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Introduction
Change is a factor that cannot be avoided within an organization in the current business environment. According to Gerritsen (83), business units are faced with numerous factors that demand changes in various operational strategies in order to remain competitive.
In the oil industry, the competition has gotten so stiff that managements of various oil firms are forced to develop new ways of managing this competition. A number of factors, top of which is technology, bring about the dynamics in the business environment.
Firms cannot afford to ignore these factors if they intend to remain competitive in the market. They must find a way of bringing change within their organization in a manner that would yield desired outcome.
Before introducing change, it is important to understand some factors that can be used to motivate this change within an organization. Some of them are always external factors, while others are internal factors. By determining these factors, the management will be able to determine how they can be introduced within an organization to influence change in a positive way.
Another important issue during the scan would be to determine the possible outcome of change within an organization. If this is done successfully, the firm can then consider introducing change after determining all the related outcomes, and the best ways of encouraging positive continuous change (McMurran 32). This research paper will seek to determine ways of influencing change in organizations and determining what that might mean for a business.
Factors involved in motivating individuals to change and how this work in an organizational setting
The main challenge in implementing change within an organization is the possible resistance that may come from the stakeholders. This means that management should find a way of motivating stakeholders to embrace change within an organization. It is important to understand some of the important factors that may motivate individuals to change. The factors can be influenced internally or externally.
Internal factors that might encourage organizational change
Internal factors are issues within an organization that may motivate change. These issues can be managed internally within the organization. Some of the internal issues that may motivate change include a need to replace an equipment within the firm.
When new equipment is purchased, the employees may realize a need to change the approach of operations, especially if the new equipment comes with new features that was not found in the current equipment (Auer 67). Another internal factor that may motivate change is a possible increase in operations.
If the oil company expands rapidly, it will be forced to increase its operations and the number of employees, and this may yield the need to restructure its operations to reflect this expansion. Similarly, if an organization is trimming down its operations as a way of improving its efficiency, there will be a need to introduce some changes to reflect on the new operational design.
A shift in operational approach within a firm may also encourage change within the firm (Creasey 23). For instance, if the oil firm decides to digitize all its operations to improve speed and accountability, especially in the accounts department, there will be a need among those in this sector to change in order to be able to meet the demands of their tasks.
External factors that might encourage organizations to change
Change is mainly motivated by external environmental factors. Changes in the external environment would force a firm to embrace change internally as a way of keeping in line with the current trends. As Jones (110) observes, a firm cannot afford to ignore changes taking place in the external environment if it expects to remain competitive in the market.
It must find a way of changing with these external changes in order to match best practice in the market. In order to shade more light into this, it is important to conduct environmental scanning framework based on external factors that might encourage organisation to change using Future Wheels framework.
Future Wheels Diagram for External Factors that Motivate Change
The above future wheels diagram shows some of the possible external factors that may motivate organizational change. As demonstrated in the above Future Wheels diagram, one of the external factors that may motivate organizational change is government laws.
Government always comes with laws and regulations that are meant to streamline operations of various sectors of the economy. The oil sectors is one that is always controlled very closely by the government, either because of the pollution threat they pose, or the cost that may affect other sectors of the economy (Cameron 71).
This oil firm is bound by law to change its operational strategies based on the changes that may be imposed by the government through regulatory measures. One of the possible outcome of this factor may be changed drilling methods in line with the new measures put by the government to reduce pollution.
Another outcome may be a changed transport system to reflect the changing regulation. The firm may be forced to change from using oil tankers to the use of pipelines to transport its products (Anderson 56).
Another outcome from this factor may be reduced cost of the product in order to motivate other sectors that depend on the energy from this sector. In all these cases, the management, and the entire fraternity of the firm, must change with these new developments in order to help the firm run as per the changed laws and regulations.
The second factor that may motivate change within an organization is economic changes. Economic changes always bring with it far reaching consequences to business units. A firm must be able to determine how to change in order to operate optimally within the current external forces (Miller 67).
In this regard, the management would determine if the economic forces would be favorable or unfavorable to this firm. Depending on the economic changes experienced in the environment, the outcome of this may be a reduction or increase of prices of the products.
Competitors play an important role in defining activities of a firm within a given market. It is one of the strongest motivators of change within an organization. According to Paton (88), a firm cannot ignore activities of the competitors and dismiss them as inconsequential or irrelevant to its operational strategies.
This assumption can be suicidal because any change that gives competitors a competitive edge over this firm is a serious threat that may force it out of the market.
The outcome of competitor’s activities may be a series of changed marketing strategies that would help the firm acquire a similar or even better advantage in the market. Sometimes the firm may even need to change its supply strategy in line with changes done by the competitors in order to find the best way of acquiring cheapest supplies.
The fourth factor as identified in the diagram above is technology. As Reiß (62) observes, technology plays an important role in influencing changes within an organization. Firms cannot ignore changes that are brought by the emerging technologies.
It is important for the firm to find the best ways that it can change with the changing technologies in order to achieve the best results in their operations. Technology may bring such changes as changed drilling approaches, change in transportation, change in refining of oil, or a changed marketing strategy. Any of these changes must be treated as vital in enabling the firm to be efficient and successful in its operations.
Impacts of Change
Change brings various impact to an organization. The above change drivers would bring different impact to the organization in different ways. Some of the changes may be positive some may be negative, while others may be neutral.
Depending on the way this organization will handle these impacts, it can experience success or complete failure in the market. The cross impact matrix below identifies some of the positive, negative, and neutral impacts of change.
Simple Cross-Matrix Impact
The above cross-matrix impact shows some of the impacts of change within an organization. Some of the impacts can be positive, some neutral, while others may be negative.
Positive impacts can further be classified as strong or weak positive impact, and the same implies to the negative impacts. The matrix and the Future Wheel diagram helps in answering the main research question in the study, which was stating as below.
How do we influence change in organizations and what might that mean for the business?
This question has two parts. In answering the first part on how to influence change in an organization, the answer has been provided in the discussion above. Change can be influenced by external or internal factors.
When focusing on external factors, change can be influenced by policies of the government, economic changes, technology, or activities of the competitors. These factors would automatically dictate what a firm should do to be in line with the forces.
The management only needs to make all the stakeholders of the firm understand the needs of these forces, and device ways of accomplishing them. The outcomes have been identified, and some can be positive, negative, or neutral depending on their nature and the approach taken by the firm in handling them. It is important to understand the fact that these forces cannot be ignored by an organization.
Works Cited
Anderson, Denis. Beyond change management: How to achieve breakthrough results through conscious change leadership. San Francisso: Pfeiffer, 2010. Print.
Auer, Paul. Dialect change: Convergence and divergence in European languages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006. Print.
Cameron, Eric. Making sense of change management: A complete guide to the models, tools and techniques of organizational change. London: Kogan Page, 2012. Print.
Creasey, Thomas. Change management: The people side of change. Madison: Prosci Learning Center Publications, 2003. Print.
Gerritsen, Marinel. Internal and External Factors in Syntactic Change. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 2002. Print.
Jones, Charles. Language change: The interplay of internal, external and extra-linguistic factors. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 2008. Print.
McMurran, Moses. Motivating Offenders to Change: A Guide to Enhancing Engagement in Therapy. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons, 2004. Print.
Miller, Wycliffe. Enhancing motivation for change in substance abuse treatment. Rockville: Center for Substance Abuse Treatment, 2006. Print.
Paton, Rogers. Change Management: A Guide to Effective Implementation. London: Sage Publications, 2008. Print.
Reiß, Martin. Change management: A balanced and blended approach. Norderstedt: Books on Demand, 2002. Print.
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