Introduction
For the purposes of this assignment, the author will be reviewing the activities of a company they are familiar with, which will remain unnamed. It is an IT business that supplies software to other companies and provides long-term support for it. The company has been in the field for a substantial time and has seen it evolve, changing alongside it. As such, it presents an excellent opportunity for a case study of organizational change. From a surface-level assessment, it is not necessarily clear whether the path the company has chosen to follow has led it to maximize efficiency and productivity on the organizational level. By using Nadler and Tushman’s congruence model to evaluate the business’s change processes, this gap can be rectified. Hence, this paper will analyze the various aspects of the model as applied to the business and identify any issues with either its operations or the author’s understanding of them.
Congruence Model Description
Nadler and Tushman’s congruence model represents the transformation cycle in terms of specific and easily identifiable factors. As described by Burke, it consists of inputs (environment, resources, and history), which informs strategy (formal and informal organization, tasks, and individual action) that, in turn, leads to outputs (organizational, group, and individual). The feedback from the outputs is then reviewed and factored into the new inputs, restarting the cycle. The company’s environment is one of relatively low competition, as it has stable relationships with clients, but also of constantly changing demands as customers require modifications to their software. In terms of the resources available, it primarily relies on the competence of its workers as a company that does not produce physical products. Lastly, it has had a short history, as with most IT companies, but was overall focused on freedom as long as tasks were completed and attracted young software engineers.
The company’s formal organization consists of several teams, each of which is responsible for working with a specific client, under a single top manager. Due to its small size, this arrangement is sufficient, and people regularly move between teams when necessary. As a result of this arrangement, informally, there is no rigid hierarchy at the company, as all workers know each other. As a result, they can go to each other or to the company’s senior manager to propose projects or voice their concerns. Individual initiative is encouraged and rewarded, which has been well-received by the staff and has become a part of the organizational culture. Lastly, as a result of this approach, tasks are typically assigned to people who have the competencies needed to accomplish them. With that said, there have been cases where people encountered issues but were too stubborn to ask for help.
Strategy Analysis
The company’s current strategy is to maintain its current relationships with its clients and gradually expand through signing deals with new businesses. The software it creates is mostly specialized, with few competitors, so there is little threat of the businesses going to other providers for the same service. With that said, Hayes notes that IT-related industries tend to change faster than their more traditional counterparts and that the rate of change in all fields is constantly accelerating (53). As a result, it is challenging to determine how long the company’s services will stay relevant and have the potential for expansion. In the future, it may have to radically adjust its model, though the free-form organization of the business may help it address these issues efficiently.
The organization’s strategy involves flexibility that comes from its favoring on individual initiative. As a result, it can adjust quickly to its clients’ requirements and respond to them from the perspective of the people who will be implementing the solution. This capability facilitates effective and productive communication, which is an essential part of maintaining a mutually beneficial relationship. Moreover, it enables organic change as workers recognize changes in the environment and relay their findings to others. The lack of a rigid hierarchy serves to remove obstacles to change, which also means that less top-level involvement is necessary to drive it. With that said, team leaders and the senior manager stay apprised of the events that are taking place and ensuring that undesirable initiatives do not progress.
Outputs and Issues
Overall, on the organizational level, the company’s strategy has succeeded. It has been able to maintain productive relationships with its clients and generate a steady stream of revenue by working for them. At the same time, it has increased its number of customers and grown correspondingly, creating new teams and hiring staff to respond to the increasing demand. While there were some issues while the new staff was undergoing training and amassing experience, they were all successfully resolved. At the same time, the most prominent issue emerges on the organizational level: the company’s struggle to attract additional clients. Per Hall, a significant issue in B2B marketing is securing the correct channels to broadcast the message (45). The business does not necessarily have access to such channels and struggles to increase awareness of itself among potential customers as a result.
On the team level, the strategy has also worked as intended, leading to adequate performance that is also accompanied by flexibility when necessary. Every team member is committed to the goal and puts in substantial effort, which is seen and recognized by others. At the same time, they exercise individual initiative and offer creative solutions to the problems before them. With that said, on the individual level, the lack of growth of the organization as a whole has stifled career development. The company’s employees are gaining substantial experience in their work and refining their skills, which lets them deliver continuously improving results. However, while the company tries to provide them with raises, the potential for doing so is limited, and there are few opportunities for promotion. As a result, some people are starting to look for opportunities at other companies where growth is easier to achieve.
Challenging Aspects
The first item that the author is struggling with is the senior manager’s exact role within the organization. They act as the ultimate authority in decision-making, participating in discussions about large-scale decisions. They also help solve issues such as the lack of a specific resource, using their knowledge and allocating the company’s resources to the matter. With that said, it appears that they mostly monitor the company passively, staying apprised of the current situation through regular meetings and responding to requests for aid. To understand their role better, the author will need to study leadership theory and identify the style they use as well as its contribution. Franco provides a summary of the main leadership styles as well as several studies that compare their effectiveness (130-131). Through a review of the scholarly literature, the author should be able to better understand the issue.
The second concern the author recognizes is their lack of understanding of B2B marketing, specifically. They are not entirely clear as to how an offering can be marketed to a company, especially one that does not recognize the internal issues that the software helps solve. Identifying such deficiencies from the outside is challenging, and persuading businesses that they need a particular solution for a problem they have not been aware of before is more so. Moreover, the company as a whole may lack this understanding, which likely contributes to its slow growth. With that said, B2B marketing has developed substantially over time, focusing on the development of mutual and trusting relationships (Fill et al. 29). By studying the available literature on the topic, the author can understand it and its relevance to the company better.
Conclusion
Overall, the company’s strategy appears to be well-aligned to its inputs, which has enabled it to maintain productive relationships with clients and expand. Its flexibility and emphasis on individual creativity have enabled it to respond to a variety of challenges over time, creating trusting relationships with its clients. At the same time, it has not grown as much as it should have, which has resulted in dissatisfaction among some of the staff due to the lack of individual career advancement. The author believes that the cause is its ineffective marketing, which has precluded it from reaching companies that may be interested in its services. With that said, before providing specific recommendations, the author would prefer to study several topics in which they have found their understanding to be lacking.
Works Cited
Burke, W. Warner. Organization Change: Theory and Practice. 5th ed., SAGE Publications, 2017. Google Books E-book.
Fill, Chris, et al. Marketing. 4th ed., Oxford University Press, 2017.
Franco, Mario, editor. Digital Leadership: A New Leadership Style for the 21st Century. IntechOpen, 2020.
Hall, Simon. B2B Digital Marketing Strategy: How to Use New Frameworks and Models to Achieve Growth. Kogan Page, 2020.
Hayes, John. The Theory and Practice of Change Management. 5th ed., Palgrave, 2018.