Strategic Change Management at East African Breweries Limited, Kenya

Abstract

The ever-turbulent, interconnected uncertain and dynamic environment dictates strategic change leaders to proactively and reactively adopt agility and flexibility in their organizations in order to assure their survival and sustainability in the long run. The common cause of failure of strategic change initiatives is the obsession of change agents in skewing the implementation of strategic change approaches with single minded focus of organizational interests and little concern for people interests. It is conventionally known that for organizations to change and reinvent themselves, it is the people who are in those organizations who must change their behaviours and ways of working. Successful strategic change management demands organizations to anticipate and mitigate resistance to change initiatives through embedding of the contagious and infectious emotional approach to people behaviour change as opposed to rational approach to change management in order to realize optimal strategic change performance outcomes. Thus, positive reinforcement of behaviour change facilities the formation of new habits by people as opposed to negative reinforcement. The objectives of this study were to establish the strategic change management practices at East African Breweries Limited (EABL) Kenya and to determine the factors influencing successful strategic change management at the organization. The study reviewed literature on theories and models of change management as well as factors influencing strategic change management. The research design adopted for this study was case study as it enabled the investigator to undertake broad and deeper understanding of the research problem. The unit of analysis in the research study was EABL, Kenya. In order to achieve the objectives of the study, both primary data collection methods and secondary data collection methods were used for triangulation purposes. Primary data was collected using an interview guide. Secondary data was collected from company website, publications, web pages and annual company reports. The semi structured interview guide was administered through personal interviews with top management team of EABL, Kenya to gather in-depth insights on strategic change management. The data collected from the study was coded, classified and analysed using content analysis. The study findings of the research study revealed that the key driving forces necessitating strategic change at EABL, Kenya were arising from the external environment. The study established that EABL, Kenya adopted a top-down strategic change management approach. Thus, the study revealed that EABL, Kenya’s senior managers were responsible for crafting strategic change vision and a strategic change project committee was responsible for change implementation. The results from the study established that the key success factors in strategic change management are: organization culture, leadership, organizational structure, organizational change and stakeholder engagement. The study concludes strategic change management practices at EABL, Kenya entailed adoption of people oriented strategic approach to change management whilst simultaneously safeguarding shareholder interests. The study recommends the involvement and negotiation of key stakeholder interests across all levels of organizations structure at the primary stages of strategic change initiation in order to drive buy in and ownership of strategic change initiatives