Developing play concepts

Question I.

To answer the questions below, take the organization in which you work or have done an internship as the point of departure, or take an organization that you know, such as the university you attend or your faculty, as a starting point, or explore the Internet for an organization you are familiar with.

1. Elaborate the six change strategies as described in chapter 5 about developing the play concept and ask yourself which strategy is most useful and attractive for you as a professional worker in a company.
2. Which strategy would not be effective is this specific organization? Why not?

Question II.

In chapter 5 of the book ‘Organizational Change as Collaborative Play’ it is stated that the rational or planned strategy is the mostly used strategy when it comes to organizational change. In comparison to especially the learning and dialogue strategy it provides only a small room for innovation. At the same time more than 80 percentage of executives stated that business success is extremely dependent on innovation.

1. How does this paradoxical picture arise?
2. What are the main reasons that executives mostly use a rational and planned change strategy?
3. Is it possible and feasible for executives to change their choice of change strategy during the change process, and if yes should they do so?

Question III.

Imagine that you are asked as a project manager to realize a merger between two European airline companies from different countries both looking for synergy and an aim to offer customers a wide range of destinations with as much convenience as possible.

• What kind of change strategy would you prefer?

Question IV.

Imagine that you are asked as a project manager to realize a takeover of an almost bankrupt European airline company by another European airline company with a healthy financial position.

• What kind of change strategy would you prefer?

Question V.

Imagine that you are asked as a project manager to realize a merger between two airline companies from different countries; one from Europe and one from China.

• What kind of change strategy would you prefer?

Question VI.

Imagine that you are asked as a one of the project-manager to realize an international alliance of different airline companies which are more or less equally positioned in the global market with an aim to combine routes and realize synergy in freight and maintenance.

• What kind of combination of change strategies would you consider?

Question VII.

Image that you are a change manager in an airline company in your home country and your company is under attack of a hostile takeover by an airline company from the Golf states.

• What kind of counter power initiatives would you suggest to top management to defend your own organizational culture and make this take over a disaster for the enemy?

Question VIII.

Change in large corporations is often a source of challenges and disagreement. It is rare to see all managers sharing the same future vision and desire for change, especially in large traditional firms. For this reason, the new direction and actions to take can sometime come across as unclear and unstable by employees.

• How would an employee who wishes to see its company succeed, act in such situation?

Question IX.

How are top managers from an international company able to bridge the gap between strategic visions for the future developed by top management and the daily operations by employees?

Question X.

There is ‘no single best way of changing an organization’, nevertheless different approaches to cultural change can be embraced. Do you believe the type of change strategy adopted by an organization is related to its culture? For example, if you have experience in a company that today you classified as ‘hierarchy and control’ would you suspect a power or planned strategy for cultural change? Or are these two tables unrelated?

Question XI.

A distinction is made between improvement, change and innovation. What are the most important differences seen from the perspective of a change manager? Would an employee share the same perspective as the change managers when the change leads to uncertainty about position and competences needed for the future?

Question XII.

Within organizations, people often tend to be conservative and to push change only because of external pressure. This is the reason why, under certain conditions, the power strategy is employed to manage change. This strategy is dictated by hierarchy and power positions, which means that change is mainly implemented through a scheme set up by the top management of a firm, to whose strategy the company has to abide. While this strategy has potential for achieving substantial results in the short-term, it generally performs poorly in the long-run. Clearly, objectives and strategies are not comprehensively explained and embraced by all people in an organization, which links to the fact that such a strategy does not work towards culture enhancement.

1. Which could be possible situations in which a power strategy is the most effective move to make?
2. Could it be that there are possible complementary decisions and strategies to be implemented to enhance its long-term impact in a positive way?

Question XIII.

Read the practical examples in the final paragraph of chapter 5 with practical applications (page 114-119). Write a reflection how you think these organizations have coped with the change dilemmas and why these organizations have chosen different change approaches.