Assignment

Key Concept Exercise: Back to the future

The material you have studied is intended as a summary of the materials introduced and discussed.

It also provides a synthesis of those ideas into a set of principles that change agents may wish to consider as they implement any change initiatives required by their own organisations. This synthesis has been presented, in the final section of the Key Concept Overview, as seven key principles upon which strategic change projects might usefully be based, and those seven principles are further refined into the following summary statement:

The requirement for ongoing, continuous and reciprocal processes of change in the organisation must be embraced as a core component of corporate philosophy, and therefore enshrined as a non-negotiable element of organisational culture.

When this ambition is realised, there will be a joint and individual commitment amongst stakeholders to a constant adjustment of their ways of doing things, in pursuit of an improved value proposition for the customer.

This is achieved by a combination of effective communication and disciplined implementation, and is therefore followed by the generation of quantifiable benefits for all stakeholders involved in the process.

The final Key Concept Exercise requires you to reflect on this summary statement, and to offer your own opinion on its validity, relevance and feasibility in the context of your own employment environment. In short, to what extent can this theoretical view translate into effective action in the context of conditions experienced in the practical workplace?

To prepare for this Key Concept Exercise:

• Read the Required Learning Resources for Week 8.

• Reflect on the ideas presented in the Key Concept Overview and the assigned journal articles in the light of your own practical experiences in the workplace.

To complete this Key Concept Exercise

Answer the following question:

• With reference to the summarised statement above, to what extent do you believe the propositions contained in this statement are important, valid, relevant and achievable in practice, given the real-world conditions that have been encountered in your own experience?

This should be written in 500 words.

Submit your Key Concept Exercise.

When writing your responses, you should synthesise the theory with real world experience and use the examples of the theories in action in a real organisation about which you have read or one in which you have worked.