Leading organizational change – assignment 1: case study

Organizational change is moving at an ever increasing pace in today’s  global economy. Mergers and acquisitions, increasing competitive  pressures both at home and abroad, as well as a wide range of economic  and political forces are requiring that businesses be prepared to evolve  to meet changing environments. In this course you learned about what it  means to be a leader, the various forms that organizational leadership  can take, and the wide range of factors that influence the ability of a  leader to effect organizational change as well as strategies that can be  employed to manage change. In a minimum of1,500 words, please select an organization and analyze it in terms of organizational change. 

Scenario

A company may go through organizational change at various stages in  its life cycle for a variety of reasons.  Reasons can include, a change  in ownership, a change in the competitive framework, business expansion,  or business contraction, among others. The business sections of papers  every day discuss instances of organizational change. 

Select one of the following scenarios: It has to be a REAL business

• A business  where the company has been taken over by a larger organization in an unrelated field 
• A business where the leadership has been changed because the CEO has been forced to resign 
• A business where the company has decided to expand outside of the United States and open up operations in another country 
• A business where a major new competitor has entered the field and is taking away business and/or employees 
• A business where  the company has been sued by current/former employees for discrimination 

Research the organization and analyze the organizational change. In your paper address all of the following: 

• Explain the external and internal factors that are driving the need for change 
• Evaluate the organizational barriers and issues, including corporate culture, vision, and mission that currently exist 
• Recommend  appropriate strategies for leading the change 
• Propose and provide a rationale for changes to the organizational structure, vision, and mission 
• Identify and support the most appropriate leadership style based on leadership theory 
• Explain how the change will be communicated to all key stakeholders 

Formatting & Sources

Please write your paper in the APA format. As part of your research,  you may refer to the course material for supporting evidence, but you  must also use at least three credible, outside sources and cite  them using APA format as well. Please include a mix of both primary and  secondary sources, with at least one source from a scholarly  peer-reviewed journal. If you use any Study.com lessons as sources,  please also cite them in APA (including the lesson title and  instructor’s name). 

• Primary sources are first-hand accounts such as interviews,  advertisements, speeches, company documents, statements, and press  releases published by the company in question. 
• Secondary sources come from peer-reviewed scholarly journals,  such as the Journal of Management. You may use like JSTOR, Google  Scholar, and Social Science Research Network to find articles from these  journals. Secondary sources may also come from reputable websites with  .gov, .edu, or .org in the domain. (Wikipedia is not a reputable source,  though the sources listed in Wikipedia articles may be acceptable.)