Dissertation Proposal 3
Dissertation Proposal: An Exploration of Change Management in Small and Medium Enterprises in London
Introduction and Context
London is home to thousands of small and medium sized businesses, commonly known as small and medium enterprises (SMEs). They are a significant percentage of small and medium sized businesses which account for about 99% of all private sector businesses in the United Kingdom, as it was recently reported by the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB). They employ millions of British people and contribute significantly to the growth of the UK’s economy. Over the last three decades, there have been changes in contemporary management practices that have forced organizations, starting from small to larger ones to change how they operate. The concept of change management has especially changed in meaning and application in these organizations, and how it is applied in training current and future leaders and managers in these organizations has been an issue because of the shifting management strategies in the 21st century. In the UK, for example, as this dissertation seeks to establish, SMEs are reporting that they are introducing organizational change practices and strategic change management practices as the environment around them changes. The dissertation will seek to examine some of the triggers for change management in the SMEs in London, the UK, based on research from a sample of SMEs in the city. It will use a combination of primary and secondary research to explore whether they are applying the change management strategies best fit and necessary for small and medium sized enterprises to enter new markets. Data will be collected using surveys and interviews of owners, owner-managers, senior managers, and workers from about 35 SMEs in London. It is a dissertation that will especially consider the outlook these organizations have on the future as a result of the change management practices, something that will make up the research objectives and questions to be investigated.
Managing change in small and medium enterprises is a big undertaking, and one which can be handled by only a small group of individuals in these SMEs in comparison to large corporations. Small business owners may consider managing change on their own with just a few or no specialists, without departments dedicated to fulfilling the role, and with minimal budgets set aside for outside consultants. As the dissertation will explore, these are some of the research objectives/ questions to be covered and ones that can explain the challenges SMEs in a place like London face when carrying out change management in a modern, global economy. Other research objectives to be covered in the research include the role and influence of factors like the adopted change management style, the personalities of the owners and managers of the SMEs, the urgency and other closely related scenarios of change, resistance levels, and the extent of change required (Ordonez de Pablos, 2012). Others to be considered include the role that technology may play in the change management process of today among other factors to be covered in greater detail and that will be specific to SMEs based in London or ones with some form of international operation but are still based in the city.
Literature Review
Understanding the change management challenges and factors faced by small and medium businesses in London and how they influence their strategic decisions requires that the concept be understood in detail. Change management has been defined by different authors, researchers, management professionals, and institutions and organizations differently, but all the explanations and definitions point to how it is a discipline which acts as a guide to how organizations and their members prepare, equip and support themselves to adopt change successfully, thereby driving organizational outcomes and achieving success in an increasingly competitive environment (Granberg & Magnusson, 2017). Another look at change management defines it as the application of a structured process in addition to a set of tools by an organization to lead its people on the one hand and customers on the other through change and the change process to achieve a desired outcome (Promes, 2016). The steps managers follow to successfully implement and adopt change among their people and customers make up the change management process. It is of great importance that when talking about change management and the change management process, the context under which an organization and those talking about applying it are operation ensure that they’re talking about the same thing. This is because there tend to be different types and levels of change management, among them organizational change management, project change management, also referred to as scope management, and infrastructure change management as pointed out by the Project Management Institute (Garfein, Horney & Nelson, 2013). Organizations going through the change management process are moving from their current state to a future state they have desired and/or envisioned. There are drivers for organizational change management that depend on a number of factors and reasons.
Taking into consideration that organizational change taking place means that a company’s organizational behavior is or has to be permanently altered gives another meaning to the change management to be covered. Change management focuses on what is happening inside and within the environments of existing organizations. There is a good number of research articles which show that the challenge of managerial capacity to implement change remains one of the major challenges for organizational change management. Extensive research on organizational change management has placed the failure rate for programs aimed at fulfilling it at between 50% and 70%, based off a research by McKinsey (Rosenberg and Mosca, 2011; Mosadeghrad and Ansarian, 2014; Woodman, Pasmore and Shani). The high failure rate is associated with the actions that are involved in change management as the programs organizations implement transform from the definition of strategy and the setting of targets to their design and implementation.
The members of an organization are highly likely to raise questions about the exact level of change their companies need and to what extent change in their firms is needed, as they are people who act rationally. Additionally, they may question whether their firms are headed in the right direction with the change management process. As a result of their many questions, they also might not be in the best position to decide whether they are ready to be personally committed to making the actual change proposed and determined by their managers happen (Goskoy, 2015). This is why it is important for institutions like SMEs going through change management to first define change as a process that could permanently alter their organizational behavior, in the personal context and in the organizational context. The complex state of today’s businesses makes change to be an always present thing, calling for firms to have change management as part and parcel of their everyday operations.
In a city like London, where there are about 1,544 businesses per every 10,000 residents in the private sector, the role they play is significant, and times of turbulence cause significant scare especially with regard to how they handle change management (Rhodes, 2019). Their existence means that millions of individuals in London are self-employed, mostly in such sectors as construction; professional, scientific and technical activities; information and communication; administrative and support service activities; wholesale and retail trade; motor vehicle repair; arts, entertainment and recreation; education; transportation and storage; financial and insurance activities; manufacturing; and accommodation and food service activities. Per recent reports, the economic climate has been especially challenging for SMEs. The city has been reported to have some of the highest rates for business failures of all regions across the country, mostly linked to the city’s competitive environment that many small businesses competing for success. According to a report by the London Assembly Economy Committee (2017), rent in London is especially high and has been rising over the last two decades, making houses, offices, and warehouses more unaffordable for SMEs that are seeking to expand as they implement change processes. Coupled with low business plus consumer confidence which especially affects mid-sized businesses, and the failure of spending power to return because of the fluctuating economic situations in a country like the UK, it becomes challenging for businesses to change accordingly (Jamieson et al., 2012).
More small and medium enterprises are today, more than ever, forced to implement changes to stay competitive with the rest. They have to consider implementing such employee wellbeing measures as flexible working, which, per research has a 46% popularity rate among the other waves of changes. They also are now required to pay employees higher than the current minimum wage for them to stick, something that is being done by about 38% of all SMEs in London currently (Small Business Team, 2019). About 36% of them are dealing with the issue of incentives and how, together with perks, can raise team morale as the country, and the city especially, go through the Brexit period. Change management processes require that businesses consider making investments in solutions which have been applied by likeminded firms or those of a similar size, yet only about 25% of the SMEs in London are willing to try this out, yet it could go a long way in helping them capitalize on the innovation culture. All these are factors which have been established to be causing productivity issues for SMEs trying to change, in terms of size or even operation. Struggling with productivity could be a serious concern because they might not come up with ways of bettering themselves or even completely changing. Their taking up about 99% of all private sector businesses in the UK makes the struggle with productivity and resultant change management issues serious concerns. Concerns are especially now worse for change management with Brexit.
Approximately 40% of all small and medium enterprises in the UK are concerned that Brexit will leave their businesses worse off than they were before. Now that the UK is officially out of the European Union, the SMEs which make up 99% of all private sector businesses across the UK are only a little optimistic (Telegraph Spark, 2019). Only those with strong cultural identities which means that they can easily implement change within and during such a period of change feel that they might be good after they settle from it. About 47% of those in manufacturing expect their businesses to be worse off, with 45% and 42% in retail and hospitality respectively, also holding similar views about this. More of the statistics shown in the Appendix explain just how dire this situation could be for SMEs which are now being forced to adopt changes in structure and in how they do business. The effects of the turbulence from a major economic situation on, for example, financial lending and the possible constraints; potentially low or even negative GDP growth rate in the country that could result over the next five years and consumer and business confidence continually being low particularly in London could hinder their change management processes now. The fact that they might not be in a position that they are required to be which is that which sees them anticipate, respond, and even adapt to a changing environment to effectively compete in the constantly changing environment all could explain why it is potentially challenging for change management to actually be a thing among most London SMEs (Zain and Kassim, 2013).
Methodology: Investigative Approach and Methods
The research aims to identify and analyze the leading issues of concern for change management for SMEs in London from the perspective of the turbulence that has to do with changing economic situations, and the uncertainty that they have faced over since the Eurozone crisis and now the most recent Brexit. The research aims to obtain data and information about the triggers for change management in periods of turbulence and also in periods of less economic disturbance from SMEs across the city. Additionally, the research seeks to obtain information about the outlook the SMEs have on the future in regard to change management and change management practices. The outlook on the future is especially important for these organizations now that they have to change some of their ways of doing business post-Brexit. The research questions below list what information, evidence, and data is to be obtained.
Research Questions
i. Why do small and medium-sized businesses in London feel optimistic about their future and why do they believe that Brexit could have a positive impact on their operations, and how does this positive outlook affect their change management now and in the future?
ii. Which sectors among the various SMEs in London have the most positive or negative outlook concerning their change management processes?
iii. Will SMEs in London be forced to consider change management roles changing using their own internal departments dedicated to fulfilling the role or will they have budgets set aside for outside consultants?
iv. By applying what factors can the role and influence of factors such as the adopted change management style and model, personalities of owners and managers of the SMEs on the one hand and workers and customers on the other hand, the urgency and other closely related scenarios of change, resistance levels, and the extent of change required can London-based SMEs develop a positive outlook for their businesses post-Brexit?
To examine the research questions concerning the change management approaches and issues for small and medium-sized enterprises in London, researchers will use a sample of 135 SMEs from across the city. The SMEs are spread out in various sectors in the city, namely:
i. Professional, technical, and scientific activities
ii. Information and communication
iii. Manufacturing
iv. Construction
v. Wholesale and retail
vi. Motor vehicle and motorcycles repair
vii. Administrative and support services
viii. Arts, recreation and entertainment
ix. Human health and social work
x. Education
xi. Transportation and storage
xii. Financial and insurance activities
xiii. Real estate
xiv. Hospitality services
Targeting SMEs from all these sectors will maximize the probability of obtaining as much relevant information relating to change management and the factors that determine its extent and how it is applied in the organizations. To realize the project, it will be necessary to carry out primary and secondary research as well. Primary and secondary research provides different value levels depending on the specific research project and organizations targeted. There is significant data from the market research conducted by third parties available in physical and digital form about SMEs in London that could help with this project. This is why the researchers will conduct primary and secondary research.
The studies of the change management-related concepts, questions, and ideas will be in the form of direct questionnaires to be carried out in the form of surveys administered to the SMEs. The surveys will, therefore, involve the respective management of the organizations and workers. Samples of the questionnaires will be mailed to the selected SMEs. Data will be collected using surveys (questionnaires) and interviews of owners, owner-managers, senior managers, and workers from about 135 SMEs in London, which is the sample that will be used for this dissertation. This will help collect primary data and new information directly from the targeted respondents the researchers will, through questionnaires during surveys, talk to. Primary research will help focus on the specific issues that need answers to in regard to change management and factors that determine how, why, and what issues. It is qualitative research that will provide qualitative data that will help comprehend the nature as well as the complexity and idiosyncrasy of SMEs in turbulent economic times in London.
On the other hand, secondary research on SMEs will be accessed from a number of databases, from the government and private sectors as well. For instance, the UK Parliament provides access to the most recent business statistics that will help understand how SMEs are distributed across the UK, in London to be specific. More information and data is accessible from the Greater London Authority’s databases, for example, that which has to do with economic forecasts, employment, what percentage SMEs constitute among all private sector businesses in London, size by location, legal status, and industry, and even their earnings and costs. Further data and information will be gathered on Google Scholar, ABI/Inform Global, EBSCO, ProQuest, Emerald, Frontiers in Psychology – Organizational Psychology, IngentaConnect, International Journal of Business and Management, Project MUSE, SAGE Journals Online, Science Direct, Wiley Online Library, Taylor & Francis, among others that are available online. It is information available in its raw form and which will provide qualitative and quantitative data about this topic in detail. The two will be analyzed to generate ideas and drill down into the underlying aspects of change management and turbulence in the economy within SMEs, giving a picture which is narrowed down to the specifics, yet deep.
The size of the sample allows the researchers to conduct preliminary exploration of the area of complexity and the factors that make up that are, from where they will draw initial conclusions. Qualitative and quantitative analysis will be used in the study. Through content analysis the reasons and background into change management and how the outlook for the future is will be described and explained from existing documents. The researcher will use open, axial, and selective coding to detect and code the reasons for change management, the fears and factors that determine how change management is carried out in organizations, the outlook for the future in regard to change management among London SMEs. It will help organize these into categories logical and meaningful enough to make connections between them and also to explain the link between them, from where theories will be developed from among the categories. SPSS software will provide such descriptive statistics as means and standard deviations, percentages, and frequency. The researcher will also use T-test to figure out the various change management issues and their significance to organizational change in turbulent times among London SMEs. Furthermore, there will be the use of regression analysis to establish and determine the things SMEs’ owners, managers, and workers consider to be significant to organizational change management success and/or failure in turbulent times.
Ethical Issues
Per research ethics, trust will have to be established between the researchers and the interviewees. In this case, there will have to be a proper relationship that will have to be based on trust between the researchers and individuals who run SMEs in London like managers, owners, workers, and even authorities who could provide further information about the topic. It will therefore be essential to maintain regular communication and also to carefully plan and manage communication to minimize risks and maximize benefits from the research. It is here that researchers will have to adhere to such ethical principles as autonomy, which obliges the researchers to disclose information at an understandable level for the participants for them to either agree or refuse to participate, justice, beneficence, confidentiality, and veracity (Blankenburg, Blankenburg and Torregrosa, 2018). Autonomy is all about informed consent for the managers and workers to agree that the researchers collect information from them.
The researchers are bound to treat all interviewees and research participants fairly and equally. The privacy ethical principle will require that researchers respect the participants’ physical, emotional, and cognitive access to only get the most direct and right answers to specific issues. Questions will have to be specific to fulfil this ethical principle. The information they will provide will remain between the researchers and participants to fulfil the ethical principle of confidentiality. The principle of veracity or truth telling implores the researcher to provide information in an accurate and comprehensive manner to ensure that there’s better understanding of it. Here, researchers while visiting the SMEs or conducting the research online will have to be honest with research participants to meet the set times also while following guidelines.
The principle of beneficence refers to the research only being carried with the idea that there is a benefit or good to be derived from it. In this case, for example, this research will be exploring change management from the perspective of SMEs in London, in turbulent times to be more specific. It is a project worth undertaking for it provides recommendations into the better handling of change management during such times for SMEs which are likely to be hit hard by changes in the economy and environment around them more than bigger and multinational organizations. The benefit will be ethical. It will guide sampling in research design, whereby there will be the explanation into the particular participant groups selected and those left out.
Time Plan and Resources
Task
Earliest Start Date/Week
Duration
Parallel or Sequential
Dependent Upon
A
Project Proposal
1
12
Parallel
–
B
Literature Review
1
12
Sequential
–
C
Develop Interview and Survey Schedule
2
2
Sequential
–
D
Conduct Pilot Survey and Interviews
4
1
Sequential
C
E
Finalize Interview Schedule
5
1
Sequential
D
F
Select Participants
2
2
Parallel
–
G
Conduct Interviews and Surveys/Questionnaires
6
3
Sequential
D, F
H
Transcribe Interviews
7
4
Parallel
G
I
Analyze Questionnaires
11
4
Sequential
G
J
Analyze Transcriptions
11
2
Sequential
G
K
Write up Research
13
4
Parallel
A, B, I,J
Bibliography
Blankenburg, K., Blankenburg and Torregrosa, 2018. Intellectual capital in German non-profit organisations. Springer Verlag.
Garfein, S., Horney, N.F. and Nelson, M., 2013. Managing change in organizations. Project Management Institute.
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Granberg, M. and Magnusson, L. 2017. Agile refinement: a way to succeed in change management during the digitalization era!
Jamieson, D., Fettiplace, S., York, C., Lambourne, E., Braidford, P. and Stone, I., 2012. Large Businesses and SMEs: Exploring how SMEs interact with large businesses. ORC International, July, 8.
London Assembly Economic Committee. 2017. Helping SMEs to thrive. Accessed from https://www.london.gov.uk/sites/default/files/helping_smes_to_thrivefinal.pdfBottom of Form
Ordóñez de Pablos, P. ed., 2012. Business, Technology, and Knowledge Management in Asia: Trends and Innovations: Trends and Innovations. IGI Global.
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Promes, M. 2016. Change management and organizational learning in a new working environment: a longitudinal and mixed methods research design.
Rhodes, C. 2019. Business Statistics. Accessed from https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/SN06152/SN06152.pdf
Rosenberg, S. and Mosca, J., 2011. Breaking down the barriers to organizational change. International Journal of Management & Information Systems (IJMIS), 15(3), pp.139-146.
Small Business Team. 2019. Nine in ten London SMEs are struggling with productivity. Accessed from https://smallbusiness.co.uk/london-smes-struggle-productivity-2542282/
Telegraph Spark. 2019. What’s Occupying British SMEs? Accessed from https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/challenges/sme-key-challenges-2019/
Woodman, R.W., Pasmore, W.A. and Shani, A.B.R. eds., 2009. Research in organizational change and development. Emerald Group Publishing.
Zain, M. and Kassim, N.M., Management of Change in SMEs in Times of Turbulence. International Journal of Humanities and Social Science. 3(11), pp. 110-118.
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