| dc.description.abstract | Economic and social forces such as globalization, social/cultural, political/legal,
advancement in technology, liberalization, unstable financial markets and advances in
information and communication technologies are among the many business
environmental factors driving the escalating pace of change evident within
organizations today. Discerning the need for change on time, planning and properly
implementing the change is usually seen as a differentiating core competence for
competitive organizations and the only way out for organizations to survive the
challenges of a fast changing environment. Seeing the need for change and having the
resources to implement it is one thing but the process of implementing the change,
which is change management, is what determines the final outcome of the whole change
process. Therefore, good change management practices must be adopted.
This case study sought to explore strategic change management and how change has
been managed by Nyati and Elimu Cooperative Societies. The study was designed as a
case study of Nyati and Elimu Cooperative Societies to compare change management in
the two cooperative societies and to find out whether strategic change is practiced by
Co-operative Societies. The study involved collecting data through in-depth personal
interviews with some members of the Central Management Committees being the
Board of Directors and General Managers, Managers and Accountants being the agents
charged with implementing the strategies of the Societies. The data collected in this
study was qualitative data and hence content analysis was used.
The major finding of the study is that change management practices m the two
cooperative societies are different on a number of spheres. Elimu Cooperative Society
has aspects of emergent change whereas Nyati Cooperative Society has the aspects of
planned change management. Change management was applied in technology, business
portfolio management, training, cost management and loaning policies for both
cooperative societies. The study concludes that the cooperative societies practice
strategic change management but at different levels which involve the formulation of committees to deal with the issue of change and the use of internal change agents to
manage change. Employees also need to see change as a challenge that is valuable to
the society as well as to them. Change should motivate them to respond appropriately
and not act as a demotivator. Once this is realized, the gains will be seen in the financial
performance of the societies. | en |
