LSP503 – Technical writing for master’s studies
Problem Solution Text – 1st draft
Amirsepehr Noorbakhsh
Hello my friend Amirsepehr,
I hope your study is going very well and I cannot wait to read you paper.
Khalid
The challenge of organizational change
The dynamics of the business environment have considerably changed in comparison to previous
centuries. Companies are permanently under pressure from a set of newly shaped forces which were
not present before. (Bergman & Klefsjö, 2008) It is possible to identify three factors which are
considered the most important and influential ones. Rapidly changing customer requirements, high pace
of technological developments, and increased cost sensitiveness. (Wheelwright & Clark, 1992) As a
result of this new environment, maintaining a competitiveness edge has become a serious challenge for
successful companies. Thus, organizational change is unevitable. Organizatoins need to review and
improve their culture, way of working, business model, and every related factor contributing to
competitiveness.
In spite of the need for change, there are several difficulties that a successful change initiative should
overcome. The most popular obstacle is the concept of “resistance to change.” (Nadler & Tushman,
????) It occurrs because employees are psychologically more comfortable with current situation. It
might be a result of their uncertainty towards future, a fear of loss of power, or fear of loss of
reputation. In other words, employers tend to interpret the current situation as the best possible
situation and resist towards any change. (Nadler & Tushman, ???)
In their research, Nadler & Tushman (????) suggest that in the first step, managers should “unfreeze”
employees from the current situation. Unfreezing is a process in which employees become disappointed
and dissatisfied with current situation. This sense of dissatisfaction facilitates the implementation of
change to a geat extent. One examples of how to create dissatisfaction are presenting comparative
studies of the firm and other successful competitors to the employees. Employees should clearly
understand that the survival and profitability of the firm is at risk if they do not embrace change.
Another suggestion is to negotiate with the key employees, those who influence others. (Nadler &
Tushman, ????)
There are a large number of researches about change managementm, providing a wide range of
insight and suggestions on how to manage resistance to change. As a counter argument, Kotter (1995)
suggests that instead of a sence of dissatisfaction, a sence of urgency and a clear vision should be made.
A sence of urgency forces employees to accelerate change efforts due to the fear of an unwanted result.
Vision helps employees to picture the better conditions of futue afer the change is implemented.
Creating a poweful coalision with key players of the organization is another suggestion to overcome the
resistance to change. (Kotter, 1995) A coalision produces shared benefit for different stakeholders,
resulting in collective support and cooperation. In my view, although all of the mentioned soutins may
be suitable in different situations, sometimes there is no possible solution, but to exclude the resisting
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LSP503 – Technical writing for master’s studies
Problem Solution Text – 1st draft
Amirsepehr Noorbakhsh
person from the organization. As the last option in hands of a manager, if a resisting person does not
agree to coopeate with the change initiative, one possible solution might be to fire him/her.
References
Bergman, B., & Klefsjö, B. (2008). Quality from customer needs to customer satisfaction. (K.
Ashing, Trans.) Sweden: Studentliterature.
Kotter, J. P. (1995). Leading Change: Why Transformation Efforts Fail? Harvard Business Review ,
March-April.
Nadler, D.A., Tushman, M.L. (1997), Implementing New Designs: Managing Organizational
Change, Managing Strategic Innovation and Change: A Collection of Readings, Oxford University
Press, New York.
Wheelwright, S. C., & Clark, K. B. (1992). Revolutionizing Product Development. The Free Press.
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