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Summary Organizational Behavior Part 2
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This is a Summary from the Organizational Behavior elaborated on every chapter you should have knowledge of during the second quarter.
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Chapter 11Change can be messy and can meet with conflict and resistance. There are three broad
approaches which examine the implantation of change against the backdrop of such
conflicting perspectives.
1. Naïve approach to change: which stems from viewing the organization in simplistic
terms, as a set of building blocks.
2. Planned approach to change: viewing the organization as an iceberg shows that it has
hidden depths which affect the implementation of change, such hidden depths are
the human and social aspects of the organization.
3. Emergent approach to change: sees the organization as a river, constantly in flow.
The organization is never still for long enough for change to be a planned process
change is what emerges in the course of events.
We see change as a process that takes place amidst conflicting perspectives across the
organization. On the one hand, there are a number of triggers which provide an impetus for
managers to make a change. On the other hand, reaction to that change might be
manifested in different forms of resistance.
Triggers for change
Triggers for change are forces which give an impetus for a change to occurs whether they
are external triggers from outside the organization, or internal triggers from within.
Potentially the number of triggers for change in an organization is limitless. Externa triggers
for change can be identifies using the PEST model) political, economic, socio-cultural and
technological).
The impetus for change can also come from internal triggers, a reorganization or
restructuring, e.g. may come from a recognition of problems within the organization itself,
such as poor communication or coordination between departments. Based on Senior and
Swailes we suggest a number of potential internal triggers to change:
- New senior staff may bring in their own ideas and vision for how the organization
should be run- a new broom sweeps clean
- Managerial aspirations, whims and decisions may lead to change
- Unions within the organization may bring their own pressure and action for changes
- The politics and power of particular groups, individuals and coalitions within an
organization may be a force towards change
, - Changes may be required as an organization grows in size: for instance, new
premises to cope with the increased capacity.
- A redesign of technology, jobs, or even the physical layout of the organization may
bring with it a need for further changes.
Resistance to change
While triggers and forces for change may exist, change is often resisted strongly by
individuals, by groups of individuals, or by organizational forces as a whole. As seen in the
financial services institution case, change can arouse very strong and powerful human
emotions and feelings, which are displayed as resistance to change. Examples of why people
resist change:
- Disruption to routines is not liked
- Job security or pay issues
- Social and informal ties
- Creates anxiety
Resistance to change may also occur at the level of the organization, where organizational
factors cause inertia or a lack of movement. An organization may simply lack the capability
to change, finance, space or equipment.
Force-field analysis
It is a technique which provides a snapshot or overall view of a changed situation. To move
to a desired situation, the organization needs to strengthen the triggers to change and
weaken the resisting forces. Lewin; group dynamics is one of many forces in an individuals
life field which influence their behavior. While consisting mainly of psychological forces this
life field may also contain factors from the physical and social world that a person
encounters, e.g. to give up smoking. A similar diagram can be drawn which shows the
triggers pushing the individual towards that change pitted against forces resistant to giving
up smoking.
Viewing this situation from the point of view of a government wanting to implement a
national program to stop people from smoking, they might also pay attention to
strengthening some of the triggers (e.g. increasing cost of cigarettes). Although derived from
Lewins work in individual psychology and behavior, force field analysis can be used in
individual, group, organizational, even societal-situations of potential or desired change.
, Types of change and the nature of the organization
Cummings and Worley suggest four main areas of change management, focusing on
different aspects of organizational life.
- Strategic interventions; major shifts in the overall focus and direction of the
organization.
- Technostructural interventions; look at areas of technology and the organizations
structure.
- Human process interventions are concerned with human social issues in the
organization.
- Human resource issues are focused on people at a more individual level.
Change management theories tend to divide into 2 camps; a planned approach which sees
change managed through a series of steps from one point to another and an emergent
approach which sees change as more unpredictable, likely to be carried along by the flow of
events within the organization and unpredictable influences from the environment.
Change and the nature of organization
Whether change can be planned or whether change is emergent, depends very much on the
organization itself. There are three metaphors which provide three different ways of
answering the question what is an organization? These metaphors see the organization as
either a set of building blocks, an iceberg or a river. Each tells us something different and
new about what an organization is. They help us to ask four questions about the nature of an
organization that inform the nature and implementation of change in that organization:
- Is the structure of the organization stable or is the organization constantly changing?
- How does a change agent gain knowledge about what is going on in the
organization?
- How does power operate in the organization?
- To what extent is resistance a challenge to power in the organization?
Using metaphors to address these questions leads us to the three approaches to change that
we examine in the remainder of this chapter. To the familiar planned and emergent
approaches to change which we equate to the organizations as an iceberg and a river
respectively we add a naïve approach to change which sees the organization in simplistic
terms as a set of building blocks.
Set of building blocks; a naïve approach to change
Our first way of seeing the nature of an organization is that it is like a set of building blocks
that fit together and can be rearranged at will.
- Structure: simple and solid, where every element is visible
- Knowledge: what can be measured, calculated or represented as some form of
model
- Management have total power over the organization from the top down
- Resistance has no place in the organization; change is thus a matter of simply issuing
orders
It can be complex, messy and unpredictable, this view fails to note that change is often
perceived differently by workers and management, and thus often meets resistance. Naïve:
is the assumption that this is all that needs to be changed while ignoring all human
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