Managing Leading Change

1. Introduction

The newly appointed Change consultant of recently privatizing State Engineering Corporation of Sri Lanka targets to present a report to the Board of Directors of the corporation to launch and lead a program of rapid organizational change to achieve the desired organizational goals.

Coram and Burnes (2001) stated organizational change is “a continuous process of experiment and adaptation aimed at matching an organization’s capabilities to the needs and dictates of a dynamic and uncertain environment”. However, organizational change is occuring in large scale in both public and private sectors (Coram and Burnes, 2001). Furthermore, Grundy (1993) identified three varieties of changes as “smooth incremental, bumpy incremental and discontinuous”.

2. Background of the Company

The State Engineering Corporation of Sri Lanka (SECSL) was established in 1962 and is ranked as one of the top Engineering and Construction Organizations in Sri Lanka and it is the only government construction organization certified with ISO 9001:2008. The State Engineering Corporation in the present is the only local engineering organization in Sri Lanka, which offers the widest variety of architectural and engineering services. SECSL is a State sponsored corporation and functions under the Ministry of Construction & Engineering Services of Sri Lanka. The organization in year 2010 marked a turnover of Rs 5,921 Million and a net profit after tax of Rs 86.4 Million with 2343 employees employed in that year (Annual report, 2010)

3. Organizational Structure and Change

Organizational structure according to Bartol and Martin (1994, p. 283) is, “the formal pattern of interactions and coordination designed by management to link the task of individuals and groups in achieving organizational goals”. However, organizational structure can vary along a number of dimensions. Pugh et al. (1969) identified primary dimensions of organizational structure as “specialization, standardization, formalization,