Browsing by Subject "Change"
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(2017)Objectives. This research investigates the challenging changes, learning processes, and strategic adjustments made by consulting companies in Finland during the recent global economic crisis of 2009 onwards. In particular, this research aims to answer the following questions: a) What major changes have consulting companies encountered in the economic crisis? b) What strategic adjustments did the companies make in response to these changes? Were novel strategies developed in response to the changes? c) how can the changes and strategies be interpreted from an Activity Theory perspective? d) did the companies exhibit Expansive Learning in the development of novel strategies and in what forms? Methods. This work analyzed five management consulting companies of different sizes and business scope with representation in Finland. The data for the reported analysed consisted of interviews with managers from these firms. The analysis of the data proceeded in three steps: First, themes relating to changes and strategies were extracted from the transcribed interviews using Thematic Analysis; second, the themes identified were interpreted using the framework of Activity Theory in order to identify changes encountered and strategic responses developed by the companies; third, the themes were interpreted within the Expansive Learning framework, identifying individual Expansive Learning cycles and the overall structure of the learning processes. The empirical analysis was complemented by a discussion of the origins and characteristics of management consulting and consulting companies. Results and conclusions. Several of the consulting companies displayed features of Expansive Learning in understanding and responding to the changing economic situation. Deviating from the historically established consulting culture, these companies implemented systematic and proactive selling and marketing of their services. In addition, several companies changed the structure of their products and services. However, when reflecting on the situation of their companies, most managers primarily emphasized cost pressures and a need for improved efficiency. Efficiency improvements not accompanied by structural changes were not generally considered representative of expansive learning. It is found that the interviewed companies fail to engage in expansive learning process and are unwilling to make feasible changes until pressured by the economic crisis. Indeed, a greater sense of threat appears to have made companies more likely to embrace expansive learning.
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(2009)Nowadays it is impossible to deny the importance of organizational communication and business strategy. During recent years it has been understood, that these two areas are strongly linked together it is impossible to fulfill a strategy without communication. Also research in these fields has developed into the same direction. It has been widely acknowledged, that strategy implementation and organizational communication are an important part of all employees work particularly in expert organizations. However, there is only little research of strategy communication from employee perspective. This master's thesis explores employee views on strategy and strategy communication in an expert organization. The research area is approached through two research questions. The first explores employee views on strategy communication meetings, special events that were held in spring 2009. The second research question surveys the strategy knowledge and understanding of the employees as well as their attitude to the strategy. Also willingness to work according the company values is studied. The study is done using a survey method: a questionnaire is tailored to the needs of the organization. Both structured statements and open questions are included in the survey. The gathered data is analyzed using statistical and qualitative methods. The target organization is an expert company operating in five countries. The survey was sent to company's Swedish employees in June 2009. As a result a data with 313 responses(44.4 % of employees in the country) was gathered. As the result of this study the strategy communication meetings can be regarded as successful events. Thanks to this, also strategy knowledge and understanding of personnel showed quite good levels. A positive attitude towards the strategy and the values was also noticed. In the analysis besides the overall views, also views of different respondent groups were compared. In statistical tests it was noticed that managers and persons involved in the strategy process knew and understood the strategy better than average. Ages and working units also had some influences to the views. The results of the study reinforce the strong link between strategy and communication in the target organization special communication meetings have been a way to create strategy knowledge, understanding and positive attitudes towards the strategy. Also the strong role of top and middle management is emphasized in the study. Common strategy communication problems were found as well. Employees were proved to be interested in the strategy and willing to work according the company values in their work. Communication will be essential also in the implementation phase a central requisite for success is to understand communication as a way to implement strategy.
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