Organizational Change and its impact on people within organization

Change seems to be an imperative of the contemporary business. Nowadays, companies that do not change the way they operate to adjust themselves to the specific needs of its industry, customers, and employees as well as the society in general, decrease their chances of staying competitive on the market. Change is an important aspect of any business but what is more important is, how the change is being designed, introduced and operated from the very early stages of planning, through implementation and post follow-up. As the change is not only affecting the organizational structure or processes but also the people, this thesis will aim to shed more light on how people within an organization are affected by the changes.Change is imposing considerable amount of managerial challenges, which is why it is crucial to scrutinize its impact and dynamics on each level, starting from the topmanagement, through departments to teams and arriving at the individual level of each employee. Manager’s responsibility is not only to understand and accept the change herself but also to introduce and communicate the new direction in the way it is understood by each member of the team.This thesis will scrutinize the organizational change at a large multinational company, that shifted from centralized to decentralized organizational structure. Its aim is to answer the following questions; a) How was the change planned, communicated and implemented within the organization; and b) What was the effect of this change on the employees at different levels of the organization. The findings of this research will not only provide a better understanding of the current situation for the management of the company, but it will also highlight possible areas for improvement. The thesis will be mainly based on ethnographic interviews, company’s reports anddocuments as well as on a close reading of relevant literature.