Introduction
The organization selected for the discussion is a business consulting company that operates at the state level and plans to expand its services and the customer base. The vision of this company is used by its leaders to provide the background for developing business goals and strategies and corporate culture, as well as to motivate employees. This paper aims to identify the company’s vision in terms of the core ideology and values, envisioned future, purpose, and vivid description, analyze how it can drive the change, and discuss the use of the vision in practice.
Managing Organizational Change
The vision of the selected business consulting company has all the components defined by Collins and Porras for visionary organizations. The core ideology of the company is based on promoting the following values: quality, respect, excellence, and integrity (Palmer, Dunford, & Buchanan, 2016).
Thus, employees need to meet clients’ expectations regarding the high quality of services, they treat customers with respect, and they are also treated with respect by leaders. Employees demonstrate professional excellence and highly developed skills, and all their actions are guided by integrity as honesty and morality in making decisions. The purpose related to the ideology and determining the company’s existence is to promote clients’ development and economic growth through professional guidance and support.
The company’s BHAG (Big, Hairy, Audacious Goal) related to the envisioned future is to become an internationally recognized consulting company that guarantees the sustainable development of its clients. The associated vivid description is the following: providing high-quality services and building sustainability, the company will contribute to designing a safe, innovative, sustainable, and economically advantageous business environment.
It is possible to state that the discussed organization’s vision helps in driving the change because it provides the goals and perspectives for the further development of the firm. To become an internationally recognized company, it is necessary to implement many changes in the firm’s strategies and processes. While referring to the envisioned future statement, employees become motivated to positively accept and promote associated changes in their activities without altering the key perspectives and core values. As a result, the company can be viewed as oriented to changes to reach its BHAG and address clients’ expectations and needs.
The analyzed vision is not only a “public relations” exercise because it mainly includes those values, purpose, and statements that guide the everyday practice of the firm’s employees. There are no exaggerated descriptions and vivid ideas in the vision that can be used only for impressing stakeholders (Palmer et al., 2016). Instead, the presented core ideology, purpose, BHAG, and description reflect the company’s actual perspectives, goals, and principles that are followed by employees every day. The reason is that this vision and related statements directly determine working policies for employees and the corporate culture adopted in the organization.
Conclusion
The vision analyzed in the context of its core ideology and values envisioned future, purpose, and vivid description can be discussed as including all these components. Also, this vision is effective to drive the change in the organization to achieve the BHAG. Furthermore, the formulated statements of the vision are appropriate to guide the everyday practice of the company’s employees. Therefore, it is almost impossible to state that this vision is only an attractive “public relations” exercise, which can be used to influence stakeholders’ opinions.
Reference
Palmer, I., Dunford, R., & Buchanan, D. A. (2016). Managing organizational change: A multiple perspectives approach (3rd ed.). New York, NY: McGraw Hill Higher Education.