Organizational Change Case

Organizational Change

In an effort to remain successful there are occasions when organizations find that they must be prepared, willing and able to implement strategic changes as quickly as possible when circumstances dictate them necessary.

"Organizations encounter both external and internal forces for change. There are four key external forces for change. The keys for changes are as follows demographic characteristics, technological advancements, customer and market changes, social and political pressures" (Kinicki & Kreitner, 2009, p. 421).

A few years ago, I was employed at the local Metropolitan Transit Authority known as Metro. While at I was employed at Metro there were talks of a major organizational change to the fare structure. The Transit Authority was in the process of making the decision to change the fare structure. The change was to include the conversion of all of the different types of fare media cards (over 30 different cards) to one smart card with an electronic chip inside. In addition to the creation of the smart card (which was to be known as a Q Card), there were some aspects of the fare restructure that would increase the price to ride on public transportation for some passengers.

This type of change would have a great impact on quite a few of the different groups of people. These people are known as stakeholders. The term Stakeholder is defined in the dictionary as" a person entrusted with the stakes of bettors, one that has a stake in an enterprise or one who is involved in or affected by a course of action" (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/stakeholder). In this particular organization change the stakeholders would be the Board of Trustees, Metropolitan Transit Authority Employees, Contractors, and the of course the customers.

The Board of Trustees would be considered stakeholders because they are seeking to make a change to the Transit Authority. The goal is to make changes that would create more revenue to help supplement the government funds awarded to the organization. The directors and managers of the Transit Authority are also stakeholders because they will be given the task of communicating the changes to the employees. The employees would then have to group together to educate the public on why the change was occurring, how it was going to change and when the changes would take effect. Contractors and business consultants are stakeholders in this case because of the involvement in the planning and implementation stages of the restructuring. Last but not least the most important stakeholders are the public. These are the people who use the services offered by the Metropolitan Transit Authority. They are directly affected because they use the services.

"Managers would then be advised to provide as much information as possible to employees about the change, information the employees of the reasons for