Emergent Strategy Case Study

Emergent strategy

When change happens, an organization changes its strategy, which in turn, changes its structure, organizational culture, recruitment standards and etc. It indicates that strategy process is part of change process. As mentioned before, most change initiatives fail, no least because not engaging all employees in the process towards change (Stanleigh, 2008). We suggest that emergent strategy is a central part of successful change. One reason for this being that the foundation of emergent strategy is to involve more people in strategy making process (Mintzberg et al., 1988). According to Lines* (2004), there is a positive correlation between subordinate participation in change processes and success of change management projects.

As mentioned earlier, communication and information provision help reduce employee’s resistance to change and hence create an organizational culture that values change. According to Gill (2002), communication is the ‘blood’ of organizations and ‘oxygen’ of change implementation. Poor communication between leaders and the individual staff, on the other hand, could impede change programs (Huczynski and Buchanan, 2001, cited in Burnes, 2003). Frahm and Brown (2005) identify three communication channels, namely strategic information provision by top management, operational information provision by direct supervisors and conversations between peers (cited in Peus et al., 2009). During strategic information provision, top executives explain why changes are necessary and define their expectations from these changes projects, whereas during operational information provision, direct supervisors clarify roles and responsibilities during change processes and new requirements, if any, after the change and answer questions. It is worth noting that peer talk can be a driver of change initiatives (Frahm and Brown, 2005, cited in Peus et al., 2009). This may be at least partly because one takes on the attributes of one's colleagues. Noticeable, when change happens, people move through the phases of shock, denial, resistance and acceptance at different speeds (Lecture 7, slide 38). We recommend that

(2009) maintain that trust only belongs to management team when they treat people fairly by just distribution of outcomes, a fair promotion system, treating employees with dignity and respect and etc. Similarly, Smyth (2014) identifies three social responsibilities of trust, two of which are how people treat each other, namely equality and the criteria that are applied, namely equity. Seniority-based promotion system is a good counter example of this position. According to Liu (2007), it is an incentive mechanism in Japanese organizations, within which job promotion and raise in wage is dependent first on seniority and then achievement. He suggests that when one stays at a job for 10 or more years, he becomes more skilled and makes a positive contribution and increasingly so. However, it is not always the case. Moreover, promising, young employees might feel that they deserve a better