Transformational Change

Change is everywhere. In today’s business world, change is inevitable. To prosper and survive in the modern business environment, organizations must be aware of the drivers that stimulate change and implement initiatives in response to these changes. These drivers can include new competition, unfavorable economic conditions, and increased cost of raw materials, to name a few. Transformation planning is a process of developing a strategic plan for changing an organization’s systems, processes, culture and people. Successful implementation of transformational organizational change requires a clear plan of action. The ability to create transformational change is an invaluable tactic in attaining a competitive advantage for businesses. One such company going through a transformational change is Omega Engineering. Since its inception in 1962, Omega Engineering has grown from manufacturing a single product line of thermocouples to being an established global leader in the instrumentation sector, offering more than 100,000 state-of-the-art products for measurement and control of temperature, humidity, pressure, strain, force, flow, level, pH and conductivity (Omega Engineering, 2016). An American based company of approximately 700 employees, Omega Engineering also provides customers with a complete line of data acquisition, automation, electric, heating and custom engineered products. Off-shoring Offshoring denotes to the relocation of a business process domestically to another country. The relocating of certain aspects of a company to another country offers businesses several advantages with costs being arguably the biggest driver. Being able to manufacture or provide specific services in another country at a lower cost due to lower working wages in many foreign countries is a major point to offshoring. In many instances, more lenient environmental regulations, less stringent labor regulations, favorable tax laws and proximity to raw materials are offered overseas (Sonck, 2014). Another factor to offshoring is being able to tap into a workforce population that possesses specialized training and skill-sets. In 2012, OMEGA Engineering opened a new customer service and manufacturing facility in Shanghai, China with plans to open more facilities in Spain and Brazil. This reaction was due to the increasing cost of hiring domestic Customer Service Representatives (CSR’s). The cost to hire foreign workers as CSR’s is more cost effective in this case. However, offshoring does have some drawbacks, with the majority being the criticism from workers in developed countries who claim the loss of domestic jobs is due to cheaper foreign labor resulting in a weaker economy. Another argument against offshoring are the conditions in which foreign workers subjected to, which is oftentimes subpar than that of developed countries. Effects on Stakeholders Organizations undergoing a transformational change need clear directions, as such changes can affect more than just costs. A business can face substantial resistance and obstructions from targeted stakeholders and depending on their roles, stakeholders face different challenges when implementing change. The entire organization’s culture and leadership are impacted from the dynamics involved during the transformation. It is because the organizational culture is the collective mindset of an organization and is the pattern of widely shared assumptions, beliefs, and values that form the basis of people’s ways of being, relating and working, as well as the organization’s interaction with its environment and its success in it (Anderson, 2015). Essentially, organizational culture is the way things are done in the business and transformation is a dramatic shift from the …show more content…
According to the Harvard Business Review, the most influential driver of transformational change is to stay competitive in the business market. To compete, businesses must change how they operate. With this in mind, organizations must employ transformational change efforts to remain relevant, increase revenue and to retain market share.
Why This Is Considered A Transformational Change?
A transformational change is essentially a change in leadership practices, communications, how work is done, and the overall shift of the organization’s current business culture. Transformational change is a large undertaking. One way to look at is to see change as the chameleon, whereas transformational change is the caterpillar transforming into a butterfly.
Why Can The Firm Not Just Keep Doing What It Has Been Doing?
Organizations have to facilitate methods to remain relevant. Continuing current methods will ultimately result in losing out to new competitors. Business environments are continuously evolving and without some type of innovative methods implemented, complacency will lead to lost revenue and market share or eventual