Question I.
To answer the questions below, take an 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.
- Give a general outline of the manner in which this organization presents itself on the Internet. If you wish, make screen prints for yourself or for showing others what you have discovered.
- Does it correspond with your impression of the organization?
- What you can find out about their mission or objectives. Are they specific or could they apply to any random organization?
- Do you assess the environment regard the organization as being static or dynamic and how does it deal with it?
- What impression do you get about its customers? Is the organization open to customers?
- Make an overview of sources of information and data collection techniques on the basis of which one can chart the economic, political, technological, physical, social and cultural developments that your specific company has to deal with.
Question II.
Reflect on your adventures and activities at your own university.
- What is going on in the environment of the university regarding politics, economics, technology, environment, social and cultural developments?
- What might be the most important drivers for strategic and cultural change from your environmental assessment and personal experiences?
- What is the most important for you and how would you combine the reasons for strategic and cultural change in a coherent narrative?
Question III.
Companies nowadays operate in a business environment, defined by lingering competition and pressure. Ongoing change is therefore crucial for survival. This is not a new phenomenon, however, change cycles are shortening and changes are more difficult and less precisely predictable, making the necessary adaptation measures greater and more far-reaching. Even though it becomes increasingly difficult for employees to fulfil these, often radically changing requirements, the human element remains as the fundamental and most critical factor of success, in all change processes.
- Is cultural fit between employees and a company really the determining factor of success?
- What may initiate the changes necessary to survive?
- Should we therefore focus on what a company is portraying today, or on what change we see in it and how we can be a decisive factor in the process?
Question IV.
The McKinsey Global Institute in its 2015 publication ‘No Ordinary Disruption’ concludes from several years of research that the speed of changes or disruptions, especially originating from developing countries, in the environment of global companies has dramatically increased in the recent past.
- Will this change the perspective of organizations on their business environment as a threat?
- Moreover, will companies need to speed up change processes, rather than taking too much time with careful step by step change?
Question V.
During international expansion and international mergers cultural differences between organizations from different countries become visible and tangible.
- How can you assess these cultural differences between countries?
- What kind of activities may be used to handle these differences?
- What might be ways to make these differences productive?
Question VI.
Look at the change dilemmas described in the chapter about the playing field and make a well-considered choice how to cope with these dilemmas related to a change process in an organization you are known with?
Question VII.
Read the practical example in the final paragraph of the chapter about the playing field and write a reflection how you think this organization has coped with the change dilemmas?