Sustainability through intra-organizational collaboration 'The case of WEEE and Samsung'

Abstract

It can be argued that the successful implementation of organisational change is crucial to any organisation in order to survive in a continuously changing business environment. Research states that companies are often still treated as a black- box that does not take intra-organizational differences into account when dealing with changes for CS. This study try to contribute to this field. It is argued that to implement change successfully it is necessary to take into account the internal organizational circumstances – the organisational structure and culture - and collaboration. When change is applied it is important to not only consider ones current position and the desired result to which the organisation wants to move, but also to take into account internal organisational circumstances which are not static and will vary per step in the change process. Understanding of the organisational culture and structure is key to bring about change. It is argued that they can also affect the potential of internal collaboration which in place affects the success of the implementation of change. There was examined what the exact influence of the three variables - organisations’ culture, structure and collaboration- was per phase in the change process and it was determined how successful the different changes phases were up till now. Samsung Electronics Benelux was selected as a case study and the success of the ongoing implementation process of ‘Waste Electronical and Electronic Equipment’ as a case. By combining an embedded case study with action research it was possible to gain inside into the unfolding process of the change with an in-depth analysis of the organisation over the different phases in the change process. The findings of this study show that not only all three variables had a varying impact on the success of the implementation of change, but that the interplay between those variables also affected the success of the implementation process.