Organizational Change Essay Example

Organizational Change Essay: Introduction

In today’s world, there have been many drastic shifts, such as economic crises, cultural revolutions through social media, political challenges, and even pandemics. In this direction, one can readily highlight the difficulty of operating a business in a meticulous and decent manner. As there are many unexpected agendas going on, such as political tensions, global health implications, currency difficulties, and customer trends as a result of the pandemic, a business should position and sometimes change its business model to adapt to the new environment. In this assignment, an organization “Presidency of Defense Industries of Turkey” has been analyzed in terms of their adaptation, unexpected challenges, as well as technological, economic, environmental, and geopolitical forces. Defense Industries of Turkey was highly dependent on foreign economies and factories whose business decisions are positively affected by political agenda and interests, and this situation created a drawback for Defense Industries of Turkey, as all sub-factories are privately owned. After all, one can highlight that although there were critical challenges in terms of demand/supply and political agenda, the Presidency of Defense Industries as an organization could become successful after adapting itself to a new environment within the last two decades.

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Political and Geopolitical Factors Influencing the Change

The Defense Organization had been highly dependent on foreign products and policies for almost a century after the Second World War. That is, as the country is a NATO member, the private and domestic defense providers did not need a boost or step of domestication in terms of subproducts, engines, planes, and other warfare inventory. In this sense, the organization had been exporting the necessary and critical technical parts from foreign countries such as Germany, the U.S., the U.K., and even Russia. When considered the geopolitical situation of the country, the main defense organization had to make a decision when the government was tried to be coup-attempted by the allies. The country is surrounded by critical countries such as Syria, Armenia, Iran, and Iraq on the southeastern border.

The main goal of the defense organization (Defense Industries of Turkey) is to ensure national safety by producing required defense assets such as guns, howitzers, arsenal, helicopters, etc. In this sense, due to political interests and the geopolitical tension surrounding the nation, the organization decided to focus highly on the domestic production of defense assets. One can say that the process was quite successful. That is, the domestic production of defense assets of the organization was %15 in 2002, but the organization can produce %70 domestic defense assets (Current State, 2018). The development was so efficient in the sense that the organization now exports defense assets to other developing countries such as Ukraine, Pakistan, Indonesia, and Azerbaijan.

The Focus of Change in the Organization

The Turkish defense organization, as mentioned earlier, depended highly on foreign assistance in terms of subparts and exports of defense assets. The function of the organization is to collect technical parts from other countries and create a defense asset that is not licensed by their corporate name. In this sense, one can highlight the “pieceworker” nature of the organization. However, after the coup attempt and incentives from the government authorities, the organization instantly and drastically changed its focus to producing its own weapons and defense assets from scratch. The business model, which counted highly on other nations, now tilted to create their own weapons. In this direction, the organization made numerous contracts with other Turkish defense companies that merely work as sub-contractors for other international big projects such as F-35 and Patriot system.

Technological Developments Following the Change

Upon taking such a big and instant decision, the organization initially concentrated on creating the related workforce (engineers) as the government also supported the organization with funding and incentive programs, and it became a national change of business focus rather than a simple business. Turkish defense organization, along with 1000+ other domestic defense producers, adapted to a new change environment by promoting skilled engineering students to their organizations.

The first movement was then followed by a series of infrastructure and research and development projects, which first occurred in Ankara, the capital city of Turkey (How Turkey Became, 2020). Accordingly, the organization started building warehouses and infrastructure facilities that are required to produce defense assets from scratch. Also, they did bilateral strategic agreements with other main defense producer companies in Turkey, such as ASELSAN, ROKETSAN, and Baykar Technologies Inc, which have long been a strategic partner and producer of the F-35 Programme, initiated by the United States.

Process After the Change of Business Model

Although many other defense producers and governments tried to hinder Turkish defense organization from manufacturing their own defense assets, many claim that the development process and change of model have been an extreme success; after the decision and implementation process which took almost a decade, Turkish defense organization managed to produce their own land platforms, naval platforms, barreled weapons, power systems, logistic support systems, generators and batteries, simulators and training systems, electronic warfare systems, and especially manned and unmanned combat drones which have changed the shape of the battlefield in the Middle East and North Africa (How Turkey Became, 2020; McKernan, 2019). More specifically, the change of model in the organization led to the victory of Turkish drones over the Libya conflict in North Africa and the Azerbaijan-Armenia conflict on Nagaro-Karabakh (How Turkey Became, 2020; Staff Writer, 2020). When considered the fact that the same organization could not buy drones from other countries such as Israel and United States, one can readily interpret that the change of business model due to geopolitical factors and political interests has been proven efficient. Also, the organizations' revenue and annual turnover have drastically been boosted as a result of ongoing efforts for domestication, R&D, and exporting efforts, as shown below.

Source: https://ssb.gov.tr/WebSite/contentlist.aspx?PageID=48&LangID=2

Organizational Change Essay: Conclusion

A change of focus on the business model can be triggered by numerous factors, including economic, sociocultural, segmentation, political. In this assignment, the “Defense Organization of Turkey” has been chosen to highlight the nature of the change model due to the geopolitical effects and political interests of different nations. The organization had been highly dependent on foreign assets, and it was functioning as a subcontractor for foreign vast defense firms and projects such as F-35 and Patriot. Due to the geopolitical tension and political interests of other nations, the organization had to decide on their business model, and as mentioned above, the decision has been more than effective; it was a strategic step and interest for a whole nation. After all, one can highlight that although there were critical challenges in terms of demand/supply and political agenda, the Presidency of Defense Industries as an organization could become successful after adapting itself to a new environment within the last two decades.

References

Current State - SSB. (2018). Savunma Sanayii Başkanlığı. SSB

How Turkey Became one of the World’s Leading Manufacturers of Weapons Systems. (2020, July 21). Defense News.

McKernan, B. (2019, November 28). Revealed: How UK technology fuelled Turkey's rise to global drone power. the Guardian.

Staff Writer. (2020, October 7). Turkey begins to rival China in military drones. Nikkei Asia.