Organizational Structures and Processes to Enable Cultivating Change

ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURES AND PROCESSES TO ENABLE CULTIVATING CHANGE ABSTRACT: The construction industry stands at a crossroads: it resides in a period of intense introspection as it seeks to improve its performance and productivity. A successful organization needs a supporting structure that must be adaptive if it is going to thwart the existential threat of the growing, competitive market. Change within the construction sector has been a central concern for construction practitioners and academician. The discourse of change emanating from organizations concerned with reform within the construction industry reflects the concern for change. Organizational change is the process by which organizations move from their present state to some desired future state to increase their effectiveness. The goal of organizational change is to find new or improved ways of using resources and capabilities to increase an organization’s ability to create value, and hence its performance. Firms may acquire other organizations to access knowledge not yet held. Other firms may choose to enter into an alliance to access new marker or seek new opportunities beyond their immediate competitive landscape through network forms of organizations. Researchers have stated that drivers of organizational change come from the external and internal environment. External forces include globalization, competition pressures, technical advancements, market changes. Some of the identified internal driving forces of organizational change include the need for reorganization and higher productivity, the conflict between organizational components, and the changing nature and composition of the workforce. To be competitive and cope with the evolution of markets, organizations need to adapt their structures and processes in a flexible way. The dynamic process of adjusting to change and uncertainty is a complex, multi-dimensional challenge encompassing myriad decisions. Understanding and catering to the needs of a new environment with increasing uncertainties and continuous change is a fundamental business challenge. The design of an organization that has a significant impact on its performance. Therefore, building an organization that can unearth and act on these changes requires strategic and organizational agility to stay ahead. Herbert Simon stated that an organization is an artifact that must be created in concept before it is created in reality. To understand this process, fundamental questions need to be addressed: How can we create information or knowledge about something that does not yet exist? To what extent and why do organizations within the same industry differ in their strategy and structure? What factors influence organizational change? How can an organization’s type be diagnosed and changed? How do organizations manage to transform themselves and maintain reliability? Drawing on scientifically based knowledge, this research aims to: 1. Synthesize the literature on organizational theory, design, change, and culture; organizational design framework; change drivers and inhibitors; and social networks in the context of organizational change. 2. Provide an overview of the changing landscape of the construction industry (From Pyramids to the Stars – The evolution of the capital projects industry). 3. Examine the influence of social networks on organizational change in the capital project industry. 4. Explore success and failure cases in organizational change across industries. 5. Propose a framework to investigate the principles and capabilities supporting organizational change. 6. Provide guidance for future research.