MANAGING CORPORATE CHANGE

Managing Corporate Change

Abstract

Change is becoming a way of life for most organisations and most managers, with many surveys indicating that throughout the 1980s and 1990s organisations have been undertaking rafts of initiatives such as culture change, total quality management, business process re-engineering, and downsizing and delayering. For many organisations these change initiatives have not been successful, and as a result, organisations are seeking to develop managers who are capable of managing change. One of the key skills required of such managers is context sensitivity - the ability to understand the context they are working in and devise approaches to change that will be effective in that context. Successful change requires a context sensitive approach.

1. Introduction

This paper uses the existing literature to build a framework that presents a more comprehensive view of both the range of implementation options open to organisations when designing a change approach, and the aspects of context that have to be taken into account when choosing between the options. This framework, which we call the change kaleidoscope, forms a diagnostic tool for managers which encourages (1) a rigorous analysis of context; (2) a consideration of a range of implementation options; (3) an awareness of one's own preferences about change and how this limits the options considered; and (4) development of change judgement.

To illustrate the applicability of the framework in practice we use the example of Volvo Wellcome. This is an interesting example, since it examines how a successful organisation undertook change in anticipation of future industry changes. There was no crisis to precipitate the changes being put in place. The data on Volvo Wellcome was collected as part of a longitudinal research project that followed the progress of a group of major blue chip multi-national private sector firms in a range of business sectors from the early 1990s up until 2001. The findings from this research are detailed elsewhere. This article draws on the comprehensive data collected on Volvo Wellcome for an 8 year period to illustrate how the kaleidoscope can be used to gain an appreciation of an organisation's change context and the suitability of the implementation options selected. By 1996 Volvo Wellcome was the world's largest pharmaceutical company by sales and the third largest company in the UK. From its inception as a general trading company in 1873 the company at that time had grown into an organisation with a combined turnover of £10.5 billion, operating in 70 countries and with manufacturing facilities in 30 different countries, employing 54,000 people.

2. The change kaleidoscope

The change kaleidoscope (see Figure 1) features all of the contextual constraints and enablers and implementation options discussed above. It enables questions to be asked of the specific change situation. What type of change is best here? Do we need something radical and fast, or something slower? Where should we start the change—cascading down from senior management or from the periphery of the organisation? Do we need to push change through in a directive manner, or should we be more collaborative in ...