ACCA SBL Syllabus H. Innovation, Performance Excellence & Change Management - Contextual Features of Change - Notes ^{11 / 11}

This context depends on the specific organisation

JSW again use the work of Balogun and Hope Hailey to consider the contextual features that need to be taken into account in deciding how a strategic change programme should be managed

There are eight contextual factors, identified by Balogun and Hope-Hailey , which significantly influence strategic change

1. Capability

   This refers to what experience there is of managing change in the organisation.

   • Does the organisation have managers who have successively managed change in the past?

   • Is the workforce used to change and have they readily accepted changes in their work practices?

2. Readiness for change

   This concerns the organisation’s attitude towards change.

   • Is it likely to embrace it or oppose it?

   • Are staff aware of the need for change? 

     If they are, how willing and motivated are they towards the change?

   • How much support generally is there for the change? How much understanding is there for the scope needed?

3. Preservation

   • To what extent is it essential to maintain continuity in certain practices or preserve specific assets?

   • Do these practices and/or assets constitute invaluable resources or do they contribute towards a valued stability or identity within an organisation?

4. Diversity

   • Is the staff group concerned diverse or relatively homogeneous in terms of its values, norms and attitudes?

   • Are there many subcultures or national cultures within the group?

   • Are there different departments or divisions or is it one particular staff group?

   • Are there professionals who identify more with their profession than their organisation?

   • With whom or what in the organisation do different staff groups identify – their team, job, department, division or the whole organisation?

5. Capacity

   • How much cash or spare human resource is there to divert towards the change?

6. Power

   • Where is power vested within the organisation?

   • For this change to be successful, who are the major stakeholders within and outside the organisation whose support must be canvassed?

   • Is the unit needing to change part of a larger group or is it relatively autonomous?

7. Time

   This refers to the amount of time available to implement change.

   • This occasionally can be super important, for example when the company is losing money at an alarming rate (and so needs to change quickly).

   • How much time does the organisation have to achieve this change? Is it in a short term crisis or is it concerned with long-term strategic development?

   • Are stakeholders, such as the stock market, expecting short term results from the change?

8. Scope of change

   • Is just a small realignment or a big transformation (requiring a huge cultural change) needed?

     Then think of what action is needed (an incremental, evolutionary approach or a big bang one)

   • Realignment does not alter the fundamental beliefs of the organisation. It is, therefore, easier than transformation

   • Evolution can take a long time.

   • Revolution, on the other hand, is immediate and requires simultaneous action from many change managers. It is, therefore, the most difficult to accomplish successfully.

   • So Managers need to be aware of what type of change they are looking for: adaptation, reconstruction, evolution or revolution