Part 1
Types of change might include mergers, acquisitions, downsizing, new strategic direction, globalization, public image failures (BP, Toyota, Facebook, Goldman Sachs), macro-economic change, political/legal shifts, or some other type of organizational change.
The target organization may be a private, government, or non-profit organization with which you are familiar. Remember that you will need to select an organization for which you are able to collect considerable information in order to create a comprehensive case.
Part 2
In the analysis, apply course concepts to the case. In your recommendations, provide strategic, practical, and insightful actions for management.
Consider the following questions in Part 2:
• Based on your learning related to this course, how would you diagnose what is really going on in the organization selected?
• How well do the organizational leaders/members understand what the issues really are?
• How ready is the organization to change in terms of awareness, motivation, flexibility, and skill?
• Given the context of the change (social, political, economic, customer need, etc.), how big a change is required to move the organization to a productive and effective mode of existence?
• Analyze the company’s particular approach to change. Why did the organization take one particular approach to change (e.g., downsize) rather than other possible ones (e.g., creating a learning organization)? How effectively was the particular change attempt carried out?
• How did resistance to change manifest itself? How effectively was the resistance addressed?
• What were the objectives of the change effort? How successful was the change effort given its objectives?
• How might the organization have used some of the materials and learnings from this course to increase the success of the change effort?
• What consulting strategy would you use in working with the organization?
• What recommendations would you make to the organization on how to be more effective in implementing and/or sustaining changes going forward?