Assignment
Describe the change and the need for it?
Evaluate the company's culture and its compatibility with change?
If you were the team leader in this case, which of the four quadrants on the strategy-culture matrix would you use if your group decides to go forward with the strategy proposed in the case?
Another students work
Describe the change and the need for it.
The Space Electronics Corporation is a company that normally operates as a subcontractor to other companies that are primary. However, due to profitability and declining market position they have found that change was needed. They only had one new project on the books but there were two major R& D projects in the near future. This would take them out of their comfort zone because these two projects would make them the primes. Since this was the only new projects in the horizon for the next few years they needed to take advantage of it.
Evaluate the company's culture and its compatibility with change.
In the past there were problems with siloes being created. "Past problems was the isolation of R&D from the rest of the organization" (Brown, 2010. p. 417). They need to be able overcome the silos and be able to have interdepartmental relationships in order to make the two projects a success. First, employees must have some understanding of why the change in strategy or in culture is needed (How to, n.d). I feel that once it is explained through open communication the need for change and the need to have interdepartmental cooperation then they could overcome the resistance to change.
If you were the team leader in this case, which of the four quadrants on the strategy-culture matrix would you use if your group decides to go forward with the strategy proposed in the case?
I do think that they will be able to manage around the culture (quadrant three) of the company and this can be done by reinforcing the company values; as they should communicate that their values will not be compromised and they will continue to have shared values as a company. They can possibly put a team together which would be represented by the different departments; giving different prospective and sharing ideas. Therefore silos can begin to disappear. They need to be able to budget for the projects that lay of them and re-visit the profitability analysis to verify that everything was taken into account when doing the previous profitability analysis. "They should look for ways to redistribute resources toward "hot spots" - activities that require few resources but result in large change - and away from "cold spots" - or areas with large resource demands, but relatively low impact" (How to, n.d.).
References:
Brown, D. R. (01/2010). Experiential Approach to Organization Development, 8th Edition. [Bookshelf Ambassadored]. Retrieved from
https://ambassadored.vitalsource.com/#/books/9781323123287/
How to Change Your Organization's Culture. (n.d.).
http://guides.wsj.com/management/innovation/how-to-change-your-organizations-culture/