Managing Change
Approaches to Change
Management
Lecture 4
Chapter 8 & 9
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Learning Objectives
• Theoretical foundations of change
management.
• Lewins planned approach to change
• Organisational Development
• Models of Organisational Change
• Emergent Approach of Change
• Role of change agent
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The Individual Perspective School
• All behaviour is learned; In order to change
behaviour, it is necessary to change the
conditions that causes it (Skinner, 1974).
• Behaviour modification is used to modify the
behaviour of individuals (rewards etc)
• Individual should also understand of themselves
and the situation which they believe, will lead to
changes in behaviour (Gestalf-field perspective).
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The Group Dynamics School
• This school emphasis on bringing about
organisational change through teams or
work groups, rather than individuals
(Bernstein, 1968).
• The focus of change must be at the group
level and should concentrte on influencing
and changing the group’s norms, roles and
values (Cummings and Huse, 1989)
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The Open Systems School
• They sees organisations as composed of
a number of interconnected sub-systems.
• Any change in one part of the system will
have an impact on other parts of the
system and, in turn, on its overall
performance (Scott, 1987).
• They emphasis on overall synergy through
clearly defined lines of coordination to
pursue overall business objectives.
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Planned Change
Planned Change
Activities that are intentional and goal
oriented.
Goals of Planned Change:
– Improving the ability of the organization to
adapt to changes in its environment.
– Changing the behavior of individuals and
groups in the organization.
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Field Theory
• This is an approach to understanding
group behaviour by trying to map out the
totality and complexity of the field in which
the behaviour takes place.
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Force Field analysis
A method proposing that two sets of
forces operate in any system-forces that
operate for change (the driving forces)
and forces that operate against change
(the resisting forces). If the two sets of
forces are equal in strength, then the
system is in equilibrium
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Force field analysis
Source: Samulson, 2003
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Group Dynamics
• Group behaviour, rather than that of individuals
should be the main focus of change (Lewin,
1947).
Action Research
• It is based on Gestalt psychology, which
stresses that change can only successfully be
achieved by helping individuals to reflect on and
gain new insights into the totality of their
situation.
• It stresses that for change to be effective, it must
take place at the group level and must be a
participative and collaborative process which
involves all of those concerned (Lewin, 1947)
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• Kurt Lewin’s three-step change
process
Refreezing
Status
quo(2)
Unfreezing
Status
quo(1)
Driving forces ↑
Restraining forces↓
Equilibrium status
Changing
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Three distinct steps for achieving
behavioural and attitudinal change
• Unfreezing
• the diagnosis stage
• Participants are made aware of problems in order to
increase their willingness to change their behaviour.
• Changing
• the intervention stage
• Individuals experiment with new workplace behaviour.
• Re-freezing
• the reinforcement stage
• Individuals acquire a desired new skill or attitude and are
rewarded for it by the organisation.
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Can we use Lewins approach to all the three
models of change?
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The emergent approach to
successful change
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Organisational structure
Organisational culture
Organisational learning
Managerial behaviour
Power and politics
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Harvard Professor John P.
Kotter’s eight-step plan for
implementing change
Establish a sense of urgency.
Form a powerful coalition of managers.
Create a vision to direct the change and
the strategies for achieving that vision.
Communicate the vision throughout the
organisation.
Empower others to act on the vision.
Plan for visible, short-term performance
improvements and crate those
improvements.
Consolidate improvements.
Articulate the relationship between new
behaviors and organisational success.
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Change Agent
People who act as a catalysts and
assume the responsibility for
managing the change process.
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