How Change Efforts Differ

Objectives

Instructor Comments
Assignment
Objectives

The aim of this assignment is to suggest to that all not all change efforts are the same. It seeks to help you understand the answer to a broader concern and that is - how do change efforts differ?

Instructor Comments

Are all responses to different business situations the same? Well think of the following situations all of which fall under the heading of organizational change. The business school of a small liberal arts, English speaking, university located on the East Coast of North America is surprised one year by a dramatic increase in the number of students enrolling from the Peoples Republic of China.

The rise is so dramatic that in the space of one year its body of international students increases from 10% of overall enrolment to 30%. A division of General Motors is spun off and finds itself with a new owner, a company headquartered in the PRC. Revenues fall dramatically over the course of a few months for a forestry company resulting in layoffs accounting for over 10% of its workforce. A domestic restaurant chain doubles its size by expanding out of its base in Newfoundland and opens five new locations in Vancouver, a metropolitan local whose demographic make-up differs dramatically from that of St. John's. All of these situations necessitate different behavior, skills, and understanding than what is normal for each company. They involve companies and their executive teams doing things that are different. This module offers a series of readings that offer learners insight as to why different situations elicit different responses from organizational decision makers.

Assignment

You should base your responses to the following questions on the insight found in the following readings:

Dunphy D. and Stace, D. 1993. The strategic management of corporate change Human Relations, 46(8), 905 - 920.

Nadler, D.A. and Tushman, M.L. 1989. Organizational Framebending: principles for managing reorientation. Academy of Management Executive, 3(3), 194-204.

Sathe, V. 1983. Implications of Corporate Culture. A Manager's guide to action. Organizational Dynamics, 5 -23.

Please answer the following questions:

For each paper, please use one paragraph to summarize the main ideas.

Please use one half page to summarize the ideas that are similar among all of these papers.

How do change efforts differ?