Managing organizational change

How do organizations determine the need for organizational change? What process do they follow?

Every organization has a need for change. Identifying the need is the first step. A simple tool that is able to be used to identify the need for improvement is the gap analyze. The gap analyze can measure a quantitative measurement (sales, return on assets, return on sales, or level of sales) or a qualitative measure (employee motivation, environment performance, or customer satisfaction). It can also measure a combination of quantitative and qualitative measurements (Turner, 2014). Once the need is identified, the change required to improve the performance is determined. The area of change needs to be addressed such as operational efficiency, organizational effectiveness, business portfolio, or higher order strategic issues. (Turner, 2014) The next step is how the change will be delivered and the how the change will affect the performance. The benefit map is a tool that can be used to portray this. The benefit map shows the area that needs change, displaying the problems that prevent optimal performance. It also displays how the new changes enable the organization to reach the goals (Turner, 2014). The next step is linking corporate strategy to project strategy. This ensures that the project strategy and goals align with the corporate goals. Then the strategic positioning, strategic choices, and implementing strategy will be addressed. Strategic positioning is where the organization determines current position. Strategic choices is where the mission and vision of the organization are defined, long-term goals are set in order to achieve the mission, and strategies are developed. The final step is to select projects (Turner, 2014).

References

Turner, J. R. (2014). Handbook of project-based management: Leading strategic change in organizations (4th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Education.

Describe each of the six steps involved in developing a project strategy. 

The six steps involved in developing a project strategy are develop organizational strategy, identify project requirement, develop project business case, set success criteria, identify project success factors, and development of the project model (Turner, 2014). Development of the organizational strategy consists of the strategic positioning, strategic choices, and implementing strategy. Identifying the project requirement sets the desired outcome and output (Turner, 2014). It specifies the new asset and the performance level required to deliver the desired outcome. Developing a business case will specify the strategic objectives, the desired outcome and output for the project, expected performance improvements and benefits, risks and assumptions, expected costs and timescales, and an investment appraisal (Turner, 2014). Setting success criteria is where it is determined how the project will be judged as successful through set objectives. This step should also take into consideration time, cost, and quality. Identifying the success factors for the project consists of identifying the elements that need to be influenced in order for the project to achieve a successful outcome. During the step of developing the project model project plan outlines are created. These show how the project will work and how the project will be managed. This step also considers the resources required to be delivered to the project and how the resources are to be organized (Turner, 2014).

References

Turner, J. R. (2014). Handbook of project-based management: Leading strategic change in organizations (4th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Education.