Research Paper on Leading Change in the Corporate Environment

Introduction

The corporate environment today is fast-moving and constantly changing (Stanford, 2016, 11). Change is undoubtedly vital for organisations because, without the ability to change, they reduce their competitive edge and fail to meet the needs of their clients. To succeed in the face of change and competition, an organisation must know how to lead and manage change.

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The focal point for the establishment of most organisations, both for-profit and non-profit, is primarily the accrual and realisation of excellent operational and functional aptitude as well as the maximisation of productivity (O'Brien et al., 2019, 8). However, the attainment of such desirable capabilities demands the initiation of appropriate strategies such as pertinent change management approaches. Primarily, change management denotes the use of processes and tools in guiding people from a current state to a future state with the prime aim of attaining the anticipated change outcomes and returns on investment (Gill, 2002). The focus of this thesis is to demonstrate how SAP combines the McKinsey 7S framework and the Kotter eight-step model change management strategies sequentially and expertly, coupled with a holistic set of tools to improve organisational effectiveness. The scope of the review is relatively broad since it examines both internal and external organisational elements.

Statement of the Problem

The statement of the problem revolves around investigating the major challenges facing the process of implementing the much-desired strategic change in SAP. Importantly, the study is solely limited to SAP. A census survey will be conducted with the primary aim of providing a satisfactory population as well as a relevant sample for the study and thus guarantee reliable findings and results (McPhee, 2019). However, the study's findings will not be generalised across all organisations operating within the same business line as SAP. The decision not to generalise the results of the research is moreover based on the verity that there are several other organisations within the country as well as beyond whose strategic change management and strategies that have been employed to tackle the several challenges obstructing the implementation of strategic change vary and are thus expected to impact the general performance of the organisation. Hence, in the case of this study, any generalisation attempt may result in fallacious deductions.

Nevertheless, in the modern epoch, it is a commonplace argument to claim that most accounts of change as well as its management are intrinsically weak as far as their practical application is concerned and are also limited analytically since they only pay attention to a thin slice of variables within an organisation that is sprained from their broader historical and socio-economic contexts (Longo, 2015, p. 19). Thus, a profound reflection into the limitations of these accounts of change and as well as its management, demands the use of a contextual approach of change that is fitted with the knack to analyse both the interactions of action and context through time.

Since time memorial, change has always been regarded as a gravitas factor with the ability to influence the excellence or failure of an organisational effort of change. However, regardless of the attention received by the management of change, organisations including SAP are still trapped and facing challenges related to the management of organisational change as well as the search for apropos generalised laws of change that continue to permeate the discipline (O'Brien et al., 2019). Locally, several researches have been carried out centred on change management practices. Among the researches include a survey study about strategic change management practices organisations quoted in the New York stock exchange, a study of strategic management undertakings among non-governmental organisations in the US and a survey of strategic change management process among American commercial banks (Longo, 2015, p. 21). Most of the domestic and global studies have paid very little attention to the problems facing the process of implementing strategic changes within organisations. The move is contrary to the verity that most organisations that implement the strategic changes have been identified to be immersed in a lot of struggles. Hence, it is in line with such inadequacies that the focal point of the study is to fill present gaps by researching the problems experienced during the process of implementing strategic change among organisations with special focus on SAP.

Aim, Motivation and Research Questions

The purpose of this research is to study change management and analyse the way people at SAP are affected by ongoing change and the manner in which the process of change is completed and to find the means and options to execute a change initiative effectively.

An additional goal of this research is to evaluate two specific theories of change management and investigate how these models and theories apply in a real organisational transformation.

The writer has taken part in various change processes within SAP, which is the company used for the case study, and the writer's senior management position within SAP is particularly suitable to drive this study and analyse the problems arising during the organisation's transformation ("Introducing change and strategic change management," 2007, p. 6).

Finally, the research aims to formulate, through an intensive analysis of existing change management models, and specifically the McKinsey 7S and Kotter eight-step models, recommendations for future change management initiatives for the IT industry.

The following three research questions are formulated to guide this research:

• Why are change management models used in an organisation?
• How should the McKinsey 7S and Kotter eight-step change models be used?
• How have staff adopted and accepted the change of organisation?

Moreover, the motivation for the research is centred on the verity that during the late twentieth century, both profit and non-profit organisations were confronted with a developing conviction that segments are excessively vast and wasteful. Considering such weight and confronted with an increasingly tricky working condition, organisations have been transformed by embracing managerial Principles spread across the rubric of new management (Hussey, 1998, p. 14). The managerial principles are focused on changing organisations across three segments that are a change from progressive to monetarily based structures, second from regulative to financially based procedures and third, from lawfully based to financially based qualities.

In looking to accomplish these objectives, organisations utilise different methods, for example, downsizing, devolution of administrative obligation and introducing such Managerialism techniques like reengineering and total quality management (TQM) (McPhee, 2019, p. 24). Most of these practices previously rose in the private sector with the outcome that organisations have moved progressively to take after their private sector partners. Discussions concerning organisation management and the assortment of structures adopted have been founded on the contention that while organisations executives have supported private division isomorphism, there might be dangers related with embracing wide-scale private sector managerial practices.

Notably, never again is the managerial change in the private sector focused on more prominent productivity, rather change is being coordinated to make associations organisations comparative (Edmondson, 2016, p. 17). Progressively, the private sector organisations are endeavouring organisational change by cloning the methods of different organisations with an end goal to be more similar as opposed to depending on any objective proof that such change produces more higher profitability, a decrease of cost or proficiency. In embracing strong management standards, public sector organisations are embracing indistinguishable methods from their private sector partners, following along these lines, is unsure execution results (Edmondson, 2016). While organisational management may hold the guarantee of improved execution, there have just been a few instances of not exactly ideal organisational and political results when its standards show themselves in private division managerial procedures.

Limitations of the study

The research was confronted by several constraints, including ideal time or opportunity to complete the study since it needed a longer period to obtain the elements. The above research included data analysis, which may have brought about a ton of blunders in the study and henceforth conclusion may not be palatable which may have been brought about by a portion of the respondents who did not like to give the data required as they classified it as private (Bindra et al., 2019). A large portion of the respondent felt annoyed, and either had to keep me waiting for so long before they consented to see me and working during the day implied that I had the chance to meet the majority of the respondent in the evening and because of evening rush hours in the city, it was practically difficult to make my way to their offices on time. Also, a portion of the respondents did not give back their questioners hence jeopardising the quality of the study's findings.

The Case Company

The case company, SAP in full Systems, Applications and Products in Data Processing is primarily a European company venturing in software corporation whose focus is the making of enterprise software needed in the managing of businesses operations as well as in customer relations (Varma & Khan, 2017). SAP is undeniably a market frontrunner across the enterprise application software since the multinational is well equipped with adequate capacity of assisting different companies, both large and small and across a vast industrial scope. Notably, approximately 80% of the entirety of the global transactions revenues is directly related to the SAP systems (Varma & Khan, 2017, p. 18). SAP's Internet of Things (IoT), machine learning as well as its cutting-edge analytics technologies widely helps in redirecting and projecting clients' businesses towards the intelligent enterprise. The company's end to end collection of services and applications provides customers with the knack to realise positive differences, to quickly adapt incessantly and to operate successfully. Therefore, having a global base of clients, employees, thought leaders and partners, SAP indisputably helps the globe to run better as well as improving the lives of people (Varma & Khan, 2017).

The purpose of the company is centred on making the world run much better and the improvement of the lives of people. Hence, SAP's promise has always been to pursue innovation with the aim of helping its wide array of customers be able to run at their best level. The company engineers solutions geared towards fuelling innovation, spreading opportunities beyond territorial borders and cultures and promoting equality (Varma & Khan, 2017, p. 22). SAP is moreover a global leader in all categories as per the recent analysts' reports and is preferred by more than 200 million cloud users. However, despite a positive and appealing business trajectory trend by the company, to make SAP more...