Master BA: Change Management (RUG)
Summary Agents and Instruments of Change (2016/2017)
Exam grade: 7.2
This summary includes:
- Resit exam 2014 (Questions + Answers) pp. 51-59
- Resit exam 2016 (Questions + Answers) pp. 60-68
- A summary of the lectures, including the lecture slides
- Summary of the following literature:
Barnett and Pontikes (2008) The red queen, success bias, and organizational inertia,
Management Science, 54(7), 1237-1251.
Boonstra, J.J. (2004) Dynamics of Organization Change and Learning: Reflections and
perspectives. In: Boonstra J.J. (Ed.) Dynamics of Organizational Change and Learning.
Chichester: Wiley. p. 447-475.
Boonstra, J.J. (2013) Conclusion on interventions for cultural change, in: Cultural change
and leadership in organizations: A practical guide to successful organizational change. ch. 23.
Chicester: Wiley
Brown, SL and Eisenhardt, KM. (1997) The art of continuous change. ASQ, 42(1)
Cawsey, Dezsca, Ingols (2016) Organizational Change: A toolkit. Thousand Oaks: Sage. 3rd
edition
- All exam chapters: chapters 1-6, 9-11
Cummings and Worley, Organization development and change, chapter 9, p.172 - 183.
Nadler, D. A., & Tushman, M. L. (1980). A model for diagnosing organizational behavior.
Organizational Dynamics, 9(2), 35-51
Saka, A. (2003) Internal change agents’ view of the management of change problems. Journal
of Organizational Change Management, 16(5), 480-496.
Smith and Graetz chapter 4 & 9
Van de Ven, A. H., & Poole, M. S. (1995). Explaining development and change in
organizations. Academy of management review, 20(3), 510-540.
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,Cawsey hoofdstuk 1
- Organizational change refers to planned alterations of organizational components to
improve the effectiveness of the organization, in that they increase their ability to
generate value for those they serve.
- The drivers of change can come from both the internal and external environment.
o Managers have to be sensitive to what is happening inside and outside the
organization, and adapt to those changes in the environment.
- Much change starts with shifts in an organization’s environment use PESTLE
- Today, organizations find themselves influenced by fundamental forces:
o Changing social, cultural, and demographic patterns
o Spectacular technological achievements that transform how we do business
o Concerns about the physical environment and social responsibility that are
producing demands for changes in our products and business practices
o A global marketplace that sends us competing worldwide and bring
competition to our doorsteps
- Three macro changes facing us today:
o Digitization of information
o Integration of nation states and the opening of international markets
o Geographic dispersion of the value chain
These macro changes lead to globalization of markets that, in turn, drive
significant shifts in organizational forms and worldwide competitive dynamics.
- Change leaders need to have a keen sense of just how these seemingly external
events impact internal organizational dynamics.
Four Types of Organizational Change
- Literature on organizational change classifies changes into two types:
o Discontinuous/radical/episodic:
Change is dramatic, sudden, infrequent and discontinuous
o Incremental/Continuous:
Change is more gradual, constant, evolving, and cumulative
Organizations are seen as more emergent and self-organizing
- Second dimension, change occurs in a:
o Anticipatory/proactive/planned/programmatic fashion:
Change occurs when managers anticipate events and shift their
organizations as a result
o Reactive in response to external events
Shift in an organization’s external world lead to a reaction on the part
of the organization
From WHAT to HOW: From the diagnosed ‘WHAT’ follows a ‘Type of change’
needed and then the ‘HOW’ can be planned. Type of change for HOW Nadler &
Tushman (1989):
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, Incremental/Continuous Discontinuous/Radical
Tuning Redirecting or Reorienting
Incremental change made in Strategic proactive changes based on
anticipation of future events predicted major changes in the
environment
Need: Internal alignment
Focus: Individual components or Need: Positioning the whole organization
subsystems to a new reality
Role: Middle-management Focus: All organizational components
Major task: Implementation Role: Senior managers creates sense of
Anticipatory
urgency and motivates the change
E.g.: Quality improvement initiative Major task: -
from an employee improvement
committee E.g.: Major change in product/service in
response to opportunities identified
Adapting Overhauling or Re-creating
Incremental changes made in response Response to a significant performance
to environmental changes crisis
Need: Internal alignment Need: Re-evaluate the whole
Focus: Individual components or organization, including its core values
subsystems Focus: All organizational components to
Role: Middle management achieve rapid, system-wide change
Major task: Implementation Role: Senior management creates vision
and motivates optimism
E.g.: Modest changes to customer Major task: -
services in response to complaints
E.g.: Major realignment of strategy,
Reactive
involving plant closures and changes to
product/service, to stem financial losses
and return the firm to profitability
- Tuning is defined as small, relatively minor changes made on an ongoing basis in a
deliberate attempt to improve the efficiency or effectiveness of the organization.
Responsibility for acting on these sorts of changes typically rests with middle
management.
- Adapting is viewed as relatively minor changes made in response to external
stimuli––a reaction to things observed in the environment such as competitors’ moves
or customer shifts.
- Redirecting or reorienting involves major, strategic change resulting from planned
programs. These frame-bending shifts are designed to provide new perspectives and
directions in a significant way.
- Overhauling or re-creation is the dramatic shift that occurs in reaction to major
external events. Often there is a crisis situation that forces the change.
Change initiators:
- Change initiators get things moving, take action, and stimulate the system
- They are the ones seeking to initiate change to make things better
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, - They identify the need for change, develop the vision of a better future, take on the
change task, and champion the initiative.
- They provide resources and support for the initiative
- They need planning, persuasion, passion, and perseverance
Change Implementers:
- Change Implementers manage the consequences of decisions and create the desired
results
- They create and increase the need for the changes that change initiators are
demanding
- The ones who make happen what others have pushed or encouraged (change
initiators).
Change Facilitators:
- Complex organizational changes may fail due to parties lock into positions or because
perspectives get lost in personalities and egos. In such cases, an outside view can
facilitate change.
- Change facilitators understand change processes and assist the organization to
work through change issues. They sometimes formally serve as consultants to
change leaders and teams, but many of those do so informally. Often on the strength
of their existing relationships with others involved with the change.
Change Recipients
- Change recipients are those who find themselves on the receiving end of change
- Their response will vary from active resistance, passivity, to active support, depending
upon their perceptions of the change, its rationale, and its impact.
Common managerial difficulties which stem from predispositions, perceptions and lack of
self-awareness:
- Managers assume other rational people will see the wisdom in the change;
- Managers assume they have the power and influence to enact;
- Managers are unaware of sending out conflicting messages;
- Managers simply lack the capacity;
- Managers’ overconfidence.
Change leaders embrace paradoxes of change:
- They are involved in both driving change and enabling change;
- They recognize that resistance to change is both a problem and an opportunity;
- Good change leadership focuses on outcomes but is careful about process
- Change leaders recognize the tension between getting on with it and changing
directions;
- Change leaders understand the need to balance patience and impatience
- Managing complexity & ambiguity while maintaining quickness & momentum
o How to maintain the momentum of change (something that may require
simplification) while not dismissing the complexity of an organization’s
environment
- Managing the need to be simultaneously centralized and decentralized
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, o Centralized for singularity of strategy, decentralized to remain competitive by
responding agilely to changes in the environment.
- Managing need for both incremental (or continuous) and radical (or discontinuous)
change
- Encouraging participation and involvement, but recognizing the need for some degree
of central direction and control (drive change from top)
Cawsey hoofdstuk 2
Two distinct aspects in any change management situation need to be addressed:
WHAT needs to change (change content to change in an organization)
- Gap oriented: ‘Existing’ situation versus ‘desired’ situation
o Loosely based on contingency and alignment thinking
- May be directed at any (set of) organizational components any level(s) of analysis
- Book’s main model for describing the ‘WHAT’: Nadler and Tushman Congruence
model
HOW to bring about that change (process to lead organizational change)
While never losing sight of the ‘WHY’
- Awareness of PESTLE aspects of any organization’s external environment:
o Forewarns managers for the need to pay attention to multiple factors.
o Alerts managers to attend to their organizations’ environmental contexts and to
decide whether they need to take some action as a result.
- What change is needed can be known by environmental scans: competitors’
initiatives and accomplishments, customer behavior, and other data.
- It is difficult to accomplish change (how):
o Practices that were effective in the past are no longer appropriate.
o Employees develop habits, assumptions, and expectations and these beliefs and
ingrained response form a strong resistant force: maintain old patterns
regardless of feedback or input suggesting that they are no longer appropriate.
- Sigmoid Curve outlines where one should begin changing and where it becomes
obvious that one needs to change.
o The time to introduce change is at point B when the system is growing.
o By the time the system reaches point A, the need for change is obvious, but it
may also be too late for the organization to survive without experiencing
significant trauma (you don’t have resources too). Organizations that fail to
adjust in a timely fashion can quickly find themselves lagging behind their
competitors , scrambling to adapt, and running to catch up. Positive planned
change needs to be commenced sooner in the process, before things deteriorate
to a crisis or disaster stage.
o The dilemma is that in the short run, the costs are likely to be greater than the
benefits, which lessens the positive outcomes in short run. This is hard to sell
when things go well.
o Shaded space depicts the uncertainty. Costs appear certain and are tangible, but
benefits are uncertain and often vaguely defined.
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, o Creating change at point B means convincing others about the wisdom of
spending time and money now for an uncertain future return.
Compare sigmoid curve to Duck’s 5 stages change curve. (stagnation will set in, no decline
yet, thus internal leading figures have to announce the necessity)
(1) Stage Theory of Change: Lewin
- Three-stage model of change: Unfreeze Change Refreeze
o Unfreezing: focuses on the need to dislodge the beliefs and assumptions of
those who need to engage in systemic alteration to the status quo.
o Change: when unfreezing occurs, the people who are embedded in the systems
become susceptible to change.
o Refreeze: once the change has been completed, these systems, structures,
beliefs, and habits can refreeze in their new form.
- We need to understand the situation and system as a whole, as well as the component
parts that make up the system.
(2) Stage Model of Organizational Change: Kotter
- Highly structured step-by-step process that overcomes the problem of simplification
of Lewin’s model
- An organization must successfully go through each phase in sequence.
- Kotter’s Eight-Stage Process
1. Establish a sense of urgency.
2. Create a powerful guiding coalition.
3. Develop a vision and strategy.
4. Communicate the change vision.
5. Empower others to act on the vision
6. Generate short-term wins.
7. Consolidate gains and produce more change.
8. Institutionalize new approaches in the culture.
(3) Giving Voice to Values: Gentile
- Focuses on the ethical implications of organization change
- To minimize the chances of malfeasance, organizations have to change underlying
values. The first step is recognizing that something is wrong (identify the need to
change), and often that requires someone to speak up––the purpose and power of
Giving Voice to Values
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