategy and its importance in determining the long-term direction of a firm. Strategy guides the activities or goals of a firm and helps firms to win a competitive edge. Strategies are developed following careful analysis of a firm internal and external environment, industry or sector, stakeholders and financial capabilities of the firm. Strategies can be planned or emergent. Emergent strategy entails a set of behaviours or actions consistent overtime while a planned strategy entails a set of actions that are expressly intended. Emergent strategies are more relevant in today’s changing business environment as they allow firms to learn and change constantly. As indicated earlier, strategy and change are synonymous. This is because crafted strategies instigate change. If a crafted strategy is aimed at creating a competitive advantage through people, it implies that there must be some changes that need to be managed. The approach to change can be either soft or hard. Drawing from the course material, hard system approach work better when executing novel initiatives and technology while the soft system approach considers people’s cultures and emotions and hold more sustainable effect because change is not imposed on people. For effective adaptation and implementation of change, change managers can use bottom-up or top-down approach to change management. While the top-down ignores the human aspect, the bottom-up approach promotes collaboration with employees at all levels and promotes development of a shared vision. Generally, I have learnt that leadership is essential in all aspects of a firm particularly in strategy formulation and change management. In the context of instability and uncertainty marked with technological development, organisations must continually adapt, opt for change. Such changes are strategic which can affect organisational culture, values, system and structure, hence requiring effective change management. As a result, I need to further my skills in change management. Change management is essential for organisation and given that change is the only thign constant in life, learning to manage change is a major skill in life as well as in my career. Change management is the make or break for successful firms and their leaders. It is key in the attainment operational effectiveness. I must learn to listen, communicate, develop trust and play politics of change. My desire is to learn and be confident in the processes involved in change management. This is because leaders who successful manage change and reshape their firms are respected and sought after. Their firms are not affected by industry changes as they seek means of leveraging the changes. I believe that these skills can be attained on- the-job training. References Ackermann, F., and C. Eden. 2005. The practice of making strategy: A step-by-step guide. London, United Kingdom: SAGE Publications Balogun, J. (2001). Strategic change. Management Quarterly, Part 10 (January). Gosling, J., & Mintzberg, H.(2003). The five minds of a manager. USA Harvard Business Review. Govindarajan, V., & Trimble, C.(2010). Why Apple beats Microsoft at change management. Forbes. 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(Types of change, pp. 11-16). Reynolds, G.(2015). Information technology for managers. UK: Cengage Learning. Samson, D. & Daft, R. L. (2012). Management (4th Asia Pacific Ed.). South Melbourne: Cengage. (pp. 29-34, 86-98). Senge, P. (1990). The fifth discipline: The art and science of the learning organization. New York: Currency Doubleday. Senior, B. & Swales, S. (2010) Organisational Change (4th Ed). Harlow: FT Prentice Hall. Thompson, A., Peteraf, M., Gamble, J., Strickland III, A. J., & Jain, A. K. (2013). Crafting & Executing Strategy: The Quest for Competitive Advantage,19th Ed. Boston: McGraw- Hill Education. (Ch 1 is found under Further Study) Read More