ACCA Strategic Professional · Strategic Business Leader · Finance transformation

Halvard Ltd plans to outsource transactional finance to a provider while keeping analysis in-house. A force field analysis shows driving forces (cost saving, scalability, better data) scored 12 in total, and restraining forces (staff morale, loss of control, data security concerns, provider dependency) scored 15 in total. What does this imply for the change manager?

Restraining forces outweigh driving forces, so the change is unlikely to succeed as it stands. The manager should target reducing restraints such as data security and morale concerns, since simply increasing pressure tends to heighten resistance, rather than abandoning or ignoring the plan.

1. AThe change should proceed unchanged because driving forces are significant
2. BThe change should be abandoned because restraining forces exceed driving forces
3. CEquilibrium is tilted against change, so the manager should reduce restraining forces, ideally the most easily addressed such as security and morale, rather than only add pressureCorrect
4. DThe analysis is invalid because forces must be equal