CH.
8: MANAGING ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE AND
DEVELOPMENT
(Dr Ben Mulili)
Chapter objectives slow growth, and top management
After reading this chapter, the changes. On the other hand, the
reader should be able to: external forces arise from the need
Define organizational to comply with new political, legal,
change and organizational economic, and technological
development (OD) developments among others. The
Explain the basic theories management of change requires an
and concepts of OD understanding of the roles played
Describe the models of by change managers and change
planned change agents. These roles are briefly
Explain the roles of change discussed in the ensuing sections.
agents, change managers,
and people within systems The role of change
in developing OD managers
intervention strategies A change manager is the person
Explain the different types of entrusted with implementing
OD intervention strategies. change in an organization. This
manager has the overall
Managing change responsibility of assessing the need
Change is making things different. for change and designing
It is basically a departure from the appropriate intervention strategies
status quo. As a matter of fact, and activities. He or she also
change is a constant feature of implements the intervention
personal and organizational life. strategies besides evaluating the
Therefore, understanding its strategy implementation process. In
management is important for order to succeed, the change
successful management. Managers manager has to understand the
should be able to adapt to change, nature of planned change as
create organizations that are opposed to forced change.
responsive to it and assist in the Moreover, he or she should
introduction of specific change balance between the short-term
programs. and the long-term benefits of the
planned change. Lastly, this
Forces for change and manager should pay attention to the
change initiative and purse it
innovation
through to its conclusion.
Change can arise from forces
internal or external to an
organization. The internal forces
include declining performance,
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The role of change are likely to participate in the
agents change process. Internal change
Change agents can be outside agents are more quickly available
consultants, internal organization and are less costly to organizations.
development (OD) specialists, new Moreover, the organizations can
managers or enlightened managers easily control them as they are the
who see beyond the traditional ones that grant them the authority
approaches. Irrespective of who to perform their duties.
they are, they assist the change Nevertheless, internal change
managers in designing and agents may be too close to the
implementing change strategies, problems and they may have
and in facilitating all the activities biased views thus lacking
surrounding the implementation objectivity. In situations where
process. Change agents advise they are viewed as part of the
change managers on problems, additional resistance
implementation issues and on the may be created. The internal
efficacy of different intervention change agents may also not
strategies. Such people are possess the specialized knowledge
expected to have knowledge of the needed for particular intervention
OD theories, concepts, practices strategies. Moreover, they may be
and applied research. Burke (1987) reassigned to other sections even
summarizes change agents as when they are implementing
people who play the roles of changes in certain departments.
advocates, technical specialists,
trainers or educators, collaborators On the other hand, external change
in problem solving, alternative agents are mainly consultants who
identifiers, fact finders, process are hired to fulfil specific function
specialists, and reflectors. or roles within specified time
periods. Therefore, they work on
Types of change agents contract basis. Unlike internal
Change agents can be either change agents, they have more
internal or external. Internal objective views besides being
change agents are people who experienced in dealing with
work in organizations that seek to diverse problems. Some external
implement change. Consequently, change agents have more technical
they possess better knowledge of knowledge, competence and the
the organizations’ missions, skills needed to implement change
structural components, than internal change agents.
technologies, internal politics, and
Models of planned change
social factors. This enables them to
Social scientists seek to understand
establish trusting relationships with
how change can be implemented
the change managers and with
successfully in organizations. This
members of the organizations that
has led to the development of
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change process theories. Lewin timing of the change, the change
(1951) and Schein (2004) are some being too sudden or unexpected,
of the main contributors of change and the pressure from peers.
process theories. Inertia is a situation in which people
prefer to retain their status quos.
According to Lewin (1951), a model
of planned change includes the On the other hand, the change-
elements of unfreezing, changing, specific reasons for resistance
and refreezing. Unfreezing seeks to include selfish interests,
make employees aware that the misunderstandings and lack of trust
status quo is not good and that in the individuals initiating the
change is necessary. This paves the change, different assessments of
way for the change to be the effects of the change, and low
implemented. Refreezing the tolerance for the change. A person
change reinforces the accepted who resists change for fear of losing
behaviour in the individual. It is like something valuable to him or
making the change more her(e.g. power, resources,
permanent in the mind of the friendships, freedom to make
individual. decisions, quality of work, prestige
or other benefits) may be led by
Although there is no standard selfish interests.
approach of implementing change
in organizations, six main steps can Methods of overcoming
be followed, namely perceiving the resistance to change
Numerous methods of overcoming
change-related opportunities,
resistance to change exist. These
diagnosing the situations and
include educating and
generating ideas, presenting
communicating with organizational
proposals for adopting the change,
members before the change
overcoming resistance to the
occurs, ensuring the participation
change, implementing the change
and involvement of all the people
and monitoring the change-related
involved, and supporting those who
results.
are negatively affected by the
change. Other methods include
Resistance to change
rewarding those who comply,
Resistance to change is an aspect of
negotiating and agreeing with
human behaviour. People tend to
organizational stakeholders,
resist change even when the
manipulating, co-opting, and
change is to their advantage.
coercing those who resist the
Several reasons make people to
change initiatives. Coercion can be
resist change. These include the
explicit or implicit. Scholars of
general and the change-specific
ethics may question manipulation,
reasons. The general reasons for
co-optation and coercion as
resistance include inertia, poor
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methods of overcoming resistance is based on planned change or
to change. interventions made with the help of
change agents or third parties who
Organization are well-versed with the
development (OD) behavioural sciences, such as
Organizations have to cope with psychology, sociology,
changing environments. OD is one anthropology and management.
way of increasing the long-term
prospects of organizations. Ideally, OD intervention strategies
OD is a process used to enhance OD intervention strategies vary
the effectiveness of organizations from firm to firm but they include:
and the well-being of their Human process based
members through planned interventions
interventions. It is also a top Techno-structural
management supported long interventions
range-effort to improve an Socio-technical interventions
organization’s problem solving and Organizational
renewal processes by collaborating transformation strategies
with formal work teams to change
the organization’s culture (McKee These types of interventions are
et al., 2010). OD consultants or briefly explained as follows.
facilitators use behavioural
sciences, such as psychology, Human process-based
human relations, social psychology interventions
These are directed at improving
and organisational behaviour to
interpersonal, intra-group, and
implement change in organizations
inter-group relations (Cherrington,
(Cummings & Worley, 2008).
1994). The main interventions here
are survey feedback and team
Five main characteristics of OD can
building. Survey feedback is the
be identified. Firstly, OD is
systematic feedback of survey data
planned, meaning that it is a
to groups with the intention of
proactive and not a reactive
stimulating the discussion of
process. Secondly, OD focuses on
problem areas, generating
an entire organization or a large
potential solutions, and stimulating
subsystem, such as a division.
the motivation for change. The aim
Thirdly, it is managed from the top
of the survey approach is to
level of the organization. Fourthly,
pinpoint organizational processes
OD enhances organizational health
that need to be changed. A survey
and effectiveness by ensuring that
is a data collection method. On the
the organization achieves its goals
other hand, team building is aimed
and objectives. The well-being of
at helping workgroups to
organizational members is a
accomplish tasks effectively. Some
primary concern of OD. Lastly, OD
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people interpret the term team as The alternative working schedules
‘together each achieves more’. This (AWS) allow employees to modify
implies that effective teams can their working patterns in ways that
achieve better results than satisfy their personal needs. Three
individuals working separately. common AWS interventions are
flexitimes, compressed workweeks
Techno-structural interventions and flexi years. Employees use
The intention of techno-structural flexitimes when they choose the
intervention strategies is to times of the day when they want to
improve work content, technology, work. A compressed workweek
methods and relationships among enables employees to work fewer
workers (French & Bell, 1999). The than the traditional five days in a
main techno-structural intervention week. Instead, employees work for
strategies are job enlargement, job four days of ten hours each day
enrichment, and alternative work (4/40), or a total of 40 hours in three
schedules. days (3/40). Other variations are
possible. In a flexi-year, employees
Job enlargement attempts to choose the months of the year when
increase an employee’s satisfaction they want to work. Alternative work
and performance by consolidating schedules enhance the quality of
work functions from horizontal individual and working life.
levels with the aim of providing Moreover, they enable employees
greater variety and a sense of the to undertake other activities (e.g.
whole task (Stone, 2010). For sports, family commitments etc)
example, a driver’s job can be that are also important to them.
enlarged to include driving cars,
trucks, buses, tractors and so on. Socio-technical intervention
On the other hand, job enrichment strategies
involves varying some aspects of The main socio-technical
jobs in order to increase their intervention strategies are quality
potential to motivate workers. circles, total quality management
There are five aspects that (TQM), and self-managed teams
constitute an enriched job: skill (Mulili & Wong, 2011). The quality
variety, task identity, task circles are teams of employees
significance, autonomy, and involved in making work-related
feedback. Task variety means that a decisions and solving job-related
number of tasks are involved in a problems. Members of quality
job. Task identity occurs when the circles meet regularly to discuss
tasks can be identified while task issues like procedures for
significance means that the tasks in improving their work, quality of
a job are significant. Autonomy products, working conditions and
ensures an employee has freedom organizational facilities. Problem
to make decisions that relate to his areas that deserve immediate
or her job. attention are identified. Nearly all
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employees are given time off to organizations. A strategic change is
attend quality circle meetings. any fundamental change in an
organization’s purpose or mission
The total quality management requiring system-wide changes.
(TQM) approach seeks to sustain Moreover, a learning organization
organizational competitiveness by is one in which everyone is
instilling quality in all engaged in identifying and solving
organizational activities. On the problems, thereby enabling the
other hand, self-managed teams organization to continuously
are assigned specific objectives to experiment, improve, and increase
achieve, such as developing new its capability. Lastly, the high
products. The teams manage their performance work systems (HPWS)
activities in the process of are multifaceted approaches that
achieving the desired objectives. involve combining different
Managers do not interfere with the intervention strategies such as the
operations of the teams. The self- self-managed teams, quality
managed teams (SMT) would have circles, flatter organizational
discretion over issues like work structures, new flexible
assignments, methods, schedules, technologies, innovative
training, and dealing with external compensation schemes, increased
customers and suppliers. training and continuous
improvement programs.
Organizational transformation
(OT) strategies
These strategies focus on
Summary
This chapter provided definitions of
articulating new visions and
organizational change and of
redefining the desired
organizational development (OD).
organizational cultures, missions
The basic theories and concepts of
and strategies. The main
OD were explained and a model of
approaches are adopting cultural
planned change described. The
and strategic changes, becoming
chapter also included an
learning organizations, and
explanation of the roles played
adopting high performance work
change agents, change managers,
systems (HPWS).
and the employees in the process
of developing OD intervention
Cultural change is a complex
strategies. Lastly, the different
process of replacing an existing
types of OD intervention strategies
cultural paradigm, or way of
were discussed.
thinking, with a different paradigm.
Multicultural organizations change
their cultures fundamentally by
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