How and Why Wicked Problems Occur During the Implementation of Structural Change?

Introduction

For optimum organizational development, a periodical auditing process needs to be carried out to ensure that the organization is still being run within its set out missions and goals. When this auditing process shows otherwise, bold steps are taken to bring the organization within its mandated goals through a process called Business Process Reengineering (BPR). The structural changes put in place to see the attainment of this BPR often faces lots of challenges that may be both internal and external. Whereas this structural changes may be vital to organizational survival and growth in its business operations, the stumbling blocks to this which most have termed as wicked problems always find a position to challenge this crucial changes to the organization.

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Internal Causes of Structural Change and Their Negative Implication to the Organization

For an organization to survive in a competitive market, continues assessment of their business strategies should be carried out more often so as to fix their weaknesses and boost their strengths. When this assessment is carried out major structural causes may be decided on based on the following internal factors of an organization.

Change in organizational structure

An organization can identify its structure as the cause of its business setbacks. A new structural change nay is put in place that may bring changes to its business model. The structural inertia can be accrued due to resistance to change that may occur in the organizational management hierarchy, administrative procedures, chain of command, business management system, and the job structure. The wicked problem tends to come into play were these changes affects the flow of production in the organization hence leading to resistance to change by the employees.

Strategic change

An organization can realize that it has fallen short in its goals to achieve their missions and visions. A new strategy is, therefore, laid down to change the organizational projectile toward its business goals. The strategic change means the change in the mode of doing the business of hence breaking the organizational traditions. People tend to resist change especially one that directly affects their daily routines. Employs get used to their daily chores hence a change in the way of doing business will greatly affect the employees' work morale. The dilemma seen is where the change may significantly affect production due to the impact caused by the changes to the employee's attitude to work.

Process change

A process change can be defined as a situation where an organization rewrites its style of doing business. This can significantly affect its channels of communication, protocols in communication, change in the process of production and service delivery. The main goal of this changes is to boost efficiency on time and the cost of doing business. The process change put in place can be a great setback to both the organization staff and their customers. To ensure there is a proper transition to this change, prior benchmarking should be administered to both the employees and willing clients to familiarize them with the set out organizational changes.

Peoples' change on responsibilities

The organizational management can change its delegation of responsibilities on its workforce. The shift of responsibilities can be witnessed where individuals may be reassigned to the responsibilities expected to perform. The main reason for these changes to be enforced occurs in instances where there is unbalanced workload on the employees (M. T. Hannan, 1984). A delegation of responsibilities to employees is carried out to ensure full optimization of the human resource of an organization (Gerry Mcgivern, 2017) (McCann, 2018) (Geronimo, 2014) (Anon., 2016) (Pasmore, 2017). Resistance to this changes are often fueled due to the additional jobs are given to employees who might have gotten used to minimal work. The result may see their overall performance being negatively impacted.

External Causes of Structural Changes and Their Negative Implications for the Organization

The external environment has a place in determining the success of a business entity. Changes in the external environment tend to bring impacts on the market hence every business firm should lay out plans to counter negative changes that may threaten their existence in the market. The following factors need to be monitored for a business to operate smoothly in its market.

Government policies

The government can lay out policies that see fit for the growth of the national economy or to curb consumption of certain products. These can come majorly of license pricing and taxation. The pressure subjected to the business firms can lead to numerous structural changes within the organization. This can be seen by the implementation to cut on their waste production, improve on product quality or an order to decrease the production of goods whose consumption is discouraged (Appelbaum, 2012). This orders can greatly impact on the productivity of the company hence making the business to be unsustainable. Measures are therefore set out to check on the shortcomings brought by this pressure.

Mergers and acquisitions

During the process of merging or acquisition, the merging firms need to create avenues to link the operational procedures into one from both the companies. The merging process ends with some processes adapted from one firm to the final firm being either considered or rejected. A new way of operation and running of the business is derived which may prove to be challenging to put together. A good assessment of both the merging firms needs to be put in place for a smooth merging to occur.

Change in technologies

Technology places a crucial role in determining the competitiveness of a business in the market. New technologies mean an improved mode of operation and doing business. The technologies adopted are mainly to improve efficiency and cut on liabilities. When these technologies are introduced, the employees may find it hard to cope with the new mode of operation brought by it. The resistance to technology can affect the overall running of the firm in spite of the benefits that are accrued from the new technology.

Occurrence of crises

Crises can be categorized both to the natural and economic crisis. Their occurrence is most of the time inevitable. When this crisis occurs, business firms are oblique with the responsibilities of setting out measures to enable them to rise to their performance position (Grint, 2010). A lot of sacrifices are taken which may see some employees being retrenched from the firm to rise back. These organizational changes put forward means the business will not get back to its initial mode of doing business.

Conclusion

From our discussion above, we can acknowledge how structural changes come to be part if any organizational development. In spite of the various challenges that may try to hinder this changes, there is more benefits chat can be achieved through this changes that sees a more efficient working condition that optimizes productivity while cutting the liabilities that may be seen through the high cost of operation.

References

Anon., 2016. Organizational Change and Development (Managing Change and Change Management). Management Help, 2(2), pp. 43-45.

Appelbaum, S., 2012. Back to the future: Revisiting Kotter's 1996 change model. Journal of Management Development, 31(8), pp. 764-782.

Geronimo, D. N., 2014. Organizational Change. Leadership Management, 3(12), pp. 50-62.

Gerry Mcgivern, E. F. S. D., 2017. The Silent Politics of Temporal Work: A Case Study of a Management Consultancy to Redesign Public Health Care. Organizational studies, 23(7), pp. 17-32.

Grint, K., 2010. Wicked Problems and Clumsy Solutions: The Role of Leadership. In: B. S., ed. The New Public Leadership Challenges. London: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 169- 186.

M. T. Hannan, J. F., 1984. Structural Inertia and Organizational Change. Adaptive Cycle, 49(2), pp. 21-23.

McCann, R., 2018. Top Down Change. Srum Master Tollbox, 14(5), pp. 13-19.

Pasmore, W. B. M., 2017. The Palgrave Handbook of Organizational Change Thinkers. 1st ed. London: Palgrave Macmillan.