ACE Case Study: Organizational Change and SWOT Analysis

This case study examines Arts Council England (ACE), focusing on its organizational structure and the impact of changes implemented to address issues like silo working and duplication of efforts. The analysis begins with an overview of ACE's mission to promote art and culture, its organizational struc...Read More

Running head: ACE CASE STUDY
Business and Management for ACE Case Study
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s Note:

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ACE CASE STUDY
1. Explanation of the Structure and Purpose of ACE having led to silo working and
Problematic Beliefs produced amongst the Staff and Leaders
ACE or Arts Council England is working for getting proper art to every individual
through championing, investing and developing within certain artistic experiences, which
eventually enrich the subsequent lives of other people. The organization comprises of 9
regional and independent arts borders, with different governance structures and ways to do
things after merging with the government. As a result, few issues have been raised and there
had been certain difficulties with the accountability, duplication of their works as well as
local culture. These issues have eventually undermined the overall ability of the company for
working collaboratively as well as externally within subsequently partnership with the local
authorities and regional bodies and even internally with different employees across the entire
country.
During the year of 2008, ACE was being asked by the respective department of
culture, media and sport or DCMS for the core purpose of finding around 15% savings. It
referred to the fact that there would be a fundamental review of the overall structure or
culture of the company for involvement of the work that was being done at the time of
merger and creating a proper organization (Freeman 2015). There had been silo working in
the organization of ACE. It takes place when management or department groups do not share
any type of information, processes, priorities, tools and objectives with rest of the
departments. As a result, they have brought some of the most significant and important
changes within their organizational culture. They have hired new employees and staff in their
business for ensuring that the existing issues are resolved completely.
2. Description of the Stakeholders within the Organization and influence they have on
the Proposed Changes

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Stakeholders can be referred to as a group, organization or person, which comprises
of concern or interest within a business. These people can impact or could be impacted by the
overall organizational actions, policies and objectives. Few of the most significant and
important examples of the stakeholders within an organization include directors, employees,
creditors, suppliers, government as well as the community, from which the respective
business draws its major resources (Andriof and Waddock 2017). ACE has brought few
distinct and important changes within their business for ensuring that the workforce is
appropriate and will be providing maximum effectiveness and efficiency in the work
activities. The major stakeholders of this particular organization of Arts Council England
include the employees and staff as well as the senior management, who is responsible for
bringing all types of changes and change decisions within the organization.
The stakeholders are majorly impacted and affected by the change within their
organization. The main culture change activities are being focused on the organizational
structure and embedding the newer values as well as demonstrating leadership commitments
for the respective cultural changes. They would be highly benefitted from the change
program strategy, called Great Art for Everyone. The management has included new posts,
called relationship managers. Moreover, a brand new team is also created for including a
centralized and standardized centre to manage funding applications for the Arts Council. A
major emphasis was being placed over the new knowledge and competencies for allowing
partnership and collaborative working.
3. Creation of Table for SWOT Analysis on Arts Council England before the changes
were made
The SWOT analysis before the changes is as follows:
Strengths Weaknesses

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i) Provides great art option and chance to
the customers.
ii) Being the national development agency
for the arts, they eventually support several
artistic activities like literature, music,
dance, photography, crafts and theatre.
i) There had been some of the major
difficulties with accountability.
ii) A major duplication of work was also
present in their work.
iii) Moreover, ACE also faced issues related
to issues in local cultures.
Threats Opportunities
i) They can lose their position as the market
leader due to the weaknesses.
ii) Due to the lack of change in culture, the
major threat can be increase in cost and lack
of stakeholder support (Phadermrod,
Crowder and Wills 2019).
i) Arts Council England can have a new
vision for the business and reduce the
complexities successfully.
ii) Moreover, the organisational members of
stakeholders would support the activities
and actions of the business.
Table 1: SWOT Analysis before the changes
(Source: Created by the Author)
4. Creation of Table for SWOT Analysis on Arts Council England after the changes
were made
The SWOT analysis after the changes is as follows:
Strengths Weaknesses
i) There had been a major impact on the
stakeholders of Arts Council England, since
they have been getting maximum support
from them.
ii) A collaborative and partnership oriented
i) Due to the new culture, there had been a
resistance to change from the perspective of
employees.
ii) There had been a reduction in the total
work force by 150 posts and hence high

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working approach is being built in the
organization and they have been getting
maximum effectiveness.
iii) Communication has increased and there
had been a reduction in the cost incurring.
weaknesses are involved (Gürel and Tat
2017).
Threat Opportunities
i) Due to the reduction in the work force, the
overall functionality of the business is
disturbed.
i) They can gain a major support from the
new employees.
ii) A proper organizational culture will be
built.
Table 2: SWOT Analysis after the changes
(Source: Created by the Author)

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References
Andriof, J. and Waddock, S., 2017. Unfolding stakeholder engagement. In Unfolding
stakeholder thinking (pp. 19-42). Routledge.
Freeman, R.E., 2015. Stakeholder theory. Wiley Encyclopedia of Management, pp.1-6.
Gürel, E. and Tat, M., 2017. SWOT analysis: a theoretical review. Journal of International
Social Research, 10(51).
Phadermrod, B., Crowder, R.M. and Wills, G.B., 2019. Importance-performance analysis
based SWOT analysis. International Journal of Information Management, 44, pp.194-203.