Forces of Change
Forces of Change
Theresa Kenworthy
Managing Change
February 4, 2013
Change in the World as a whole is a certainty. In the business world, if a company is to succeed, change must not only be accepted, but predicted, planned for and strategized toward. As creatures of habit many of us fight change, preferring to keep the status quo. Inability or unwillingness to embrace change however, would be a death sentence to a company trying to make it in business.
Our text attempts to define change faced by organizations by classifying change into three areas; developmental, transitional, and transformational. These areas were defined by Linda Ackerman – Anderson who, with her partner and husband founded Being First, “the change leadership and transformational change consulting firm” ("Being first, Inc. World leaders in transformation"). She defines developmental change as taking something that already exists and adjusting and improving it to be better in some way. Transitional change has to do with replacing the way things are done with a new way of doing them. This is a change that is implemented over time by taking steps that have been planned out and are managed over a designated period of time. What she presents as the most drastic type of change is categorized as transformational. This happens when what has been occurring in a company has not worked and new strategies must be created and developed in an ongoing effort such that until they arrive at their new way of doing things it is not certain what the ultimate procedure or product will look like. In order to understand change and its influences in the business world, it is important to first be aware of the forces that bring about the need for change. The text explains that the number of factors leading to change are innumerable, however there are three primary forces which are the generators of change that are the focus of our studies. They are customer focus, innovation, and globalization.
Theresa Kenworthy
Managing Change
February 4, 2013
Change in the World as a whole is a certainty. In the business world, if a company is to succeed, change must not only be accepted, but predicted, planned for and strategized toward. As creatures of habit many of us fight change, preferring to keep the status quo. Inability or unwillingness to embrace change however, would be a death sentence to a company trying to make it in business.
Our text attempts to define change faced by organizations by classifying change into three areas; developmental, transitional, and transformational. These areas were defined by Linda Ackerman – Anderson who, with her partner and husband founded Being First, “the change leadership and transformational change consulting firm” ("Being first, Inc. World leaders in transformation"). She defines developmental change as taking something that already exists and adjusting and improving it to be better in some way. Transitional change has to do with replacing the way things are done with a new way of doing them. This is a change that is implemented over time by taking steps that have been planned out and are managed over a designated period of time. What she presents as the most drastic type of change is categorized as transformational. This happens when what has been occurring in a company has not worked and new strategies must be created and developed in an ongoing effort such that until they arrive at their new way of doing things it is not certain what the ultimate procedure or product will look like. In order to understand change and its influences in the business world, it is important to first be aware of the forces that bring about the need for change. The text explains that the number of factors leading to change are innumerable, however there are three primary forces which are the generators of change that are the focus of our studies. They are customer focus, innovation, and globalization.