When Companies Undergo Change

Organizations may undergo changes for a multitude of reasons. Those reasons may be either external or internal in nature. External sources are those in which a company has no direct control over and originate outside of the organization including political, socio-cultural, International, technology and economic (Sutevski, 2011). Management can predict and plan for some of these factors; however, some may be unexpected or so powerful that they force a company to reevaluate the way they view their products and/or services and may cause them to make fundamental changes in the way they operate (Shilingi,2008). Firms have one of two options when such factors create such dire need for adjustment. Those options include making the necessary changes to adapt to the changing business environment or to die off and cease existence. Only those organizations that are willing and committed to cope with change and embrace it will be successful enough to continue with operations, those that cannot commit or those that resist change will inevitably fail and no longer be relevant. One type of external force are political-legal and may include pressures arising from the public and/or shareholders, and governmental forces such as deregulation, new laws, strikes, the political stability of their own government and those of neighboring countries, and taxation (Suevski2011). For example, the public consisting of the outside community and special interest groups may not agree with the effects the production of a product has on the environment or the use of overseas factories employing underage or low waged workers. Governmental factors such as economic or political instability or taxation may force firms to relocate operations causing the firm to restructure their manufacturing procedures. Pressure to change may also come from the owners of a corporation, say, if profits have been declining, causing the price of stocks to fall, in turn, creating pressure from investors to make a changes