Week 1: Why should companies change? - Lecture

Change Management
Change Management for the U.S.A. | Using the Course Lectures | Change is a Process and a Decision | Hewlett-Packard | Kodak | Why Companies Change | General Environmental Tutorial | Pressures for Change Matching Interactive | References
The theory and practice of change management for organizations encompass a wide breadth of behaviors, perceptions, activities, planning stages, and even political scenarios. As we lead you through this course, please plan to research and review the many current events and discussions about leadership and business which are available in business publications, online research, and the Keller Graduate School of Management library. | | Change Management for the U.S.A. | |
Think for a moment about the U.S. government. A large portion of the Constitution, and in fact, our national perception, creates a method of changing our leadership every four to eight years. When this change happens, people are divided or joined, exhilarated with hope, or paralyzed with fear. The U.S. government is like an organization – the best ones have a plan for change, keep it somewhat flexible, but create a foundation for comfortable yet fluid movement through a business continuum. Successful companies keep a concept of continuous improvement (in products, service, and efficiencies) always in the forefront. Whereas the U.S. plan for change is not so flexible, it does take into account the considerations of nearly all legal stakeholders (the voters). Of course, that concept may be debatable, but that isn’t the subject of this course. Successful change managers also keep stakeholders’ interests in mind during change. When you hear people saying things like, “They are just changing for the sake of change,” then someone in the change process has not done his or her job, either in the