Strategic Change Management At The East African Tea Trade Association

Abstract

Strategic Change Management involves the use of systematic methods to ensure that organization change takes place in a planned direction to achieve the desired objectives. It is the deliberate and coordinated actions taken to transform an organization to overcome environmental challenges to achieve its objectives (Johnson, Scholes and Whittington, 2005). The performance of firms may be dependent on the fit between the the external environment and the internal environment. This paper undertook a case study on Strategic Change Management at the East African Tea Trade Association (EATTA). The study addressed the following research question: “What are the Strategic Change Management practices that are employed by the EATTA, contribution of EATTA members to the change process and how the EATTA is managing challenges facing the change process?”. A case study for the EATTA was undertaken and the study utilized interview guides to obtain information from the management and Directors of the EATTA. The research findings illustrates that the change process at the EATTA is planned in nature and the vision and mission of EATTA is aligned with its role and objectives. The research findings further demonstrated that the changes at the EATTA are necessary for EATTA to attain its objectives. However, the research noted that the challenges facing the change management process needs to be fully addressed for successful implementation. Fear of the unknown, fear of technology and lack of professionalism were pointed as the main challenges and the researcher drew out several recommendations based on the research findings and conclusions of the study.The research findings illustrates that the change process at the EATTA is planned in nature and the vision and mission of EATTA is aligned with its role and objectives. The research findings further demonstrated that the changes at the EATTA are necessary for EATTA to attain its objectives. However, the research noted that the challenges facing the change management process needs to be fully addressed for successful implementation. Fear of the unknown, fear of technology and lack of professionalism were pointed as the main challenges and the researcher drew out several recommendations where the EATTA should ensure that the change process is totally inclusive with the entire tea stakeholders and the government through the Ministry of Agriculture to be incorporated in the strategy making process, sensitization of the membership and incorporation of Information Technology in the operations of the EATTA were the key recommendations based on the research findings and conclusions of the study.