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Techniques for Overcoming Resistance to Change and Selection of Appropriate

Technique

 Widespread Education and Improving Communication

 Facilitating Participation and involvement
 Support and Facilitation
 Agreement & Negotiation
 Co-optation & Manipulation
 Coercion-Both Explicit and Implicit

1. Education and Effective Communication: This is one of the commonest techniques for

minimizing resistance to change by educating people and promoting awareness through
effective communication regarding the benefits of a planned change. By explaining the
need for change and the objectives of change, the management can gain the much-needed
support from the team members and facilitate its smoother implementation.

With the help of two-way communication, the employee’s queries and oppositions related
to various aspects of change can be quickly addressed and thereby, minimize the
objections or hassles which may come across in the path of implementation of change.

Given below are the important principles which are related to the communication of
change and require a lot of attention while implementation a planned change:

 A large-scale planned change can be effective and yield successful outcomes only
if it involves two-way communication efforts. Only top down communication or
one-way communication will fail to attract the desired commitment from the staff
members.
 The staff members do have a preference for being communicated about the
change on face to face basis from their immediate supervisors.
 According to Beckhard & Pritchard 1992; Robbins et al. 1998; Ivancevich &
Matteson 1996, employees prefer a consultation and involvement in the change.

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 Few important things which should be essentially followed while implementing an
organization-wide change are:

 Avoid sending emails or memo for informing the employees regarding a change
initiative and expect that the employees will be able to understand and accept it
readily.
 Invite the suggestions and feedback from the staff members, involve them in the
process and encourage their participation for effective results.
 Communicate with people regularly by engaging in face to face interactions with
them both individually and in groups and provide them opportunities for
discussion.
2. Facilitating Participation and Involvement: This technique gives a lot of importance to
involving the resistors in the change process by setting up a collaborative environment
and implementing the change in consultation with the staff. It is a constructive strategy
and can be beneficial in minimizing the resistance to change by involving the employees
and seeking their participation in the entire process.
3. Support and Facilitation: Employees fear or resist change due to a number of reasons as
a result of which they pose a resistance or oppose any kind of transformation in the
existing ways of work or methods. The employees look for complete emotional support
and facilitation for being able to cope up with the challenges resulting from the change
and should be allowed to express their fear, resentment or anger in connection with the
change and the challenges of change.
4. Agreement & Negotiation: This technique involves negotiating or bargaining with the
resistors on various aspects related to the change and making tradeoffs so that the
concerns of the resistors and the management are both being given due consideration and
importance.
5. Co-optation & Manipulation: This technique involves getting the support, persuading
or influencing the employees in favor of the change. Manipulation involves covert
attempts from the managers by withholding painful information, twisting or distortion of
the information for making it more appealing for the staff members or spreading false

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 rumors across the organization in order to compel the employees to accept the change
manipulatively.

Alternately, the managers can depend on staff polling strategy and make an attempt
towards persuading the resistors to join the rest of the group. The management may even
co-opt an individual and assign certain important responsibilities in connection with the
implementation of change.

6. Coercion: Implicit and Explicit: Coercion involves exercising force or threat for making
the change accepted and followed by the employees. This strategy emphasizes more on
the use of fear by way of direct or indirect threats and involves harassment, bullying or
compels the employees to act in accordance with the expected ways or else resign. This
strategy is illegal, ineffective and in the long-run, will result in mass resentment,
dissatisfaction, high rate of absenteeism, low productivity and ultimately high employee
turnover.

Selecting the Right Technique and the Relative Benefits of Each Technique

 Education and Effective Communication: This technique is useful when there is an

absence of availability of ample information with the employees, or they have inaccurate
or partial information on various aspects of change. Once the employees are convinced
about the change, then they will help in the successful implementation of change as
change partners.
 Facilitating Participation and Involvement: This technique can be useful when the
initiators lack substantial information for designing and implementing the change, or the
employees have tremendous power to resist the change. The involvement of the
employees can increase their commitment level and motivation for supporting the change
initiatives, reduce resistance and improve the quality of the decision in connection with
the change.
 Support and Facilitation: This technique is useful when there is resistance towards
change from the people due to certain adjustment or adaptability issues. This is the best
technique as it involves employee facilitation, training & various supportive efforts for

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 reducing the resistance. However, this technique is very time consuming, expensive and
does not necessarily assure a successful outcome.
 Agreement & Negotiation: This technique is effective when it involves exchanging
something valuable for reducing the resistance towards the change. This is one of the
most convenient techniques for avoiding any kind of major resistance.
 Co-optation & Manipulation: This technique can be adopted only when the other
techniques fail to provide the desired results or are too expensive. This technique can be
relatively inexpensive and quick in terms of results.
 Coercion (Explicit & Implicit): This technique should be avoided till the end and can be
used only as the last possible resort.

2. Explain the BCD matrix with suitable examples

BCG matrix (also referred to as Growth-Share Matrix) is a portfolio planning model which is
based on the observation that a company’s business units can be classified into four categories:
 Cash Cows
 Stars
 Question Marks
 Dogs
It is based on the combination of market growth and market share relative to the next best
competitor.

Stars
High Growth, High Market Share

Star units are leaders in the category. Products located in this quadrant are attractive as they are
located in a robust category and these products are highly competitive in the category.

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Question Marks
High Growth, Low Market Share

Like the name suggests, the future potential of these products is doubtful. Since the growth rate
is high here, with the right strategies and investments, they can become Cash cows and
ultimately Stars. But they have low market share so wrong investments can downgrade them to
Dogs even after lots of investment.

Cash Cows
Low Growth, High Market Share

These products or services generate interesting profits and cash but need to be replaced because
the future growth will be lower. If they are profitable, they can finance other activities in
progress (including stars and question marks).

Dogs
Low Growth, Low Market Share

Dogs hold low market share compared to competitors. Neither do they generate cash nor do they
require huge cash. In general, they are not worth investing in because they generate low or
negative cash returns and may require large sums of money to support. Due to low market share,
these products face cost disadvantages.

A perfect example to demonstrate BCG matrix could be the BCG matrix of Pepsico. The
company has perfected its product mix over the years according to what’s working and what’s
not.
Here are the four quadrants of Pepsico’s growth-share matrix:

 Cash Cows – With a market share of 58.8% in the US, Frito Lay is the biggest cash cow
for Pepsico.
 Stars – Even though Pepsi’s share in the market has been reduced to 8.4%, it’s still the
star for Pepsico because of its brand equity. Other stars are Aquafina (biggest selling
mineral water brand in the USA), Tropicana, Gatorade, and Mountain Dew.

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  Question Marks – Since it’s a mystery whether the diet food and soda industry will
boom in the future and will Pepsico’s products will find their place or not, Diet Pepsi, Pepsi
Max, Quaker, etc. fall in the question marks section of the Pepsico’s BCG matrix.
 Dogs – As of now, there isn’t any product line that falls in the dogs section of the
Pepsico’s BCG matrix. However, seasonal and experimental products like Pepsi Real Sugar,
Mtn Merry Mash-up can be inserted in this section.

3. Explain the various types of strategies that could be followed by business

A strategy where the firm prices its products at the lowest possible cost, in order to penetrate
and/or sustain its position of leadership is Cost Leadership Strategy. The appeal of the product is
for cost-conscious people. In other words, the price-sensitive class of customers is
the target segment of the firm and all the business activities are planned accordingly, right from
procurement of raw materials to distribution and marketing. It is one of the types of Business
strategies used by top firms such as Walmart and Amazon, who sell products on the promise of
low costs.

Strategy used by Apple, a company that promises differentiated products to its customers. Then
the product is differentiated with its unique feature or unique selling point (USP) in order to
compete and win effectively, that is known as the differentiation strategy. Differentiate your
product or service, whatever it may cost and offer to customers on a higher price (usually niche
market). It is a Type of Business Strategy used by Apple, a company that promises differentiated
products to its customers.

4. Explain the Michael porter generic strategies

Generic Strategies

These three approaches are examples of "generic strategies," because they can be applied to
products or services in all industries, and to organizations of all sizes. They were first set out by

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Michael Porter in 1985 in his book, "Competitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining
Superior Performance."
Porter called the generic strategies "Cost Leadership" (no frills), "Differentiation" (creating
uniquely desirable products and services) and "Focus" (offering a specialized service in a niche
market). He then subdivided the Focus strategy into two parts: "Cost Focus" and "Differentiation
Focus." These are shown in figure 1 below.

The Cost Leadership Strategy

Porter's generic strategies are ways of gaining competitive advantage – in other words,
developing the "edge" that gets you the sale and takes it away from your competitors. There are
two main ways of achieving this within a Cost Leadership strategy:

 Increasing profits by reducing costs, while charging industry-average prices.

 Increasing market share by charging lower prices, while still making a reasonable profit
on each sale because you've reduced costs.

 Access to the capital needed to invest in technology that will bring costs down.

 Very efficient logistics.

 A low-cost base (labor, materials, facilities), and a way of sustainably cutting costs below
those of other competitors.

The greatest risk in pursuing a Cost Leadership strategy is that these sources of cost reduction are
not unique to you, and that other competitors copy your cost reduction strategies. This is why it's
important to continuously find ways of reducing every cost. One successful way of doing this is
by adopting the Japanese Kaizen  philosophy of "continuous improvement."

The Differentiation Strategy

Differentiation involves making your products or services different from and more attractive than
those of your competitors. How you do this depends on the exact nature of your industry and of

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the products and services themselves, but will typically involve features, functionality,
durability, support, and also brand image that your customers value.

To make a success of a Differentiation strategy, organizations need:

 Good research, development and innovation.

 The ability to deliver high-quality products or services.

 Effective sales and marketing, so that the market understands the benefits offered by the
differentiated offerings.

Large organizations pursuing a differentiation strategy need to stay agile with their new product
development processes. Otherwise, they risk attack on several fronts by competitors pursuing
Focus Differentiation strategies in different market segments.

The Focus Strategy

Companies that use Focus strategies concentrate on particular niche markets and, by
understanding the dynamics of that market and the unique needs of customers within it, develop
uniquely low-cost or well-specified products for the market. Because they serve customers in
their market uniquely well, they tend to build strong brand loyalty amongst their customers. This
makes their particular market segment less attractive to competitors.

As with broad market strategies, it is still essential to decide whether you will pursue Cost
Leadership or Differentiation once you have selected a Focus strategy as your main approach:
Focus is not normally enough on its own.

But whether you use Cost Focus or Differentiation Focus, the key to making a success of a
generic Focus strategy is to ensure that you are adding something extra as a result of serving only
that market niche. It's simply not enough to focus on only one market segment because your
organization is too small to serve a broader market (if you do, you risk competing against better-
resourced broad market companies' offerings).

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The "something extra" that you add can contribute to reducing costs (perhaps through your
knowledge of specialist suppliers) or to increasing differentiation (though your deep
understanding of customers' needs).

Choosing the Right Generic Strategy

Your choice of which generic strategy to pursue underpins every other strategic decision you
make, so it's worth spending time to get it right.

But you do need to make a decision: Porter specifically warns against trying to "hedge your bets"
by following more than one strategy. One of the most important reasons why this is wise advice
is that the things you need to do to make each type of strategy work appeal to different types of
people. Cost Leadership requires a very detailed internal focus on processes. Differentiation, on
the other hand, demands an outward-facing, highly creative approach.
So, when you come to choose which of the three generic strategies is for you, it's vital that you
take your organization's competencies and strengths into account.

5. Discuss the concept of internal environment analysis in the strategic

management

The analysis include appraising threat level or opportunity the factors might present. ...

The analysis helps align strategies with the firm's environment. Internal analysis is the
process of identifying and assessing an organization's particular features that include Resources,
Capabilities, and Core competencies

An internal analysis is an exploration of your organization's competency, cost position and

competitive viability in the marketplace. Conducting an internal analysis often incorporates
measures that provide useful information about your organization's strengths, weakness,
opportunities and threats – a SWOT analysis.

6. Strategy evaluation include three basic activities . mention them

The key strategy evaluation activities are:

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 (1) examining the underlying bases of a firm's strategies,
(2) comparing actual results with expected results, and
(3) taking remedial/corrective actions. Evaluation makes sure that the organizational
strategy as well as it's implementation meets the organizational objectives.

7. List the three major approaches for managing and resolving conflict
Approaches to conflict resolution, as applied to international environmental disputes,
include 
negotiation,
mediation and
arbitration.
8. List the phase in strategic management
the process of strategic management includes goal setting, analysis, strategy formation,
strategy implementation, and strategy monitoring. Let's take a look at how each of these
steps ties into the overall strategic management process.
9. Some business don’t need any kind of strategies . do you agree

Yeah to some extent some my run with out any kind of strategy but they may not last on the
market after some time because strategy is the focal point for any kind of business to survive in
the given market .

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