•Organizational
Change and
Innovation
Chapter Outline
An Influence Model of the Change
Process in Organizations
Why People Resist Change
Four Major Factors That Create
Organizational Change
Organization Development as a
Change Strategy
Managing Change Yourself
Behavioral Principles of Innovation
Organizational Change and Innovation
Learning Objectives 5 and 6
Managing Change Yourself
Behavioral Principles of
Innovation
MARY JENNIFER L. ODIAS
LEARNING OBJECTIVE 5
Develop useful insights into managing
change in your job and career
Fundamentals of Organization Behavior
By: Andrew J. Dubrin
Organizational Change and Innovation
Managing Change Yourself
Individual adaptability to change at work refers to a person’s response to new demands or ill-defined problems, including rapid
changes on the job. A key factor in job and career success is ADAPTABILITY .
Our approach to providing insight into self-managing change is divided
into relevant research and personal suggestions.
To help you think through your flexibility about dealing with change, do
Self-Assessment 16-1.
David Chan (ed.), Individual Adaptability to Changes at
Work (New York: Routledge, 2014), p. i.
Organization Change and Innovation
Coping with Organizational Change
• Two specific traits related to dealing well with change are tolerance for ambiguity and positive
affectivity.
The seven traits were reduced to
two factors:
Seven personality
factors presumed to
be related to change
were measured:
1.locus of control
2. generalized selfefficacy
3. self-esteem,
4. positive
affectivity (similar to
optimism)
A. POSITIVE SELF-CONCEPT
B. RISK TOLERANCE
5. openness to
experience
• tolerance for ambiguity
• risk aversion
- A key result was that having a
positive self-concept and a
tolerance for risk were positively
related to both measures of
coping with change.
David Chan (ed.), Individual Adaptability to Changes at
Work (New York: Routledge, 2014), p. i.
Suggestions for Coping with Change
IMPLICATIONS for your ability to manage change well
1. Practice dealing with ambiguous tasks (such as
unclear assignments) and work on having a positive
general disposition.
2. Look for the personal value that could be embedded
in a forced change.
3. If you are down-sized, take the opportunity to assume
responsibility for your own career rather than being
dependent on the organization.
4. When faced with a significant change, ask What if?
questions, such as “What if my company is sold
tomorrow?” “What if I went back to school for more
education?” and “What if I did accept that one-year
assignment in China?”
Fred Pryor, “What
Have You Learned from Change?” Managers Edge, September
1998, p. 2.
5. You are less likely to resist change if you
recognize that change is inevitable.
6. When confronting major change, force yourself
to enjoy at least some small aspect of the
change.
7. Stop trying to be in control all the time because
you cannot control everything. Many changes will
occur that you can-not control, so relax and enjoy
the ride.
8. Finally, recognize that change has an emotional
impact, which will most likely cause some inner
turmoil and discomfort.
Al Siebert, The Resiliency Advantage (San Francisco, CA:
Berrett-Koehler, 2005).
LEARNING OBJECTIVE 6
Identify eight behavioral principles of innovation.
INNOVATION - The process of creating new ideas
and their implementation or commercialization.
Organization Change and Innovation
6. Identify eight behavioral
principles of innovation.
Question
Think
Think positively and have a strong network,
Think in
Think in terms of transformations,
Embrace
Embrace failures as the cost of risk taking,
Look
Welcome
Organizational Change and Innovation
Question traditional beliefs or orthodoxies,
Look to be disruptive,
Welcome entrepreneurial catalysts,
Change
Change the culture, and
Impose
Impose constraints on innovation.
Implications for Managerial Practice
The biggest challenge in implementing workplace innovations is to bring about cultural
change.
Workers’ attitudes and values have to change if the spirit of inno-vation is to keep smoldering. An effective
vehicle for bringing about such change is for top-level managers and others to exchange ideas.
Formal arrangements, such as regularly scheduled staff meetings, facilitate exchanging ideas, reflecting on
values, and learning what behavior is in vogue. Encouraging informal meetings can often achieve the same
purpose with a higher degree of effectiveness.
Learning how to cope well with change yourself is a key part of managing change. An
example of change would be dealing with an employer taking away your cubicle and
expecting you to work in an open area with no privacy.
Although many organizations expect managers and professionals to adapt to flex-ible work
roles, the importance of developing expertise in one or two specialties remains critical to
long-term career success. For example, if you are a supply-chain specialist, it would be foolish
to forget that expertise simply because your employer wanted you to take on a marketing role
for a period of time.