Strategic Change in Government Based on Organization Hierarchy
The literature supports the position that there should be a relationship between the structure and organization change. This study was undertaken to determine how different organization roles, hierarchy, and sizes affect planned strategic change. A survey instrument was administered to top federal government agency leadership to assess change in their organization. The intention is to draw common relationships between organization change and specific categories or sizes of organizations.
Role of Change
Business strategy and structure have always been related. Organizational change involves innovation, process improvement, and organizational redesign (Galbraith and Lawler, 1993). They also noted that the hierarchical structure is related to changes in speed, quality and productivity. In recent years, the pace of change has accelerated so drastically that most organizational structures and management principles have no hope of adjusting or adapting (Hammer and Champy, 1993). Today’s changes are discontinuous and happening at a geometric rate. Organizations must be sufficiently agile to be instantly reconfigurable to meet new demands (Tetenbaum, 1998).
Change efforts involve attempting to reduce discrepancies between the real and the ideal (Hersey and Blanchard, 1993). The change could be a first order change that occurs in a stable system that itself remains unchanged. It could be a second order change when fundamental properties of the system are changed such as the fall of communism (Hersey and Blanchard, 1993). Evolutionary changes are gradual and tend to be first order while revolutionary changes are second order. Both of these events could be driving the changes described in this study.
Some changes are limited and incremental in nature. Strategic, system wide changes implemented under crisis conditions are highly risky. Nadler and Tushman (1990) found that all strategic organizational changes initiated under crisis conditions with short time constraints were by far the riskiest. Such changes usually require a change in core values. Some recent trends that have generally lead to significant changes in corporate culture are reengineering, shift to horizontal forms of organizing, total quality management (Daft, 1998). These should not negate the i...
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...tudy in TQM, leadership, and organizational culture in a government agency. Public Administration Review, 56: 227-236.
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Following the failure of the Articles of Confederation, a debate arose discussing how a centralized government ought to be organized. The prevailing opinion ultimately belonged to the Federalists, whose philosophy was famously outlined in The Federalist Papers. Recognizing that in a free nation, man would naturally divide himself into factions, they chose not to remedy this problem by stopping it at its source; instead, they would limit its effects by placing strict structural safeguards within the government's framework. The Federalists defined a facti...
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The following essay will define what rational organisation design is and how it can be used in business to both cut costs and give increased control to management as well as giving reference to important figures who relate to the systems development. Both the benefits and drawbacks of rational organisation will be explored with both theoretical and real life examples. The conclusion will highlight how rational organisation can be implemented into Junction Hotel and the extent to which it is desirable.
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As, Goodnow has iterated the functions of politics communicate and addresses the state’s will however, he articulates that there is no boundaries or limitations to one or more authorities when managing politics, thus eluding to no appointed organization who handles political matters and the interest of the people. Perhaps, a contributing factor to complexities in the political and government systems and the functional roles of politics and administration. Woodrow Wilson essay “The Study of Administration,” he stresses that government systems and methods are in need of great improvement. (Woodrow. 1887) However, Wilson believes politics should be separated from administration, for administration should be a “field of business.” (Woodrow. 1887) Possibly speaking, if administration was separated would politics become more organized and an authority given to
In conclusion, this paper applied the rational systems theory to Bridge Over the River Kwai. An overview of the rational systems theory was provided. A brief description of the movie was provided. And, the rational systems theory was applied to Bridge Over the River Kwai to examine how organizations can be managed and the potentially detrimental results of
Organizations must operate within structures that allow them to perform at their best within their given environments. According to theorists T. Burns and G.M Stalker (1961), organizations require structures that will allow them to adapt and react to changes in the environment (Mechanistic vs Organic Structures, 2009). Toyota Company’s corporate structure is spelt out as one where the management team and employees conduct operations and make decisions through a system of checks and balances.
“ Organizations are collectivities oriented to the pursuit of relatively specific goals and exhibiting relatively highly formalized social structures” (page 29). The rational system is a group of individuals, bound together as an organization, designed to reach predetermined goals. The rational system models sees organizations as a mechanical model. A machine that has multiple parts that also works individually but also work together for the better good of the whole. All the individuals of the group can be replaced with a new one if it doesn’t meet the standards of
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Why do organizations change? With time goes by, rapid development of science and technology had led us to a world full of competitions. Change and stay alert to keep up with the current trend is essential asset to survive in this aggressive global economy. As the framework indicated by Pettigrew, there are two key context factors makes a great deal of effects on the reason for companies to change. Those are outer context and Inner context. Outer context could refer to the surrounding environment around the firm and the global economics status, etc. Inner context could be downsizing, restructuring the Gestalt, or the problem with coherent design archetype. Under the stress of the outer and inner context, forces or triggers will bring out the revolution. Change can be seen in a short term way and also in a long term way. Short term change could be a sudden, discontinuous and frame-breaking rupture which has an impact on the whole organisation, or new forms of management ad structure of the firm itself, or the breakthrough created by the major innovations or even can refers to the impact of new product and new market opportunities. Normally, financial crisis will be an initiative as a trigger to revolution. At first of the revolution, there would probably already has small changes in normal management and structure. As a long term way to apply the change, change agents are needed to do an ongoing, continuous and gradual progression or give some simpler initiatives such as improvements to existing products and product range.
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