...possible ramifications. Change theory argues that change must be considered and planned carefully. However, in this fast-paced business world, the complexities of change are sometimes overlooked in order to implement change quickly, especially in reactive circumstances, which leads to simplistic solutions and the search for one right way to change management. When possible though, change should be considered carefully so it does not act against an organisation’s strategic goals. This essay will firstly discuss the one right way to change and how no change theory is all encompassing, even though many models of change prescribe that it is the definitive change solution. The essay will look at environmental impacts that influence change. The punctuated equilibrium model and emergent change model suggest that the current business environment is volatile and unpredictable, which make planned change hard to achieve every time, especially when change is reactive. This essay will also discuss of the role of a change agent in organisations and whether using internal or consultant change agents affect the change process. On the surface, the one right way to change is unrealistic and potentially goes against the best interests of the organisation. Burnes (1996) argues that theory not only prescribes what an organisation should do, but also denies the organisation to have choice over whether to adopt these prescriptions or not. Many change management theories attempt to offer the best way...
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...exist for long periods of stasis – minimal change – and abruptly evolve into a different form? These two questions surround the debate of whether evolution occurs by phyletic gradualism, or by punctuated equilibrium, respectively. This paper will present both hypotheses and reasons for their prevalence, then it will argue one hypothesis with current research on the topic, finishing with suggestions for further research and direction. Hypotheses The hypothesis of gradual change is termed Phyletic Gradualism, and it describes evolution to happen as a slow and gradual process, whereby a large ancestral population transforms into a distinct descendent (Eldredge...
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...Lesbian Social Services, 22:165–182, 2010 Copyright © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC ISSN: 1053-8720 print / 1540-4056 online DOI: 10.1080/10538720903332578 Advocacy Coalitions and Punctuated Equilibrium in the Same-Sex Marriage Debate: Learning from Pro-LGBT Policy Changes in Minneapolis and Minnesota LAKE DZIENGEL St. Cloud State University, St. Cloud, Minnesota Policy change to actualize same-sex marriage requires planning and practices that can be most effective to advance marriage equality. This case study examines how building and maintaining strong coalitions aided in attainment and preservation of civil rights and protections for same-sex couples in Minnesota. As a historical policy analysis, it dissects collaborative strategies and events that led to a municipal domestic partner ordinance and state civil rights protections for sexual minorities in Minnesota during 1983–1995. Viewed through the lens of Advocacy Coalition Framework and Punctuated Equilibrium theory, findings support and highlight the importance of strategic planning of developing capable leaders, building strong coalitions, and capitalizing on events to garner public support and advance public policy toward civil rights protections and legal recognition for same-sex couples. KEYWORDS advocacy coalitions, punctuated equilibrium, policy, lesbian, gay, domestic partner benefits INTRODUCTION The city of Minneapolis, Minnesota, a large urban community, passed a Domestic Partner Ordinance in 1991 as the result...
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...Running Head: Management process, linear and nonlinear management, ordinary and extraordinary management, rational management, chaos theory Management - from rational management to chaos theory Submitted to Dr. D. Coleman By JJ de Klerk In partial fulfillment of the requirement for the Doctorate in Business Administration Swiss Management University March 3, 2012 1 1. Introduction Developments over the last few decades have led to a new way of thinking in economic and management approaches. The scientific approach to management, which emphasizes the basic management functions of planning, organizing, leadership and control, now seems unable to explain the era of change that characterizes economies and organizations alike. This paper will focus on explaining the rational management model, focusing on ordinary management, and go on to discuss the new approaches such as chaos theory – also called complexity theory - and the need for extraordinary management and innovation. 2. Rational management Management and organization science literature have until recently focused on the objective control of agents and worked on the assumption that interactions can be described in linear terms (Webb, 2005). When difficult decisions have to be made, many managers and strategists rely on the economics view in which profit maximization is the guiding principle. Executives will us the rational model tools described above, and believe that precise solutions should be achieved...
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...1 Twelve Angry Men: An Analysis of Group Effectiveness The Infrareds Ruth Bradner, Penelope McFarline, Michelle McGregor, Jonathon West VCU ADLT 612 Dr. Terry Carter, Professor 2 Twelve Angry Men: An Analysis of Group Effectiveness Introduction Twelve men with diverse backgrounds are sequestered in a room and are unable to leave until a decision, a weighty one that will either condemn a young man to death or set him free, is made. The twelve strangers are bound to each other, trapped within the confines of four immovable walls, until the goal is achieved. They melt in the humidity of middle summer, which is exacerbated by the room's stuffiness and by the stress of their task. We, the audience, sweat as they grapple with each other and with the responsibility that is theirs to fulfill. One could spend a great deal of time debating if the jurors who comprised the cast of “Twelve Angry Men” (Lumet, 1957) were a group or a team. One could, and we will, cite definitions and descriptions from the literature to justify one conclusion or the other. The questions that are more interesting to us, and that constitute the thesis of this paper, are these: Were the jurors an effective group (or team)? And what factors contributed to group effectiveness? Schwarz (2002) has proposed a Group Effectiveness Model that provides facilitators who work with dysfunctional groups a road map, a way to identify where groups have gone wrong. Schwarz identifies three criteria for judging group success:...
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...Nesbitt-Johnston Writing Center Hamilton College Clinton, NY 13323 INTRODUCTIONS AND THESIS STATEMENTS Introductions The introduction is a key paragraph for both readers and writers. First impressions matter. The reader will be more inclined to read a paper and consider a position if the initial paragraph is clear, organized, and engaging. For the writer, a carefully crafted first paragraph acts as a springboard, establishing the order and direction for the entire paper. The form and content of an introduction depend upon many factors, including the specifics of the assignment, the intended audience, the style of the discipline, and the expectations of your professor. In general, your introduction should • capture the reader’s attention • reflect the question raised by the assignment • provide essential context for your topic • define key terms Most importantly, your introduction should • convey the pattern of organization you will follow in the paper • build to the thesis sentence: a clear, concise statement of the specific position you will explore in your paper Outline first Outline your argument as fully as possible before starting the first draft. Outlining first helps you to see the shape of your argument, making writing the draft much easier. Start focused Avoid broad openers; start your argument right away. Do not open with empty filler such as “Since the beginning of time” or “For thousands of years, men, both good and evil.” Open with a sentence...
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...Enron Case Study Seven years after the fact, the story of the meteoric rise and subsequent fall of the Enron Corporation continues to capture the imagination of the general public. What really happened with Enron? Outside of those associated with the corporate world, either through business or education, relatively few people seem to have a complete sense of the myriad people, places, and events making up the sixteen years of Enron’s existence as an American energy company. Some argue Enron’s record-breaking bankruptcy and eventual demise was the result of a lack of ethical corporate behavior attributed, more generally, to capitalism’s inability to check the unmitigated growth of corporate greed. Others believe Enron’s collapse can be traced back to questionable accounting practices such as mark-to-market accounting and the utilization of Special Purpose Entities (SPE’s) to hide financial debt. In other instances, people point toward Enron’s mismanagement of risk and overextension of capital resources, coupled with the stark philosophical differences in management that existed between company leaders, as the primary reasons why the company went bankrupt. Yet, despite these various analyses of why things went wrong, the story of Enron’s rise and fall continues to mystify the general public as well as generate continued interest in what actually happened. The broad purpose of this paper is to investigate the Enron scandal from variety perspectives. The paper begins with a narrative...
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...whether we should consider investors to be rational, well informed, and homogeneous—the backbone of standard capital markets theory—or potentially irrational, operating with incomplete information, and relying on varying decision rules. The latter characteristics are part and parcel of a relatively newly articulated phenomenon that researchers at the Santa Fe Institute and elsewhere call complex adaptive systems. Why should corporate managers care about how market efficiency arises? In truth, executives can make many corporate finance decisions independent of the means of market efficiency. But if complex adaptive systems do a better job explaining how markets work, there are critical implications for areas such as risk management and investor communications. I Take, for example, the earnings expectations game.1 In a complex adaptive system, the sum is greater than the parts. So it is not possible to understand the stock market by paying attention to individual analysts. Managers who place a disproportionate focus on the perceived desires of these analysts may be managing to the wrong metrics— and ultimately destroying shareholder value. A better appreciation for how markets work will shift management attention away from individual analysts to the market itself, thus capturing the aggregation of many diverse views. Standard capital markets theory still has a lot to...
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...Background The question of path dependency arises very frequently in socio-scientific discourses especially on institutional evolution.This concept of path dependency establishes a dynamic relationship between power,actors and institutions which compels any research to study institutions and their corresponding developments from critical theory perspective to understand mechanics behind such institutional metamorphosis and its impact on human environment and subsequent responses to such changes.Such theories also make bold attempts to explain institutional stagnancy; why actors may intentionally or unintentionally fail to respond to changes in the environment even when such responses would yield better results directly countering those economic...
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...(1883-1950) encyclopedic History of Economic Analysis, Schumpeter began by proclaiming that histories of economics should confine themselves to economic analysis, which he defined as “the analytic or scientific aspects of economic thought" (1954: 1). Schumpeter then proceeded to ignore his own edict, for over 1000 small-print pages. Having preached analysis-only Schumpeter practiced more ecumenically, weaving together intellectual history, biography, and economic sociology. Indeed, Schumpeter spent most of his last decade writing the 800,000 words of the ferociously erudite History, and thereby failing to complete a long-planned work of economic analysis. Thomas McCraw’s splendid new book brilliantly illuminates this Schumpeterian paradox, and the many others that made Schumpeter, as Phillip Mirowski put it, “a living, breathing contradiction” (1994: 5). Prophet of Innovation is not just a beautifully drawn portrait of Schumpeter’s life and times, it is also a distinguished business historian’s meditation on the two opposed cultures of political economy post-1870: history and theory. The Prophet of Innovation, among its other accomplishments, tells the story of how a great and productive intellect wrestled with the two-cultures problem in political economy. In the work of Schumpeter, McCraw finds the very personification of political economy’s struggle between history and theory. Just as Schumpeter’s work personifies the roles for history and theory in economics, so too does McCraw make...
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...Journal of Change Management Vol. 5, No. 4, 369 –380, December 2005 Organisational Change Management: A Critical Review RUNE TODNEM BY Queen Margaret University College, Edinburgh, UK ABSTRACT It can be argued that the successful management of change is crucial to any organisation in order to survive and succeed in the present highly competitive and continuously evolving business environment. However, theories and approaches to change management currently available to academics and practitioners are often contradictory, mostly lacking empirical evidence and supported by unchallenged hypotheses concerning the nature of contemporary organisational change management. The purpose of this article is, therefore, to provide a critical review of some of the main theories and approaches to organisational change management as an important first step towards constructing a new framework for managing change. The article concludes with recommendations for further research. KEY WORDS : Critical review; theories and approaches Introduction Change management has been defined as ‘the process of continually renewing an organization’s direction, structure, and capabilities to serve the ever-changing needs of external and internal customers’ (Moran and Brightman, 2001: 111). According to Burnes (2004) change is an ever-present feature of organisational life, both at an operational and strategic level. Therefore, there should be no doubt regarding the importance to any organisation of...
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...Strategic Management & Business Policy, 12e (Wheelen/Hunger) Chapter 1 Basic Concepts in Strategic Management 1) Strategic management is one decision that determines the short-term performance of a corporation. Answer: FALSE Diff: 1 Page Ref: 5 Topic: The Study of Strategic Management 2) In the externally oriented planning phase, plans are developed by heavily involving the input of managers from lower levels. Answer: FALSE Diff: 2 Page Ref: 5 Topic: The Study of Strategic Management 3) General Electric led the transition from strategic planning to strategic management during the 1980s. Answer: TRUE Diff: 1 Page Ref: 6 Topic: The Study of Strategic Management 4) One of the benefits of strategic management is a clearer sense of vision for the firm. Answer: TRUE Diff: 2 Page Ref: 6 Topic: The Study of Strategic Management 5) To be effective, strategic management must be a formal process. Answer: FALSE Diff: 3 Page Ref: 7 Topic: The Study of Strategic Management 6) Globalization is the internationalization of markets and corporations. Answer: TRUE Diff: 1 Page Ref: 8 Topic: Globalization and Environmental Sustainability: Challenges to Strategic Management 7) As more industries become global, strategic management is becoming less important in positioning a company for long-term competitive advantage. Answer: FALSE Diff: 2 Page Ref: 8 Topic: Globalization and Environmental Sustainability: Challenges to Strategic Management ...
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...INDUSTRIAL AND ORGANIZATIONALPSYCHOLOGY Walter C. Borman Daniel R. lIgen Richard J. Klimoski Volume Editors Irving B. Weiner Editor-in-Chief 13 THEORIES AND PRACTICES OF ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT John R. Austin and Jean M. Bartunek 309 ~ John Wiley & Sons, Inc. CHAPTER 13 Theories and Practices of Organizational Development JOHN R. AUSTIN AND JEAN M. BARTUNEK ORGANIZATION DEVELOPMENT TODAY, NOT YESTERDAY 310 THE CONCEPTUAL 'KNOWLEDGE OF ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT 311 Change Process Theories 312 Samples of Contemporary Interventions in Organizational Development 316 Implementation Theories 319 THE CONNECTION BETWEEN IMPLEMENTATION THEORIES AND CHANGE PROCESS THEORIES 321 THE DIVIDE BETWEEN IMPLEMENTATIONTHEORIES AND CHANGE PROCESS THEORIES 322 Barrier 1: Different Knowledge Validation Meth~ 322 Barrier 2: Different Goals and Audiences 323 Barrier 3: Different Theoretical Antecedents 324 STRATEGIES FOR OVERCOMING BARRIERS TO KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER 324 Same-Author Translation 325 Multiple-Author Translation 325 Common Language Translation 326 Translating Implementation Theory to Change Process Theory 326 CONCLUSION 326 REFERENCES 327 From its roots in action research in the 1940s and 1950s (Collier, 1945), and building on Lewin's insight that "there is nothing so practical as a good theory" (Lewin, 1951, p. 169), organizational development has explicitly emphasized both the practice. and the scholarship of planned organizational change. Ideally...
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...report is to analyse the effectiveness of KGNZ Limited’s (“KGNZ”) management team. I have been engaged to analyse the effectiveness management team and present my findings in the form of a report to the board. The purpose of the team is to manage the company’s operations and to maximise capacity and productivity within the organisation. The culture, dynamic and behavior of the team itself in relation to the rest of the organisation will determine to a greater or lesser extent its effectiveness in achieving its intended purpose. The role of the team will be examined in relation to its context both within the organisation and within behavioral theories in terms of its development and operation. The leadership within and outside the team will be examined - including relevant theoretical aspects to leadership that exists within KGNZ. The analysis of the team’s effectiveness will focus on both behavioral aspects of the team and its make-up and also specific company set objectives of the team in promoting the capacity and productivity of the organisation. In order to gauge effectiveness of the team against its current purpose it is necessary to examine specific aspects of the company that are directly within the team’s purview being issues of capacity and productivity within the organisation and how the team currently deals with these as well as make several recommendations that could improve the current status quo. In order to analyse the team’s cultural and organisational dynamic as...
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............................................................................................................8 Monitoring the Environment .........................................................................................9 Formulating and executing strategy ...........................................................................10 Conclusion .................................................................................................................12 1 Introduction The following assignment with the title “Strategic Leadership by Executives” will cover the integration of the executive theory in the strategic leadership theory. There are several important differences in the theory, which separates the executive leadership from other leadership. A first objective of this scientific paper is to give the reader a broad overview of the most important theories. Inserting the relevant literature and...
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