Strategic Management Analysis Managing change Essay

Strategic Management Analysis Managing change - Essay Example In the case studies under consideration, we will look at two types of organizations - one local public sector organization and the other a private one. Both these organizations have been facing issues on account of the changing environment based on the factors discussed earlier. Let us have a macro level picture of the issues faced by each. In our later sections we will also discuss the various theories related to change management and analyze the two organizations and their strategies in the light of these theories. The public sector organization under discussion is the Haram Commune. A commune is the basic level of the local government in Norway. Haram is an area of one of the counties of Norway, which is faced with a changing demographic profile of its population. As the area does not have sufficient career opportunities, it is faced with the exodus of young population seeking better career prospects outside Haram resulting in shortage of young, highly educated and skilled manpower. The future local job market is expected to be more knowledge-based and hence requires highly educated workforce. The commune, which was so far a public service organization, needed to change its way of functioning to make Haram an attractive business destination. We will analyze the various strategies and their outcomes in our later discussion. Our second organization, Marks and Spencer, had been very successful till 1998. However since then it started facing losses on account of increased competition, lack of abil ity to change with time and risk avoidance strategies. The case later analyses the various strategies employed by two CEOs, Holmes and Rose, with the aim of turning the company around. We will analyze the various strategies in our later sections and also try to see what could be a sustainable change management approach. Literature review Looking at the importance of change for today’s organizations, change management has been an important subject of study and a lot of research has been done in this regard. Some researchers suggest a transition change model whereby â€Å"four interlocking management processes lead to† implementation of sustainable change in an organization (Paton, Paton and McCalman 2008). These processes are described as – trigger layer, vision layer, conversion layer and maintenance and renewal layer (Paton, Paton and McCalman 2008). Sustainable change management requires organizations to identify and open for change to encash upon opportunitie s rather than to overcome crises. They need to have leadership with a vision which establishes and tracks the future course of an organization. (Pettigrew and Whipp 1991). This vision should be converted to actual actions by gathering support within the organization. And