Nokia Company Organizational Change Paper Example

Introduction

Nokia Company is one of the giant firms in Europe that has succeeded massively with the new technology and economy. Nokia started as a company that came together with two other firms one that made rubber boots and the other made manufacturing cables Miconnet and Alagne (2001). After Kari Karaimo took over the organization as the Chief Executive Officer CEO in 1977, he has contributed to the change in this company. The new CEO brought new things to the company. New work models were improvised, and no old networks and activities hindered the development. However, during the 1990's European manufacturers almost brought Nokia to a bankruptcy level. Then a new CEO Ollila took over the company and decided that Nokia was not going to focus on traditional areas but the digital cellular market. This resulted in the employees being changed to young engineers from concentrating on a specific growth provides for development. According to Christensen (2,000), he says that Nokia made a tremendous growth after it ventured into the new technology and is at the top of the market in the new technology.

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Approach taken by the agents

In the process of change for Nokia Company, there were agents involved in the process of its transformation. A change agent is a person who has enough power and knowledge to guide and lead the change process Rayerson (2001). The ability to create and nurture technology and alliances that are market bases is one of the strategies that it has used to achieve its success. Nokia has also developed mechanisms for continuous growth and renewal internally, for example, the New Nokia Venture Organization that does not deal with the core business but the matters outside its operation. This helps to create diversity in the ventures that the company takes or decides to be involved in. The change agents used disruptive change as part of its strategies to go to higher heights. Nokia believes in venturing activities which is its culture and, the venturing activities not only help to make profits but also helps to increase awareness of the disruptive technology method and business models such as "challenge the Nokia way" that play a significant role in preventing the company from being rigid. The strategic change was the method used to transform Nokia Company. Using alliances and alliance network in the process of change that help in exploitation since a company that involves technology leads to high commitment Hansel et al. (2001). This change is more of transformational that has helped Nokia to be at the level of success it is now.

The method used to implement change was educating the employees on the importance of the change and the steps that intend to be taken to initiate and maintain that change. The management style is mostly an individual initiative that helps to diversify the ideas that they may have to promote development after the change. Pragmatism, controlled innovation, and achievement are other factors that Nokia uses to achieve change. The bottom-up strategy where an employee notices a need for change and presents the issue to the management of the company is also encouraged at Nokia. The vision of the Change at Nokia was to help it cope up with the new technology while still achieving success in the goals to be achieved. Leadership change is also one of the factors that promoted change at Nokia Company through communication of the new leaders to the employees and creating an environment that will help them work together.

Overall Evaluation

In promoting organizational change in an organization, a change agent should exercise his duty in the right method to achieve the intended results properly. Grandison, (2018) explains that a change agent is viewed as the motivation in an organization to lead in the change of an organization with hope for a positive outcome. To be useful in the achievement of success of a company, a change agent has to exercise various measures as explained below to achieve the change they intend. Embracing resistance- people are often resistant to change. The agent should be well aware of this, and it should not discourage them.

On the contrary, they should find the employees who have a significant influence on them and are in support of the change. This will help to influence the rest of the employees especially on finding out that their great influence supports the change. Second is creating a vision- in the creation of the vision of the company, and the vision should be formed together with all those who will be involved in the process of change. This will help every person to feel like a contributor to the change and will motivate them. The third is to get new supporters- bringing people to accommodate the idea of change is essential. Creating awareness while having the most significant influencer and team leader on the side of change will enhance the process of change. When the team leader is on the side of change, those against the change will always feel left out. Fourth, is making the change normal- the changes made have to be made a part of normal working life. Using team leaders and allies to influence the change will also support success.

Using the above steps as the Nokia Company did especially the aspect of team leaders and educating the employers on the importance of the change and making them feel part of the vision contribute success in organizational change where the agent is determined to achieve the intended outcome.

Recommendations

In knowing about the customer needs, Nokia Company needs to closely monitor its environmental strategy because of the uncertainty that exists in the company when it comes to the needs of the customer. It is crucial that a company understands what their customer needs as they gear towards the process of effective change. Understanding what the customer needs is essential especially when the market conditions have also to be changed Nokia Company hardly considered this factor. To promote effective change, Nokia should have also considered its customers, listen to their views and understand what they would want from Nokia. This is because in the long run, it is the customers who determine the success since they are the ones to purchase the products. Considering the factors that suit them would have promoted even higher levels of success in Nokia Company.

References

Micinnet P& Alange S (2001) "Nokia: An Old Company in a New Economy." The 21st Strategic Management Society Conference October 21-24, 2001 San Francisco, California, USA http://publications.lib.chalmers.se/records/fulltext/175938/local_175938.pdf accessed on 13th December 2018

Nokia Corporation (2017) "Nokia announces changes in its organization and Group Leadership Team to accelerate the execution of company strategy" accessed on 13th December 2018 fromhttps://www.nokia.com/about-us/news/releases/2017/03/17/nokia-announces-changes-in-its-organization-and-group-leadership-team-to-accelerate-the-execution-of-company-strategy/

Grandison T (2018) "5 Steps to Being an Effective Change Agent" accessed on 13th December 2018 from https://www.govloop.com/community/blog/5-steps-effective-change-agent/

Hill Ryerson (2001) "Organizational Change and Development" chapter 15 https://www.mheducation.ca/college/mcshane4/graphics/mcshane4obm_student/slideshow/sld15.pdf accessed on 13th December 2018