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.
- Describe the various groups in the transactional environment that exert influence on how the organization operates.
- Analyze the power bases of these interest groups and how they are able to use their power to influence the aims and functioning of the organization.
- Make an overview of sources of information and data collection techniques on the basis of which one can chart the player groups that your specific company has to deal with.
Question II.
Reflect on your adventures and activities at your own university?
- What might be the most important player groups on the playing field to involve in strategic and cultural change from your personal experiences?
- What is the most important group for you and would you combine the reasons for strategic and cultural change in a coherent narrative that attracts these player group?
Question III.
As the identity and values of organizations are constantly in a change process depending on the environment, customers that have a strong link with the company itself travel through these changes unconsciously. However, there could be situations wherein an organizations current value may conflict with what they stood for before thereby increasing the chance of conflicts and incongruities in the internal values held between internal stakeholders.
- How can you recognize these potential tensions?
- How can you cope with these tensions?
Question IV.
Analyze to most important external players around an organization you known or want to know and position them, using figure 2.2, page 52 of the book ‘Organizational Change as Collaborative Play’.
- Which groups would you give more influence and which groups less?
- How would you involve groups that have less influence?
Question V.
Look at the change dilemmas described in the chapter about player groups 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 VI.
Read the practical example in the final paragraph of the chapter about player groups and write a reflection how you think this organization has coped with the change dilemmas.