Ibm's Organizational Change

Organizational change is when an organizations overall strategy for success changes and changes the way in which it operates. Organizations must undergo significant change in order for the organization to develop. Change should be done to accomplish some overall goal. “Usually organizational change is provoked by some major outside driving force, e.g., substantial cuts in funding, address major new markets/clients, need for dramatic increases in productivity/services, etc.” (McNamara) There are usually conflicts to change because people are afraid of the unknown. In order for organizational change to be carried out the leader should meet with all managers and staff to explain reasons for the change.(McNamara) There are at least four levels or organizational change: shaping and anticipating the future, defining what businesses to be in and their core competencies, reengineering processes, and incrementally improving processes. Level one is shaping and anticipating the future. At this level organizations start out with a few assumptions about the business itself, like what it is good at and what the future will be like. Level two is defining what business to be in and their core competencies. At this level strategic planning starts and a basic mission has to be defined. Level three is reengineering your processes, which means that at this level work focuses on fundamentally changing how work is accomplished. Finally at level four is the incrementally changing your processes; these organizational changes are focused on making many small changes to existing work processes. (Chaudron, 2003) One organization that had to go through organizational change is IBM. IBM is a multinational computer, technology and IT consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York. In 1990, IBM earned approximately $6 billion, but three years later IBM has exceeded at least $8 billion in losses. IBM realized that it was important to change their market strategy and product line

References: Chaudron, David PhD. (2003) “Begin at the Beginning in Organizational Change” Retrieved from http://www.organizedchange.com/decide.htm McNamara, Carter. “Basic Context for Organizational Change” Retrieved from http://managementhelp.org/mgmnt/orgchnge.htm Meyer, Marc H., Mark Anzani, and George Walsh (2005) "Organizational change for enterprise growth: IBM had to change its organization and development processes to survive the 1990s." Academic OneFile. Retrieved from http://find.galegroup.com.prx-01.lirn.net/gtx/retrieve.do?contentSet=IAC-Documents&resultListType=RESULT_LIST&qrySerId=Locale%28en%2C%2C%29%3AFQE%3D%28KE%2CNone%2C29%29IBM+and+organizational+change%24&sgHitCountType=None&inPS=true&sort=DateDescend&searchType=BasicSearchForm&tabID=T002&prodId=AONE&searchId=R4&currentPosition=3&userGroupName=lirn_main&docId=A138705381&docType=IAC