Organizational change, resistance sources, and leadership strategies
New developments in an industry are as disruptive as the fundamental re-ordering of their economics with a corresponding shift in the balance of political power that defines boundaries of influence. Organizational change and its many dynamics take on added significance in the study of how disruptive technologies re-order organizational cultures with significant cultural, economic, social and political implications (Bordum, 2010). The role of transformational leaders in successful change management initiatives is that of stabilizing force for employees on the one hand, and visionary defining the future direction of the enterprise on the other (Boga, Ensari, 2009). One of the most volatile industries today is enterprise software, and the transformational change that is happening at a strategic level in this industry today. This transformational change at a technological level is revolutionary, as is evidenced by the rapid $1B+ market valuations of companies including Salesforce.com and others on the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform. SaaS-based software is bringing rapid transformational change to the business models of enterprise software companies with increasing intensity, shifting long-standing evolutionary business models based on recurring software revenue streams in the process. Within these dynamics of revolutionary change are ample examples of how organizations are structuring and executing their change management initiatives. Implementing key parts of their Organizational Change Models, and averting resistance to change through effective transformation through change management participative leadership and planning (Herold, Fedor, Caldwell, Liu, 2008). While there are many enterprise software companies struggling with this aspect of their core business models, the subject of this analysis is privately-held Cincom Systems, headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio with operations throughout seventeen nations and employing over 700 associates globally. What makes the study of Cincom Systems relevant to organizational change management is the high level of dependency the company has today on its core enterprise software companies, who in most cases for decades paid maintenance fees, contract amounts, and despite the value of SaaS-based economics and the potential to gain even greater leverage and value for their investments, continue to hold onto their on-premise licensing models. Cincom Systems is facing the urgent challenge of change management with its customer base, and secondarily, with its engineering, services and support teams as well. The resistance to change that emanates from the customer base permeates parts of the organization, making the disruptive nature of SaaS applications and platform economics even more abrupt, and if unanswered, severe in the coming years. This analysis will concentrate on how change management can be implemented within Cincom Systems to bring both customers and employees into a more transformative role. Second, how the leaders at Cincom can overcome resistance to change, and hwo the lessons learned from using the Force Field Analysis Model can be applied to Cincom specifically and enterprise software vendors strategically. The Culture Web is used as a means to analyze the current climate within Cincom and provide prescriptive guidance for the future. Finally the role of transformational leaders is also assessed. The enterprise software industry is going through a massive level of change today as the collection fo SaaS- and Cloud-based application technologies and the economic advantages they offer customers continues to increase. The economics of Cloud computing and SaaS applications are having a reverberating effect throughout Cincom Systems and the entire software industry. The impacts of this disruptive, transformational change are the primary catalysts of this analysis.
Motivation, communication, and leadership in workplace performance management
Introduction company should come to realize it is in trouble when, in order to squeeze out a profit, staff turnover has been increased "dramatically" - higher than 40% in some departments - and turnover has been…
Mckinsey 7s Framework Congruence Model
Organizational diagnosticians must therefore employ specialized methodologies to collect the vital information on a given organization, to effectively analyze this information as well as design an appropriate intervention as suggested by Tichy, Hornstein, & Nisberg (1977). The merger between Microsoft and Skype presents a potential case of organizational diagnosis. This is necessary so as to determine how certain aspects of Skype like inputs, productivity, resources, outputs, throughput effort, strategy as well as performance. The main purpose of such as an analysis is to see if there are any important issues at the organization (Skype) and how they ay affects its integration into the main company (Microsoft
Research Paper
Undergraduate
Leadership and ethics in organizational contexts
Staying in step with customer and client needs is more than fulfilling their requests on a periodic basis and meeting their basic expectations, as any company that excels in client management understands. It is the ability to align every aspect of an enterprise to the needs and expectations, experiences and requirements of clients. Often internally-based organizations including those that are given the objective of being client-focused, end up paradoxically being the most myopic and inward-focused, resistant to change. Any organization that is experiencing this is in danger of losing the most valuable relationships and trust they have with customers. As leaders must continually push accountability, ownership and a clear sense of responsibility for results to the front lines of their enterprises, when traditional management and leadership strategies fail to deliver results, change is required. The intent of this analysis is to provide prescriptive guidance on how leaders can manage this level of disruptive change, defining how managing and leading are vastly different. It is often said that a manager is what one does, and a leader is who one is. The CEO attempting to lead this change management effort or strategy will have to contend with powerful political forces internally that managers who believe in command-and-control will use to subvert and force this initiative to fail. Managers who are accustomed to command-and-control will also fight for their political power base in the organization, despite the fact their often authoritarian and transactional leadership styles are highly ineffective in transforming organizations. The wealth of studies completed on change management indicate that a CEO with Emotional Intelligence (EI) and transformational leadership skills is the most powerful change agent there is in any organization or enterprise (Fitzgerald, Schutte, 2010) (Yarberry, 2007). The CEO needs to model the behavior that is needed to assist these managers in moving beyond their often highly charged political agenda of internal power to realize that by becoming more transformational as leaders they significantly open up their own potential professional growth in the process. The best transformational leaders can more focused on the win-win of personal and professional development also benefiting the organization (Lewis, 1996). These factors are all critically important for the leader looking to bring transformative change to their client organization. Implicit in the structural change of the organization is the even more powerful and potentially disruptive political one. For the leader to be effective in making these changes, they will have to exhibit a very high level of EI, transformational leadership and show a compelling vision of the future, all built on a strong foundation of trust (Wilbanks, 2011).