Change in organizations
dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat
Institute of Administrative Studies
University of Wrocław
Change in organizations
The analyses of structure, power,
leadership, decision making and
communication have shown that
organizations are dynamic. In
other words, organizations
change.
Change for the better. Change
can be beneficial and bring
growth.
Change for the worse. Change
can be detrimental and bring
decline or even an organizational
death: organization ceases to
exist. Organizational death may
also be the result of not
introducing changes.
An important type of change
is the innovation.
dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat
Change in organizations
Definition of organizational change
Jerald Hage (born 1932): Organizational change can be
defined as the alteration and transformation of the form so
as to survive better in the environment.
This definition of organizational change is a good one, with the major
exception that it overlooks organizational goals in this formulation of
change.


Analyses of organizations that do not include goals are shortsighted
since organizations engage in many activities and make many decisions
that are not related to survival in the environment but are related to
goals. Therefore one should make a distinction between:
environmentally-based changes (stressed by J. Hage)
goal-based changes
dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat
Change in organizations
The potential for change
 forces for change

forces against change
We must not allow the clock and the calendar
to blind us to the fact
that each moment of life is a miracle and mystery.
Herbert George Wells
If you don't like something, change it;
if you can't change it, change the way you think about it.
Mary Engelbreit
Change your thoughts and you change your world.
Norman Vincent Peale
dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat
Change in organizations
John Child, Alfred Kieser:
Organizations are constantly changing. Movements
in external conditions such as competition, innovation,
public demand, and governmental policy require that
new strategies, methods of working, and outputs be
devised for an organization merely to continue at its
present level of operations.
Internal factors also promote change in that managers
and other members of an organization may seek not just
its maintenance but also its growth, in order to secure
improved benefits and satisfaction for themselves.
dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat
Change in organizations
Systemic obstacles to change (obstacles within the
overall system in which organizations operate):

sunk costs

investments in the status quo
official constraints on behavior
unofficial constraints on behavior
interorganizational agreements



lack of resources
 mental blinders (this happens as personnel are
selected and trained to do what was done in the past in
the manner in which it was done in the past)

dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat
Change in organizations
Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527), The Prince
One should consider that there is nothing more
difficult to accomplish nor more perilous to
conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than
to take the lead in the introduction of a new
order of things. This is true because those that
are pleased with an old order of things will be
against the reformer while those whose situation
could be changed for the better will be, at best,
his cautious friends.
dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat
Change in organizations
Punctuated equilibrium
Michael L. Tushman, E. Romanelli:
Michael L. Tushman
Organizations go through relatively long
periods of stability. These are punctuated by
short periods or bursts of fundamental
change, which are in turn followed by
another period of stability.
Connie J.G. Gersick: Despite all systemic obstacles to change organizations
do change. They sustain pressure that lead to both inertia and adaptability.
dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat
Change in organizations
Learning organizations. The concept has been offered
mainly by Chris Argyris, Donald Schon i Peter Senge.
Peter Senge:
Learning organizations [are]
organizations where:
• people continually expand their
capacity to create the results
they truly desire
• new and expansive patterns of
thinking are nurtured
• collective aspiration is set free
Donald Schon
(1930-1997)
Chris Argyris
(born 1923)
people are continually learning
to see the whole together
•
Peter Senge
(born 1947)
dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat
Change in organizations
Change process
Organizational change process
can be described with the aid of
the life-cycle concept and
terminology.
Nota bene the biological analogy
is potentially confusing:
there is only one method
of human conception, whilst
organizations can be created by
entrepreneurs, by legislatures,
by other organizations, and so
on

organizations can, at least
hypothetically, last indefinitely

dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat
Change in organizations
Organizational life cycle



organizational birth (founding/formation)
transformations

adaptation to
the environment

cooperation and agreements with
other organizations

movement into new areas
of activity

change of management

accidental changes
organizational death

blind to see the signs of decline

recognizes the need for change but
takes no action

actions are taken, but they are not
appropriate

crisis

dissolution
dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat
Change in organizations
Innovation in organizations
John R. Kimberly: An innovation is
a departure from existing practices
or technologies and represents
a significant departure from
the state of the art at the time
it appears.
Forms of innovation in organizations:

programmed innovation

non-programmed innovation
distressed innovation (forced on the
organization)

dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat
Change in organizations
Gerald Zaltman, Robert Duncan Jonny Holbek
Characteristics of an innovation that make it more or less
attractive and thus more or less likely to be utilized by an
organization:

cost (the economic cost and the social cost)

return on investment

efficiency

risk and uncertainty

communicability (the clarity of the results)
compatibility (the more compatible the innovation is with the
existing system, the more likely it is to be adopted; this implies
that organizations are likely to be conservative in their
innovations or technological policies, since what is compatible is
unlikely to be radical)

dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat
Change in organizations
complexity (more complex innovations are less likely to be
adopted; again this is a strain toward conservatism)

scientific status (if an innovation is perceived to have sound
scientific status, it is more likely to be adopted)


perceived relative advantage
point of origin (innovations are more likely to be adopted if
they originate within the organization)

terminality (this involves the timing of the innovation: in
some cases an innovation is worthwhile only if it is adopted at
a particular time or in particular sequence in the organization’s
operations)


status quo ante (this refers to whether or not the decision to
innovate is reversible)
dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat
Change in organizations

commitment

interpersonal relations
publicness versus privateness (if an innovation is likely to
affect a large part of the public, it will typically involve a larger
decision-making body than an innovation that is limited to a
private party; the larger decision-making body will tend to
impede adoption)

gatekeepers (this refers to the number of steps of approval
an innovation must pass through)


susceptibility to successive modification
gateway capacity (the adoption of one innovation or the
development of a technological policy is likely to lead to the
capacity to involve the organization in additional such actions)

gateway innovations (this refers to the fact that some
innovations, even small changes in an organization’s structure,
can pave the way for additional innovations)

dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat
Change in organizations
Characteristics of the innovating organization.
Jerald Hage and Michael Aiken have found that the following
organizational characteristics are related to high levels of innovation:
high complexity in the professional training of organizational
members
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high decentralization of power

low formalization
low stratification in the differential distribution of rewards (if high
stratification is present, those with high rewards are likely to resist
change)


low emphasis on volume (as opposed to quality) of production

low emphasis on efficiency in the cost of production or service

high level of job satisfaction on the part of organizational members
dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat
Concluding remark
We change, whether we like it or not.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat