Technology has made the world far more connected. Global connectivity has created an environment where changes that occur in one part of the world or one business region can have immediate and far-flung repercussions across the globe. Organizations that are able to quickly adapt to changing environmental conditions are more likely to succeed. Organizations need to manage change to survive and to create a competitive advantage. Thus, most organizations continually plan and implement some type of change management strategy. According to Weiss (2012), “planned organizational change is a process that moves companies from a present state to a desired future state with the goal of enhancing their effectiveness” (section 1.1, para. 2). An organization should have a planned change strategy and a change model to effectively lead and manage organizational adaptation. XYZ, Inc. is a high-end retail chain that sells luxury watches, jewelry, and handbags. XYZ is opening a store in Shanghai, China and has put an executive in charge of its first international expansion. This will be a short-term, small-scale change for the organization. After one year, the executive is also expected to begin implementation of a long-term, large-scale change by opening additional stores in Brazil, Russia, India, and China (also known as the B.R.I.C. countries). The purpose of this commentary is to identify which change model should be followed for the short-term changes, describe which change model should be followed for the long-term changes, and discuss the effects that these changes would have on the employees, managers, and executives within the organization.
The systems contingency model is the change model which should be adopted for the short-term, developmental change at XYZ, Inc. Given the premise that there is no best strategy to forecast organizational achievement, this