Assignment: Organizational Change

Submitted To: Dr. Sadia Farooq

Submitted By: Anam Zaid
Amina Zulfiqar
Nosheen Kanwal
Maria Rehman

M. Phil 1st semester

Organizational Change (OC)

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Introduction:
The topic of organizational change has a rich and varied history. It is the domain
of the entire discipline of organizational development and has featured
prominently in discussions of organizational behavior and organization theory
throughout their respective histories. Typically, the concept of organizational
change is in regard to organization-wide change, as opposed to smaller changes
such as adding a new person, modifying a program, etc.

The final goal of the change management is the long term sustainability of the
organization. Organizational change simply means to change the activities of the
organization.

Example of OC:
Examples of Organizational Change might include;

 Change in mission
 Restructuring operations
 New technologies
 Mergers, major collaborations, "rightsizing"
 New programs such as TQM, re-engineering,
 Culture of the organization
 Change of employees
 Rules and Procedures
 Recruitment and Selection
 Design of Jobs
 Method of Appraisal and HR Techniques
 Physical Environment of the Organization

Definitions:

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  “Organizational Change is about the process of

changing an organization's strategies, processes,

procedures, technologies, and culture.”

 “The process by which organizations move from

their present state to some desired future state
to increase their effectiveness.”

 OD refers to a long-range effort to improve an

organization’s problem-solving capabilities and
its ability to cope with changes in its external
environment with the help of external or
internal behavioral-scientist consultants.

Quotation:

Q.1) what are different factors that may lead (motivate/force)

organizations to bring change?

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Many factors cause change in an organization. It's important to recognize
that change is not only OK, it's essential. The best organizations create
structures and build processes that encourage change. Here are a few
essential types of change that every organization should allow for and
should include the structures and processes which cause and encourage
the changes.

There are many factors that cause the change in organizations.

Broadly these are categories in two Factors.

1. External Factors
 Technological Changes
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  Economic Changes
 Customers Needs & Wants Changes
 Social Changes
 Political & Legal changes
 Growth Opportunities
 Mergers & Acquisitions
 Change in Trade Policies
 Globalization
 Competition

2. Internal Factors
 Change in Managerial Personnel
 Deficiency in Existing Organization
 Nature of Work-Force
 Change in MGT. Polices
 Change in Procedures
 Structural Change
 Change in Strategies
 End of Product Life Cycle

1.External Factors:
External Factors that may lead an organization to change are as follows;

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 Technological Changes:
 Change that results from the adoption of new technology is common
in most organizations and while it can be disruptive at first,
ultimately the change tends to increase productivity and service
Technology also has affected how we communicate.
 When there is a change in technology in the organizational
environment and other organizations adopt the new technology, the
organizations under focus become less cost effective and its
competitive position weakens.
 Today’s communication technology represents changes that allow
organizations to learn more, more quickly, than ever before.
 Therefore, it has to adopt new technology, its work structure is
affected and a new equilibrium has to be established.

 Economic Changes:
 The economy can impact organizations in both positive and negative
ways and both can be stressful.
 A strong economy and increasing demand for products and services
will mean that companies must consider expansion that might
involve the addition of staff and new facilities.
 These changes offer opportunities for staff, but also represent new
challenges.
 A weak economy can create even more problems as companies find
themselves needing to make difficult decisions that can impact
employee’s salaries and benefits and even threaten their jobs.

 Social Changes:
 Social changes reflect in terms of people’s aspirations, the needs, and
their ways of working. Social changes have taken place because of

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 the several forces like level of education, urbanization, feeling of
autonomy, and international impact due to new information sources.
 These social changes affect the behavior of people in the
organization.
 There, it is required to make adjustment in its working so that it
matches with people.

 Customers Needs & Wants Changes:

Customer
“Customer is the person who buys your product.”
“Customer is the BOSS”
 As the world evolves, customer needs change and grow, creating
new demand for new types of products and services -- and opening
up new areas of opportunity for companies to meet those needs.
 Since every organization exports its outputs to the environment, an
organization has to face competition in the market.
 Similarly, there may be changes in buyers in terms of their needs,
liking –disliking and income disposal for a product. These changes
from the organizations to bring those products which meet buyer’s
requirement.

 Political and Legal Changes:

 Political and legal factors broadly define the activities which an
organization can undertake and the methods which will be followed
by it in accomplishing those activities.
 Any changes in these political and legal factors may affect the
organization operation.

 Growth Opportunities:
 Desire to Grow is another important factor triggers organization to
constantly align with the latest innovations/ change. The

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 Organization / business that continue to survive and even thrive are
usually the ones that most readily adapt to change.
 Change is important in organizations to allow employees to learn
new skills, explore new opportunities and exercise their creativity in
ways that ultimately benefit the organization through new ideas and
increased commitment.
 Preparing employees to deal with these changes involves an analysis
of the tools and training required to help them learn new skills.

 Mergers & Acquisitions:

Merger
“A merger is an agreement that unites two existing companies into one
new company.”
Ex: Pakistan Stock Exchange came into existence of merging three Stock
Exchanges (KSE, LSE, and ISE) in January 2016.

Acquisitions
“An acquisition is a corporate action in which a company buys another
company or its any part.”

 When two companies come together, it re-creates their very

structures. The acquiring organization may wish to cut its expenses
and reallocate some resources to new products or services. Basically,
this change can involve reducing the amount of workers or altering
the nature of staff jobs.
 Companies that successfully merge different internal leadership
models, business models and cultures will prosper.
 When companies do Mergers and Acquisitions, they have to change
some of their activities to continue their operations.
 Change in Trade Policies:
Trade Policy

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 “Trade policy refers to the regulations and agreements that control
imports and exports to foreign countries.”

Trade Agreements:

 GATT
 NAFTA
 APEC
 WB
 IMF
 When there is change in Trade Policies, and Trade Agreements,
companies’ change their activities according to those policies.

 Globalization:
“Globalization may be defined as the integration of the world's people,
firms and government.”

 From the business perspective, one effect of globalization is that of

expanded markets. 
 While the economy and the global environment often play roles in
forcing you to make changes within your company, the results can be
positive.
 Forced changes afford opportunities that you may have overlooked
in the past.
 They can lead to increased performance, higher employee morale,
and, ultimately, greater profits for you and your business.
 The way you respond to the changing global economy impacts your
chance of survival and success in that environment.

 Competition:

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 "Competition is the rivalry among sellers trying to achieve such goals as
increasing profits, market share, and sales volume by varying the elements of
the marketing mix: price, product, promotion and place.”

 To be successful, remain competitive is the key by adopting the latest

and innovative practices suited to individual organizations.
 For survival, competition is very important.
 As the competitors move to new technology, new featured products,
other companies also adopt that change to survive in the market.

Internal Factors
Internal Factors that may lead to change in organizations are as follows;

 Change in Managerial Personnel:

Personnel
“People employed in an organization or engaged in an organized
undertaking.”

 Besides environmental changes there is a change in managerial

personnel. Old managers are replaced by new mangers, which
necessitated because of retirement, promotion, transfer or dismissal.
 Each new manager brings his own ideas and way of working in the
organization.
 The relationships, more particularly informal ones, changes because
of changes in managerial personnel. 
 Moreover, attitude of the personnel change even though there is no
changes in them. The result in that an organization has to change
accordingly.

 Deficiency in Existing Organization:

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  Sometimes, changes are necessary because of deficiency in the present
organizational arrangement ad process.
 These deficiencies may be in the form of;
 Unmanageable Span of Management
 Large Number of Managerial Levels
 Lack in Co-ordination between Various Departments
 Obstacles in Communication
 Multiplicity of Committees
 Lack of Uniformity in Policy Decisions
 Lack of Cooperation Between the Line and Staff, and so on.

 Nature of Work-Force:
 The nature of work force has changed over a passage of time. Different
work values have been expressed by different generations.
 The profile of the workforce is also changing fast. 
 The behavior has also become very complex and leading them towards
organizational goals is a challenge for the managers.
 The employee turnover is also very high which again put strain on the
management.

 Change in MGT. Polices:

Policies
“A set of policies are principles, rules, and guidelines formulated or
adopted by an organization to reach its long-term goals and typically
published in a booklet or other form that is widely accessible.”
 If there is a change in management policies, there must be a change
in organization as a whole.

 Change in Procedures:
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 Procedure
“A series of actions conducted in a certain order or manner.”

 When the managers decide to change its procedures of production,

organizational change happened.
 Procedures may be changed to adopt the changing things that are
happening in the market or in overall industry.
 Or it may be changed just to increase efficiency and effectiveness in the
organization.

 Structural Change:
There will come a time when an organization overhauls its administrative
strategies, in other words, the managers and human resources professionals
change the way they organize the business.

For example, they could introduce new methods of bookkeeping, such as going
from paper files to digital files. This would require massive retraining for all
employees involved. Even smaller-scale improvements, like updating software,
will still cause some change.

 Change In Strategies:

Strategy
“A plan of action designed to achieve a long-term or overall aim.”

Sometimes, a company may change its priorities.

For example, an organization might decide to move from focusing on a product to

focusing on a service. This will create a demand for new types of marketing and

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production, while at the same time requiring a shift in strategy. All of these
factors combined can trigger massive change.

 End of Product Life Cycle:

Product Life Cycle

“A new product progresses through a sequence of stages from introduction to
growth, maturity, and decline.”

 After some time, market demand for a company's product may diminish.
This will then cause the company's profits to drop, and ultimately force
the company to abandon the product for a newer source of revenue.
 In other words, when a product reaches the end of its life, the company
discontinues it and moves on to something new.

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Q 2. Identify and discuss various factors (reasons or challenges) responsible for
failing the change process.

Answer:

Factors responsible for failing the process change

 Lack of knowledge about the situation
Sometimes employees and managers do not have sufficient knowledge
about the situation which cause barrier in the process.
 Resistance to change by the employees or middle level managers
In every change process the employees cause resistance which lead
towards the failure of process. It needed to be understood and then
manage by managers.
 Lack of sound planning
Planning plays an important role in change management process if the
planning is not good then whole process will be fail.
 Complexity
Sometimes process is complex and difficult to understand. Often,
leaders are so focused on getting their “content” solution designed
that they dive right into the design phase of organizational change
without adequately doing the upfront planning work required. This
sets the effort up for failure right from the start.

 Competitive forces
Competition may also cause a hurdle to change process so it’s also very
necessary to understand and manage it.
 Lack of consensus
Lack of consensus of directors or managers also plays a role of barrier on
change management.
 Communication gap
Communication gaps between employees and managers also a very
important cause of failure of change management process.
 Risk and uncertainty
The fear of risk and uncertainty about their jobs, pays and insecurity also a
big barrier to change management process.
 Ineffective leadership

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 One could easily argue that this is the #1 cause of failed organizational
change. Why? Because every issue or problem within a given change
initiative either gets prevented, solved, or caused by the skill of the
change leaders in charge. And the truth is, we don’t adequately train
our leaders to become competent change leaders.
 Lack of employees involvement
 Unknown current state
 Lack of Resources
Lack of resources is one of the most common reasons why
organizational change fails in most organizations. Adoption and
sustainment of change are long term investments. They don’t occur
just because an awesome solution was designed.  If you don’t plan and
resource the latter phases of change, you’ll not realize the full benefits
you set out to achieve.
 Clear performance focus
Success comes from a tight, clear connection between change expectations
and business results. Failures come when an organization is overly focused
on activities, skills and culture, or structural changes without creating a
tight linkage to business results.
 A winning strategy
Projects & organizations succeed when the strategies play to strengths.
Failure happens when there is an overestimation of strength(s) and/or no
ability to document concrete ‘wins.’
 A compelling and urgent case for change
Success happens because there is a widely accepted ‘felt’ need for change.
Failure occurs when there is no demonstrated commitment to the need for
change. There is no clear ‘pain’ for remaining in the status quo.
 Specific change criteria
In successful efforts, the underlying performance criteria and change
requirements are clear, documented and not negotiable. If the ‘rules’ shift
or evolve or can be negotiated, failure follows.
 Distinction between decision-driven and behavior-dependent change
Some change can be ‘decided’ – restructuring, purchases, hires/fires, etc.
Other change is ‘behavior-dependent’ – skills development, new processes,
implementing new accountabilities, etc. Organizations that over ‘decide’
and underinvest in ‘behavior’ changes fail.

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 Structure and systems requirements
Structure and systems (particularly IT) changes may be required for change
but are almost always overused as either the answer or the excuse.
Overdependence on structure and systems results in confusion and sapped
energy, and is a great technique for stalling progress.
 Appropriate skills and resources
Successful change often demands new skills that are being created;
requiring some level of transition resources until new skills are fully
functional. Lack of the right talent (skills) and resources against an
opportunity is certain failure; yet organizations consistently repeat this
shortcoming.
 Mobilized and engaged pivotal groups
Organizations that succeed tap critical internal influencers to champion the
change and actively engage staff in driving the change. Getting beyond
basic change rhetoric requires a compelling employee value proposition
(“what’s in this for me,”) achievable goals, tools and shared information.
 Tight integration and alignment of all initiatives
Major change inevitably requires dozens of initiatives (strategy projects, re-
engineering efforts, training, leadership development, communications,
technical redesign, new measurements, etc.). The result is a massive
integration challenge. Failure results from locally and globally isolated
projects, cross-project conflicts, resource competition, and confusion as to
how projects do or don’t relate.
 Leader ability and willingness to change
The ceiling on any attempt to change at the project, department or
organization level is set at the leaders’ willingness to embrace and embody
the change. Whatever behaviors individual project or leader team members
cannot adopt, become effectively impossible for the organization.

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Q 3: What are different techniques or processes that are used by contemporary
businesses for ensuring smooth change management? Which of these, in your
opinion, is the most effective technique?

Answer:

There are many techniques used by managers for change management as

following:

1. Lewin’s approach
2. Kotter’s eight step approach
3. Action research
4. Top down approach
5. Conner’s eight step plan
6. Involvement of stakeholders
7. Understanding and managing resistance to change
8. Involvement of employees
9. Project plan
10.Culture mapping
11.Force field analysis
12.Metrics and data collection
13.Flowcharting

1. Lewin's Change Management Model

If you have a large cube of ice but realize that what you want is a cone of ice,
what do you do? First you must melt the ice to make it amenable to change
(unfreeze). Then you must mold the iced water into the shape you want (change).
Finally, you must solidify the new shape (refreeze).

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By looking at change as a process with distinct stages, you can prepare yourself
for what is coming and make a plan to manage the transition – looking before you
leap, so to speak. All too often, people go into change blindly, causing much
unnecessary turmoil and chaos.

To begin any successful change process, you must first start by

understanding why the change must take place. As Lewin put it, "Motivation for
change must be generated before change can occur. One must be helped to re-
examine many cherished assumptions about oneself and one's relations to
others." This is the unfreezing stage from which change begins.

a) Unfreeze

This first stage of change involves preparing the organization to accept that
change is necessary, which involves breaking down the existing status quo before
you can build up a new way of operating.

Key to this is developing a compelling message showing why the existing way of
doing things cannot continue. This is easiest to frame when you can point to
declining sales figures, poor financial results, worrying customer satisfaction
surveys, or suchlike. These show that things have to change in a way that
everyone can understand.

To prepare the organization successfully, you need to start at its core – you need
to challenge the beliefs, values, attitudes, and behaviors that currently define it.
Using the analogy of a building, you must examine and be prepared to change the
existing foundations as they might not support add-on storeys. Unless this is
done, the whole building may risk collapse.

This first part of the change process is usually the most difficult and stressful.
When you start cutting down the "way things are done," you put everyone and
everything off balance. You may evoke strong reactions in people, and that's
exactly what needs to done.

By forcing the organization to re-examine its core, you effectively create a

(controlled) crisis, which in turn can build a strong motivation to seek out a new
equilibrium. Without this motivation, you won't get the buy-in and participation
necessary to effect any meaningful change.

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 b) Change

After the uncertainty created in the unfreeze stage, the change stage is where
people begin to resolve their uncertainty and look for new ways to do things.
People start to believe and act in ways that support the new direction.

The transition from unfreeze to change does not happen overnight: People take
time to embrace the new direction and participate proactively in the change. A
related change model, the Change Curve , focuses on the specific issue of
personal transitions in a changing environment and is useful for understanding
this aspect in more detail.

In order to accept the change and contribute to making it successful, people need
to understand how it will benefit them. Not everyone will fall in line just because
the change is necessary and will benefit the company. This is a common
assumption and a pitfall that should be avoided.

Time and communication are the two keys to the changes occurring successfully.
People need time to understand the changes, and they also need to feel highly
connected to the organization throughout the transition period. When you
are managing change , this can require a great deal of time and effort, and hands-
on management is usually the best approach.

c) Refreeze

When the changes are taking shape and people have embraced the new ways of
working, the organization is ready to refreeze. The outward signs of the refreeze
are a stable organization chart, consistent job descriptions, and so on. The
refreeze stage also needs to help people and the organization internalize or
institutionalize the changes. This means making sure that the changes are used all
the time, and that they are incorporated into everyday business. With a new
sense of stability, employees feel confident and comfortable with the new ways
of working.

2. Kotter’s Eight Step Plan:

To more elaborate the lewin’s model Kotter’s have develop eight steps which can
be adopted to implement change. These are:

1) Establish a sense of urgency that why a change is needed.

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2) Form enough power to lead the change

3) Create a new vision to direct the change and strategies for achieving the vision

4) Vision communication in organization

5) Empower others to act on vision by removing barriers

6) Plan for, create short term reward to move the organization toward the new
vision

7) Continues improvement and make necessary adjustment in new programs.

8) Reinforce the change by demonstrating the relationship between new

behavior.

3. Action Research

Action research is also a change management approach in which systematically

data collected and then change is taken according that data indication.

4. Top-Down Approach

Looking at the top-down approach, you begin to write down what this process
might look like. In your opinion, it is a great way to design the program because
the decisions will be made by the executive team. You can quickly design and
implement a program, which will allow your company to start solving problems
almost immediately. However, in the top-down approach, you do not take the
employees' opinions into consideration, and they are the ones who will be using
the program. So, this approach has both positives and negatives.

5. Conner’s eight step plan:

This approach emphasizes eight distinctive phases through which people would
likely to go

through whenever they feel trapped in a change that they do not want but cannot
control these phases or steps are:

Stability as a stage prior to any announcement to change;

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Immobilization where shock is considered the initial reaction to a negatively
perceived change; Denial characterized by the inability to assimilate new
information into the current frame of reference; anger followed by frustration
and feelings of being hurt;

Bargaining indicating that people can no longer avoid confronting with the reality;

Depression expressed by an emotion stage in a form of resignation to failure,

feeling victimized, a lack of emotional and physical energy

Disengagement from work in its employees completely disengage from their job.

Testing with signal of acknowledgment of one’s limitation, the attempt to regain

control, and the freeing oneself from the feelings of victimization and depression;
and

Acceptance where people respond realistically, are more grounded and

productive relative to the previous phases within the new context.

6. Communicating and involving staff and volunteers in change

Communicating with staff and volunteers and ensuring you involve them in the
change process is key to a smooth transition. It’s a very easy way to smooth the
change process with help of employees.

7. Understanding and managing resistance to change

Resistance is a natural response to change and recognizing and managing

resistance is a key skill for the effective change manager.

8. Involving stakeholders in change

How to undertake a stakeholder analysis and the importance of communicating

change to the stakeholders of your nonprofit organization?

9. Managing organizations in crisis

The steps you need to go through if your nonprofit organization is in trouble.

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 10.Flowcharting:

Making a flowchart of all organizational process serves as a visual sketch

especially for those in the organization who don’t have a broader view of some of
the key processes in the organization. Flowcharting is a simple way to get people
on board with where a company is at and where it would like to be.

11.Metrics and Data Collection:

Many people squirm at the idea of number crunching, but collecting the right
information and data is a critical step in change management. Focusing on facts –
how the organization has done in the past and where it stands today in respect to
competition, risks, and opportunities, will steer change management in a
constructive direction and shorten the decision-making time. It will also help
avoid any unnecessary arguments that only lead to frustration and loss of
momentum. Meaningful and correct data needs to be collected and displayed
using a metric design that is easy to read. Metrics and data collection must
include the cycle time, which is the average time from start to end, the range of
cycle time which includes the shortest and the longest cycle time, and the
percentage with the longest and the shortest time, and the total number of units
that flows through the process in a certain period of time and percentage of
errors and units that need to be redone.

12.Force Field Analysis

This change management tool provides an initial view of change problems that
need to be tackled. It highlights the driver for change and change inhibitors.
Originally developed by a social psychologist, the idea behind Force Field Analysis
is that for change to be successful, the driving forces need to be strengthened or
the resisting forces weakened. The strongest inhibitor to change is resistance
from members of the organization. For new change to be accepted by members
of the organization, you need to focus on the benefits of the new change. You
should also include discussions that is aimed in understanding and dealing with
staff who are resistant to change.

13.Culture mapping

Another useful change management tool is culture mapping. As a matter of fact,

every organization has its own ways of doing things. This means that every

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organization has its own way of establishing values, concepts, norms and
practices. Some typical paradigms that most organizations have include: respect
for authority where decisions made by senior management are unquestioned or
the reward system is based on good performance or seniority.

14.Project plan

Although this may sound obvious, having a clear project plan is critical for staying
on track. It will serve as a framework from which to work in, to know where some
flexibility is allowed and which boundaries should not be crossed. Most of the
time, a change management initiative will require many people working in various
departments of the organization to implement new changes simultaneously. It is
therefore very important to utilize this change management tool to help you
come up with a clear plan on how the proposed change is going to be
implemented. Having a project plan will clarify roles and help manage deadlines –
keeping your company agile during some of the biggest challenges of the change
process.

Q 4. What role can the managers and employees, of an organization undergoing

the change process, play in facilitating the change process?

Answer:

The ultimate goal of change management is to drive organizational results and

outcomes by engaging employees and inspiring their adoption of a new way of
working. Whether it is a process, system, job role or organizational structure
change (or all of the above), a project is only successful if individual employees
change their daily behaviors and start doing their jobs in a new way. This is the
essence of change management.

A whole system of people in the organization support employees in making this

transition. From the highest levels of leadership to frontline supervisors,
managing change well relies on a coordination of actors all moving in unison and
fulfilling unique roles. To implement change, organizations need to involve
employees within the organization to fully realize the benefits. It is the
responsibility of the leaders to ensure they do the following

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 1) Identify the need for change and communicate it throughout the
organization as early as possible.
2) Involve employees in the decision-making process and do not force change
upon them.
3) Directly address individuals that are change resistant.
4) Make training your employees a top priority.

Managers and supervisors are a lynchpin in the success of a change initiative.

Managers are closest to the employees who must adopt the new processes and
behaviors associated with a project or initiative. And in many cases the same
project also impacts their own work. Getting managers and supervisors on board
and prepared to support their teams through change is crucial.

Importance of Managers during Change:

Managers and supervisors are close to the action. It is their teams who must
change how they do their jobs for the change to be successful. Managers are the
preferred sender of change messages about the personal impact of a change on
their team members

In Best Practices in Change Management participants identified engagement with

and support from middle management as a top contributor to change
management success. In a separate study with 575 change leaders, 84% of
participants ranked manager and supervisor involvement in change initiatives as
“extremely important” or “very important” to the success of their project.

Managers and supervisors are crucial because of the relationship they have with
the employees in the organization. They are positioned to coach and influence
employees through their own change process.

What managers and supervisors must do:

The five roles of managers and supervisors during change are:

1. Communicator

Employees prefer to hear messages about how the change directly impacts them
and their team from the person they report to.

2. Advocate

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If the manager opposes the change, chances are that his or her people will as
well. In many cases, the opposite is also true. Making sure a manager or
supervisor is on board with a change and advocating for it is the first step the
change management team must take before expecting managers and supervisors
to fulfill their role in change management.

3. Coach

Helping employees through their own personal transitions is the essence of

change coaching by middle managers and supervisors.

4. Liaison

The role of liaison involves interacting with the project team, taking direction and
providing feedback.

5. Resistance manager

Research shows that the best intervention to mitigate resistance comes from the
employee's immediate supervisor.

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.

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