November 20 2006 - More than 80% of executives say that the pace of change is speeding up in organizations all over the world. And seven out of 10 say that their organizations experienced disruptive change during the last year. That's according to a new global survey released today commissioned by American Management Association (AMA) and conducted by the Human Resource Institute (HRI).
The AMA/HRI survey "Agility and Resilience in the Face of Continuous Change" included responses from 1,472 managers and HR experts from around the world. The survey was conducted in conjunction with AMA's affiliates and global partners, including Canadian Management Centre in Toronto, Management Centre Europe in Brussels, AMA Latin America in Mexico City and AMA Asia in Japan.
"While we talk about the need for organizations to be agile and resilient, it is easier said than done. The management of organizational change is a challenge, one that we must study continually if we are to identify the skill sets we need to cope with it at today's ever-accelerating pace," says Edward T. Reilly, President and CEO of AMA.
"The actions of corporate leaders and managers can raise or lower the level of corporate agility and resilience. Functional silos, excessive decision-making steps, norms of conformity, restricted flow of information, cumbersome infrastructures and deafness to any ideas but our own...these are some of the ways that an organization's management team creates a sluggish company unable to work with change," Reilly said. "While strategic agility and resilience are very much a function of an organization as a whole, they are also the sum of its processes, policies, systems, technologies, structures, and culture and of those who create them."
Not only is the pace of change increasing, change itself is undergoing a transformation and becoming increasingly disruptive. The study found that seven out of 10 of survey respondents said that their organizations had experienced disruptive change (defined as severe surprises or unanticipated shocks) over the previous 12 months.
When asked to compare disruptiveness in their organizations today with disruptiveness over the previous five years, about 37% said that their organizations had experienced more shocks and surprises, compared with only 19% who said there were fewer and less-frequent shocks and surprises.
According to Reilly, dealing with substantive change is not likely to get any easier. In fact, some companies like disruption, and they're often the ones setting the pace in their industries. After all, what's "disruptive" for one organization might seem perfectly manageable for another.
The extent to which a change is viewed as disruptive depends on how agile and resilient the organization is. It's no surprise that the AMA/HRI survey found that higher performers tend to be both more agile and more resilient than lower performers. Additionally, compared with their lower-performing counterparts, higher performers view themselves as having superior change abilities at the individual, team and organizational levels.
The AMA/HRI survey also examined what's driving organizational change. It found that the most important factors are related to the expectations of customers and vendors, new products and services, and technological and process changes. This suggests that in fast-paced markets, there is no resting on laurels. There's always a new customer demand, a new competitive product, another business-changing technology.
The complete study is available on American Management Association's Website at
www.amanet.org/research.
About AMA
American Management Association is a world leader in professional development and performance-based learning solutions. AMA provides individuals and organizations worldwide with the knowledge, skills and tools to achieve performance excellence, adapt to changing realities and prosper in a complex and competitive world. Each year, thousands of customers learn new skills and behaviors, gain more confidence, advance their careers and contribute to the success of their organizations. AMA offers a range of unique seminars, workshops, conferences, customized corporate programs, online learning, newsletters, journals and AMA books. Visit online at
www.amanet.org.
About HRI
For over 30 years, the Human Resource Institute (HRI) has remained dedicated to providing world-class research in the area of people management issues, trends and practices. Founded in 1969 at the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research by Dr. William Pyle in collaboration with Dr. Rensis Likert and Dr. George Odiorne, HRI is currently affiliated with the University of Tampa and is widely recognized as one of the top five institutes of its kind in the United States. HRI provides its members with accurate and timely research that helps facilitate a better understanding of all the people management issues that member organizations face today as well as the trends that are shaping the future. Currently, HRI is following approximately 150 demographic, social, economic, technological, political, legal and management trends, and there are over
100 major corporations supporting this research with annual grants.
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