In recent years, the UK has seen a decrease in government funding for various public bodies. Social enterprises have attempted to fill part of the gap created by that decrease in funding in social areas. Social enterprises have been seen as new structures that could provide answers to such financial constraints, helping non-profit organisations acquire funding (Wood, 2010). You are to put forward a research proposal to see what form of change management will facilitate change within such a turbulent setting. Van de Ven (1980b) posits such a question in relation to the Program Planning Model (PPM) while its sister paper, Van de Ven (1980a), gives a review of other theoretical models related to the nature of change.
It has been observed that from the year 2010, the UK Government has decreased the funding towards the local government as it had the objective of decreasing the deficit. In order to encourage local growth and to bring in a sound structure of incentives, the government changed its funding policy towards the local authorities. This is a welcome decision for the local bodies as it is providing them with financial opportunities, but it has also escalated the risks of financial nature. Under the circumstances the local authorities are finding it extremely difficult to maintain financial stability and sustainability in the country. There is a strong and rigid financial support which prevents the local bodies from becoming bankrupt. However, lack of funding from the central government is making their lives more difficult. Want of services from these local bodies have a negative impact on the users of such services and results in less value for money scenario. This finally tends to increase different costs or transfers the weight of costs to the different providers of services. The scenario is not better even now as the government is implementing high cut rates of about 25% in the poorest areas of UK. This is in contrast with the affluent areas which are facing cuts at much lesser rate of around 3%. Therefore, it is important for the local bodies to come up in their own defense and plan ways to appeal to the government to discourage this long deprivation. This research proposal seeks to chalk out the various methods which can be implemented in order to safeguard the interests of the local authorities and the non-profit organizations in the UK.
Change Management in UK in order to stabilize the local authorities from reduced government funding
The objective of the research work is to determine the alternative approaches to funding all these local bodies and the non-profit organizations in the UK. The UK government has made it clear that it is going to reduce its spending towards all these local bodies as a policy. As per the trend it is predicted that the reduction in funding to local authorities will be somewhere around 37% in the year 2015 to 2016 as per reliable data sources from the department. In the metropolitan districts, the reduction of funding will be even higher at a staggering 41% in 2015-2016. The funding in the County Council has decreased by 33%. The research is to be conducted in order to find out what could be the strategies taken up by the other local authorities to safeguard the existence of the non-profit concerns. The reduction in funding by the government may have a long lasting effect on the local bodies. Hence, there needs to be a proper mission of the research work in order to determine what could be the best possible way to deal with the current scenario. It is even bad to know that the government is hitting the less economically developed communities in a hard way. The affluent sections of the society and economy are able to remain unscathed by the cut-off policy which is being followed by the UK government since 2010 and also in 2015 (Bielinska-Kwapisz, 2014).
The irony is that in stead of the rich communities, it is the poor communities that are facing the wrath of the government. What is even more alarming to know is the fact that the 10 least deprived areas of England are facing the cuts in funding at a rate of 2.54%, whereas the 10 worst deprived locations of England are dealing with high cutting rates of 25.3% in the period between 2010 and 2015. The trend is expected to continue like this even in 2016. Therefore, there must be some opposing force from the local bodies who need to address the issue and take it up to the government for due consideration. They should stand up in unison and take up the issue seriously with the government or a time may come when these concerns will become insolvent and cease to exist. The central government is also expected to act smart and come up with such a policy which will take care of these local authorities and non profit concerns (Brooke, 2015).
It is not out of place to mention in this respect that, Paul Woods, who is the stalwart treasurer in the council of New Castle City, intimated the 326 local bodies in England about the cut rates of the government. He also showed a comparison between the several deprivation indices divulged by the Department of Communities and the local government. The result shows that the highest score of deprivation measured 43.45 was attributed to the City Council of Liverpool (Burnes et al.2012). It was receiving cuts at a rate of 27.1%. However, the council of the Hart district which has the least deprivation score measuring 4.47 is having the least cut rate of 1.5%. So, there has been an immense inconsistency in such figures and the actual motive behind such government decision needs to be probed. Hence the said research proposal is made to raise some questions and in order to receive satisfactory answers from the government and other authorities (Caldwell, 2013).
After going through the objectives of the research proposal, we can come up with the following relevant questions which will spring up in the research process if finally the proposal is accepted.
The research is to be conducted by the marketing agency and its members in order to arrive at certain crucial points which will determine the various key findings of the research. The survey will be conducted on the various local authorities. They will be asked the above questions and they will their answers to those questions (Chia, 2013). As of now it has been planned that the research will be conducted on 20 local authorities and non profit organizations. They will give the most relevant and appropriate answers to all the queries. Meetings will be conducted with the top management like the CEO and MDs of all the organizations (Chung, 2012). They are required to give their written consent on document specifically designed for the purpose by the marketing agency. The project will only commence after the explicit approval of those concerned persons. If any one does not want to participate in the project, he will not be forced into it (Czarniawska, 2013). The research team will consist of two members. One will ask the questions directly to the concerned person. The other will note down the key points on a document designed for the purpose. This speed up the process of the research (Davidson, 2015).
It is expected to be completed within a period of 1 month. The scheduled date of commencement has been fixed on 1st June, 2015. The research will be wrapped up by the end of June, 2015. The proposal is scheduled to be submitted on 2nd May, 2015 for approval. The approval will be either positive or negative and it is expected to be intimated by 20th of May, 2015. After that the implementation of the project will begin. The questionnaire will be developed which will consist of open-ended and closed-ended questions with use of Likert scale in some portions. Each interview will approximately take 30 minutes to complete (Dawson, 2014). After the interview is over, the questionnaire will be carried back to the office with extreme care and security. It will then be stored in the high security research room of the office. It will be kept under lock and key and there will be no unauthorized access. Strict security will be deployed to restrict unauthorized persons in the locker room (De Matos et al. 2013).
The data will also be stored in computers which will be secured with passwords. This will prevent any data loss in case there is any theft of the documents or chances of the documents getting torn during handling. The data will be analyzed with the help of software like SPSS and others. There will be a dedicated IT team who will deal with the digital aspects of the data from storage to processing. After the analysis has been done, the results will be stored safely in the computer and a few back up copies will also be created on other machines. There will be technical team deployed in case of any emergency requirement (DeCicco, 2011).
After the analysis is completed and results have been arrived at, they will be published in the journal of the company. The research work will also also come up in some leading local newspapers and economic magazines. The company has also created a fund for this purpose. The expenses for advertisement will also be borne by the company. The result will then be carefully analyzed and the research team will design solutions on its basis. The primary focus is to come up with solutions on the effects of fund reduction to the local government by the central government of UK (Doolin et al. 2013). The probable steps to approach the government and discuss the issue in details need to be developed. There are many issues that could play an important part in the central government policy. The discrepancies and lack of proper logic are clear in few decisions of the government. The research aims to throw light on the issue and also create the road to success for the local government and the non profit organizations (du Gay et al. 2012).
The results are expected to be conclusive enough so as to determine the right course of action. It is expected that the research will help to develop certain effective outcomes. The main aim is to seek out a solution to mitigate the effects of the funding cut off by the government on the local government and the non profit organizations (Furnari, 2012). The emphasis of the current government is more on the private sector, where it is doing the major funding. The importance of the private sector cannot be denied in the economy of a country. Nowadays the majority of the economic growth and prosperity is brought in by the private sector companies. Hence, there should be a significant investment in that sector by the government. But at the same time, the investment in local government enterprises cannot be overlooked. These establishments also contribute to the GDP of the economy. These local producers also play a major role in making or breaking the country’s economy (Gärtner, 2013).
The results are directed to impact the thinking of the central government and also to provide guidance to the local authorities and non profit organizations. How they can counter the situation needs to be planned and immediate steps need to be taken so that they do not turn up into sick industries. This will cause lot of unemployment and poverty in the nation. There could be a number of ways to battle with the prevailing scenario. These are discussed below:
The local authorities expect these reductions in funding to continue well beyond 2015-2016 into 2018-2019. As per the estimates from reliable sources, the funding will be further lowered by £ 44 million in the year 2018-2019 (Kay, 2013).
It is expected by the research association and the entire team that the outcome of the proposed project will help the society and the economic community to understand the scenario of funding in the UK from 2015 onwards and up to 2018-2019. The research aims to provide support to the local authorities who are deprived from the funding help by the central government. There has been some previous research work in the same field before, but this one is expected to be more comprehensive and conclusive. It promises to cover all those areas which were previously overlooked by the researchers. Any research is conducted for the social and economic benefit of the country. The objective of this project is motivated by that aim. This would be an eye opener for the public as to what are the different issues that are currently lingering in the UK (MacLean et al. 2012).
The research seeks to cover the several areas of funding for the governmental authorities and non profit organizations and attempts to put forward the effects of such strategies on the future of the local authorities and the community as a whole (MACPHEE et al. 2011). It will help to ascertain what should be the plan and strategy taken by the local authorities and how can they counter the central government legislations and provisions. The research looks to empower the local bodies and provide them with confidence in time of despair (McClellan, 2013). It will show them the various ways which the local authorities can implement to tackle the extreme situation. This project will guide them to manage their budgets and create reserves in smart manner in order to fight and survive in case of any contingency. The research also plans to have interaction with the central government about this issue and they will voice their views in favor of the local government. The representatives of the research committee will interact with the members of the parliament and discuss in details about the issue (Benson et al. 2014).
The research team predicts that by 2016-2017 they will be able to reach a concrete conclusion about this fund cutting issue by the central government. In between the committee will put forward its findings to the local government and request them to take necessary steps. This will be done on the basis of pure research work and proper data collection, analysis and conclusion arrival (Preget, 2013). The authenticity of the research work is what matters the most in the project. There will be no vague assumption. To corroborate that, the research team will publish the results in local newspapers and few of the leading economic magazines. For that purpose, the committee has also created a substantial fund which will be used for the expenses of advertising and publication of results. They have already approached the local magazine and newspaper authorities about the issue. They have also received their prior approval (Price et al. 2012).
To negate the counter effects of such cost cutting policy by the government, the research will seek to advise the local authorities and the non profit concerns to cut down on the unwanted expenses. This will help them to have adequate funds in hand to deal with the crisis. They are not in a situation to borrow big amounts as loans from the financial institutions. Hence, by smart investment and optimal spending, they can improve the situation to a considerable extent. This will help them to sustain in the challenging environment. And not become insolvent. Then only, the purpose of the research is fulfilled (Vakola, 2013).
Conclusions
We have seen in this research proposal that the UK government is encouraging fund cut off to the local governments and the non profit organizations. They are severely cutting the rates in the poor sector instead of the affluent sector. This approach is quite inexplicable and many people are not writing off political motivation in this. However, the local bodies have to deal with this ordeal and also sustain in the system. Hence, it is prudent to promptly develop some strategies to counter the actions of the central government. This is what the aim of the research is. It is done to safeguard the interests of the local authorities. Since, 2010 they are facing a fund crisis which is affecting their way of business and services. They are not able to deal with the situation effectively and the research seeks to act as a helping hand to them in terms of financially advising them and guide them on what could be done to improve the situation. The research aims to look at each and every possible impact of such fund reduction process implemented by the government. It is also vouching to help the local authorities in terms of raising their voices to the central government. The research team consists of some of the best in class economists and socialists who are stalwarts in their respective fields and have lot of accolades in their own subjects. They will have personal interactions with the local government and they will try to understand their planning.
There is an extreme fear of unemployment in the local sector due to this funding strategy by the central government. If this policy is continued for a longer period of time, then the local bodies might have to come to standstill some day. It will be a detriment for the economy of UK. Many people will lose their jobs and may commit suicide under the circumstances. The local government will be rendered less effective. There will be more of private sector investments and Foreign Direct Investments. These are good for the economy, but if these gain precedence, then the interests of the local bodies will be affected. This is a very sensitive issue for the people of UK. There should be smart balancing of fund supply to the public and private sectors. This is to be done so that UK does not have increase in the number of sick industries, which will affect the GDP negatively. Finally, it may be said that the research proposal is only an attempt to find out the truth of the funding scenario and it does not guarantee complete success in its purpose. But it will definitely throw some light on what could be done to change the scenario of the local authorities who are in urgent need of government funding in order to carry out their business and services.
References
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Brooke, J. (2015). Climate change impacts on UK port and navigation infrastructure. Infrastructure Asset Management.
Burnes, B. (2014). Understanding Resistance to Change – Building on Coch and French. Journal of Change Management, pp.1-25.
By, R., Burnes, B. and Oswick, C. (2012). Change Management: Leadership, Values and Ethics. Journal of Change Management, 12(1), pp.1-5.
Caldwell, S. (2013). Are Change Readiness Strategies Overrated? A Commentary on Boundary Conditions. Journal of Change Management, 13(1), pp.19-35.
Chia, R. (2013). Reflections: In Praise of Silent Transformation – Allowing Change Through ‘Letting Happen’. Journal of Change Management, 14(1), pp.8-27.
Chung, C. (2012). Analytics for change management. International Journal of Information Systems and Change Management, 6(1), p.3.
Czarniawska, B. (2013). Things and Words. Journal of Change Management, 13(3), pp.362-367.
Davidson, J. (2015). What’s all the buzz about change management?. Healthcare Management Forum.
Dawson, P. (2014). Reflections: On Time, Temporality and Change in Organizations. Journal of Change Management, 14(3), pp.285-308.
De Matos, J. and Clegg, S. (2013). Sustainability and Organizational Change. Journal of Change Management, 13(4), pp.382-386.
DeCicco, J. (2011). Biofuels and carbon management. Climatic Change, 111(3-4), pp.627-640.
Doolin, B., Grant, D. and Thomas, R. (2013). Translating Translation and Change: Discourse-Based Approaches. Journal of Change Management, 13(3), pp.251-265.
du Gay, P. and Vikkelsø, S. (2012). Reflections: On the Lost Specification of ‘Change’. Journal of Change Management, 12(2), pp.121-143.
Furnari, S. (2012). Interstitial Brokers and Institutional Change. Academy of Management Proceedings, 2012(1), pp.1-1.
Gärtner, C. (2013). Enhancing Readiness for Change by Enhancing Mindfulness. Journal of Change Management, 13(1), pp.52-68.
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