Intervention in Organisations
Text and case assignments 1
Case assignment 1
a. Based on a scan of the literature, an exploraton on the Internet or your own personal
experiences and perceptons, draw up a list of ten possible causes for failure of
organizatonal change programmes (interventons). Give an informatve and sufciently
complete descripton of each possible cause for failure.
b. For all items on the list produced in your answer to queston a., explain to which of the
three dimensions of the 3-D model the cause in queston relates. ubstantate your answer.
1. Low level of organizatonal trust.
The success of organizatonal change (partly) relies on the employees, and if they accept and
adopt the suggested changes. If those employees do not trust or lose faith in the
organizaton’s management as change agents or the interventon organizaton, it is unlikely
that changes will occur. Because, if those employees do not trust their management or the
interventon organizaton, they are unlikely to ‘’unfreeze’’ and eventually adopt the
suggested change(s). With that said, this cause of failure relates to the social dimension in
the model, because that part of the model refers to the process of unfreezing, changing and
refreezing.
2. Lack of communicaton.
The communicaton within an organizaton, and between the organizaton and a possible
interventon organizaton, is crucial for a successful change. Communicaton contributes to
the creaton and sharing of knowledge and can create involvements amongst organizatonal
members. If the communicaton within an organizaton is insufcient, this can cause
confusion among organizaton members, or a decrease in the devoton of members to
change whatsoever. In short, if the change is not communicated sufciently within the
organizaton, it is likely this change will not succeed.
Communicaton relates to the infrastructural dimension of this model because it has to be
used to meet the goals and objectves specifed in the social and functonal dimensions.
Furthermore, communicaton can, and should, be used to tackle problems (regarding the
functonal and social dimensions), which can occur during a period of organizaton change.
3. Lack of leadership
During the change, a good, strong and maybe even a charismatc leader is needed to
succeed the change programme. So, it is not enough to just choose a top-down approach
and assume the employees will listen and adopt the change. A leader should create some
sort of atmosphere which stmulates the employees to adopt the change.
In contrast, when a simple top-down approach is used, employees can feel alienated from
the management and the change program, which can cause problems regarding the
adopton.
So, leadership is part of the social dimension in the model, because it can enable
organizatonal members to unfreeze, change, refreeze, and eventually adopt the changes.
4. Poor planning.
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