Simulation Exercise
Top Team Role Play
1. In your groups, choose an organizational change
activity as listed below.
2. Now revisit “Images of Change and Understanding the
Pressures.” Each person in your group must choose
one of those images of managing change and will play
that role.
3. Your group is now in a senior management board
meeting. You are discussing an agenda item at the
request of the chairperson of your board, who wants
to know why the organization is going through the
change that you have identified.
4. Debate how you will respond to the chairperson’s
request, with members of your group (board) playing
their role based on the change management image
that they have selected.
5. When you have decided how you are going to respond
to the chair’s request, consider the following
questions:
 Did one of your images better explain the
rationale for change than the others, and why?
 On reflection, what criteria did you use for
making this judgment with regard to the
comparative advantage of a particular image?
 Is there an image with which you personally
have a particular affinity or preference? Why?
What would it take for you to change that
preference?
Image
Understanding the Pressures for Change
Director
Change is a result of strategic pressure, entering new markets, or
correcting an internal problem to improve efficiencies. These
pressures are controllable, and the management task is to direct
the organizational response.
Navigator
Change results from strategic threats and opportunities and from
the need to deal with internal problems. However, the best
response may not be obvious, given the many and often
conflicting priorities that management faces and the range of
influences and competing interests that need to be considered.
Caretaker
There are many pressures for change, and managers cannot
control this agenda. External pressures arise from new
regulations or market conditions, for example. Internal pressures
can be triggered by growth or operational innovations. These
pressures can be overwhelming and difficult to resist. The role of
management, as caretakers, is to look after the organization as it
is buffeted by these pressures, having limited choice in the
actions that need to be taken in response.
Coach
The pressures for change are constant. They arise from the need
to coordinate teamwork, values, and mindsets and to generate
the collaboration that leads to improved organizational outcomes.
Change pressures are therefore continuous and developmental
and help to shape the organization’s capabilities to respond to
further change and to further improve performance.
Interpreter Given the many internal and external pressures for change, staff
members need management to provide meaning, to help
understand “what is going on.” Those who will be affected need
to understand the significance of their roles, what needs to
happen and why, and where the organization is heading.
Managers must help to make sense of changes. This is a
sensemaking role, providing clarity and contributing to individual
identity and to organizational commitment.
Nurturer
Organizations change as a result of a variety of forces, some
weak, some strong. The weaker pressures, however, can have a
disproportionate impact on the organization. These pressures
may not all be rational but may instead be chaotic and difficult to
coordinate. The management role, therefore, is to nurture or to
develop the organization’s adaptive capacity to respond to those
challenges.
TABLE 3.1 Images of Change and Understanding the Pressures
Table Summary: Table divided into two columns summarizes images of
change and understanding the pressures. The column headers are marked
from left to right as: image and understanding the pressures for change.
Change scenario (choose 1)
1. You are now in the middle of the pandemic. Infection
rates are at 5,000 per day. You run a call centre and
your chairman asks you to ensure all staff comes to
work and answer the calls that support the pandemic.
2. You work for Apple. Your chairman asks your team to
develop a new phone with ground-breaking features
that aims to out-beat Samsung.
3. You operate a factory. Your chairman asks you to install
a new technology that will replace manual labour by
10% whilst it will improve efficiency by 50%. All factory
workers will need to be trained to cope with the new
technology.
4. Your company is growing really fast with sky-rocketing
sales. To cope with the growth, you need to hire 100
staff. You are asked to create a series of corporate
stories to create a positive image of the company.