Organizational Strategies and Change
The purpose of this research is to summarize several strategies and describe how these strategies can help bring about changes in an organization. The authors show how different strategies can be used for successful implementation of change process. The article compares the four level strategies, namely functional level strategy, business level strategy, corporate level strategy and global strategy. There are many strategies to bring about a change in an organization but the most ommonly used strategies are summarized in this article.
An organization is a group of people working together to achieve a common goal. As change is a continuous process therefore organizations often need to bring about changes and innovations with in the organization. Change is brought about by internal and external factors. The desired change in any organization cannot be brought about without implementing organizational change strategies. The whole process requires evaluating, planning, implementing, benchmarking and monitoring the goals and objectives of the organization.
Functional-level strategies are concerned with coordinating the functional areas of the organization e.
g. marketing, finance, human resources, production, research and development, etc. so that each functional area upholds and contributes to individual business-level strategies and the overall corporate-level strategy. This involves coordinating the various functions and operations needed to design, manufacturer, deliver, and support the product or service of each business within the corporate portfolio.
Functional strategies are primarily concerned with: Efficiently utilizing specialists within the functional area. ? Integrating activities within the functional area (e.
g. , coordinating advertising, promotion, and marketing research in marketing; or purchasing, inventory control, and shipping in production/ operations). Assuring that functional strategies mesh with business-level strategies and the overall corporate-level strategy. Functional strategies are frequently concerned with appropriate timing. For example, of the first product.
Production could then start thirty days before shipping begins.
Raw materials, for instance, may require that orders are placed at least two weeks before production is to start. Thus, functional strategies have a shorter time orientation than either business-level or corporate-level strategies. Accountability is also easiest to establish with functional strategies because results of actions occur sooner and are more easily attributed to the function than is possible at other levels of strategy. Lower-level managers are most directly involved with the implementation of functional strategies.
