Managing the Impact of Change in the Example of Microsoft Company and Google Inc. Corporation

In the current globalized economic and marketplace environment, change is inevitable. As a result, companies have designed different ways to deal with the changes, both from within the company and outside the organization as well. For this section, two organizations that will be analyzed include Microsoft Company and Google Inc. Corporation. Each of these companies has responded to the organizational change in different ways. The aim of this report is to show how companies manage the impact of change.

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P1: Comparison of Organizational Examples

Over the years, Google has been striving to operate on the critical and core principles that can be traced back to its founders. Globalization and competition have significantly influenced the organizational change in Google. For example, operating in a world crowded with numerous search engines, Google has strived to remain competitive through innovation and putting its customers as well as employees first in their priorities to improve its competitive advantage and reduce competition effects. On his interview with the "Business Insider" magazine, the CEO of Google, Lary Page outlined the company's goals in its transformation and overhaul of the firm's business structure in 2014. Yarow (2015) explains that the CEO laid out the priorities of the new structure known as "Alphabet." Based on Lewin's change model, Lary Page's approach to organizational change revolves around people. Calder (2013) explains Lewin's change model citing that this model assumes that any change in the organization, whether structural, systematic, or behavioral, people are always the root of change. In the case of Google, employees, customers, and shareholders; all are people. According to the COE, this new business structure under the parent company, Alphabet, would help Google gets more ambitions things done, take the long-term view, empower great entrepreneurs, invest at the sale of the opportunities and resources the company sees, improve the company's transparency and oversight of its operations, and make the company better through greater focus (Yarow, 2015). This change occurred as the new leadership in the management took over the office. Yarow (2015) explains the change citing that during the launch of the new business structure, the former CEO, Lary Page announced the entry of a new COE, Sundar Pichai.

Based on the Lary's statement as he handed over the company to the new CEO, the company has taken the change well and the transition was smooth. In his statement, Lary praised his Pichai saying that he feels confident that the decision by the board to let Pichai takeover is a wise choice because he is talented and capable of running the company to achieve its aspirations (Yarow, 2015). Google is focused on improving its internal and external management strategies to improve its relationship with the employees and customers. As the CEO, Page explained in his interview, Google's focus is aimed at addressing the organizational change internally, specifically, communication within the company (Yarow, 2015).

In Microsoft Corporation, on the other hand, the entry of Satya Nadella, the third leader of the big corporation in over 40 years of operation, highlighted his ambitions to change the company. Since he took office, Nadella has doubled down the company's cloud computing, artificial intelligence, and social networking (Quarterly, 2018). With the rise of globalization and increased competition, organizational change management in Microsoft aimed at improving its relations with the public, customers, shareholders, and employees. According to Etherington (2014), in a letter that Satya Nadella released to employees through the company website, he highlighted how the organization is focused and geared towards renewing its focus on productivity and public relations. Like Google, the organizational change in Microsoft Corporation aims at reorganizing and streamlining the company. According to Etherington (2014), Nadella, the CEO, claimed that Microsoft Corporation still requires more changes. Based on Kotter's eight steps for leading organizational change model, Calder (2013) explains that in this type of change, the management needs to lead the change in the organization. Etherington (2014) explains that the new CEO evokes the image of a learner in the company as he advocates for innovation like the founder, Bill Gates. In his interview with the McKinsey, Nadella highlighted the two areas that he wants to focus on in achieving the organizational change; the two areas include organizational culture and innovation (Quarterly, 2017). As Quarterly (2018) reports, Nadella believes that one of the things that determine a successful company is innovation. In his opinion, Nadella reported that he believes that in companies that have been successful, one thing that is clear and obvious is the original idea or the concept that became a hit as well as the ability of the leader to build around the new idea. He also mentions that growing organizational culture also contributes significantly to the success of the organization.

P2: Evaluating Impacts of Internal and External Drivers for Change

As mentioned earlier, organization change is inevitable as the marketplace and business environment continue to change. In both organizations, internal and external factors or drivers of change influence the leadership behavior as well as the behavior of the employees. In both organizations, competition, globalization, and change in management are identified as some of the drivers for change. All these factors affect the organizations differently.

In Google, change has resulted in significant changes in terms of organizational management. Out of the changes, employee relationship has improved. For instance, the company has created a unique working environment that not only attracts new employees but also motivates to retain those who already working in the company. Google has successfully attained various awards as the best organization to work in. From the CEO's statement, Google's new organizational structure is working towards improving the company's transparency and oversight of the projects it is working on (Yarow, 2015). In one of the priorities of the new structure under Alphabet, Lary Page said that the company is working to improve the lives of many people as they can (Yarow, 2015). This includes the lives of customers, employees and the public as a whole.

In Microsoft, the changes have resulted in improved performance and innovation in the company. According to Quarterly (2018), since the entry of Nadella as the CEO, Microsoft Corporation has doubled down on cloud computing. Further, he states that the organizational change has pushed for more innovative, collaborative and customer-focused growth. Also, the entry of Nadella in Microsoft Corporation resulted in improved organizational culture. Nadella claimed that one of his aspects of change is culture. He aimed at inculcating a culture of innovation among employees to help the company achieve its aspirations. Nadella's new culture is to improve productivity by empowering both employees and customers to do more and achieve more (Etherington, 2014).

Therefore, from the two organizations, change has resulted in improvement, but it is not possible to ignore the negative impacts of change. For example, organization change is never accepted positively for the first time, especially by the employees who are affected immediately and directly. But, in both cases, the two companies can minimize the negative impacts associated with the organizational changes through employee involvement. Google seems to be on track with employee engagement strategies. Microsoft Corporation also needs to focus on both external and internal factors of change. From the analysis above, the two companies seem to be focused on external drivers of change like globalization and competition in the market. They somehow forget that employees are critical in achieving the company's aspirations. Based on Lewin's change model, people are the root of organizational change (Calder, 2013). People can include employees, customers or shareholders. Therefore, employee engagement can help in encouraging and motivating them to work towards the achievement of the objectives and not the changes in the management.

References

Calder, A. M. (2013). Organizational Change: Models for Successfully Implementing Change. Utah State University. Retrieved from https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1142&context=honors

Etherington, D. (2014). Microsoft CEO Gears the Company for change, and a Renewed Focus on Productivity and Platforms. Techrunch. Retrieved from https://techcrunch.com/2014/07/10/microsoft-ceo-gears-the-company-for-change-and-a-renewed-focus-on-productivity-and-platforms/

Quarterly, M. (2018, April). Microsoft's next Act. McKinsey & Company. Retrieved from https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/high-tech/our-insights/microsofts-next-act

Yarow, J. (2015, August 10). Google just announced a Massive Overhaul of its Business Structure. Business Insider. Retrieved from https://www.businessinsider.com/google-new-operating-structure-2015-8?IR=T