Knowledge Objectives
1. Explain how organizations and individuals
respond to change
2. Explain how management can reduce
resistance to change.
3. Describe why unfreezing-changerefreezing is important for OD
4. Identify and describe conflict resolution
techniques, and elements of effective
negotiation
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Change: Organizational
Perspectives
• Types of Organizational Change
– Anticipatory changes: planned changes based
on expected situations.
– Reactive changes: changes made in response to
unexpected situations.
– Incremental changes: subsystem adjustments
required to keep the organization on course.
– Strategic changes: altering the overall shape or
direction of the organization.
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Change: Organizational
Perspectives (cont’d)
• Tuning
– The most common, least intense, and least risky
type of change - basic routines are unchanged.
– Also known as preventive maintenance and kaizen
(continuous improvement).
– Key is to actively anticipate and avoid problems
rather than waiting for something to go wrong.
• Adaptation
– Incremental changes that are in reaction to external
problems, events, or pressures.
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Change: Organizational
Perspectives (cont’d)
• Reorientation
– Change that is anticipatory and strategic in scope
and causes the organization to be significantly
redirected.
– Also called “frame bending” (Nadler and
Tushman).
• Re-Creation
– Intense and risky decisive change that reinvents the
organization.
– Also called “frame breaking” (Nadler and
Tushman).
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Individual Reactions to Change
• How People Respond to Changes They Like
– Three-stage process
• Unrealistic optimism
• Reality shock
• Constructive direction
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Individual Reactions to Change (cont’d)
• How People Respond to Changes They Fear
and Dislike
– Stages
•
•
•
•
•
Getting off on the wrong track
Laughing it off
Growing self-doubt
Buying in
Constructive direction
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Why Do Employees
Resist Change?
• Surprise
– Unannounced significant changes threaten
employees’ sense of balance in the workplace.
• Inertia
– Employees have a desire to maintain a safe,
secure, and predictable status quo.
• Misunderstanding and lack of skills
– Without introductory or remedial training,
change may be perceived negatively.
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Why Do Employees
Resist Change? (cont’d)
• Emotional Side Effects
– Forced acceptance of change can create a sense of
powerlessness, anger, and passive resistance to
change.
• Lack of Trust
– Promises of improvement mean nothing if
employees do not trust management.
• Fear of Failure
– Employees are intimidated by change and doubt
their abilities to meet new challenges.
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Why Do Employees
Resist Change? (cont’d)
• Personality Conflicts
– Managers who are disliked by their managers
are poor conduits for change.
• Poor Timing
– Other events can conspire to create resentment
about a particular change.
• Lack of Tact
– No showing sensitivity to feelings can create
resistance to change.
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Why Do Employees
Resist Change? (cont’d)
• Threat to Job Status/Security
– Employees worry that any change may threaten
their job or security.
• Breakup of Work Group
– Changes can tear apart established on-the-job
social relationships.
• Competing Commitments
– Change can disrupt employees in their pursuit
of other goals.
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Overcoming Resistance
to Change
• Strategies for Overcoming Resistance to
Change
–
–
–
–
–
–
Education and communication
Participation and involvement
Facilitation and support
Negotiation and agreement
Manipulation and co-optation
Explicit and implicit coercion
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Making Change Happen
• Two Approaches to Organization Change
– Organization Development (OD)
• Formal top-down approach
– Grassroots Change
• An unofficial and informal bottom-up approach
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Planned Change Through
Organization Development (OD)
• Organization development (OD)
– Planned change programs intended to help
people and organizations function more
effectively.
– Applying behavioral science principles,
methods, and theories to create and cope with
change.
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Planned Change Through
Organization Development (OD)
(cont’d)
• Objectives of OD
– Deepen sense of organizational purpose.
– Strengthen interpersonal trust.
– Encourage problem solving rather than avoidance.
– Develop a satisfying work experience.
– Supplement formal authority with knowledge and
skill-based authority.
– Increase personal responsibility for planning and
implementing.
– Encourage willingness to change.
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Planned Change Through
Organization Development
(OD) (cont’d)
• The OD Process
– Unfreezing, change, refreezing (Kurt Lewin)
• Unfreezing: neutralizing resistance by preparing
people for change.
• Refreezing: systematically following a change
program for lasting results.
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Unofficial and Informal
Grassroots Change
• Tempered Radicals
– People who quietly try to change the dominant
organizational culture in line with their
convictions.
– Guidelines for tempered radicals
•
•
•
•
Think small for big results.
Be authentic.
Translate.
Don’t go it alone.
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Managing Conflict
• Dealing with the Two Faces of Conflict
– Competitive conflict: parties are pursuing
directly opposite (win-lose) goals.
– Cooperative conflict: a mutually reinforcing
experience (win-win) that serves the best
interests of both parties.
• Conflict Triggers
– Conflict trigger: any factor that increases the
chances of conflict.
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Managing Conflict (cont’d)
• Types of Conflict Triggers (cont’d)
–
–
–
–
–
Ambiguous or overlapping jurisdictions.
Competition for scarce resources.
Communication breakdowns.
Time pressure.
Unreasonable standards, rule, policies, or
procedures.
– Personality clashes.
– Status differentials.
– Unrealized expectations.
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Managing Conflict (cont’d)
• Resolving Conflict: Conflict Resolution
Techniques
–
–
–
–
–
Problem solving
Superordinate goals
Compromise
Forcing
Smoothing
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Organizational Politics
• What Does Organizational Politics Involve?
– The pursuit of self-interest at work in the face
of real or imagined opposition.
• Effects of Organizational Politics
– Hinders organizational and individual
effectiveness.
– Is an irritant to employees.
– Can have significant ethical implications.
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Organizational Politics (cont’d)
• Research on Organizational Politics
– The perception that the higher the level of
management, the greater amount of politics.
– The larger the organization, the greater the politics.
– Staff personnel are more political than line managers.
– Marketing people are the most political; production
people were considered the least political.
– 61% of employees believed organizational politics
helps advance one’s career.
– 45% of employees believed that organizational politics
detracts from organizational goals.
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Organizational Politics (cont’d)
• Political Tactics
– Posturing: “One upmanship” and taking credit
for others work.
– Empire building: gaining control over human
and material resources.
– Making the supervisor look good: engaging in
“apple polishing.”
– Collecting and using social IOUs: exchanging
reciprocal political favors by making someone
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look good or covering up their mistakes.
Organizational Politics (cont’d)
• Political Tactics
– Creating power and loyalty cliques: facing
superiors as a cohesive group rather than alone.
– Engaging in destructive competition:
sabotaging the work of others through character
assassination.
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Organizational Politics (cont’d)
• Antidotes to Political Behavior
– Strive for a climate of openness and trust.
– Measure performance results rather than
personalities.
– Encourage top management to refrain from political
behaviors.
– Strive to integrate individual and organizational
goals through meaningful work and career planning.
– Practice job rotation to encourage broader
perspectives and understanding of the problems of
others.
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Negotiating
• Negotiation
– A decision-making process among
interdependent parties with different
preferences.
• Common Types of Negotiation
– Two-party negotiation (e.g., buyer and seller)
– Third party negotiation (e.g., agents and
arbitrators)
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Negotiating (cont’d)
• Elements of Negotiation
– Adopting a win-win attitude
• Understanding that mutual beneficial agreement
addresses the both parties’ interests.
– Knowing your BTNA (best alternative to a
negotiated agreement)
• Your “bottom line” for accepting or rejecting offers.
– Identifying the Bargaining Zone
• Negotiation is useless if both parties involved have
no common ground on which to maneuver during
bargaining.
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Negotiating (cont’d)
• Added Value Negotiating (AVN)
– A practical five-step win-win process involving
development of multiple deals.
• Clarify subjective and objective interests; seeking common
ground.
• Identify options and their marketplace values.
• Design alternative deal packages that foster a creative
agreement.
• Select a mutually acceptable deal that is most feasible for both
parties.
• Perfect the deal by hammering out unresolved details.
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