Introduction
There is always the need for organizations to change and develop new strategies that will propel them faster to achieve their goals. Directors, managers, and other key organizational leaders come up with various approaches to ensuring their companies perform better every day. There is a need to ensure their company stays ahead of others while competing for the limited market available to them (Brown 2009). This forces the management to seek various ways and strategies that will ensure their company takes advantage of the available opportunities to enhance their productivity. This step is usually tough and challenging, depending on the readiness of the company. In addition, there are challenges that organizations face while transforming their systems to achieve better ways of performing better, as is evident in the Chipping at Intel case study.
Environmental Pressure Changes
The main environmental pressure changes that companies experience include reputation, competition, fashion, market, geopolitical, and mandates. However, this case study proves that Intel’s main environmental challenges include the low markets for their commodities, dwindling economy, stiff competition, reputation, and war threats. Their reputation was put at stake due to many cases of recalls of their products (Burke 2010). Their supplies to the market were rejected since most of their software had bugs that made them ineffective. Secondly, the company had to spend a lot of time in order to ensure they provide quality products to their clients. However, this led to a wastage of time and thus could not rule out cases of shortages of supply and delays in delivery of orders. This, in turn, gave their competitors an upper hand to dominate the market. Thirdly, there were numerous cases of product recalls that led the public to believe that Intel was now producing substandard goods. Therefore, the reputation of this company was extremely at stake. In addition, there was an unmatched competition between Intel and other similar companies that led to the decline in the profits realized by Intel. The AMD (Advanced Micro Devices) was their main competitor. Since they were now producing chips that were highly ranked in terms of speed, quality, and price, Intel could not afford to compete with them. Lastly, there was a general drop in the chip producing industry occasioned by the decline in the world economy and many war threats. This was evident in mid September when all companies registered minimal sales.
Internal Organizational Pressures
On the other hand, there were numerous internal organizational pressures for change that made it extremely difficult for Intel to achieve its development changes. Of the many internal organizational pressures for change, there were challenges experienced by Intel, including the reestablishment of organizational identity, collaboration, integration, and power pressures. Barrett was compelled to reorganize the company and restructure various departments to achieve the necessary changes. It was challenging to convince the top management of the feasibility of his projects when the company’s reputation was at risk due to recalls of their products, delays in delivery, and stiff competition from similar companies. His plans to expand Intel’s production to include offering of internet services and appliances used in information and communication were among the controversial projects among the management. He sacrificed a lot of money in new markets, seeking ways of expanding the company’s brand. His attempt to reorganize the company to ensure there was no duplication of responsibilities was also an effort geared towards achieving his goals. However, these efforts made the company register worst performance ever. The company deals in computer technology that is bound to change with time.
Limitations to Changes
There is the need for organizations to evolve and change in order to provide their clients with goods and services that meet their tastes and preferences. The presence of research, inventions and innovations necessitate the need to change various aspects of their goods in order to meet consumers’ demands (Yukl 2009). If Intel puts a limit to its changes, there are high possibilities that it will not afford to compete with similar companies that adopt new developments as soon as they occur. However, these changes are to some level limited depending on the amount of disposable income Intel has to venture into continuous research and market expansion. In addition, the company needs to assess past changes and their impacts on its production, client satisfaction and workers’ morale before attempting to impose further changes.
Importance of Understanding Change Pressures by Managers
Change managers must have a clear understanding of the pressures that lead to change since they are team leaders. They are supposed to show other staffs that the change they advocate is meant for long term benefits, even though the present situation may be proving otherwise. They will be ready to cope with any eventualities that are common whenever changes are inevitable. This will ensure the manager plans on how to counter the effects of change in quality of goods supplied and staff welfare.
Conclusion
There is a need, for change managers to ensure they are up to date with the demands of their clients. This will give them better chances of winning over their rivals. They should ensure they implement all necessary changes despite the pressures that may derail the attainment of these goals and focus should be on the long term goals.
References
Brown, T. (2009). Change by Design: How Design Thinking Transforms Organizations and Inspires Innovations. New York: HarperBusines Publishers.
Burke, W. (2010). Organization Change: Theory and Practice (Foundations for Organizational Science Series). London: Sage Publications.
Yukl, G. (2009). Leadership in Organizations. New York: Prentice Hall.