Subject: Organizational Development
Today, teams and organizations face rapid change like never before. Globalization has increased the markets and opportunities for more growth and revenue. However, increasingly diverse markets have a wide variety of needs and expectations that must be understood if they are to become strong customers and collaborators.
Organizational change is the term used to describe the transformation process that a company goes through in response to a strategic reorientation, restructure, change in management, merger or acquisition or the development of new goals and objectives for the company.
Organizational change is not just change for the sake of change itself. The major precursor for organizational change is some form of exogenous force such as an external event. Cuts in a companies funding, the streamline of operations due to a merger are common examples of the magnitude of an event that creates organizational change and development. Companies that are nearing the end of the product life cycle make organizational changes in response to exiting a market or reorienting resources to new or existing business operations.
The challenges encountered by organizational change have a ripple effect on the entire organization. When the business units that comprise a company are fully integrated, a change or restructure in one can have a profound domino effect on another. Trying to increase productivity whilst experiencing a reduction in resources is a prime example of how shortfalls can create stress for company employees. Effectively managing this process is an art that has created a new area of expertise that has become known as change management.
Change is brought about by internal and external factors. The desired change in any organization cannot be brought about without implementing organizational change strategies. The whole process requires