Published on the 22/09/2011 | Written by Newsdesk
Even though most agree that technological innovation will be the greatest agent of change for their organisation over the next 10 years, fear of the unknown is keeping executives from embracing it, says two new research studies looking at the attitudes of Australian decision makers…
The two part Canon-sponsored study, titled ‘Change or Be Left Behind’, surveyed senior Australian executives and general business workers to see what attitudes and trends are shaping local businesses today.
The research found that while Australian business leaders and the workforce in general know that change is important, only 39 per cent agreed that their organisation openly embraced it, and less than half (49 per cent) took a pro-active stance on change. The number one reported barrier to change was people, citing the fear of the unknown, a lack of trust in change, lack of vision or understanding about change internally and lack of direction or leadership from senior management.
40 per cent of respondents didn’t believe their business had the right tools to deliver change, but agreed that technology played a very important role within the change process (95 per cent) and increased their competitive nature.
Sixty-five per cent of SMB workers said that lack of trust in management direction might be a reason they were resistant to change. Surprisingly, over a fifth of small business leaders (21 per cent) cited their own lack of direction or leadership as a key barrier to embracing change.
On a global scale, only 29 per cent felt that Australian SMBs were more ‘open to change’ when compared to the rest of the world. When ranked in terms of actual ‘willingness to change’ compared to the global economic powers, small business leaders ranked Australia last, behind China, India, the US and Germany.
Craig Manson, director, Canon Business Imaging, said the surveys suggest that Australian businesses take a conservative approach towards dealing with change, but he believes change represents a massive opportunity for them.
“We know that change is important, and the over-riding positive message for Australian businesses is to view change as an opportunity, not something to be wary of,” he said.
“Organisations need to take the time to look at how their business is evolving and growing, working out how technology can align with the business, changing it for the better and making it more competitive”.
