Organizational Change Essay: Environmental Uncertainty and Change

This essay, written by Yip Chui Ha, examines the multifaceted concept of organizational change within the context of environmental uncertainty. It begins by defining environmental uncertainty and its impact on businesses, emphasizing the need for effective change management strategies. The essay then delves into the theoretical underpinnings of organizational change, referencing key scholars and models. It explores various factors influencing organizational change, including economic, political, social, and technological influences, and utilizes the PESTLE analysis to assess the macro-environment. Furthermore, the essay discusses strategies for managing organizational change, such as leveraging technological advancements, diversifying supply chains, and implementing the ADKAR model. It highlights the importance of adapting to market fluctuations and avoiding aggressive growth strategies when facing uncertainty. Ultimately, the essay underscores the significance of proactive change management for business development and success.

Running Head: ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE
ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE
ESSAY
YIP CHUI HA
LSM STUDENT ID: 206059
BA (HONS) BUSINESS AND MANAGEMENT (TOP-UP)
THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTHAMPTON
13 Mar 2018

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Introduction
The environmental uncertainty is defined as a degree in which lack of competent data of the
company is influenced by the external and internal atmosphere. The environmental
uncertainty is occurred by constant modification in a business environment. The management
is unable to control uncertainty from the environment. This section explores the value of
increasing uncertainty in the business with the effective organizational plan for change
management. This report also discusses the conceptual theory of organizational change.
Organizational change
Cummings and Worley (2014) organizational change is the situation of an organization that
occurred from one state of affairs to another. The organizational change is defined as an
evaluation process by which organization implements the innovation in the working place.
Besides this, environmental uncertainty is a degree in which the factual data or competent
information of firm is influenced by the internal and external operating atmosphere. It is also
stated that there are many external factors that influence the whole process of business such
as product availability, customer demand, competition, political influence, and resource
availability. For illustration, construction organizations make a contract with EPA
(Environmental Protection Agency) at the time of building new sites. Furthermore, the
organizational change policy is depended on their sector. Each sector is used different policy
to deal with environmental uncertainty and get a favorable outcome.
Factors affect organizational change
According to Grant (2016), Business to customers (B2C) organization is used online data
security policy as compared to other policy for securing their data and get a positive benefit.
It would make enable the company to effectively deal with changes in the working policy.

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According to Booth (2015), environmental uncertainty is defined as an extent where the
organization has lack of factual data regarding operating the external and internal business
environment. There are certain external factors like economy, government rules, and
regulation, social, and political factors as it could influence the performance of the business.
For illustration, the economy of the country could change then they direct impact on the
demand for company’s product. As a result, it could decline the existing financial
performance of the organization. In addition, it is also found that lack of utilization latest
technology in the working place could modify the landscape of business. In the current
scenario, the organization has needed to select skilled employee as it could be supportive to
retain the position of the firm in the marketplace. A company could control their cost and
diversify risk for improving the growth of the business.
On the other hand, Smither et al. (2016) argued that an organization has moderate power to
control on the environmental uncertainty. Hence, organizations should need to develop
policies or strategies for effectively dealing with uncertain changes and obtain a reliable
outcome. These situations require a modification of the current business strategies for getting
success. A firm could concentrate on making effective strategies with respect to the
environmental uncertainty. A depth assessment of macro-environment is known as PESTLE
analysis. It is effective for managers and strategic makers as it defines the existing and future
position of the market. The following table demonstrates the PESTEL analysis:
Political factor
It assesses the degree to which a
government may affect the economy
and industry.
For instance, a government can
charge a new tax or duty due to which
whole revenue creating the structure
of organization might be changed.
Political factor entails fiscal policy,
tax policies, and trade traffic that a
government may charge in a fiscal
Economic factor
It is elements of economy’s
performance, which directly affects
an organization and creates the
hollow long-term effect.
For instance, increasing inflation rate
of Hong-Kong would influence the
strategies that company makes
regarding their price of products and
services.
In such condition, economic factor
entails the interest rates, inflation

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year (Ho, 2014). rates, and economic growth pattern
and foreign exchange rates.
It also influences the foreign direct
investment of the business (Lai and
Chin, 2014).
Social factor
It assesses the social environment of
the market and measures elements
such as demographic, cultural trends,
and population analytics.
For example, changing buying trends
for Hong-Kong in which there is high
demand during the vacation period
(Ho, 2014).
Technological factor
It determines to innovation in
technology that may influence the
operation of the business and also
shows the unfavorable and favorable
condition of the market.
It also contains different elements like
research and development,
automation and the amount of
technological awareness that is posed
by market (Agbim, Oriarewo, and
Zever, 2014).
Legal factor
The legal assessment takes into
consideration both of these sides and
then frames policies by focusing on
this legislation.
For instance, safety standard, labor
laws, and consumer laws affect the
business.
For instance, if a government would
regulate the policies for the industries,
then that law would affect all the
business and industries
(Pilanawithana, and Sandanayake,
2017).
Environmental factor
This concept of PESTLE is vital for
some industries in Hong-Kong like
farming, agriculture, and tourism.
This factor is also entailing in an
environment of business in terms of
weather, environmental offset,
international modification in climate,
and geographical location (Agbim,
Oriarewo, and Zever, 2014).
In support of this, Burke (2017) stated that an organization produces a high range of products
and services as it could create a higher probability of environmental uncertainty. An
organization should be competent to make changes in those products that are easily
influenced by the business. Further, organization could hire an adequate size of individuals
for managing with environmental uncertainty and obtain a reliable result. The emergent
changes could influence the culture of the firm. It also enables an organization to create new

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understanding about the corporation and make an effective team (Botha et al., 2014). As a
result, it would be supportive for the team members to work together at the same place.
Strategies for managing organizational change
It could be stated that PESTLE analysis of business demonstrates that there are vital
opportunities for business development. The corporation can take advantages by making
technological strategies to improve the efficiency and increase the productivity. The company
should also offer superior quality of products and services to identify sociocultural and
political external factors. This analysis signifies that the corporation should deal with a
number of significant threats. The company should also measure the economic external
factors by investing the capital into high-growth economies like Hong-Kong. PESTLE
analysis depicts that the corporation has different opportunities and threats with respect to
international expansion and growth. The company should also use different strategies like
enlargement in developing economies, business sustainability, innovation in the product to
identify concern of product and diversification of supply chain (Ho, 2014).
In opposition to this, Dibrell et al. (2014) illustrated that internal factors include uncertainty,
the power of diverse interest group, and knowledge distribution. In addition, it can also be
said that most carefully planned and executed cultural change could have emergent impacts
on business. Hence, an organization should focus on two different aspects of managing the
changes in the organization. The first aspect is that company should need to determine, and
explore the managerial decision for managing challenges of an organization. Another aspect
is that company should gain their understanding towards the whole process of changes for
improving existing situation of the firm and deal with factors that could observe by
perception and insight analysis.
Kerzner Kerzner (2017) addressed the complexity theory, which defines that how firm
regulates to their environment and how they survive in the situation of uncertainty. Moreover,

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there are certain elements that could be supportive for determining environmental uncertainty
like regulatory, statutory, economic, and political conditions. This situation has the capability
to decline ability of organization for choosing their existing strategy. Another method is
competitive uncertainty as it could influence the growth of an organization. It is the inability
to determine the strength of competition in the industry for long-term.
On the other side, Booth (2015) examined that an organization could determine activities and
strategies of competitors as it could help to make a unique strategy for their firm and retain
their image in the marketplace. Market uncertainty could be major factors that influence the
business environment and decline existing situation of an organization. Lack of clarity in a
dynamic market could create environment uncertainty. It will directly impact on the demand,
supply, and organizational operation of the industry. Beside this, technical uncertainty could
influence the environment and growth of the business. Uncertainty could affect to make
modification in the capabilities of business and technological resources of particular industry.
Techniques uncertainty has the potential challenge for the organization because it is based on
competitive level.
In the view of Stark (2015), economic situation is influenced by the recession and
competitive landscape that could directly impact on the consumer behavior. It will directly
impact on the business environment. This whole procedure is dependent on technical
progress (Cummings and Worley, 2014). These kinds of issues could create continuous risk
for an organization hence organization should make a strategy for handling the business
uncertainty. In addition, it is also addressed that a manufacturer that produces single product
could face certain issues as compared to those organizations that produce a huge amount of
product and services. Since, a firm that produces a large number of product and services
could deal with many external and internal factors. But, it could be complicated for the firm
to obtain a favorable result (Lipper et al. (2014)

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As per the view of Botha et al. (2014) organization could use the ADKAR model to deal with
change management. Through this, the organization is considered five different factors like
awareness, desire, knowledge, ability, and reinforcement. In the first step of this model, an
organization should must aware to the employees towards the changes for effectively deal
with change management. If organization effectively communicates with employee towards
causes of organizational change then they could give their positive response at the time of
change. It will also support to accomplish the specified goal of the company. In the second
phase, employees desire to engage and contribute in the change. Desire could be related to
the resistance management. In the third step of ADKAR model, the organization should gain
the knowledge of employees regarding change by considering the training and development
method. Consequently, the organization will be capable to obtain higher profit in the limited
time frame. Ability is the fourth phase of ADKAR model where the organization could
implement changes in the required performance level. It could be supportive to effectively
manage the changes and obtain a favorable result. In the last step of this model, the
organization could provide the reward to their employees with respect to positive
performance at the working place during the change. In addition, it can be said that
organization should imply the ADKAR model at the working place at the time of changes in
the organization policy and get positive outcome (Dibrell, et al., 2014).
In the view of Charter (2017) Organization could avoid aggressive strategies for making the
positive atmosphere in the working place and obtain a favorable result. Instead of quickly
growing in the business, a firm could decline the new hires. The company should not open
any new branches due to the shortage of money and effectively deal with the financial
shortfall. An organization would avoid aggressive growth approaches when they are not
confident about the accuracy of environmental forecasts. It is identified that there is no single
best strategy for managing the environmental uncertainty. Moreover, fluctuation in the

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market could decline the opportunity for an organization that would negatively impact on the
business growth (Grant, 2016).
Conclusion
From the above discussion, it can be concluded that the business atmosphere is becoming
complex. It is also evaluated that organizational leaders deal with challenges to improve the
performance of the company. It is also analyzed that business leader could avoid the failure
by focusing on both long-term and short-term concerns. It could also be summarized that
leader who has accurate mindset would be capable to track multiple factors and manage
uncertainty at the global level.

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