Why Organizations Change

Running Head: Why organizations make changes in their culture, way of doing business.
Name
University
Course
Lecture
Date
Organization culture can be defined as the characteristics that form an organization. This may include the type of leadership adapted, the operation models, and means of production, policies, rules, procedures, performances and results within an organization. Therefore, we can refer to organizations culture as a collection of attitudes, experiences, values and beliefs of the organization. This definition has been directed specifically to values and norms that exist between people or groups in an organization and controls their interactions among themselves and other stakeholders outside the organization. It looks at the standard values and guidelines that an organization adapts in order to archive its goals.
This research paper looks at the reasons that would make an organization change its culture or the way it dose its business. There are many reasons that would make a business want to change the way it dose its business or rather its organizations culture. There are two types of forces that drive this change. These are; internally driven forces and externally driven forces. Internally driven forces or considered to be those situations, things or events that usually happen within the business, and normally their control lies within the organization. Some of the examples include; how the machinery and equipments are organized within the organization, companies level of technology, managements systems etc. Externally driven forces include; situations, things or events that are or occur outside the organization and their control are beyond the organization. Economic trends, competition, demographics and the industry as a whole are some of the external driving forces that may influence an organization to make changes in its culture (Mintzberg, 1988).
Point worth noting is that, whenever there is a desire for change, change is inevitable. This is because if an organization does not, it will be rendered irrelevant and may be, it could be forced out of business. Its important for an organization to ensure that, changes are done in the most appropriate way putting in to consideration all the important factors.eg the goal of the organization, expected results, costs etc.
External forces are said to have the greatest effect to any organization. Therefore it`s always important for the business to be aware of the changes that are occurring to its effects. This is important because it helps them in identifying the changes as they occur and enables them to come up with appropriate response. Its is also important for a business to be aware of the changes occurring and those that could or might occur in future for it to remain successful and always maintain a competitive edge against other business.ie an organization must have a strong element of forecasting or predicting future occurrences. For a business to be able to forecast it must have a well laid down means of information resourcing. These are means and ways through which an organization organizes it methods of collecting and analyzing data. Some of the important information that is crucial to any organization in relation to its culture or ways of doing business includes the following:
Technological changes
Economic trends (is the business making profits or losses)
Political situation or environment (is it conducive for business?)
Demographics (changes in population, population density etc)
Industrial outlook (is your organization local, national or international)
Customer behaviors/preferences (i.e. their needs, desires, and wants)
Competition levels (what are your competitors doing.)
Environmental changes
(Mintzberg, 1988)
Competition can be defined as the efforts of a second party or the entry of a third party who is an independent actor in the same business operations offering the best or the most favorable terms. Competition between organizations leads to creation of new products, services and advent of new technologies, this make the consumer to have a wider selection and better products. With a variety of products for the consumers to select from, this leads to reduction in commodity prices, this is in comparison to where there would be no competition at all or there is limited competition.
Competition does not always bring about positive effects, in some cases it may lead to increased costs and wastage of effort, especially in products that have the some function competes` against themselves. For instance in acting profession, where many people want to become actors in a certain movies, they end up using so much of their resources in training for the role but only a few of them gets the job.
There are three major types of competition;
1 Direct competition
In this type of competition, products that have the same function compete against each other.eg; one brand of pens competes against other brands from other companies. Therefore, you find that two companies are rivals and one of them introduces a new brand of pens to the market. This makes the rival company to introduce it new brand also leading to competition. Failure to do this would force them out of market.
2 Indirect competition
This is where substitute products compete with each other.eg in the case of solid fat and liquid cooking oil.
3 Budget competition.
This is a competition for the available income or money by the consumer.eg in the case of a student may decide on buying new test books instead of going out on a weekend.
Therefore an organization may have to consider all the factors within the competition and take the necessary action. Remember some competition especially if internally initiated they may be directed to bringing more benefits to the organization. On other side if competition is coming from external forces the company must take new action and adapt a new culture or way of doing business for it to remain relevant.
Demography
Demography is said to affect the organizations culture mostly on the products that are being produced and in the way these products are produced. There are many factors that relates to demography these includes; the age groups, gender, population etc .These have great effects on the operations of any organization be it a product producing organization or service providing organization. This mostly operates in relation to the financial situations of an organization. For instance, a case where difficulty financial conditions lead to unemployment, this leads to reduced spending, and the implication is that most individuals or families will have to cut down on what they regard as non- essential products or luxury items.
A study on the UKs demographic trends on the ageing population, geographic distribution and changing house structure, showed that, there was a decrease in birth rates and as a result the greater population was made up of the older generation, an increase in single parenthood and relocation of the high income earners from the urban to the rural areas. All these results change to the individual`s modes of production, savings, spending, employment, and investment. This implies that business have to change their cultures. For example in the case of the old generation forming the larger population, it means there would be a problem in sourcing for human labor. This calls for organization to shift from being dependence on human labor and invest more in mechanization of their production units. With the relocation by the high earners to the rural areas calls for relocation to the rural areas by some organizations which only operates in the urban. For those in rural areas it calls for re-branding and improvement of quality of product so as to fit the consumer`s class and status (Brindley, 2008)
Social environment
This refers to social and cultural changes that occur. This is equally important to any business for it to remain productive and profitable. A society`s behavior is identified through its social class. This is identified through the use of their sources of income and the main bread winner for the household. The implication to this is that, if the bread winner`s income changes the social class of the house hold also changes. Cultural factors are related to the color of the products, their marketing methods and even how the products are sold. Some of the things that an organization needs to adapt incase of changes in this factor is; the factor mostly relates to the employees. This is due to improved terms of service to the employees by one company t leads to a drastic flow of employee to the company due to its attractive package to the workers. In the recent past many companies have concentrated on building homes, introduction of holiday packages, and other terms to suit individual preferences. There are many reasons that actually cause a change into the way business operates, this being one of them. Therefore for the business to retain its profitability trends or even improve it it`s necessary to observe the social environment change and adapt the necessary production techniques and products.
Consumer behavior
An organization should be able to study the behavior of its consumers and understand they language, i.e. Through market trends, an organization should be able to tell when certain products are on demand most, how the consumers prefer their products to be, where do people buy certain products most., etc. the company should try and understand the consumers or the buyers process of decision making, and trying to analyze their wants, desires and their preferences as individuals as well as groups. For this process to be effective, the organization should study the individual consumer behaviors related to product usage, and as the buyer and the person paying for the product. For a consumer to buy a product he/she uses various processes in identifying the one that would give maximum utility. After this he looks at how much he is ready and willing to spend on the product. Lastly, he considers the price and comes up with a decision on which product to consume. There are also other factors that the consumer looks at. These includes; social, cultural, personal and psychological factors. Therefore i...