Steven E. Phelan,
November 2008
• Change is a risky activity
• Many organizational changes fail or do not
realize their intended outcomes (50-70%).
• This raises the question of why change is so
prevalent?
• Pressure to change comes from:
• External, environmental pressures
• Internal, organizational pressures
Pressure
Market decline
pressures
Hypercompetition
pressures
Reputation and
credibility
pressures
Examples
Description
Harley Davidson
When current markets that the
organization operates in begin to decline
there is pressure to find newer, more
viable markets.
Intel
This affects the way organizations
respond to their consumers and their
competitors to cater for the increasingly
rapid pace of business.
Walt Disney
Company
In light of recent corporate governance
scandals in organizations, the pressure to
maintain a good reputation and high level
of credibility has increased.
Pressure
Fashion
pressures
Mandated
pressures
Geopolitical
pressures
Examples
Description
Boeing Co.
This is based on mimetic isomorphism –
imitating companies that are legitimate
and successful
Chevron Texaco
This is based on coercive isomorphism –
when change is demanded by outside
sources.
3M
This is when global crises greatly impact
an organization and change is necessary
for survival.
Pressure
Growth pressures
Integration and
collaboration
pressures
Identity pressures
Examples
Description
Microsoft
Existing systems and processes in a
smaller organization may no longer be
applicable when the size of the organization
increases.
EDS
Integration and creating economies of scale
can lead to pressure for change in
organizations.
Forte Hotel
A common organizational identity and the
unified commitment of staff in different
areas/departments of an organization can
be difficult to manage and may encourage
change.
Pressure
New broom
pressures
Power and
political
pressures
Examples
Description
UNLV
New authority figures in an organization can
herald a new era and often signal significant
changes an organization in an organization.
Morgan
Stanley
Power relationships and politicking can
change internal processes and decision
making. This has significant flow on effects
within the organization.
• Take five minutes to personally
answer these questions:
• Have you (or someone you know) ever
experienced organizational change?
• What was your view of the change?
• What did others think of the change?
• Who were the change champions? How
did they behave?
• Perform the following activities in your
group:
• Share your stories with members of your
group
• What are the common issues?
• What are the differences?
• Are there “lessons” embedded in these
stories?
• What three conclusions do you draw from
these stories about managing change?
• Controlling…
– Top-down view of management
– Fayol’s theory of management: planning,
organizing, commanding, coordinating and
controlling.
• Shaping…
– Participative style of management
– Improving the capabilities of people within
the organization
• Intended Change:
– Change is a result of planned action
• Partially Intended Change:
– Change may need to be re-modified after it
is initially implemented
• Unintended Change:
– Forces beyond the control of the change
manager
Images of Managing
Controlling . . . Shaping . . .
(activities)
(capabilities)
Images of
Change
Outcomes
Intended
DIRECTOR
COACH
Partially Intended
NAVIGATOR
INTERPRETER
Unintended
CARETAKER
NURTURER
Coach
Director
• Relies upon building in
• Based on an image of
the right set of values,
management as control
skills and “drills” that are
and of change outcomes
deemed to be the best
as being achievable.
ones that organizational
• Supported by the n-step
members will be able to
models and contingency
draw on in order to
achieve desired
theory.
organizational outcomes.
• Related to organizational
development approaches.
Navigator
Interpreter
• Control is still seen to be at • The manager creates
the heart of management
meaning for other
action, although a variety of
organizational members,
factors external to
helping them to make sense
managers mean that while
of various organizational
they may achieve some
events and actions.
intended change outcomes, • Supported by the senseothers will occur over which
making theory of
they have little control.
organizational change and
• Supported by the
concept of ‘enactment’
contextualist and
processual theories of
change.
Nurturer
Caretaker
• Even small changes may
• The change manager’s
have a large impact on
ability to control is
organizations and
severely impeded by a
managers are not able to
variety of internal and
control the outcome of
external forces beyond
these changes. However,
the scope of the
they may nurture their
manager. The caretaker
organizations, facilitating
is seen as shepherding
organizational qualities
their organizations along
that enable positive selfas best they can.
organizing to occur.
• Supported by life-cycle, • Related to chaos and
population-ecology and
Confucian/Taoist theories.
institutional theories.
• To what extent are you more comfortable with one or
other of the six images?
• Why is this the case?
• What are the strengths and limitations of the images
that you have identified as most relevant to you?
• What skills do you think are associated with each
image?
• Are there areas of personal skill development that are
needed for you to feel more comfortable in using other
images?
• Have you ever been in an organization that was
dominated by particular images?
• What barriers to alternative images existed in this
organization? What strategies could overcome these
barriers?
• Surfacing our assumptions about change
• Images simplify & illuminate but also obscure
• Assessing dominant images of change
• To what degree are some images seen as natural
and not open to negotiation in certain
organizations
• Using multiple images in change
• Image-in-use might depend on the type of
change
• Image-in-use might depend on the context
• Image-in-use might depend on the phase of
change
• Multiple change images can also co-exist
• Skilled change managers are able to swap images or
even manage multiple images simultaneously
• Typical questions about change:
•
•
•
•
Was it managed well?
What went right?
What went wrong?
Did we get the outcome we were after?
• Do these questions assume a certain image of
change?
• How does each image assess success?
• Which images have “non-traditional” success
measures?
• “Judgments of success are conditional on who is
doing the assessment and when the judgments are
made” Is this true?
• Take your group’s stories from earlier in
the day
• Which images of change did you come
across?
• How did these images affect the way the
various actors approached change?
• Do the images used vary by the type,
context, or phase of change?
• What broad conclusions can you form?
• Questions:
• Which of the six change images were held by:
• Gunter?
• The hospitality literature?
• The consultant?
• How did these assumptions influence prescriptions
for dealing with “the turnover problem”
• What does it mean to say the problem was ‘dissolved’?
• Choose another change image and apply it to “the
turnover problem” What new insights arise?
• Does considering different images of change help
us (I hesitate to add ‘solve the problem’)?
• The goal of change management is to dupe
slow-witted employees into thinking change is
good for them by appealing to their sense of
adventure and love of challenge
• This is like convincing a trout to leap out of a
stream to experience the adventure of getting
deboned
Active signs of resistance
Passive signs of resistance
• Being critical
• Agreeing verbally but not
• Finding fault
following through (“malicious
• Ridiculing
compliance”)
• Failing to implement change
• Appealing to fear
• Procrastinating or dragging
• Using facts selectively
one’s feet
• Blaming or accusing
• Feigning ignorance
• Sabotaging
• Withholding information,
• Intimidating or
suggestions, help, or support
threatening
• Standing by and allowing
change to fail
• Manipulating
• Distorting facts
•Which of the various ways of resisting
• Blocking
change are the most common?
• Undermining.
•Which are the most difficult to deal with?
• Starting rumors
• Arguing
• Dislike of change
• People don’t resist change, they resist pain!
• Boredom can be pain, too.
• Discomfort with uncertainty
• Low tolerance for ambiguity
• Perceived negative effects of interests
• Authority, status, rewards, salary, social ties
• Attachment to the established culture/ways of
doing things
• Perceived breach of psychological contract
• Lack of conviction that change is needed
• Lack of clarity as to what is needed
• Belief that the specific change being proposed is
inappropriate
• Belief that the timing is wrong
• Excessive change
• Cumulative effects of other changes in one’s life
• Perceived clash with ethics
• Reaction to the experience of previous changes
• Disagreement with the way the change is being
managed
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Security
Money
Authority
Status/prestige
Responsibility
Better working conditions
Self-satisfaction
Better personal contacts
Less time and effort
• The classic steps:
• Education and communication
• Participation and involvement
• Facilitation and support
• Beyond the classic steps:
• Negotiation and agreement
• Manipulation and cooptation
• Explicit and implicit coercion
• The Paula Story
• Does a successful change manager needs
skills in all six areas?
• Where do you need development?
• Resistance is a natural (even necessary)
psychological stage in any change:
•
•
•
•
Denial
/
Resistance /
Exploration /
Commitment /
Shock
Anger
Mourning
Acceptance
• Do we just ‘let nature take its course’ then?
• Can people get stuck in a stage?
• Use the power of resistance to build support
• Showing respect towards resistors creates stronger
relationships and thereby improves the prospects of
success
• Fundamental touchstones
•
•
•
•
•
Maintain clear focus
Embrace resistance
Respect those who resist (assume good faith)
Relax
Join with the resistance
• Look for points of commonality
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Use power
Manipulate those who oppose
Apply force of reason
Ignore resistance
Play off relationships
Make deals
Kill the messenger
Give in
• Contingency approaches challenge the view
that there is “one best way”
• The style of change will vary, depending upon the
scale of the change and the receptivity of
organizational members for engaging in the
change.
• Kotter and Schlesinger recommend changing
tactics according to the:
• Amount and kind of resistance anticipated
• The position and power of the change agent
• The personality of the person designing and implementing the
change
• The time available and the consequences of failure
• Which approach to the management of
resistance attracts you? Why?
• Task
• Develop a formal integration plan (with
decisions on branch closures, systems
conversion, product alignment, layoffs,
and communication strategy) that will
maximize shareholder value while
keeping as much support as possible
from the stakeholders at the two banks
and external organizations.
• 10 minutes = 1 news cycle = 1 day
NORTHERN BANK
CEO
Heather
CIO
Henry
VP-HR
Seth
VP-Retail Banking
Ed
SOUTHERN BANK
CEO
Allison
CIO
Maureen
VP-HR
Paul
VP-Retail Banking
Kim
• Other Roles
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Change Manager: Tod
Journalist: Lorri
Union Organizer: Anita
State Regulator: Keith
Admin Assistant: Scott
EastWest Bank: Brian
Largest Customer: Kris
Branch Employee: Jocylene
Donna Dubinsky