ILRSM509: Developing An Agenda For Change
Develop an Agenda for Change
Project Worksheet
Instructions:
Use this worksheet as you consider change for an organization.
Assess Organizational Predisposition to Change
Answer the following questions.
1. Think of your organization or, perhaps, your division. What are the time frames that your organization operates in? How fast does your organization operate? Do you consider that your organization operates in delay time or real time? Explain your answer.
Example: At Herringbone Press, fundamental organization change happened infrequently—perhaps every decade or two. Within the editorial department, large changes also seemed to take place infrequently. But their industry experiences seasonal deadlines—so decision-making time frames were in six-month increments, not daily, weekly, or even monthly.
2. Is your organization committed to particular markets or is it changeable in the way it views its opportunities? Are its perceived “boundaries” flexible or are they more rigid? Explain.
Example: Herringbone Press seemed to have fairly fixed boundaries. They were in the book business and there was no discussion that the fundamental products and services they were providing would change.
3. Based on your responses to the first two questions, is your organization predisposed to episodic, incremental, targeted, or continuous change? Please explain your answer using an example.
Example: Herringbone Press seemed predisposed to episodic change. Think about how often there was a change in leadership. With regard to specific groups within Herringbone, they seemed predisposed to incremental and/or, perhaps, episodic change.
4. Based on your responses, what are the implications for the actions you would like to take? What kinds of changes might your organization most easily accept?
Identify Uncertainty at Your Organization
Answer the following questions.
1. What are the areas of technological uncertainty in your organization?
Example: At Herringbone Press, the rise of eBooks and on-demand printing may threaten the traditional publishing model currently used at the pre
2. What are the areas of market uncertainty in your organization?
Example: Herringbone Press faces possible threats from industry consolidation and from expansion of European publishing houses in the U.S.
3. What are the areas of political uncertainty in your organization?
Example: Herringbone Press would be impacted by the changes in privacy legislation and copyright laws under discussion in the U.S. and abroad.
4. How suited is your organization's preferred style of change (targeted, incremental, episodic, continuous) to the trends and uncertainties that characterize the external environment?
Redefine Goals in Your Organization
Answer the following questions.
1. Identify specific goals in your organization or unit that you think are in need of redefinition. Please write those goals in the text box below and explain why they need changing.
Example: In the Herringbone case, Herringbone's marketing department did not have formally stated goals. The goal that was identified was too ambiguous and too difficult to measure, according to Bernard Schmidt.
2. For the goals you defined in the first question, are they explicitly stated or are they more implicit? To what extent are they narrowly versus broadly defined? In general, would you describe them as “loose” or “tight”? Please explain your answers.
Example: The marketing department's goal at Herringbone is implicit and broad. According to the marketing director, "We've never needed to articulate specific goals. Everyone knows what we need to do and what we're all about." Clearly, today's goals at Herringbone are "loose."
3. How do you think the goals you identified in the first question should be defined? Would you characterize your desired redefinition as being looser or tighter, broader or more implicit, than the current goals? Why do you think they need to be changed in that way?
Example: Bernard feels that the organizational goals at Herringbone should be tighter—more explicitly and narrowly defined. Bernard thinks the lack of specific goals contributes to missed deadlines, undirected spending, and thus to losing their edge.
Changing Culture in Your Organization
Answer the following questions.
1. How would you describe your organization’s or unit’s culture? Is it atomistic or communal? Justify your answer by citing specific examples in your organization.
Example: At Herringbone Press, the editorial department seems more atomistic, while the marketing department appears to be more communal.
2. Now consider what kind of culture would best support the changes that are taking place (or have taken place) in your organization. Which type of culture would you like to move towards? Why?
Example: Bernard seems to want to move the organization toward a more communal culture because the lack of effective work between departments appears to lead to missed deadlines and poor coordination of activities
3. How radical a change would the change you are considering be? List the benefits and costs of implementing the change in culture you’d like to see take place.
Redesign Structure in Your Organization
Answer the following questions.
1. How is the unit you’ve chosen currently structured? To what degree is the unit organized in a hierarchical way versus as a web? Justify your answer.
Example: At Herringbone Press, the organization falls in the middle of this continuum. They seem pretty hierarchical within each function, although the organization as a whole seems to have characteristics of a web organization.
2. What are the advantages and disadvantages of this structure for your organization? Justify your answer.
Example: At Herringbone Press, the web-like nature of the organization has helped the editors to be opportunistic in their ability to attract authors and has allowed marketing to be responsive to books that missed their deadlines. The disadvantage has been missed deadlines and, in Bernard's view, a lack of discipline.
3. How would you propose changing your unit’s structure? Justify your answer.
4. What would be the potential implications—positive and negative—of the change you propose?
Redesign Work Processes in Your Organization
Answer the following questions.
1. Describe the current work processes within the unit. To what extent are these processes and specific jobs task-oriented versus problem-oriented?
Example: At Herringbone Press, the editorial jobs and work processes are much more problem-oriented than task-oriented. Editors have a fair amount of autonomy and, although the nature of their work may have some routine, each book brings a different set of needs with it.
2. For the processes you defined in the last question, what are the advantages and disadvantages of how this work is done currently? Please list them.
Example: At Herringbone Press, the autonomous editorial jobs give the organization a high amount of flexibility and responsiveness to authors and to any issues that arise internally. At the same time, the lack of routine and structure to the work makse it difficult to ensure that production deadlines are met.
3. Based on your responses above, how might you consider changing your unit’s work processes? Justify your answer.
Example: At Herringbone Press, Bernard wants more defined processes in editorial work, making them more task-oriented. He believes that this will reduce the problem of books missing their production schedule and also reduce operating costs.
4. Based on your answer to the last question, what might be the implications—positive and negative—of effecting such a change in your unit?
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