Thursday, March 16, 2017

ORGANIZATIONAL TRANSFORMATION

Defined


Transformation, according to Webster’s Dictionary, is: ’A change in the shape, structure, nature of something‘. Organizational transformation is the process of ensuring that an organization can develop and implement major change programmes that will ensure that it responds strategically to new demands and continues to function effectively in the dynamic environment in which it operates. Organizational transformation activities may involve radical changes to the structure, culture and processes of the organization – the way it looks at the world. This may be in response to competitive pressures, mergers, acquisitions, investments, disinvestments, changes in technology, product lines, markets, cost reduction exercises and decisions to downsize or outsource work. Transformational change may be forced on an organization by investors or government decisions. It may be initiated by a new chief executive and top management team with a remit to ‘turn round’ the business.





Transformational change means that significant and far-reaching developments are planned and implemented in corporate structures and organization-wide processes. The change is neither incremental (bit by bit) nor transactional (concerned solely with systems and procedures). Transactional change, according to Pascale (1990), is merely concerned with the alteration of ways in which the organization does business and people interact with one another on a day-to-day basis, and ‘is effective when what you want is more of what you’ve already got’. He advocates a ‘discontinuous improvement in capability’ and this he describes as transformation.


The distinction between organizational transformation and organization development


Organizational transformation programmes are business-led. They focus on what needs to be done to ensure that the business performs more effectively in adding value, especially for its owners, and achieving competitive advantage. They will be concerned with building strategic capability and improving the ways in which the business reaches its goals. This means considering what needs to be done to ensure that people work and interact well, but they are not dominated by the concepts of behavioural science, as was the case in traditional OD interventions.



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