Transformative Change Within An Organization (Microsoft) (Essay Sample)

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Transformative change within an organization (Microsoft)
Essentially, the expression ‘transformation’ is used to describe a drastic shift in cognition, discernment, and character (Duffy, 2010). In an organization, the term ‘transformation’ can be used to explain the significant changes in the way individual employees and organization’s management view the market and possible alteration of procedures (Duffy, 2010). Transformative change, therefore, is an explicit procedure applicable in modifying some basic facets of the culture of an organization, for instance, inherent values and assumptions. Such kind of changes ultimately affects the employees and management perceive assigned roles, tasks and relationship with each other (Duffy, 2010). When consistent and efficient, these changes may lead to a shift in character and perception within an organization. The case study Company, Microsoft, at one point had to institute a complete change in business cultures, strategies and procedures from their initial programs (Duffy, 2010). What prompted this was the increased sophistication and consistency in performance of the firm’s closest competitors. Microsoft had a transformative change from a corporation that focused on the development of mp3 player products to a company that specializes on OS (Operating Systems) and development of various software programs. As a result, the company (Microsoft) experienced a seismic transference of its operations surpassing most of its market rivals.
Company background (Microsoft)
Microsoft Company is one of the U.S-based entity with massive investment in software development and Internet-related business around the world. The company has an annual turnover in terms of revenue of close to $32 billion and is currently the most successful and largest software company globally. Transforming to software development from dealing with mp3 players necessitated much sacrifice and dedication from the management, stakeholders and personnel. The firm’s biggest break in business was back in the 1980s after being contracted by the IBM Company to help in the development of languages for their PCs. The software was contracted under very strict deadline forcing them to buy an OS before modifying the same product for IBM.
The transformative themes at Microsoft
Just like in most companies, instituting a transformative change may be challenging especially in the sustenance of the stipulated changes. Per se, the corresponding change at Microsoft was precise with a particular focus on the achievement of appropriate outcomes in the long-run. First, the company had to read and rewrite its organizational design and strategies. They did this by aligning the firm’s policies and culture to the postulated changes that were to be introduced in by the corporation (Duffy, 2010).
Standard 1.0 – Systems Thinking
Change is the process of transforming from one state to another and becoming different (Duffy, 2010). According to most scholars, most organizations make mistakes while trying to reorganize themselves and make crucial changes in their businesses. Sometimes they end up not meeting the urgency needs of the organization by creating a less powerful guiding coalition and under-communicate their visions by leaving some obstacles to the new vision (Duffy, 2010). The Basic Change proposal was imperative to designers and managers at Microsoft who used the idea to develop a theory of change during the initial design of the involvement as an avenue to intervention in planning and planning for performance measurement of the software programs (Duffy, 2010). This paper discusses the transformative Change and its applications for the success of a business and improving management skills of an individual in a working environment.
Standard 2.0 – Focus on Systemic Transformational Change
The definition of ‘transformational change’ is broad enough to permit the inclusion of a variety of change theories and the most crucial perspective of management and sociology. Leadership may imply both the informal and formal influences in an organization. Therefore, organizational leaders refer to the persons in the organization who possess the described power, and can incorporate any corporate employee, at whichever level and in any place of work. In short, just as an individual does not need to have formal powers to exert influence on other persons, an individual does not necessarily need to be a manager in the organization to be a leader. In a similar manner, managers might have formal powers and thus the possibilities of being leaders, many of the managers do not in the actual sense recognize these possibilities.
The theory of Transformational Change was introduced by a number of scholars describing the inherent concept of the various requisite change procedures, where leaders and their subjects support each other to higher levels of motivation and morality for organizational success. The major feature of this assertion is based on the ability to cultivate the demands of the personnel making them be more focused in their endeavors. Most proponents of transformative change believe that putting more emphasis on the demands make that leader accountable to their followers because the followers are motivated by their moral needs, and the need to champion a cause or the need for taking a higher moral stance on issues. Individuals will always want to feel that larger organizational spiritual mission direct their intentions. Consequently, people will always demand a different motivation for consistency and conflict. Therefore transformational change should always make some sense from the inconsistencies. Conflict is vital to establish the alternatives to make the possibility of transformations. This theory considers that process of change to be an empathetic, understanding, insightful, and considerate; rather than manipulative, power welding, or coercive. However, many researchers on transformational change base their studies much on the transformational movements and ignore the moral element.
The theory of transformational change puts more emphasis on change, innovations, and entrepreneurship than other theories (Givens, 2008). It essential to recognize that transformational change is a micro-level process that has a macro-level influence. At the level of macro influence, transformational leaders must always take the charge of the social system and make reforms to the organization through the creation of relevant power circumstances. Tat the level of micro influence, the leaders must be able to attend to the personalities present in the organization to facilitate the transformations at an interpersonal level. This assertion assumes that transformational change starts with a social framework, interfere with that environment, and then establish the social structure to reflect the overall climate of the business.
Standard 3.0 – Initiating Change
Most proponents of the basic transformative change principles describe the various building blocks that bring individual long-term goals in an institution (Cummings, & Worley, 2014). Others believe that the lessons learned from the success of most organizations are due to the change process that undergoes through a series of steps, which usually require a considerable length of time. When developing the fundamental transformative change theory, Microsoft considered the following information: First, the company looked at the key intervention documents such as Memoranda of Cabinet, Planning documents and intervention terms and conditions for planning. Secondly, Microsoft did a thorough review of the research materials such as prior evaluations and social science research conducted previously. In addition, in initiating effective change in their organizational system, Microsoft also put into consideration the stakeholders, subject matter experts, and the program’s logic model.
There are always three main steps when developing the necessary transformative change in an organization like Microsoft. For instance, the company developed a comprehensive logic model with precise results chains coupled with an explicit causation links. Stating the causation links apparently ensures that the process describes what conditions have to exist for each causation link to be noticed. The next step was to identify the assumptions and risks underlying the proposed changes to the general performances of the organization.
Standard 4.0 – Assessing the Impact of Change
As a manager, one needs to develop a positive result-based management intervention to assist in planning and planning for performance measurement based on the change process. Various scholars argue when developing the process of change then skipping any stage of the process only shows the illusion of speed but does not always give satisfactory results. Also, any mistake made during the process of change can have an overwhelming effects, showing impetus and negating hard-won gains (Cummings, & Worley, 2014). The core change and management concepts can be understood by looking at the Lewin's model of planning. Lewin suggested that assessing the impact of that change is an incremental process, and the best way to manage this is through the planned approach to change. Also, the model of transformative change was a simple one at Microsoft, with organizational change involving three stages.
These stages include unfreezing, changing and unfreezing (Cummings, & Worley, 2014). In addition, it is believed that the key to dealing with social conflict at Microsoft was to facilitate planned change through learning, enabling individuals to comprehend and reform their perceptions of the world around them. This stage allows the manager first t...