ms-25 mba assignment july dec 2010 Question 1

1. Briefly discuss the relevance of change in organizations and describe the factors contributing to change.

Role of Change Management in an Organization

            Change management plays an important role in any organization since the task of managing change is not an easy one. When we say managing change we mean to say that making changes in a planned and systemic fashion. With reference to the IT projects we can say the change in the versions of a project and managing these versions properly. Changes in the organization or a project can be initiated from within the organization or externally. For example a product that is popular among the customers may undergo a change in design based on the triggering factor like a competitive product from some other manufacturer. This is an example of external factor that triggers a change within the organization. How the organization responds to these changes is what that is more concerned. Managing these changes come under change management. Reactive and proactive responses to these changes are possible from an organization.

            The organization, I am familiar with is a large  manufacturer/ marketer of  safety products the products  are  used  as  [personal  protection safety] [ industrial  safety]
the products  are  distributed through  the distributors as well as  sold directly .the  products  are  sold  to various  industries like  mining/ fire services / defense / as  well  as  to  various  manufacturing  companies. the company employs  about  235  people.

The company  has  the following  functional   departments

·        Marketing

·        Manufacturing

·        Sales

·        Finance/ administration

·        Human resource

·        Customer Service

·        Distribution

·        Warehousing/ transportation

·        TQM  

THE MAJOR FACTORS WHICH BROUGHT INCHANGE IN THIS     ORGANIZATION: 

1.INTRODUCINGTHE MATRIX STRUCTURE:
            As  the  product  range  increased  significantly, with  the  appointment  of  more  product managers. The  matrix  structure  helped  the  company  to  focus  more  on  the customers  and  improve the sales/service.

2. COMPETITIVE FORCES:

            As the competition increased, the company changed the distribution system. It went from direct selling to distributors selling. This helped the company to sustain a growth of 20% over  5 years.

3. SUPPLIES CONSTRAINT:

            As the local / internal manufacturing became expensive, we closed the manufacturing and shifted   the factory to china. This helped the company to provide cheap supplies and increased the market share.

4. ORGANIZATION LEARNING:

             As the products were technical, we decided to orient everyone in the organization with sound knowledge of products/applications. We used the following intranet, class training/ demonstration, video conferencing with foreign specialists and video demos.

5. NEW ACQUISITION:

            The company acquired a small specialist product company this brought a change in the organization.

6. CUSTOMER SERVICE:

             As the company introduced more technical products, the customer service  requirements changed simultaneity technical / delivery/ after sales/
and  training.