Globalisation and Change Management

In today’s business environment where globalisation has a strong impact, change is the only thing being unchanged. For an organisation to best satisfy consumer wants and be profitable, management is expected to be heads up on the pressure and forces raging from all directions and take the necessary measures for change. In terms of how organisations should go about change, there is a divergence of opinion among commentators: some argue that organisations must be willing to undertake rapid change which is by nature ‘painful’, while others argue that change can be introduced in a relatively ‘painless’ way. Which of these claims is more relevant to today’s business environment?

Rapid change to an organisation is like breaking an ice-cube with a pickaxe, generally referred as ‘transformational change’. An organisation has her period of growth and success plateau which may not last forever. When chaos emerges and wake up calls appear, old state and mindset are in position to shift. The organisation would have to either pass through the ‘bottle neck’ and re-emerge or simply perish. According to Want (1993), drastic change should involve dramatically reshaping the competitive capabilities of entire industries. Drastic change is also done through visioning and learning in a process which is usually painful. Inasmuch individuals, despite knowing how important change is, are easily irritated and upset by it. Uncertainty is intimidating at the same time when it comes to upsetting the process and practice and affecting the status quo. Therefore, individuals would cling to the past so as to prevent any disturbance to core habits and routines. But it is a do or die situation and time waits for nobody. On the contrary, painless change is like melting an ice-cube naturally in its own course, generally referred as ‘transitional change.’ An organisation has the need to dismantle her old state of operation and develop a more effective new