Chapter 16
Organizational Change
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What Are the Forces Acting as
Stimulants to Organizational Change?
• Evolving nature of workforce
• Technological advances
• Economic shocks
• Heightened competition
• Social and consumer trends
• World politics and globalization
2
Individual Barriers to Change (textbook’s)
• Habits
• Need for security
• Economic fears
• Fear of unknown
• Selective information processing
3
Individual Barriers to Change (M. Stevens’)
• Cognitive barriers (knowing)
- Limited mental models
- Self-awareness biases
• Skill-set barriers (doing)
• Affective barriers (feeling)
• Character/values barriers (being)
4
Organizational Barriers to Change
• Structural inertia
• Limited focus of change (no “systems” view)
• Group inertia and constraints
• Threats to specialized expertise
• Threats to established power relationships
• Threats to established resource allocations
5
Dealing With Resistance
• Change agents/champions
• Education and communication
• Participation and involvement
• Building emotional commitment
• Implementation with fairness
• Cooptation and manipulation
• Better selection on front end
• Explicit and implicit coercion
6
Lewin’s Force Field Analysis
Unfreezing
Changing
Refreezing
7
Kotter’s Eight Step Process
1. Create urgency
5. Empower others
2. Form coalition
3. Create new vision
4. Communicate the
vision
6. Reward “wins”
7. Consolidate
improvements
Movement
Refreezing
Unfreezing
8. Reinforce the change
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Organizational Development
A collection of planned-change interventions that seek to improve
organizational effectiveness and employee well-being.
Based on humanistic & democratic values:
- Respect for people
- Trust and support
- Power equalization
- Confrontation
- Participation
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Typical OD Interventions
• Sensitivity Training
- Changing behavior through unstructured group interaction
• Survey Feedback
- Gathering data and acting on it
• Process Consultation
- Using outside consultants
• Appreciative Inquiry
- Discovering what the organization does right
10
Creating a Culture for Change
Innovation: New ideas applied to initiating or
improving a product, process, or service.
Sources:
- Structural: Highly communicative, organic structures,
slack resources, and managers with long tenure.
- Cultural: Encourage experimentation, reward both
successes and failures, and celebrate mistakes.
- Human Resources: Actively promote training and
development, offer high levels of job security, and use
change/idea champions.
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Idea Champions
Champions: People who actively and enthusiastically
promote an idea, build support, overcome resistance,
and ensure that innovation is implemented.
These people:
– Have high self-confidence, persistence, energy;
– Have high tolerance for risk;
– Use inspiration and vision to gain commitment;
– Have decision-making discretion.
12
Contemporary Issues
A. Technology in the Workplace
B. Work Stress
C. Creating Learning Organizations
13
A. Technology in the Workplace
Continuous Improvement Process:
- Goal is constant reduction in variability
- Uniformity results in lower costs, higher quality, and
increased stress
Process Reengineering:
- How you would do things if you could start over
from scratch
- Very stressful for everyone
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B. Work Stress
Stress: A dynamic condition in which an individual is
confronted with an opportunity, constraint, or demand
related to what is desired and for which the outcome
is perceived to be both uncertain and important.
Two types of stress:
• Challenge Stress: Typically improves performance
• Hindrance Stress: Comes from obstacles to achieving
goals (mostly negative).
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Strategies for Managing Stress
Organizational
Personal
• Employee Selection
• Counseling
• Org. Communication
• Time Management
• Goal-setting Programs
• Physical Activity
• Job Redesign
Note: Managers have no direct control over personal
(or life) stressors and as a result should be aware that
there are ethical considerations about intruding into
employees’ personal lives.
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C. Creating a Learning Organization
An idealized organization that has developed the
continuous capacity to adapt and change.
Types of Learning:
– Single-Loop: Error correction process that relies on
past routines and present policies.
– Double-Loop: Errors are corrected in ways that
involve modification of the organization’s objectives,
policies and standard routines (typically used by
learning organizations).
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Five Basic Characteristics of a
Learning Organization
People in a learning organization:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Are willing to put aside old ways of thinking;
Learn to be open with each other;
Understand how the organization really works;
Form plans or visions that everyone agrees on;
Work together to achieve that plan or vision.
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Learning Organizations...
• Solve three fundamental problems of traditional
organizations:
- Fragmentation (due to functional silos)
- Competition (overemphasis undermines collaboration)
- Reactiveness (“firefighting”)
• To Manage the Learning Process:
- Proactively establish a strategy
- Redesign the organization’s structure
- Reshape the organization’s culture
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