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Setyabudi Indartono, 20

Manajemen Perubahan
by: Setyabudi Indartono, Ph.D @ 2014

Email: setyabudi_indartono@uny.c.id

Yogyakarta State University

Author: Setyabudi Indartono, Ph.D

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Setyabudi Indartono, 20

DAFTAR ISI

PENGANTAR...................................................................................................................................iv
Skema pembelajaran......................................................................................................................v
The nature of dynamic behaviors*..............................................................................................vii
Bab 1 Pedahuluan..........................................................................................................................1
Soal Latihan................................................................................................................................6
bab 2 Manajemen dan perubahan................................................................................................7
The nature of change.................................................................................................................7
Image of Managing change.......................................................................................................8
Soal Latihan..............................................................................................................................10
bab 3 Perubahan dalam Organisasi.............................................................................................11
Why organizations change?.....................................................................................................11
What changes in organizations...............................................................................................12
Soal Latihan..............................................................................................................................12
bab 4 Analisis perubahan.............................................................................................................14
Diagnosis for change................................................................................................................14
Resistant to change.................................................................................................................17
Artikel pendukung analisa perubahan diantaranya adalah....................................................19
Soal Latihan..............................................................................................................................20
bab 5 Implementasi Manajemen Perubahan..............................................................................21
Organizational Development...................................................................................................21
Appreciative Inquiry.................................................................................................................23
Positive organizational scholarship.........................................................................................24
Sensemaking approach............................................................................................................24
Mengelola Perubahan..............................................................................................................25
Pendekatan Kontinjensi dan proses........................................................................................27
Menghubungkan Visi dan Perubahan.....................................................................................28

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Setyabudi Indartono, 20

Artikel pendukung implementasi perubahan diantaranya adalah.........................................28


Soal Latihan..............................................................................................................................30
bab 6 Komunikasi dalam Perubahan...........................................................................................31
Strategi Komunikasi.................................................................................................................31
Kemampuan komunikasi perubahan.......................................................................................33
Perubahan berkelanjutan........................................................................................................34
Artikel pendukung Komunikasi perubahan diantaranya adalah............................................35
Soal Latihan..............................................................................................................................36
referensi.......................................................................................................................................38
Silabi.............................................................................................................................................41
Curriculum Vitae..........................................................................................................................42

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Setyabudi Indartono, 20

PENGANTAR

Mata kuliah ini membahas tentang pentingnya manajemen


transformasi/perubahan baik struktural maupun perubahan budaya untuk
menjadi lebih baik dan dinamis. Topik yang dipelajari meliputi: filosofi, sejarah
dan konsep dasar perubahan, melihat dan mempercayai perubahan, memulai
perubahan, mengubah budaya korporat dan mengelola harapan. Mata kuliah
Manajemen Perubahan dirancang untuk memberikan pengetahuan dan
keahlian mahasiswa dalam memahami dampak perubahan dalam organisasi.
Dalam kehidupan nyata, proses perubahan sering tidak sesuai dengan yang
diharapkan. Mata kuliah ini diharapkan mampu memberikan dasar
pengetahuan kepada mahasiswa tentang pentingnya perubahan dalam
organisasi, faktor apa dalam organisasi yang perlu dirubah, bagaimana
perubahan perlu dilaksanakan, siapa orang-orang yang terlibat dalam proses
perubahan, kapan proses perubahan perlu dilakukan, dan aspek lain yang
berkaitan dengan pengelolaan perubahan dalam organisasi.
Setelah mengikuti perkuliahan ini, mahasiwa diharapkan memiliki
berbagai kompetensi. Diantaranya adalah mahasiswa mampu memahami
adanya proses perubahan dalam organisasi, memahami berbagai faktor
pendorong perubahan dalam organisasi, dan mampu membedakan tipe-tipe
perubahan dalam organisasi.

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Setyabudi Indartono, 20

SKEMA PEMBELAJARAN
KompetensiDasar MateriPokok SumberBahan

1 Memahami proses pembelajaran Introduction Indartono (2014) #1


manajemen konfik
2 Memahami fenomena konfik di The nature of change Palmer (2009)
Indartono (2014) #2
dunia kerja
Senior (2010)
Cumming (2006)
3 Memahami perilaku konflik dan Image of Managing Palmer (2009)
Indartono (2014) #2
cara mengelolanya change
Senior (2010)
Cumming (2006)
4 Memahami tuntutan perubahan Why organizations Palmer (2009)
Indartono (2014)#3
dalam orgaisasi change?
Senior (2010)
Cumming (2006)
5 Memahami berbagai peruahan What changes in Palmer (2009)
Indartono (2014) #3
dalam organisasi organizations
Senior (2010)
Cumming (2006)
6 Memahami latarbelakang, proses Diagnosis for change Palmer (2009)
Indartono (2014) #4
dan efek dari perubahan
Senior (2010)
Cumming (2006)
7 Memahami berbagai hambatan Resistant to change Palmer (2009)
Indartono (2014) #4
dalam proses perubahan
Senior (2010)
Cumming (2006)
8 UJIAN TENGAH SEMSTER
9 Memahami berbagai praktek Implementing change Palmer (2009)
perubahan dalam organisasi case#1 Indartono (2014) #5
 Organization
al
development
 AppreciativeInquiry
10 Memahami berbagai praktek Implementing change Palmer (2009)
perubahan dalam organisasi case#2 Indartono (2014) #5
 Positive
organization
al
scholarship
 Sensemakingapproach

11 Memahami berbagai praktek Implementing change Palmer (2009)


Indartono (2014) #5
perubahan dalam organisasi case#3
Senior (2010)

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Setyabudi Indartono, 20

KompetensiDasar MateriPokok SumberBahan

 Changemanagement Cumming (2006)


 contingencyand
processualapproach

12 Memahami hubungan antara visi Linkingvisionand Palmer (2009)


dan perubahan change Indartono (2014) #5

13 Memahami pentingnya komunikasi Communication Palmer (2009)


Strategies Indartono (2014) #6
dalam perubahan organisasi
StrategicCommunication
1 Memahami dan mampu SkillsforCommunicating Palmer (2009)
mengaplikasikan komunikasi dalam
perubahan organisasional Change Indartono (2014) #6

15 Memahami pentingnya dan strategi SustainingChange Palmer (2009)


perubahan yang berkelanjutan Indartono (2014) #6

16 UJIAN TENGAH SEMSTER

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Setyabudi Indartono, 20

THE NATURE OF DYNAMIC BEHAVIORS*

Researchers (Desarbo and Grewal, 2008; Schalk and Freese, 1997; White, 2008)
propose the dynamic viewpoint to analyze organizations and employees because they
tend to adjust their strategies and haviors at anytime to maximize their best interests.
At the organization level, firms try to apply unique rategic postures so as to reach a
better position in the market structure (Cool and Schendel, 1987). They change,
expand, and blend their strategies from more than one pure strategic group to gain
the competitive advantage (Desarbo and Grewal, 2008). For example, firms at the
beginning stage may apply the defensive strategy and then opt for the offensive
strategy as they move to the next stage (Land, 2004). Following Hunt’s (1972) theory
of firm strategies, Porter (1980) develops the concept and applies it to his overall
system of strategic analysis. Hodgkinson (1997) analyzes the intra-industry
variations in the competition and performance of firms. A firm switching its strategy
may cause business environment pressure or the demand of firm accelerations
because such change of policies could be rather dynamic.

At the individual level, the way employees change their behavior is contingent on the
short-term opportunities exposed in the environment (Perish et al., 2008). Employees
would look for fair treatment by comparing the compensation offered by their
organization and its competitors (Milcovich and Newman, 1999; Rhoades et al.,
2001). Being directed by their needs, they would respond to external offering
defensively, reactively, or protectively to avoid actions, blaming, or changes
(Ashforth and Lee, 1990). Thus, employees’ behavior might change accordingly when
they feel unfairly treated (Hochwarter et al., 2000; Valle and Perewe, 2000).

* Vivian Chen, Chun-Hsi and Indartono, Setyabudi, 2011, Study of commitment


antecedents: The dynamic point of view, Journal of Business Ethics, Vol. 103, No.4
, Pg.529-541

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Setyabudi Indartono, 20

BAB 1 PEDAHULUAN

Manajemen perubahan adalah sebuah pendekatan untuk transisi


individu, tim, dan organisasi ke keadaan masa depan yang diinginkan. Dalam
manajemen proyek konteks, manajemen perubahan dapat merujuk kepada
proses manajemen proyek dimana perubahan lingkup proyek secara resmi
diperkenalkan dan disetujui atau definisi manajemen perubahan yang
ditetapkan di halaman ini. Sejarah manajemen perubahan telah dimulai sejak
tahun 1960 dimana Everett Rogers menulis buku Difusi Inovasi pada tahun
1962. Akan ada lima edisi buku sampai 2003, selama waktu analisis statistik
tentang bagaimana orang mengadopsi ide-ide dan teknologi baru. Kemudian
tahun 1980 Konsultan McKinsey Julien Phillips pertama kali menerbitkan
model manajemen perubahan pada tahun 1982 dalam jurnal Manajemen
Sumber Daya Manusia, meskipun butuh satu dekade untuk rekan-rekan
manajemen perubahan untuk mengejarnya. Dan Robert Marshak
menciptakan industri manajemen perubahan ketika mereka dalam kelompok
jasa rekayasa ulang sebagai jasa manajemen perubahan di akhir 1980-an.
Tahun 1974, Daryl Conner mendirikan Conner Partners dan pada tahun
1993, ia menulis buku itu, Manajemen Perubahan. Conner memberikan
pengaruh yang besar selama tahun 80-an dan 90-an dalam memahami
kinerja dan teknik manusia dalam menyesuaikan teknologi inovasi baru
hingga mampu diserap dan diadopsi sebaik mungkin. Tahun 2000, Linda
Ackerman Anderson menyatakan tidak puas dengan kegagalan dan
menciptakan serta menerapkan model perubahan dalam secara top-down,
menciptakan peran pemimpin perubahan untuk mengambil tanggung jawab.
Sedang di tahun 2010-an berdasarkan buku Mengelola Perubahan Sukses,
Christina Manajemen Perubahan ditetapkan sebagai istilah resmi di Australia
dengan menulis Standar Kompetensi Nasional Australia di Organisasi dan

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Setyabudi Indartono, 20

Komunitas Manajemen Perubahan, yang menyebabkan pengembangan


Manajemen Perubahan organisasi, dan istilah tersebut merupakan kualifikasi
yang diakui secara internasional. Perubahan organisasi adalah pendekatan
terstruktur dalam sebuah organisasi untuk memastikan bahwa perubahan
lancar dan sukses diterapkan untuk mencapai manfaat abadi.

Dalam konsep transendeltal, menurut Faisal (2012), Tuhan


menjelaskan manajemen perubahan dengan “Demikian itu adalah karena
sesungguhnya Allah sekali - kali tidak akan merubah sesuatu nikmat yang
telah dianugerahkan – Nya kepada sesuatu kaum, hingga kaum itu merubah
apa yang ada pada diri mereka sendiri dan sesungguhnya Allah Maha
Mendengar lagi Maha Mengetahui.” Dan “Sesungguhnya Allah tidak
mengubah keadaan sesuatu kaum sehingga mereka mengubah keadaan
yang ada pada diri mereka sendiri. Dan apabila Allah menghendaki
keburukan terhadap sesuatu kaum, maka tak ada yang dapat menolaknya;
dan sekali - kali tak ada pelindung bagi mereka selain Dia.. Hal ini
mengisyaratkan engisyaratkan bahwa perubahan yang berdampak
membutuhkan gagasan atau pengetahuan (kompetensi dalam membuat
tujuan, target, rencana, manajemen dan standard) dan kemauan (komitmen)
untuk berubah. Gagasan atau pengetahuan yang benar, yang disertai
dengan kemauan satu kelompok masyarakat, dapat mengubah keadaan
masyarakat itu. Tetapi gagasan atau pengetahuan saja tanpa kemauan, atau
kemauan saja tanpa gagasan atau pengetahuan tidak akan menghasilkan
perubahan. (Dr. M. Quraish Shihab, M.A : mizan@ibm.net , 1). Perubahan
yang berdampak dan dituntut dalam konsep transcendental ini adalah
perubahan kolektif yang mencakup mayoritas lingkungan sosial, bukan
perubahan individual. Karena perubahan ini tidak cukup untuk mengubah
masyarakat secara menyeluruh, fundamental dan mencakup semua aspek
kehidupan sosial, politik, ekonomi, moral, hukum dan lain - lain.

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Setyabudi Indartono, 20

Perubahan yang dituntut adalah perubahan yang bersifat positif “


Tiadalah Allah meninggalkan engkau dan tidak pula merasa benci kepadamu.
Dan hari yang akan datang itu harus lebih baik dari hari yang sekarang. Dan
apabila Allah memberikan karunia kepadamu maka engkau akan ridho atas
jerih payahmu.” ”Hari ini harus lebih baik dari hari kemarin, hari esok harus
lebih baik dari hari ini”. Dr. Yusuf al - Qaradhawi mengatakan, “ Salah satu
tanda celaka adalah dengan menyia - nyiakan waktu. Siapa yang hari ini
masih seperti kemarin, maka ia menjadi orang merugi, sedangkan siapa yang
hari ini lebih buruk daripada kemarin, maka ia menjadi orang terlaknat. Siapa
yang melewatkan satu hari dari usianya bukan untuk menyelesaikan
kebenaran atau melaksanakan kewajiban atau kemuliaan yang ia wariskan
atau kebaikan yang ia wariskan atau kebaikan yang ia dapatkan atau
kemuliaan yang ia bangun atau ilmu yang ia raih, maka ia telah menyia-
nyiakan waktu dan menzalimi dirinya.”(M. AbdulJawwad, 2004 : 183-184).
Pengelolaan perubahan tidak bertentangan Al Hikmah atau Kebijaksanaan.
Pengelolaan perubahan tidak trial and error, Pengelolaan perubahan harus
adil atas Diri, Darah, Dekat, Duit, (M. Soebari, 1998).

Menurut Faisal (2002) beberapa Bukti-Bukti Empirik dari masa kini


diantaranya adalah Menurut George M Hill, keberhasilan proyek re-
engineeringharus mengkaitkan seluruh orang-orang, proses, strategi-strategi,
dan teknologi organisasi dengan keseluruhan tujuan bisnisnya. Jika satu
kaitan dalam rantai tersebut hilang (diabaikan), proses transformasi bisnis
akan gagal. Hill mengemukakan beberapa pointers yang menjadikan
keberhasilan dan kegagalan re-engineering(Hill, 1993: 8-9). Keberhasilan re-
engineering karena suatu kinerja tinggi organisasi, didorong (termotivasi) oleh
core processes (proses inti) yang unggul dalam quality service, customer
satisfaction, dan cost effectiveness. Fokus hanya pada satu kunci di atas
kemudian memperbaiki fungsi menjadi proses transformasi,
mengintegrasikan revisi proses ke dalam visi strategik organisasi agar para

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Setyabudi Indartono, 20

karyawan memahami dan termotivasi untuk bergerak menuju arah baru. Re-
engineeringharus fokus pada cross functional untuk membentuk teams yang
terdiri dari representatif dari tiap bidang terlibat dalam proses. Pimpin teams
tersebut dengan change agents yang antusias, open minded ,dan
konsentrasi pada member motivasi proses. Re-engineering harus didorong
oleh apa keinginan customers dan bukan oleh perspektif -perspektif internal.
Oleh karena itu, salah satu kunci bagi keberhasilan re-engineeringadalah
untuk fokus pada proses - proses yang memiliki dampak tertinggi pada
customer service. Membangun kredibilitas secara internal dan eksternal
dengan mendemonstrasikan respon atau tanggapan awal yang substansial.
Mengembangkan teknologi untuk mempermudah. Teknologi baru seharusnya
tidak digunakan hanya untuk mekanisasi dan mempercepat cara -cara lama
melakukan bisnis. Keberhasilan re-engineering mempengaruhi teknologi
inovatif sebenarnya untuk memformulasikan kembali proses bisnis.

Pertahankan re-engineering. Visi re-engineeringharus datang dari


pimpinan–namun dukungan harus dibangun atau dikembangkan dari bawah.
Komitmen pimpinan adalah penting. Namun pekerjaan pimpinan bukan untuk
mendikte. Pekerjaan atau tugasnya adalah untuk menciptakan lingkungan
yang bebas dari ketakutan dan mendorong atau memotivasi partisipasi.
Banyak upaya-upaya re-engineering gagal karena kurangnya dukungan dari
bawahan ketimbang dari faktor-faktor lainnya. Untuk mengatasi tantangan ini,
perubahan harus dipromosikan pada seluruh level organisasi sejak dini.
Komunikasi harus jelas, kredibel, dan kontinu selama proses re-engineering.
Organisasi harus mengambil tindakan berarti, seperti memfokuskan teams
sekitar proses, bukan sekitar tugas-tugas, dan memberi mereka
tanggungjawab untuk memperbaiki kinerja. Ketimbang melihat akuntabilitas
tersebut sebagai beban yang tidak fair, karyawan merasa hal tersebut
memperkaya tugas atau pekerjaan mereka. Dan Re-engineeringyang
berhasil mensyaratkan pembebasan diri dari aturan-aturan dan operasi -

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Setyabudi Indartono, 20

operasi tradisional. Satu -satunya cara untuk membuat lompatan jauh


(quantum leaps) dalam kinerja adalah untuk menolak asumsi -asumsi lama
dan menerima/menganut perubahan radikal. Tujuannya adalah untuk
menciptakan bisnis yang tanggap secara cepat dan efektif terhadap
perubahan-perubahan pasar.

Kegagalan Manajemen perubahan sebagaimana dicontohkan Faisal


(2002) diantaranya adalah Seperti dikatakan Victor Tan, bahwa banyak
organisasi yang tidak berhasil oleh karena salah dalam advokasinya.
Kesalahan ini disebabkan oleh karena menggunakannya sebagai alat yang
terisolasi untuk mencapai keunggulan bisnis (Victor Tan, 2002 : 81).
Kesalahan-kesalahan tersebut adalah Business Process Re-engineering
tidak dapat memberikan kontribusi pada keunggulan bisnis jika orang dalam
organisasi tidak kompeten atau jika karyawan tidak memiliki komitmen.
Business Process Re-engineeringtidak dapat memperbaiki masalah jika
organisasi menghasilkan dan memasarkan produk yang salah. Business
Process Re-engineering dapat menjadi alat yang sangat efektif untuk
menurunkan biaya dan meningkatkan daya saing organisasi apabila
digunakan dengan benar sebagai pelengkap dari alat lainnya untuk mencapai
keunggulan bisnis. Perubahan fundamental merupakan perubahan
mendasar yang menyangkut dampak yang sangat besar dan luas terhadap
organisasi. Untuk memimpin perubahan secara efektif, Hussey (2000 : 69-83)
menyarankan pendekatan langkah demi langkah yangdinamakan EASIER,
merupakan akronim yaitau Envisioning (Memimpikan), Activating
(Mengaktifkan), Supporting(Mendukung), Implementing(Melaksanakan), dan
Ensuring(Memastikan), serta Recognizing (Pengakuan positif dan negatif).

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Setyabudi Indartono, 20

Soal Latihan

1. Sebutkan dan jelaskan contoh perubahan dalam kehidupan kita


sehari-hari

2. Dalam mengelola sebuah perubahan, Jelaskan kemungkinan efek


positif dan negative yang mungkin muncul

3. Sering seseorang mengalami kesulitandalam mengikuti tuntutan


perubahan dalam diri dan lingkungannya. Sebutkan alasannya

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Setyabudi Indartono, 20

BAB 2 MANAJEMEN DAN PERUBAHAN

The nature of change


Peneliti (Desarbo dan Grewal, 2008; Schalk dan Freese, 1997; Putih,
2008) mengusulkan sudut pandang dinamis untuk menganalisis organisasi
dan karyawan karena mereka cenderung untuk menyesuaikan strategi dan
haviors mereka kapan saja untuk memaksimalkan kepentingan terbaik
mereka. Pada tingkat organisasi, perusahaan-perusahaan mencoba
menerapkan postur rategic unik sehingga dapat mencapai posisi yang lebih
baik dalam struktur pasar (Cool dan Schendel, 1987). Mereka mengubah,
memperluas, dan campuran strategi mereka dari lebih dari satu kelompok
strategis murni untuk mendapatkan keunggulan kompetitif (Desarbo dan
Grewal, 2008). Sebagai contoh, perusahaan-perusahaan pada tahap awal
dapat menerapkan strategi defensif dan kemudian memilih strategi ofensif
ketika mereka bergerak ke tahap berikutnya (Tanah, 2004). Berikut (1972)
teori Hunt strategi firma, Porter (1980) mengembangkan konsep dan berlaku
untuk sistem secara keseluruhan analisis strategis. Hodgkinson (1997)
menganalisis variasi intra-industri dalam kompetisi dan kinerja perusahaan-
perusahaan. Sebuah perusahaan beralih strategi dapat menyebabkan
tekanan lingkungan bisnis atau permintaan percepatan fi rm karena
perubahan tersebut kebijakan bisa lebih dinamis.
Pada tingkat individu, cara karyawan mengubah perilaku mereka
bergantung pada peluang jangka pendek terpapar dalam lingkungan (Perish
et al., 2008). Karyawan akan mencari perlakuan yang adil dengan
membandingkan kompensasi yang ditawarkan oleh organisasi dan
pesaingnya (Milcovich dan Newman, 1999; Rhoades et al, 2001.). Diarahkan
oleh kebutuhan mereka, mereka akan menanggapi penawaran eksternal
membela diri, reaktif, atau protektif untuk menghindari tindakan,
menyalahkan, atau perubahan (Ashforth dan Lee, 1990). Dengan demikian,

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perilaku karyawan mungkin berubah sesuai ketika mereka merasa


diperlakukan tidak adil (Hochwarter et al, 2000;. Valle dan Perewe, 2000).

Image of Managing change

Manajemen perubahan sudah menjadi sebuah tuntutan di berbagai


dunia kerja dan interaksi manusia. Sari dan Ibrahim memberikan contoh
sebuah proses perubahan di perusahaan dan organisasi bisnis Koran Riau.
Menurut mereka ada dua pendekatan penanganan perubahan organisasi
yaitu Proses perubahan reaktif dinama Manajemen bereaksi atas tanda-
tanda bahwa perubahan dibutuhkan, pelaksanaan modifikasi sedikit demi
sedikit untuk menangani masalah tertentu yang timbul. Sebagai contoh, bila
peraturan baru dari pemerintah mensyaratkan perusahaan untuk mempunyai
perlindungan terhadap kebakaran, maka manajer mungkin akan membeli alat
pemadam kebakaran. Dan kedua adalah Program perubahan yang
direncanakan (planned change), disebut sebagai proses proaktif. Manajemen
melakukan berbagai investasi waktu dan sumberdaya lainnya yang berarti
untuk mengubah cara-cara operasi organisasi. Perubahan yang
direncanakan ini didefinisikan sebagai perancangan dan implementasi
inovasi struktural, kebijaksanaan atau tujuan baru, atau suatu perubahan
dalam filsafat, iklim dan gaya pengoperasian secara sengaja. Pendekatan ini
tepat bila keseluruhan organisasi, atau sebagian besar satuan organisasi,
harus menyiapkan diri untuk atau menyesuaikan dengan perubahan.

Dalam tulisannya Dibrata & Murahartawaty (2013) menyebutkan


bahwa Jeffrey M. Hiatt (2006) berpendapat bahwa terdapat lima elemen yang
mendorong suksesnya perubahan yaitu : awareness, desire,
knowledgeability, ability dan reinforcement (ADKAR). ADKAR adalah suatu
model untuk perubahan dalam bisnis, pemerintahan dan komunitas, yang
mempunyai lima elemen atau objek yang dibangun dalam sebuah kerangka
untuk mencapai perubahan. Kelima elemen ini dibangun dalam suatu

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kerangka dan berurutan dalam mengelola individu untuk melakukan


perubahan. Awareness adalah pemahaman seseorang terhadap sifat
perubahan, yaitu apa penyebab adanya perubahan, apa akibat tidak
mengikuti perubahan, faktor internal dan eksternal yang dibutuhkan untuk
perubahan, dan apa manfaatnya (Hiatt 2006). Desire adalah keinginan yang
mendorong dan terlibat dalam perubahan. Desire berhubungan dengan
pilihan individu, pengaruh dari sifat perubahan itu sendiri, situasi individu, dan
motivasi masing – masing individu (Hiatt 2006). Knowledge adalah informasi,
latihan dan edukasi yang diperlukan untuk mengetahui bagaimana cara untuk
perubahan. Knowledge meliputi kebiasaan, proses, perangkat, sistem,
keahlian, dan teknis yang dibutuhkan untuk perubahan. Ability adalah
kemampuan menerapkan pengetahuan menjadi terealisasi atau pelaksanaan
perubahan. Ability dicapai jika seseorang mempunyai kemampuan
mengimplementasikan perubahan pada level performa yang ditent ukan
(Hiatt 2006. Reinforcement adalah faktor internal dan eksternal yang
mendukung perubahan. Reinforcement eksternal meliputi recognition,
reward, dan celebration. Reinforcement internal bisa datang dari rasa puas
dengan pencapaian (achievement) atau manfaat lain yang diperoleh dari
perubahan (Hiatt 2006).

Menurut Dibrata & Murahartawati (2013), Manajemen perubahan


dalam Telkom University diukur dari beberapa indicator diantaranya adalah
indikator Tingkat kesiapan perubahan (change readiness) mencapai 60%,
tingkat resistensi terhadap perubahan menjadi Telkom University mencapai
<= 40%, Strategi komunikasi yang diterapkan dapat memberikan informasi
secara kesuluruhan civitas akademika Telkom University, dan Strategi
pelatihan dapat mengakomodir dan menguatkan perubahan menuju Telkom
University. Sehingga disimpulkan bahwa Strategi perubahan yang tepat
digunakan dalam menghadapi perubahan menuju Telkom University adalah
Empirical – rational

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Soal Latihan

1. Mengapa perubahan itu menjadi sebuah kepastian. Jelaskan

2. Buatlah sebuah contoh perubahan dan sebutkan indicator


keberhasilan perubahan tersebut.

3. Jelaskan perbedaan perubahan dalam perusahaan jasa dan


manufaktur

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BAB 3 PERUBAHAN DALAM ORGANISASI

Why organizations change?


Globalisasi dan inovasi akan terjadi secara berkelanjutan. Hal ini adalah
hasil teknologi dalam lingkungan bisnis yang terus berkembang. Fenomena
seperti media sosial dan perkembangan tekonoogi ponsel telah merevolusi
bisnis. Saat ini kebutuhan tersebut semakin meningkat dan mendorong
perubahan yang pada akhirnya menuntut perubahan manajemen.
Pertumbuhan teknologi juga memiliki efek sekunder yaitu meningkatkan
ketersediaan dan akuntabilitas pengetahuan. Kemudahan akses informasi
telah mengakibatkan pengawasan pemegang saham dan media serta
memunculkan tekanan pada manajemen.
Dengan banyak perubahan dalam lingkungan bisnis yang dialami,
organisasi harus belajar untuk menjadi nyaman dengan adanya perubahan
ini. Oleh karena itu, kemampuan untuk mengelola dan beradaptasi dengan
perubahan organisasi adalah kemampuan penting yang diperlukan di tempat
kerja saat ini. Namun, perubahan organisasi yang besar dan cepat
menjadikan kesulitan tersendiri karena struktur, budaya, dan rutinitas
organisasi sering mencerminkan status quo sulit dari periode lalu sulit
dihapuskan. Oleh karena itu bagi yang mampu bertahan terhadap
perubahan yang radikal membutuhkan perubahan yang cepat.
Karena perkembangan teknologi, perubahan organisasi modern yang
sebagian besar didorong oleh inovasi eksternal daripada tuntutan internal.
Ketika perkembangan ini terjadi, organisasi yang cepat beradaptasi akan
menciptakan keunggulan kompetitif bagi diri mereka sendiri, sementara
perusahaan yang menolak untuk berubah akan tertinggal. Hal ini dapat
mengakibatkan kerugian yang drastis pada pangsa pasar. Perubahan
organisasi secara langsung mempengaruhi semua departemen dan semua

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karyawan di semua tingkat manajemen. Seluruh perusahaan harus belajar


bagaimana menangani perubahan organisasi ini dengan baik.

What changes in organizations


Sebagaimana di gambarkan sebelumnya organisasi berubah bias
karena tekanan internal maupun ekseternal. Sehingga perlu ada penyesuaian
kondisi internal terhadap berbagai tuntutan tersebut. Secara umum
perubahan ditujukan pada perbaikan kinerja institusional. Oleh karena itu
perubahan yang memungkinkan terjadai pada perubahan orientasi berupa
visi dan target capaian kerja. Untuk menghasilkan target dan orientasi kerja
tersebut dibutuhkan system kerja yang sesuai dengan tuntutan yang
diantaranya adalah perubahan penggunaan sarana dan teknologi kerja.
Selain itu dibutuhkan penyesuaian kompetensi dan kapasitas pekerja agar
dapat menjalankan system kerja yang baru. Oleh karena itu ilmu, ketrampilan
dan sikap serta perilaku karyawan harus disesuaikan dengan tuntutan target
kerja dan cara kerja yang baru. Sering tuntutan perubahan baru ini
mendorong adanya perubahan anggaran dan pendanaan kerja, orientasi
pasar baru, serta system operasi kerja baru. Kompleksitas kemungkinan
tuntutan perubahan ini mendorong perusahaan untuk melakukan perubahan
yang integratif di semua lini manajerial yaitu, operasional, SDM, pemasaran,
komunikasi, dan keuangan.

Soal Latihan

1. Jika anda menjadi seorang manajer di sebuah perusahaan, Faktor apa


saja yang menyebabkan anda berfikir untuk melakuikan perubahan di
perusahaan anda

2. Jika ada sebuah teknologi baru yang berkaitan dengan perusahanan


anda, apakah anda akan membuat program perubahan manajerial
diperusahaan anda? Jelaskan alas an anda

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3. Di dalam departemen keuangan, operasi, pemasaran dan SDM,


tuntutan perubahan apa saja yang sering muncul. Sebutkan dan
jelaskan alasan anda.

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BAB 4 ANALISIS PERUBAHAN

Diagnosis for change


Manajemen perubahan diawali dengan penentuan kebutuhan untuk
perubahan, skala perubahan, segmentasi perubahan, metodologi perubahan,
pendekatan perubahan, komunikasi perubahan, teknik perubahan, dan
analisis antisipasi efek perubahan. Penentuan kebutuhan perubahan
dianalisa dengan adanya dinamika tuntutan internal dan eksternal organisasi
dalam merespon tingkat persaingan dengan para kompetitor dan perubahan
pasar. Perubahan bias dilakukan di skala strategis maupun skala teknis.
Siemen yang dikenal sebagai perusahan yang memproduksi alat komunikasi
menangkap tuntutan pasar di segmentasi transportasi. Sehingga mereka
melakuka diversifikasi produk dari alat komunikasi ke alat transportasi seperti
membuat gerbong MRT. Demikain juga dengan perusahaan Samsung yang
hanya dikenal sebagai innovator produk alat rumah tangga seperti TV,
mesing pendingin, merambah produknya kea lat komunikasi seperti
handphone dan alat transportasi seperti mobil.
Demikian juga dengan tuntutan perubahan yang muncul bisa
mendorong organisasi melakukan perubahan di skala yang berbeda seperti
perubahan depatemntal dan fungsi manajerial di berbagai bidang yang
berbeda di dalam perusahaan tersebut. Dalam perkembangan implementasi
konsep manajemen SDM misalnya. Pada awalnya fungsi SDM diberlakukan
dengan sangat sedderhana sebagai bagian administrasi kepegawaian,
kemudian berkembang menjadi bagian personalia, yang selanjutnya
mengikuti tuntutan menjadi bagian pelaksana fungsi SDM, dan kini telah
memasuki fungsi stratejik dan pendorong utama di sebuah perusahaan.
Perubahan ini mengikuti tuntutan perubahan dari skala teknis hingga skala
strategis. Demikian juga dengan perusahaan yang kadang dituntut untuk
melakukan perubahan di satu sisi produksi sja karena adanya tuntutan

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hadirnya teknologi produksi baru. Atau perubahan di segmen system


teknologi informasi, karena muncul konsep dan sarana baru dalam
pengelolaan system teknologi informasi. Perubahan pasar sering menuntut
perubahan kerja dan cara karja di bagian pemasaran. Oleh karena itu analisis
yang lebih spesifik dibutuhkan untuk memastikan kebutuhan perubahan yang
dituntut baik oleh internal maupun oleh eksternal perusahaan.
Tuntutan globalisasi dan keterbukaan informasi juga memberikan
pengaruh terhadap metodologi dan pendekatan perubahan dalam sebuah
institusi. Kadang perubahan cukup diinformasikan dan menjadi bahan
koordinasi dikalangan top manajemen. Namun kondisi keterbukaan saat ini
sering memicu tuntutan perubahan yang berasal dari karyawan tingkat
bawah/bottom up. Dengan adanya dinamika bisnis dan tenologi yang begitu
cepat antisipasi terhadap sebuah orientasi perubahan perlu dilakukan. Hal ini
sering terjadi karena prediksi perubahan tidak secepat tuntutan perubahan
organisasi.

Kegagalan proses perubahan tidak hanya disebabkan oleh


perencanaan dan control yang kurang matang. Namun antisipasi dari kondisi
percepatan tuntutan perlu menjadi bahan analisa tersendiri. Sehingga bagi

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organisasi yang menghadapi dinamika kompetisi yang tinggi, perubahan


yang ditargetkan harus mengikuti tren tuntutan perubahan eksternal. Oleh
karena itu capaian yang ditunjukkan dengan nilai nominal kadang tidak
presisi dengan tingkat persaingan yang dihadapi.
Dalam melakukan pengelolaan perubahan organisasi perlu
memperhatikan kesiapan internal dalam berubah. Oleh karenanya langkah
pertama yang perlu dilakukan adalah proses unfreezing yaitu tahapan
dimana menyiapkan system yang bisa menyesuaikan peluang perubahan.
Unfreezing ini ditujukan pada setiap pemangku kepentingan seperti owner,
top manajemen hingga karyawan non staf sekalipun. Kemudian setelah
system sudah cukup fleksibel, proses perubahan dapat dilakukan. Sehingga
agar perubahan bisa terkendali, proses re-frezing sebagai tahapan
pengetatan pada system baru harus segera diberlakukan. Sebagaimana
terlihat dalam bagan berikut ini.

Selain itu dalam proses mengelola perubahan organisasi ada sebuah


tuntutas etika yang bisa menjadi tantangan prosesn perubahan ini. Oleh
karena itu perubahan harus sesuai dengan nilai-nilai, norma dan keyakinan

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yang ada dalam organisasi dan dimiliki oleh para anggota organisasi.
Sehingga kejelasan orientasi perlu dipersiapkan untuk mengantisipasi
berbagai persepsi yang berbeda dengan yang telah ditentukan. Demikian
pula perilaku politik organisasi menjadi bahan pertimbangan bagi institusi
yang rentan dengan berbagai perbedaan orientasi dan interes.

Resistant to change
Tidak semua rencana perubahan organisasi dapat berjalan dengan
baik. Sering terjadi proses pengelolaan perubahan organisasi terkendala
karena munculnya berbagai hambatan untuk berubah baik dari individu
anggota organisasi hingga system organisasi yang sedang berjalan.
Diantara hambatan yang sering muncul adalah karena ketidaktahuan dan
kekhawatiran tentang proses dari perubahan yang akan dan sedang
dilakukan sebagaimana tergambar dalam bagan dibawah. Sehingga agen
perubah perlu melakukan antisipasi dalam menghadapi resistensi yang
muncul dalam perubahan tersebut seperti perlunya dilakukan komunikasi
secara intensif ketika sedang dilakukan perencanaan perubahan, persiapan
perubahan, saat perubahaan hingga saat akhir proses perubahan. Hal ini
untuk mendukung proses unfreezing, proses perubahan, dan re-freezing.
Dengan adanya komunikasi yang intensif diharapkan berbagai kendala

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psikologis, kognitif, dan kebutuhan peningkatan kapasitas dan kompetensi


dapat diidentifikasi dengan baik. Sehingga gap dan penghalang di level
psikologis, kognitif maupun ketrampilan bisa diantisipasi sejak dini, dengan
memberikan pelatihan dan pembekalan

.
Keterlibatan seluruh level karyawan sesuai persinya juga dibutuhkan
dalam mengelola sebuah perubahan organisasi, sehingga mampu
mengurangi ketegangan dalam pengelolaan perubahan ini. Jikapun terjadi
perbedaan yang lebih prinsipil proses negosiasi hingga paksaan bisa
dilakukan jika diperlukan.

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Artikel pendukung analisa perubahan diantaranya adalah:


1. Parker, D., Verlinden, A., Nussey, R., Ford, M., & Pathak, R. D. (2013).
Critical evaluation of project-based performance management: Change
intervention integration. International Journal of Productivity and
Performance Management, 62(4), 407-419.
2. Karakas 2009 New Paradigms in Organizational Development in the 21st
Century: Positivity, Spirituality, and Complexity, Organization
Development Journal, Vol. 27, No. 1, pp. 11-27
3. Kramer, J., & Magee, J. (1990). The evolving philosophers problem:
Dynamic change management. Software Engineering, IEEE Transactions
on, 16(11), 1293-1306.
4. Osibanjo, O. A., Adeniji, A. A., & Abiodun, J. A. (2013). Organizational
Change and Human Resource Management Interventions: An
Investigation of the Nigerian Banking Industry. Serbian Journal of
Management, 8(2).
5. Khattak, A. M., Latif, K., & Lee, S. (2013). Change management in
evolving web ontologies. Knowledge-Based Systems, 37, 1-18.
6. Carpinetti, L. C., & Lima, R. H. (2013). Institutions for collaboration in
industrial clusters: proposal of a performance and change management
model. International Journal of Production Management and Engineering,
1(1), 13-26.
7. Samuel, K. (2013). THE EFFECTS OF CHANGE MANAGEMENT IN AN
ORGANISATION: A CASE STUDY OF NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF
RWANDA (NUR).
8. Gandomani, T. J., Zulzalil, H., Ghani, A. A. A., & Sultan, A. B. M. (2013).
Towards comprehensive and disciplined change management strategy in
agile transformation process. Research Journal of Applied Sciences,
Engineering and Technology, 6, 2345-2351.

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Soal Latihan

1. Sebutkan kendala investasi SDM yang sering dihadapai dalam sebuah


proses perubahan organisasi

2. Sebutkan dan jelaskan batasa etis apa saja yang perlu diperhatikan
dalam mengelola perubahan organisasi

3. Dalam menghadapi resistensi dalam perubahan, apa yang akan anda


lakukan sebagai seorang manajer SDM? Jelaskan

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BAB 5 IMPLEMENTASI MANAJEMEN PERUBAHAN

Dengan memahami esensi kebutuhan dan keniscayaan perubahan


dalam sebuah organisasi, selanjutnya perlu difahami berbagai metodologi
yang menjadi sarana perubahan tersebut. Diantara model implementasi
perubahan organsasi adalah pengembangan organisasi (Organizational
development), Appreciative Inquiry, Positive organizational scholarship,
Sensemaking approach, Change management, dan Contingency and
processual approach. Dalam mengelola sebuah proses perubahan dalam
organisasi, hal yang terpenting dan perlu perhatian adalah hubungan visi
organisasi dengan kebutuhan, proses, dan metode perubahan dalam
organisai.

Organizational Development
Pengembangan organisasi (OD) adalah sebuah pendekatan untuk
perubahan organisasi dimana para pegawai menentukan sendiri sebuah
perubahan serta mengimplementasikannya yang biasanya dilakukan dengan
pelatihan dan arahan konsultan. Pengembangan organisasi (OD) adalah,
upaya organisasi yang direncanakan untuk meningkatkan efektivitas dan /
atau efisiensi organisasi dan / atau untuk memungkinkan organisasi untuk
mencapai tujuan strategisnya. Para ahli dan praktisi OD mendefinisikannya
dalam berbagai cara. Berbagai definisi OD mencerminkan kompleksitas
disiplin dan tanggung jawab pemahaman terhadap OD. Sebagai contoh,
Vasudevan menjadikan OD sebagai promosi kesiapan organisasi dalam
memenuhi tuntutan perubahan, dan OD disebut sebagai pembelajaran dan
pengembangan strategi yang sistemik untuk mengubah dasar-dasar
keyakinan, sikap dan nilai-nilai yang relevansi, dan mengubah struktur
organisasi agar lebih mampu menyerap teknologi,menangkap peluang pasar
dan tantangannya. OD bukanlah sebuah aktivitas pelatihan, pengembangan

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pribadi, pengembangan tim, pengembangan sumber daya manusia (SDM),


pembelajaran dan pengembangan (Learning & Develoment) atau bagian dari
Manajemen SDM. Karena sesungguhnya OD adalah sebah perubahan yang
melibatkan orang, pegembangan proses, sistem dan struktur. Tujuan utama
OD adalah untuk mengembangkan organisasi, bukan untuk melatih atau
mengembangkan staf.
Tujuan OD adalah untuk meningkatkan tingkat kepercayaan antar
pribadi di antara karyawan, kepuasan dan komitmen karyawan, menghadapi
masalah bukan mengabaikan mereka, secara efektif mengelola konflik,
meningkatkan kerja sama dan kolaborasi di antara karyawan, meningkatkan
pemecahan masalah organisasi, dan untuk dimasukkan ke dalam proses
yang akan membantu meningkatkan operasi yang sedang berlangsung
organisasi secara terus menerus. Secara umum program OD betujuan untuk
membuat individu dalam organisasi menyadari visi organisasi. Karena
pengembangan organisasi membantu dalam membuat karyawan
menyelaraskan dengan visi organisasi, mendorong karyawan untuk
memecahkan masalah, bukan menghindarinya, penguatan kepercayaan
kerjasama, dan komunikasi antar karyawn untuk keberhasilan pencapaian
tujuan organisasi, mendorong setiap individu untuk berpartisipasi dalam
proses perencanaan, sehingga membuat mereka merasa bertanggung jawab
atas pelaksanaan rencana, menciptakan suasana kerja di mana karyawan
didorong untuk bekerja dan berpartisipasi dengan antusias, mengganti jalur
formal kewenangan dengan pengetahuan pribadi dan keterampilan, dan
menciptakan lingkungan kepercayaan sehingga karyawan rela menerima
perubahan.OD menjadikan manajer untuk memperkenalkan perubahan
secara sistematis dengan menerapkan pilihan yang luas sesuai teknik-teknik
manajemen. Hal ini, pada gilirannya, menyebabkan pribadi, kelompok yang
lebih berkualitas, dan organisasi yang lebih efektif.

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Appreciative Inquiry
Albert Einstein pernah berkata:
“No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that
created it. We must learn to see the world anew.”
“There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a
miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.”

Dalam proses Appreciative Inquiry dikenal beberapa alur tahapan seperti


tergambar dalam bagan berikut:

Prinsip-prinsip Appreciative Inquiry


 Constructionist Principle
 Principle of Simultaneity
 Open Book “Poetic Principle”
 Anticipatory Principle
 Positive Principle
 Principle of Wholeness

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Positive organizational scholarship


Positive organizational scholarship (POS) berkaitan dengan berbagai
hasil studi proses, dan atribut organisasi serta anggota organisasi, yang
positif. POS tidak mewakili satu teori tertentu, namun berfokus pada dinamika
yang biasanya digambarkan dengan kata-kata seperti keunggulan,
berkembang, berkembang, ketahanan, atau kebajikan. POS merupakan
perspektif yang lebih luas, yang mencakup masalah pengukuran dan
menguatkan pada ide-ide "kebaikan" dan potensi kemanusiaan yang positif.
Ini meliputi perhatian pada potensi positif seseorang (misalnya, kemampuan
proses, kemampuan, struktur, metode), motivasi (misalnya, tidak egois,
perhatian, memberikan kontribusi tanpa kesombongan), dan hasil atau efek
(misalnya, vitalitas, kebermaknaan, kegembiraan, hubungan yang berkualitas
tinggi) yang berhubungan dengan fenomena positif. POS dibedakan dari
studi organisasi tradisional karena berusaha untuk memahami apa yang
mewakili dan pendekatan pada kondisi manusia yang baik. Fenomena
perilaku positif lainnya diantaranya adalah community psychology, humanistic
organizational behavior, organizational development, pro-social motivation
and citizenship behavior, and corporate social responsibility.

Sensemaking approach
Sensemaking organisasi adalah pertama dan terutama tentang
pertanyaan: Bagaimana sesuatu menjadi bagian dari agenda anggota
organisasi? Kedua, sensemaking adalah tentang pertanyaan: Apa sebauh
agenda memberi arti? Sensemaking dan organisasi merupakan upaya untuk
mengalirkan pesan intrinsik tindakan manusia, menghubungan kea rah
tertentu, memberikan bentuk tertentu, melalui pendekatan generalisasi dan
pelembagaan sebuah makna dan aturan tertentu. Dalam proses manajemen
perubahan perlu diketahuai sejauhmana sensemaking anggota organisasi
memberikan pengaruh terhadap capaian implementasi perubahan. Hal ini

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dapat difahami karena perubahan menciptakan gangguan yang memicu


sensemaking (Weick, 1995), Karyawan memiliki keleluasaan untuk memaknai
suatu hal yang sama secara berbeda, dan karyawan dapat mengikuti
perubahan hanya karena didorong oleh manajer puncak.
Sensemaking adalah sebuah proses dialog dan narasi (Brown 2000;
Gephart 1993, 1997) termasuk didalamnya adalah berbagai bentuk
komunikasi (Watson and Bargiela-Chiappini 1998), secara lisan maupun
tulisan, forman dan non formal. Namun secara khusus, sensemaking adalah
praktek percakapan dan sosial (Gephart 1993: 1469) dalam arti verbal dan
non verbal (Gioia and Chittipeddi 1991; Gioia et al. 1994). Seseorang terlibat
melakukan gosip dan negosiasi, saling bertukar cerita, rumor, dan
pengalaman mereka, mendapatkan informasi, dan memberikan catatan pada
sebuah hal, atau mengenali sebuah tanda seperti perilaku dan aksi, untuk
memberikan kesimbulan dan memberikan sebuah makna (Isabella 1990;
Gioia dan Chittipeddi 1991; Gioia et al. 1994; Gioia dan Thomas 1996; Poole
et al. 1989; Labianca et al. 2000). Sehingga sebuah perubahan dapat muncul
dari pertukaran dalam sebuah percakapan dan bahasa (Barrett et al. 1995;
Brown dan Humphreys 2003; Ford dan Ford 1995; Heracleous dan Barrett
2001).

Mengelola Perubahan
Manajemen perubahan adalah sebuah perubahan organisasi
lingkungan, struktur, budaya, teknologi, atau orang-orang dalam menghadapi
sebuah tuntutan, realitas organisasi, dan kesempatan atau ancaman. Cara
pandang terhadap perubahan adalah misalnya dengan pendekatan metafora
air Tenang yaitu penjelasan praktek-praktek tradisional dan teori tentang
organisasi yang menyamakan organisasi pada sebuah kapal besar yang
berlayar di laut yang tenang yang kadang terkadang terkena badai, dan cara
pandang metafora Arung jeram yaitu menganggap bahwa organisasi sebagai
rakit kecil yang berjalan di sungai berarus deras. Perubahan organisasi di

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Setyabudi Indartono, 20

aliran arus deras memiliki anggapan bahwa perubahan selalu terjadi di


lingkungan yang dinamis, bahwa kepastian itu adalah ketidak pastian,
sehingga seorang manajer harus cepat tanggap terhapad hal yang tidak
diperkirakan sebelumnya.
Proses perubahan organisasi menurut Kurt Lewin terdiri dari tiga
proses yaitu unfreezing, implementasi perubahan dan refreezing. Hal ini
untuk mengantisipasi berbaga hambatan perubahan seseorang yang terdiri
dari kekhawatiran seseorang akan kehilangan nilai, kekhawatiran
ketidaktahuan dan adanya keyakinan bahwa berubah tidak baik untuk
organisasi. Hal ini akan memunculkan halangan dalam proses
pemberdayaan.

Sebuah contoh model rencana perubahan organisasi sebagaimana di


adopsi dari Larry Short, “Planned Organizational Change,” MSU Business
Topics, Autumn 1973, pp. 53–61 ed. Theodore Herbert, Organizational
Behavior: Readings and Cases (New York: McMillan, 1976), p. 351.

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Pendekatan Kontinjensi dan proses


Pendekatan kontinjensi adalah sebuah proses dalam manajemen
perubahan meyakini bahwa ada satu cara terbaik dalam melakukan
perubahan organisasi. Tipe perubahan atau cara perubahan dianggap
bervariasi tergantung pada tantangan yang dihadapi misalnya adalah skala
perubahan yang menjadi tujuan, tingkat penerimaan perubahan bagi anggota
organisasi, tipe manajemen perubahan, waktu yang dibutuhkan dan kinerja
organisasi. Pendekatan kontinjensi menurut Huy dikatagorikan menjadi
perintah intervensi seperti perubahan harus dilakukan dalam jangka pendek
dan cepat, dilakukan oleh eksekutif senior, dilakukan dengan
caraPerampingan, outsourcing, atau divestasi. Kategori kedua adalah
rekayasa intervensi seperti bahwa perubahan dilakukan dalam jangka
menengah dan relatif cepat, memerlukan analisa, dan bertujuan untuk
mengubah desain kerja dan sistem operasional. Sedangkan kategori ketiga
adalah pengajaran intervensi yaitu perubahan dilakukan dalam jangka
panjang dan bertahap, membutuhkan konsultan, dan merubah praktek kerja
dan perilaku. Kategori keempat adalah sosialisasi intervensi yaitu perubahan
jangka panjang dan bertahap, dilakukan dengan pelibatan pengalaman belaja

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dan pemantauan diri, serta dilakukan dengan praktek organisasi yang


demokratis.
Sedangkan pendekatan proses adalah melihat perubahan sebagai
sebuah proses yang berkelanjutan bukan sekedar rangkaian aktivitas yang
linier dalam waktu tertentu. Pendekatan proses menganggap bahwa hasil
dari perubahan sebagai terjadi melalui interaksi yang rumit dari berbagai
kelompok kepentingan, tujuan, dan politik. Pendekatan ini mengingatkan
manajer perubahan ke berbagai pengaruh yang mereka akan hadapi dan
mengingatkan manajer perubahan bahwa cara di akan menyebabkan hasil
perubahan tertentu saja yang dapat dicapai. Pendekatan ini sering digunakan
untuk mendapatkan analisa dan pemahaman yang mendalam dari sebuah
perencanaan.

Menghubungkan Visi dan Perubahan


Memiliki visi sering dikaitkan mengapa perubahan organisasi berhasil
mencapai tujuannya. Sebaliknya, kehilangan visi sering dikaitkan dengan
kegagalan organisasi. Peran visi dalam memproduksi perubahan organisasi
ini terkait dengan citra seseorang mengelola perubahan. Visi umumnya
dianggap sebagai panduan bagi organisasi dalam mengidentifikasi kelayakan
perubahan tertentu yang ditargetkan.
Dalam proses perubahan ada beberapa perbedaan memandang
hubungan visi dan perubahan yaitu apalah visi akan mendorong perubahan
atau bermanfaat dalam perubahan? Apakah visi dapat membantu atau justru
menghalangi perubahan? Apakah visi digunakan sebagai atribut untuk
kegagahan bagi para pemimpin atau organisasi.

Artikel pendukung implementasi perubahan diantaranya adalah:


1. Parker, D., Charlton, J., Ribeiro, A., & Pathak, R. D. (2013). Integration of
project-based management and change management: Intervention

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Setyabudi Indartono, 20

methodology. International Journal of Productivity and Performance


Management, 62(5), 534-544.
2. Parker, D., Verlinden, A., Nussey, R., Ford, M., & Pathak, R. D. (2013).
Critical evaluation of project-based performance management: Change
intervention integration. International Journal of Productivity and
Performance Management, 62(4), 407-419.
3. Osibanjo, O. A., Adeniji, A. A., & Abiodun, J. A. (2013). Organizational
Change and Human Resource Management Interventions: An
Investigation of the Nigerian Banking Industry. Serbian Journal of
Management, 8(2).
4. Carpinetti, L. C., & Lima, R. H. (2013). Institutions for collaboration in
industrial clusters: proposal of a performance and change management
model. International Journal of Production Management and Engineering,
1(1), 13-26.
5. Fusilier, M., & Munro, D. (2013). Enterprising Versus Traditional Change
Management in a For-Profit University.
6. Samuel, K. (2013). THE EFFECTS OF CHANGE MANAGEMENT IN AN
ORGANISATION: A CASE STUDY OF NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF
RWANDA (NUR).
7. Gandomani, T. J., Zulzalil, H., Ghani, A. A. A., & Sultan, A. B. M. (2013).
Towards comprehensive and disciplined change management strategy in
agile transformation process. Research Journal of Applied Sciences,
Engineering and Technology, 6, 2345-2351.
8. S Basamh, S., Huq, M., Dahlan, A., & Rahman, A. (2013). Empirical
research on project implementation success and change management
practices in Malaysian Government-Linked Companies (GLCs).
International Journal of Information and Communication Technology
Research, 3(5), 714-180.
9. Slattery, J. (2013). Change Management. Journal of Strategic Leadership,
4(2), 1-5.

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Setyabudi Indartono, 20

10. Naeem, A., Khan, M. F. A., Orakzai, H., Shah, D., & Hussain, S. T. (2013).
Change Management Process And Activities Impacts On Organizational
Performance: A Case In Perspective Of Organizational Culture. Far East
Journal of Psychology and Business, 10(2), 10-24.
11. Husain and Khan, 2010, Clarifying spiritual values among organizational
development personnel, African Journal of Business Management Vol.4
(2), pp. 278-281
12. Knoff, 2009, Best Practices in Strategic Planning, Organizational
Development, and School Effectiveness, pp 1-33
13. Hermundsgard and Hansson, 2010, Assessment of HSE aspects by
employees’ participation in organizational development processes:” What
you ask is what you get
14. Korsvold, Hansson, and Lauvness, 2010, Job satisfaction and extensive
participation processes in organizational development-A case study from
the Norwegian petroleum industry

Soal Latihan

1. Sebutkan dan jelaskan hal-hal yang sering dianggap sulit dalam


proses implementasi perubahan organisasi

2. Bagaimana anda menjelaskan hubungan visi organisasi dan proses


perubahan yang anda lakukan terhadap karyawan tingkat bawah?

3. Jika dalam organisasi anda ada seorang atau sekelompok karyawan


yang selalu berfikiran bertentangan dan negative terhadap anda, apa
sikap anda terhadap mereka dalam proses perubahan organisasi yang
anda lakukan.

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BAB 6 KOMUNIKASI DALAM PERUBAHAN

Beragam tujuan dalam penitian bidang SDM menuntut peneliti untuk


menjelaskan hasil dari penelitiannya baik secara teoritis, empiris, maupun
praktis. Sehingga hasil dari analisis penelitian dapat difahami secara
deskriptif oleh pengguna. Secara umum peneliti berusaha untuk menjelaskan
mengapa hasil dari penelitiannya menunjukkan suatu nilai dan signifikansi
tertentu. Oleh karena itu peneliti perlu memperkuat hasil temuannya dengan
penjelasan penelitian sebelumnya sebagai dasar empiris, dan menjelaskan
fenomena lapangan dari obyek penelitian yang dilakukan.

Strategi Komunikasi
Dalam mengelola perubahan strategi mengelola komunikasi sangat
penting dalam rangka mencapai target perubahan. Manajemen komunikasi
adalah perencanaan yang sistematis, pelaksanaan, pemantauan, dan revisi
semua saluran komunikasi dalam sebuah organisasi, dan antara organisasi;
juga termasuk organisasi dan penyebaran arahan komunikasi baru yang
berhubungan dengan organisasi, jaringan, atau teknologi komunikasi. Aspek
manajemen komunikasi meliputi pengembangan strategi komunikasi
perusahaan, merancang arahan komunikasi internal dan eksternal, dan
mengelola arus informasi, termasuk komunikasi online. Teknologi baru
memaksa inovasi terus-menerus pada bagian dari manajer komunikasi.
Sebagai manajer, kita harus mengambil pendekatan kontingensi untuk
berkomunikasi dengan karyawan mereka dan berkomunikasi secara pribadi.
Itu tanggung jawab manajer untuk menentukan apakah kepribadian karyawan
mereka berada di bawah berikut: Reaktor, gila kerja, Persisters, Dreamers,
Pemberontak, atau Promotor
Strategi komunikasi merupakan salah satu cara untuk memastikan
bahwa proses komunikasi yang dilakukan sesuai dengan tujuan komunikasi

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dan target obyek komunikasi. Dalam komunikasi sosial proses dialog ada
tuntutan bahwa masyarakat sendiri yang akan mendefinisikan siapa mereka,
apa yang mereka butuhkan, dan bagaimana mereka akan bekerja sama
untuk mendapatkan apa yang mereka inginkan dan butuhkan untuk
memperbaiki kehidupan mereka dan komunitas mereka. Oleh karena itu
keberhasilan dalam komunikasi dapat dicapai melalui keterlibatan yang
berarti dari para pemangku kepentingan utama suara begitu lokal didengar
dan ditindaklanjuti. Dalam strategi komunikasi, praktek taktik komunikasi
perlu dibedakan untuk tiap fase perubahan organisasi yang berbeda
sehingga akan memiliki dampak penting pada tingkat penerimaan dari
perubahan anggota organisasi. Dengan berpedoman pada prinsip-prinsip
komunikasi yang efektif , penerapan strategi komunikasi akan memberikan
efek yang tepat pada beberapa tahapan perubahan organisasi. Sehingga
pihak-pihak yang terlibat perlu memperhatikan strategi komunikasi dalam
tahap sosialisasi perubahan, dalam menciptakan keterlibatan anggota
organisasi, dan menghasilkan perbedaan dalam proses perubahan.
Dalam manajemen perubahan komunkasi dilakukan dan diawali dengan
perencanaan proyek perubahan, dilakukan diawal bukan diakhir, dan berisi
muatan anggaran. Proses komunikasi ini harus didasari oleh pemikiran
analisis, fokus pada gambaran besar perubahan, pelibatan berbagai saluran
komunikasi, dan menentukan pemangku kepentingan kunci. Beberapa
elemen kunci dari komunikasi dalam strategi komunikasi manajemen
perubahan adalah terkait dengan konteks perubahan dan komunikasinya,
pertimbangan strategis perubahan dan komunikasinya, tujuan perubahan dan
komunikasinya, sasaran perubahan dan obyek komunikasi, pesan perubahan
dan bahasa komunikasiny, taktik dan alat-alat manajemen perubahan, dan
evaluasi proses komunikasi perubahan yang dilakukan.
Cakupan komunikasi yang dilakukan dalam manajemen perubahan
diantaranya adalah terkait dengan konteks perubahan, kondisi ekonomi,
sosial, dan lingkungan politik, Media observasi, tren opini publik, konteks

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historis, dan budaya dan tujuan perusahaan. Oleh karena itu dalam
komunikasi ini strategi yang dipertimbangkan diantaranya adalah
mengantisipasi perubahan yang akan dilakukan, analisa resiko dan
melakukan analisa SWOT. Misalnya dengan cara penentuan tujuan dengan
jelas, dan cerdas, realistis, dan berusaha tidak melakukan langkah mundur.
Perlu diperhatikan juga obyek komunikasi yang perlu menimbang target
peserta, dengan siapa kita perlu bicara, memulai dengan yang terbatas/lokal
kemudian dilanjutkan yang lebih luas/global, serta memahami siapa audience
yang diajak bicara. Untuk itu pesan yang disampaikan harus dikemas dengan
meninjau ulang tujuan, siapkan riga sampai lima pesan/kata kunci, ringkas
dan sederhana, dan pesan yang melengket. Taktik dan alat komunikasi yang
digunakan harus sesuai dengan tujuan, selaras dengan audience, dan
bersifat jangka pendek dan jangka panjang.

Kemampuan komunikasi perubahan


Seorang komunikator harus memiliki empat keterampilan kunci untuk
berkomunikasi antara lain memiliki kemampuan untuk:
 Mendengarkan: Ada empat jenis keterampilan mendengarkan yaitu
menangguhkan penilaian, mengidentifikasi asumsi, mendengarkan untuk
belajar, dan refleksi. (Gerard & Teurfs, 1997)
 Bercerita: Ini adalah cara yang efektif untuk membantu karyawan belajar
dari perubahan masa lalu & memberikan gambaran masa depan.
 Lebih busa menjual perubahan: menjual isu adalah cara untuk
mendapatkan perhatian dari manajemen senior bahwa perubahan harus
dimulai dari bawah.
 Penanganan masalah: beberapa orang dalam organisasi mengambil
peran menangani problem dari proses perubahan dan menyerap ini

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sebagai cara untuk melindungi orang lain dari dampak negatif perubahan.
(Frost & Robinson, 1999)

Komunikasi perubahan harus dilakukan dengan cara yang berbeda


untuk berbagai tahap proses perubahan. Ada empat jenis percakapan
menurut Ford & Ford (1995)
 Percakapan Initiative: yaitu untuk menarik perhatian tentang perlunya
perubahan.
 Percakapan untuk memahami: ini mengkomunikasikan jenis perubahan
yang dibutuhkan dan memungkinkan untuk memberikan penghargaan
yang lebih besar atas perubahan.
 Percakapan untuk kinerja: ini berfokus pada perubahan yang diinginkan
dan bagaimana cara kemajuan perubahan dapat dipantau.
 Percakapan penutupan: ini sinyal akhir perubahan

Perubahan berkelanjutan
Setelah diimplementasikan, perubahan tidak selalu berjalan lancar
dalam sebuah organisasi. Kemampuan untuk membuat perubahan
menunjukkan keberhasilan jangka panjang dari perubahan. Sehingga ada
beberapa tindakan yang dapat membantu mempertahankan perubahan.
Untuk mempertahankan proses perubahan perlu dilakukan beberapa hal
seperti :
 Mendesain ulang peran: Ini adalah hasil yang umum dari sebuah
perubahan dan merupakan tanda bahwa perubahan adalah cukup
penting.
 Merancang ulang sistem penghargaan: sistem penghargaan merupakan
bagian dari budaya, dan mengubah sistem penghargaan adalah cara
yang secara langsung mempengaruhi nilai-nilai inti organisasi.

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 Menghubungkan jaringan keputusan untuk mengubah tujuan: Kriteria


seleksi adalah simbol dari apakah hal ini mendorong ide-ide baru dan
perubahan
 Bertindak secara konsisten: Ini menunjukkan ketetapan perubahan
melalui praktik adopsi dan prioritas.
 Mendorong inisiatif tindakan sukarela yang merupakan akativitas yang
didorong oleh norma di semua tingkatan organisasi.
 Mengukur kemajuan: Tindakan yang digunakan sebagai alat untuk
mengukur kemajuan perubahan dan menunjukkan ketercapaian tujuan
perubaban.
 Rayakan keberhasilan yang dapat mendorong semua yang terlibat dalam
perubahan untuk meningkatkan kredibilitas program.
 Menyempurnakan: Program Perubahan harus terbuka untuk dimodifikasi
untuk meningkatkan hasil perubahan.

Artikel pendukung Komunikasi perubahan diantaranya adalah:


1. Carpinetti, L. C., & Lima, R. H. (2013). Institutions for collaboration in
industrial clusters: proposal of a performance and change management
model. International Journal of Production Management and Engineering,
1(1), 13-26.
2. Khattak, A. M., Latif, K., & Lee, S. (2013). Change management in
evolving web ontologies. Knowledge-Based Systems, 37, 1-18.
3. Dunne, M. J., & Mujtaba, B. G. (2013). Employee Engagement and
Change Management Programmes: a Comparative Study of
Organisational Commitment between Thai and Irish Cultures. International
Affairs and Global Strategy, 9, 1-22.
4. Naeem, A., Khan, M. F. A., Orakzai, H., Shah, D., & Hussain, S. T. (2013).
Change Management Process And Activities Impacts On Organizational

3
Setyabudi Indartono, 20

Performance: A Case In Perspective Of Organizational Culture. Far East


Journal of Psychology and Business, 10(2), 10-24.
5. Husain and Khan, 2010, Clarifying spiritual values among organizational
development personnel, African Journal of Business Management Vol.4
(2), pp. 278-281
6. Knoff, 2009, Best Practices in Strategic Planning, Organizational
Development, and School Effectiveness, pp 1-33
7. Mereles, Montoya, Lane and Dandy, 2009, Customer service in
Organizational Development, Proceedings of the Academy of Marketing
Studies, Volume 14, Number 2
8. Hermundsgard and Hansson, 2010, Assessment of HSE aspects by
employees’ participation in organizational development processes:” What
you ask is what you get
9. Korsvold, Hansson, and Lauvness, 2010, Job satisfaction and extensive
participation processes in organizational development-A case study from
the Norwegian petroleum industry
10. Ramos and Chesler, 2010, Reflections on a Cross-Cultural Partnership in
Multicultural Organizational Development Efforts, OD PRACTITIONER
Vol. 42 No. 2, pp. 4-9

Soal Latihan

1. Jika anda seorang manajer SDM, Sebutkan dan jelaskan perbedaan


sarana yang paling efektif dalam mengkomunikasikan perubahan pada
staff top manajemen, middle manajemen, dan technical staff di
perusahaan anda.

2. Sebutkan faktor apa saja yang peling perbengaruh untuk menggaransi


prosea perubahan yang berkelanjutan di perusahaan yang anda
pimpin. Jelaskan dan sertakan contoh-contohnya

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3. Kadang proses perubahan perlu manjadi rahasis perusahaan, namun


juga sering dituntut untuk diketahui oleh public. Sebutkan dan jelaskan
batasan-btasan informasi-informasi yang bisa diakses oleh public
dalam proses perubahan di perusahaan anda.

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REFERENSI

Carpinetti, L. C., & Lima, R. H. (2013). Institutions for collaboration in


industrial clusters: proposal of a performance and change management
model. International Journal of Production Management and
Engineering, 1(1), 13-26.
Dibrata, W. D. J., & Murahartawaty, W. P. (2013). USULAN MANAJEMEN
PERUBAHAN PADA TELKOM UNIVERSITY DENGAN
MENGGUNAKAN MODEL PERUBAHAN ADKAR. USULAN
MANAJEMEN PERUBAHAN PADA TELKOM UNIVERSITY DENGAN
MENGGUNAKAN MODEL PERUBAHAN ADKAR.
Dunne, M. J., & Mujtaba, B. G. (2013). Employee Engagement and Change
Management Programmes: a Comparative Study of Organisational
Commitment between Thai and Irish Cultures. International Affairs and
Global Strategy, 9, 1-22.
Faisal, M. Evaluasi Kinerja Manajemen Perubahan (melalui breakthrough
innovation) Jasa Pendidikan Serta Pengaruhnya terhadap Stakeholders.
Fusilier, M., & Munro, D. (2013). Enterprising Versus Traditional Change
Management in a For-Profit University.
Gandomani, T. J., Zulzalil, H., Ghani, A. A. A., & Sultan, A. B. M. (2013).
Towards comprehensive and disciplined change management strategy
in agile transformation process. Research Journal of Applied Sciences,
Engineering and Technology, 6, 2345-2351.
Griffin, M. A., Neal, A., & Parker, S. K. (2007). The new model of work role
performance: Positive behavior in uncertain and interdependent
contexts. Academy ofManagement Journal,50, 327–347
Hermundsgard and Hansson, 2010, Assessment of HSE aspects by
employees’ participation in organizational development processes:”
What you ask is what you get
Husain and Khan, 2010, Clarifying spiritual values among organizational
development personnel, African Journal of Business Management Vol.4
(2), pp. 278-281
Karakas 2009 New Paradigms in Organizational Development in the 21st
Century: Positivity, Spirituality, and Complexity, Organization
Development Journal, Vol. 27, No. 1, pp. 11-27
Khattak, A. M., Latif, K., & Lee, S. (2013). Change management in evolving
web ontologies. Knowledge-Based Systems, 37, 1-18.
Knoff, 2009, Best Practices in Strategic Planning, Organizational
Development, and School Effectiveness, pp 1-33
Korsvold, Hansson, and Lauvness, 2010, Job satisfaction and extensive
participation processes in organizational development-A case study
from the Norwegian petroleum industry

3
Setyabudi Indartono, 20

Kramer, J., & Magee, J. (1990). The evolving philosophers problem: Dynamic
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Mereles, Montoya, Lane and Dandy, 2009, Customer service in
Organizational Development, Proceedings of the Academy of Marketing
Studies, Volume 14, Number 2
Naeem, A., Khan, M. F. A., Orakzai, H., Shah, D., & Hussain, S. T. (2013).
Change Management Process And Activities Impacts On Organizational
Performance: A Case In Perspective Of Organizational Culture. Far East
Journal of Psychology and Business, 10(2), 10-24.
Osibanjo, O. A., Adeniji, A. A., & Abiodun, J. A. (2013). Organizational
Change and Human Resource Management Interventions: An
Investigation of the Nigerian Banking Industry. Serbian Journal of
Management, 8(2).
Parish, J. T., Cadwallader, S., & Busch, P. (2008). Want to, need to, ought to:
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Shaw, G. B., Drucker, P. F., & Senge, P. M. (2013). Challenges in Change


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Setyabudi Indartono, 20

SILABI
A. Wajib:
a. Palmer, I., Dunford,
change 2nd edition,RMcGrawHill
dan Akin, G (2009), Managing organizational
B. Pendukung:
a. Indartono (2014) Modul Mata Kuliah: Change Management
b. Senior and Swailes (2010), Organizational change 4th edition,
Prentice Hall
c. Cumming, T, 2006,Hall
edition, Prentice Organizational Development and change, 8th

EVALUASI
No Komponen Evaluasi Bobot (%)
1. Partisipasi Kuliah 20
2. Tugas-tugas 30
3. Ujian Tengah Semester 20
4. Ujian Akhir Semester 30
Jumlah 100

4
Setyabudi Indartono, 20

CURRICULUM VITAE
Setyabudi Indartono, Ph.D

Lahir di Purwokwero, 20 juli 1972. Menyelesaikan


studi SD hingga SMA di Banjarnegara Jawa Tengah.
Kemudian melanjutkan studi S1 di Teknis Sipil
Universitas Gadjahmada dan S2 di Magister
Manajemen di Universitas yang sama, Sedang S3 di
dapatkan dari National Central University Taiwan.

Pernah bekerja di PT Freeport Indonesia sebagai


senior fasilitator/trainer, kemudian Direktur Umum dan
Keuangan Rumah Sakit PKU Muhammadiyyah
Bantul. Menjadi Direktur Cabang LMT Trustco sejak
1998. Kemudian menjadi Staf Pengajar/Dosen
Manajeman di Universitas Negeri Yogyakarta.

Beberapa buku dan modul yang pernah ditulis adalah:


1. Steel Structure Design of PT FI apartments with Staad III Software
(1995),
2. Construction Management of PT FI (1997),
3. Justice Party direct Selling (2000),
4. Management Behavior : Mentoring as Solution (2000), Business
Research Method: Memory Research (2000),
5. Yogyakarta Islamic Hospital: Managing Performance (2000),
6. Yayasan Bina Sehat: Organization Change and Developmet as a
priority need (2000),
7. Human Resource Management: Sociaty central health Bantul
Yogyakarta (2000),
8. Organization Design of Region Directorate of Justice Party of
Yogyakarta (2000),
9. PT KPI Tembagapura Compensation applications (2000),
10. SWOT (2003),
11. Advance SWOT (2003),
12. Modul TFT Trustco (2004),
13. Leadership (2005),
14. Training For Beginer (2005),
15. Smart Trainer (2005),
16. Strategic trainer (2005),
17. Marketing Advance (UNY, 2005),
18. Lembaga Keuangan (UNY, 2005),
19. praktikum Perkuliahan Operation Research (UNY, 2009),

4
Setyabudi Indartono, 20

20. Bahan Ajar Perkuliahan Metode Penelitian Bisnis (2009)


21. Bahan Ajar Perkuliahan Perilaku Organisasi (2010)
22. Bahan Ajar Perkuliahan Teknik Proyeksi Bisnis (2010)
23. Bahan Ajar Perkuliahan Metodologi Riset SDM (2011)
24. Bahan Ajar Perkuliahan Manajemen Perubahan (2011)
25. Bahan Ajar Perkuliahan Pengantar Manajemen (2012)
26. Bahan Ajar Perkuliahan Strategic Human Resourches Management
(2012)
27. Bahan Ajar Perkuliahan Manajemen Konflik (2013)
28. Panduan praktikum Perkuliahan Operation Research (UNY, 2013),
29. Buku Teks Conflict management (2014)
30. Buku Teks Management: Character Inside

Journal Publication
1. Indartono & chen, 2008, Glocalization of Personal Ethical Threshold,
Journal of Education, Vol. 1. No. 1, pg. 39
2. Indartono & chen, 2008, Perception of direct and indirect compensations
fulfillment on hazardous work environment The relationship with age,
tenure, employee’s rank and work status, Jurnal Siasat Bisnis, Vol. 12
No.1, pg. 13
3. Indartono, Chou & chen, 2008, The Knowledge Characteriscs Work
Design Analysis of Job Fit Influence on Role Performance, Journal of
Human Capital, Vol 1 No 1 pg. 81
4. Indartono, 2008, Pengaruh personal job fit terhadap hubungan desain
kerja dan kinerja pengajar, Jurnal Humaniora, Vol. 13 no. 2, pg. 33
5. Indartono et al, 2009, The knowledge characteristics work design:
Analysis of job fit influence on role performance, Usahawan, No. 01 vol.
38, pg. 33
6. Indartono & chen, 2009, Articulating strategic human resources
management: Concept perspective to practice of managing human
resources, Journal of Human Capital, Vol 1 No 3., pg.227
7. Indartono , 2009, Contribution of different organizational politics
perceptions: Study on interaction among perception organizational
politics, performance and trust on the role of compensation, Integritas
Jurnal Manajemen Bisnis, Vol 2 no 1., pg 13
8. Indartono, 2009, Mediation effect of trust on the relationship between
perception of organization politics and commitment, Jurnal Administrasi
Bisnis, Vol. 5 no. 2., pg.160
9. Indartono, 2009, Different effect of Task Characteristics requirement on
Job satisfaction: Gender analysis of teacher occupation on WDQ, Jurnal
Ekonomika Madani,Vol 1, no. 2., pg.20
10. Indartono, Setyabudi and Vivian Chen, Chun-Hsi , 2010, Moderation of
Gender on the relationship between task characteristics and performance,

4
Setyabudi Indartono, 20

International Journal of Organizational Innovation (IJOI), Vol. 2, no 4, Pg.


195-223
11. Indartono, Setyabudi; Chiou, Hawjeng; Vivian Chen, Chun-Hsi, 2010 The
Joint Moderating Impact of Personal Job Fit and Servant Leadership on
the Relationship between the Task Characteristics of Job Design and
Performance, Interdisciplinary Journal of Contemporary Research in
Business,Vol 2, No 8, pg 42-61
12. Indartono, Setyabudi and Vivian Chen, Chun-Hsi , 2011, Moderating
Effects of Tenure and Gender on the Relationship between Perception of
Organizational Politics and Commitment and Trust, South Asian Journal of
Management, Vol18, no1. Pg.7-36
13. Vivian Chen, Chun-Hsi and Indartono, Setyabudi, 2011, Study of
commitment antecedents: The dynamic point of view, Journal of Business
Ethics, Vol. 103, No.4 , Pg.529-541 (IF2010: 1.125)
14. Indartono, Setyabudi, 2011, The Effect of E-Learning on Character
Building: Proposition for Organizational Behavior Course, Jurnal
Pendidikan Karakter, Vol 1, No. 1, pp.59-73
15. Indartono, Setyabudi; Nafiuddin, Yajid; Sakti K., Lingga; and Praja R. Ega,
2012, Different Perception of Gender on Workplace Spirituality: Case on
School Environment, Online Journal of Education Research, Volume 1,
Issue 4, Pages: 73-79
16. Indartono, Setyabudi, 2013, Strategic Thinking Concept among Middle
Manager, Jurnal Universitas Paramadina Vol. 10 No. 2, Pg 720-728
17. Indartono, Setyabudi and Zulaikhah, Siti, 2013, Moderation Effect of
Gender on Workplace Spirituality and Commitment Relationship, Asean
Journal of Business Ethics, Vol. 2 No. 3, Pg 1-17
18. Indartono, Setyabudi, 2013, reconsidering organizational commitment
construct: empirical test of acceptance band, Journal of Business,
Economics and Political Science, Vol.2, No.4, Pg. 57-74

Conference Proceeding
1. Indartono, Setyabudi, 2009, Measuring the behavior of individual and
group performance: Hierarchical linier modeling approach”, proceeding
“Doctoral Program National Qolloquium” Gadjahmada University
Indonesia
2. Indartono, Setyabudi, 2010, from statisc to dynamic perspective of
behavior: case of organizational commitment”, proceeding “the First
Annual Indonesia Scholars Conference in Taiwan: improving nation
competitiveness by strengthening and accelerating independent
reseearch”, Vol. 1 no. 1, Tainan Taiwan
3. Indartono, Setyabudi, 2011, “Effect of Servant Leadership on Knowledge
characteristics”, proceeding “the Second Annual Indonesia Scholars
Conference in Taiwan: Becoming “Asian Tiger” through modern agriculture-
based Industry : revitalization and modernization of education,

4
Setyabudi Indartono, 20

technology, economy, and investment climate in agricultural sector, Vol. 2.


no. 1, Taichung Taiwan
4. Indartono, Setyabudi, 2011, Acceptance and Tolerance Limit Phenomena:
an Empirical Approach, proceeding “International Sustainability Forum on
Islamic Economic and Business, Universitas Lambung Mangkurat
Indonesia
5. Indartono, Setyabudi, 2012, Reformatting Knowledge and Science Theory
Building: Transcendental Point of View, proceeding “the Third Annual
Indonesia Scholars Conference in Taiwan: Acceleration and Development
of Information and Communication Technology Research basd on
Demand: Improving Sustainable Synergy of Academycs, Industry, and
Government, Vol. 1.No. 1, Hsinchu Taiwan
6. Indartono, Setyabudi, 2012, Desain Kerja untuk Staf pengajar untuk
mencapai Kesesuaian dan Kepuasan Kerja, proceeding “ Konvensi
Nasional Pendidikan Indonesia VII 2012, Universitas Negeri Yogyakarta,
Indonesia
7. Indartono, Setyabudi, 2013, Empirical test of acceptance band and
tolerance limit of commitment, Proceeding “International Turgut Ozal
Congress on Business, Economics and Political Science”, Turgut Ozal
University, Ankara Turkey
8. Indartono, Setyabudi, 2014, Study of Commitment Antecedent, “ Seminar
Internasional: th”,a Indonesia Labor Ecoomic Development toward the
implementaion of AFTA and AEC 2015″ Yogyakarta State University

Membership and Activities


1. Member of Forum Dosen Ekonomi dan Bisnis Islam (FORDEBI) 2011-now
2. Secreatry of board, Indonesia Committee for Science and Technology
Transfer in Taiwan (IC3T), 2010-now
3. Member of Editorial Board of International Journal of Commerce &
Accounting Research (IJCAR), 2011-now
4. Member of Editorial Board of Journal of Arts Science & Commerce
Research (RW-JASCR) , 2011-now
5. Member of Editorial Board of Asian Journal of Business Ethics (AJBE) ,
2012-now
6. Member of Editorial Board of International Journal of Organizational
Analysis (IJOA) , 2012-now
7. Coordinator of Development Division of Economic Faculty, Yogyakarta
State University, 2011-now
8. Member of Research Devision of Economic Faculty, Yogyakarta State
University, 2011-now

Tinggal dengan seorang Istri, dr. Yayuk Soraya, AAK, dan tiga anak laki-
lakinya, Aiman Hilmi Asaduddin (1999), Rofiq Wafi’ Muhammad (2001), dan

4
Setyabudi Indartono, 20

Muhammad Kaisan Haedar (2004) di Jl Arwana No 7 Minomartani.


Setyabudi_Indartono@uny.ac.id

4
Integration of project-based management and change management: Intervention methodology

1#
Parker, D.W., 1Charlton, J., 1Ribeiro, A., 2Pathak, R.D.

1
The University of Queensland Business School, Queensland 4072 Australia.
2
The Graduate School of Business, The University of the South Pacific, Suva, Fiji.

David Parker is a senior lecturer with a research focus in project-based management. He is a senior lecturer in
the Strategy Group at UQ Business School. He has taught and carried out research in India, PNG, Fiji, Cook
Islands, China and Europe. d.parker@business.uq.edu.au

Joshua Charlton is a postgraduate researcher in project management. Josh seeks to apply the skills and
knowledge gained through research as a professional project manager and consultant. joshcharlton@gmail.com

Ana Ribeiro is a postdoctoral student. She worked on change management in Brazil at Dataprev, a social
security company of Brazil Government; and did 6 months internship in planning and control at Vale Australia,
a mining company located in Brisbane, Australia. Ana.ribeiromvilar@uconnect.edu.au

Raghuvar D. Pathak is Head of the Graduate School of Business and Director of MBA programme at the
University of the South Pacific, Suva, Fiji. He has more than 25 years of postgraduate (MBA) teaching
experience and has published numerous research-based papers. Raghuvar.pathak@usp.ac.fj

1
Corresponding author: d.parker@business.uq.edu.au
Integration of project-based management and change management:

Intervention methodology

Abstract

The successful management of change using a project-based intervention is crucial for any

organization to succeed in the highly competitive and continuously evolving global business

environment. Whilst a number of theories of change management are widely accepted,

literature suggests they are falling short of their endeavors as a result of the theories lacking a

useful framework to successfully plan, implement and manage change. This article critically

argues the value of project-based management in the change management process with

particular focus on PRINCE2 and PMBoK. As such, change management can be considered

a project and utilize project-based processes to successfully implement change.

Keywords: Change management, project management, project processes, change models,

PMBoK, PRINCE2

1.0. Introduction

Demand from the business field for change management (CM) literature and techniques is

increasing as managers seek new processes and tools for implementing a perfect change

(Paton & McCalman, 2008). Many managers are in awe over the reported failure rates for

change initiatives as high as 70 per cent (Balogun and Hope Hailey, 2004).

CM is considered a broad theme encapsulating such terms as total quality management,

reengineering, rightsizing, restructuring, cultural change, and business turnaround; amongst

others. No matter what term is used to describe the management of the change, the
underlying objective is to make fundamental improvement in how business is undertaken in

order to meet the demands of a changing market environment (Kotter, 2007). Kotter (1990)

stresses the importance of change management as a process and not a single event, and that

change management emphasizes change advances through stages.

This concept of CM as a process is reinforced in a definition, describing it as “a process of

continually renewing organisations direction, structure, and capabilities to serve the ever

changing needs of external and internal customers” (Moran and Brightman, 2001, p. 111).

This view is shared across the majority of accepted CM models in use today, which identify

CM as either a process or set of steps. It should be noted however, the sequence of actions an

organisation should apply to accomplish change initiatives can be quite abstract and hard to

apply (Bridges, 1991). Below is a brief summary of key authors that explore CM and are able

to offer a “more practical guidance to managers” (Todnem, 2005, p. 375) in regards to

implementing change initiatives. These models will be utilized as a platform for

demonstrating the usefulness of integrating project-based processes into an organisational

change project.

Kanter (1992) proposes the Ten Commandments for Executing Change – see table 1. Kanter

argues that analyzing the organisation and its need for change is the first step in the change

process, followed by the creation of a common vision and direction. From this point,

separating the organisation from the past should be undertaken and to create a sense of

urgency. In this model, to establish strong leadership and political sponsorship are also

crucial steps prior to crafting the implementation plan. It is then important to develop

enabling structures, followed by communicating, involving people and being transparent. The

final step is to institutionalize change (Kanter, 1992).

The second notable CM model is Kotter`s Eight-Stage Process for Successful Organisational

Transformation (1996). This process commences with the need for stating a sense of urgency
and creating a guiding coalition. Communicating a vision and strategy is the next process

followed by developing a broad-based action plan to empower those involved. The next

process involves generating short-term wins which can be celebrated to enhance motivation.

In Kotter’s (1996) model, consolidating gains prior to progressing to produce more change is

required so the final process of anchoring new approaches in the culture can be achieved.

The third CM model is Luecke`s Seven Steps (2003) which commences by recommending

mobilizing energy and commitment through joint identification of business problems and

their solutions. Next is developing a shared vision of how to organize and manage for

competiveness. Leadership should be identified to guide teams towards results. This model

espouses starting change at the periphery and not letting it spread throughout the organisation

without it being directed from the top. Once results are achieved, changes should be

formalized into policies, systems and structures. Whilst the process of change is being

implemented, Luecke (2003) highlights the importance of monitoring and adapting strategies

to address any issues encountered in the change process.

It can therefore be argued that CM is the utilization of processes to control an organisational

change effort. Whilst the CM literature articulates processes for managing change, these are

largely focused on the people-issues (‘soft’) of change to achieve the required business

outcomes.

2.0. Managing Change in a Changing Environment

From a historic perspective, emphasis on CM has developed progressively over the last 50

years, after initially being mistrusted (Turner, 2009). The reasoning for this undervaluing has

been attributed to the necessity of stability and certainty for highly structured businesses to

operate. However, mass production in the 1960s followed by rapid changes in technology,

and the integration of global business, has demanded these highly-structured organisations
change or be left behind (Turner, 2009). It is argued that winners are the ones able to respond

better to “the conditions actually encountered” (Turner, 2009, p. 24). As external change is

not under control of the organisation, an understanding of the processes of change combined

with tools and techniques can be regarded as an approach to tackle changing business reality.

Hughes (2007) stresses that academics developing mainstream CM theory, have not

prioritized on adequate tools and techniques to apply in the dynamic business environment.

Such tools and techniques may vary, but there is a tendency to utilize models from (Kotter,

Kanter, Luecke, ibid). However, even these models fail to a degree in clearly interpreting the

techniques or tools to accomplish each step. One could argue this shortfall in appropriate

tools and techniques would be a significant challenge to implementing change initiatives, and

quite possibly is related to the significant failure rate of interventions to bring about change.

Hughes (2007) points out some possible reasons for the academic negligence towards CM

tools and techniques, starting from the lack of a common definition of what would be a CM

tool. Conversely, there appears to be a need for building a framework of what is meant by

CM practice. This could be achieved by developing a body of knowledge for the CM field

similar to that of the Project Management Body of Knowledge for professional project

managers. Furthermore, expanding the applicability of change management to improve its

effectiveness in implementation could strengthen the CM identity. Baca (2005, p.4), for

example, considers CM by its applicability: “change management is just that – a tool that you

use to manage change”. In addition, Baca (ibid, p. 4) associates CM to “an integral part of the

generally accepted principles covered in the PMBOK Guide (PMI, 2004)” and in this sense

she reduces CM to a practical tool.

3.0. Project-based Management


The desire and necessity to keep pace with the changing business environment has caused

many companies to shift from being operations-focused to being project-driven (Jarocki,

2011). Turner (2009) argues that continuous change in organisations nowadays requires

project-oriented management as the control and monitor model is no longer sufficient for

businesses to maintain a competitive framework. Instead of attempting to guarantee a stable

environment to operate, companies seek tools that enable them to maintain the required

flexibility and adaptability they need to answer in a timely manner to the market’s volatility

and changing environment.

Approximately thirty per cent of the global economy now utilizes project-based management

(Anbari et al, 2008), which underscores the continual creation of temporary project-based

endeavours that are becoming more common and valued by organisations. Whilst there are an

abundance of definitions of the term ‘project’, The Definition Guide to Project Management

by Sebastian Nokes (2007, p.17) defines a project as “a temporary endeavour, having a

defined beginning and end (usually constrained by date, but can be by funding or

deliverables) undertaken to meet unique goals and objectives, usually to bring about

beneficial change or added value”. Of particular interest within this definition is the

concluding statement: to bring about beneficial change or added value. Clearly, projects are

invariably initiated to bring about change.

The Project Management Institute describes a project within the Guide to Project

Management Body of Knowledge (PMI, 2008, p.26) as “a temporary endeavor undertaken to

create a unique product, service or result”.

The UK Government developed PRINCE2 (OGC, 2005, p.21) has two definitions of a project

which are largely aligned with the PMBoK definition, namely: “a management environment

that is created for the purpose of delivering one or more business products according to a
specified business case”; and “a temporary organisation that is needed to produce a unique

and pre-defined outcome or result at a pre-specified time using pre-determined resources”.

All these definitions identify a project as being temporary in nature, with the project structure

being established for the sole purpose of accomplishing some clearly defined changed

outcome. Resources are assembled and coordinated to achieve this new desired state. Once

the change outcome is accomplished, projects are disbanded. Therefore projects are a vehicle

of change to take the organisation from an existing state to a planned future state.

Whilst one cannot devalue the importance in appropriately defining what a project is, it is

essentially a vision to reach some desired future state. It is management of the project which

is critical above all (Kotter, 2011; Lewin, 1947). The management of the project converts the

project vision for change into a reality (Rankins, 2007). PM is the disciplined application of

knowledge, skills, tools and techniques to project activities to meet the project requirements

(PMI 2008; Turner & Muller, 2005). PM is accomplished through the application of

competencies, knowledge areas, and integration of PM processes - where a process is a series

of actions bringing about a defined result (PMI, 2008). Both the leading project management

structured methods, PMBoK and PRINCE2 consider processes vital to the project’s success.

PMBoK incorporates the five process groups of initiating, planning, executing, monitoring,

controlling, and closing of projects. These process groups encompass thirty seven other

processes (PMI, 2008). Each process involves detailing the inputs, outputs, tools and

techniques to meet the objective of the process. PRINCE2 is a process based methodology to

be applied to projects, and essentially gives guidance in the execution and monitoring of a

project. The processes of Prince2 define the management activities to be undertaken during

the project. PRINCE2 describes eight high-level management processes which are used for

managing the project from end to end, covering the activities from initiating a project,

through controlling and managing progress, through to project completion and closure. These
eight processes are: Starting Up a Project, Initiating a Project, Planning, Directing a Project,

Managing a Stage Boundary, Controlling a Stage, Managing Project Delivery and Closing a

Project.

4.0. Project Management Processes for Change Management

The literature highlights a scarcity of guidelines or frameworks for CM (Todnem, 2005).

However, Todnem (ibid) details three models which offer practical guidance to organisations

in terms of processes, tools and techniques for change implementation. It is suggested there

are some possibilities to improve CM practices as well as links with PM processes to build a

process for CM that is more comprehensive to the reality of continuing business change. In

order to demonstrate this, the CM process models proposed by Kotter (1996), Kanter et al.

(1992) and Luecke (2003) have been be reproduced in Table 1, with a fourth column

detailing possible contributions from PM which could add value to the CM process.

Insert about here

Table I – PM Methodologies and CM Models

4.1. Meeting Objectives

Todnem (2005), in his critical review of organisational CM, argues that there is a

fundamental lack of a valid framework for organisational CM. Whilst leading CM theorists

Kanter (ibid), Kotter (ibid), and Loecke (ibid) highlight the importance of creating a vision

and strategic intent for implementing change, Todnem (2005) argues that the literature lacks

sufficient methodology for measuring the success of organisational CM. PM processes could

be utilized in this instance should the CM be treated as a project. Both the PRINCE2 and
PMBoK resources have a process to capture the results of the project and confirm the desired

outcome. The PRINCE2 process “Closing a Project” ensures that all planned outcomes have

been delivered to the customer’s required parameters, as specified in the project brief and

business case contained within the ‘Starting up a Project’ process. In addition to the “Closing

a Project Stage,” an “End Project Report” is prepared to detail the outcome of the project.

PMBoK also has a specific process for measuring the success of a project which could be

implemented in the CM field. The PMBok “Closing Process” provides a formal process for

measuring success by evaluating the project against clearly defined goals. The process also

ensures acceptance by customers and stakeholders of the project (PMI, 2008). With the high

failure rate of change projects appearing to fail (Hughes, 2011), this closing process could be

incorporated into the CM project to review what has been delivered against what the

objective of the project was.

4.2. Capture Lessons Learned

Another important process that both PRINCE2 and PMBoK utilize is the capturing and

documenting of lessons learned over the duration of the project, including both positive and

negative experiences. PRINCE2 has a mechanism in the form of a ‘Lessons Log’ to capture

knowledge gained throughout the project (Pincemaille, 2008). Lessons are logged and then a

lessons report is compiled at the end of each stage to document and build a knowledge bank

of lessons. PMBoK also values the importance of lessons learned; with processes adopted for

identification, documentation, validation, and dissemination of lessons learned (PMI, 2008).

Also forming part of the lesson learned process is identification of actions taken as a result of

the lesson learned and subsequent follow-up to ensure the required action had been taken.

Whilst performance of any current project cannot be changed at the conclusion, the

performance of future projects can be improved by documenting lessons learned for future
review. Significantly, leading CM process models fail to appropriately consider lessons

learned from previous CM processes. In the rapidly changing business environment this

would appear to be a shortfall of CM. Capturing lessons learned, both positive and negative,

would assist in planning future change-projects and be a useful process to incorporate into the

CM framework.

4.3. Delegate Responsibility

Projects are often used to implement a strategy. The implementation of a strategy involves a

change process and this change process invokes uncertainty. Whilst the leading theorists on

change articulate communicating the change vision to all affected, Verwey and Comninos

(2002) recommend implementing a process called “Business Focused Project Management”

(BFPM) to deal with uncertainty and constant change through ‘progressive elaboration’ of a

project. In BFPM, each functional group in an organisation interprets a strategy and develops

a business plan independently, from which a portfolio of projects are reviewed and

subsequently resourced. This process is proposed to effectively manage the change associated

with business projects containing intangible characteristics; and empowers individual

functional units to be involved and be integral to the change. Such projects include business

process improvements, customer service improvements, or organisational restructure

(Verwey and Comninos, 2002), where there is a need to address changes in the organisational

culture and stakeholder perceptions. This process of empowering individual functional units

to embark on change by clearly delegating responsibilities for project activities is a PM

resource utilized in PRINCE2 which could be applied in CM. PRINCE2 utilizes work

packages which are performed by individuals or teams in the accomplishment of stage

objectives; and then accepted by the project manager once accomplished (OGC, 2005). This

process of delegation and subsequent acceptance of work packages could be utilized in the
CM arena to delegate tasks and responsibilities to individuals or business units. This would

improve the leading CM models which do not adequately address this concept of delegation

of project activities and responsibilities.

4.4. Staged Approach

There is a well-known phrase, “if you fail to plan, then plan to fail”. This phrase captures the

importance of having a clear framework to coordinate the resources required for

implementing the project, including the activities of the people involved or affected by the

change, stakeholders, the finances, and competencies applied in the project. PRINCE2

utilizes a process to effectively manage execution of the initial plan of the project which the

majority of the CM literature fails to discuss.

Whilst a project plan is prepared in the initial planning, which sets out how and when the

project will be delivered, the project is divided into a number of clearly defined and

controllable stages which PRINCE2 refers to as a the process of “Manage by Stages” (OCG,

2005). Utilizing this PM process, detailed planning of succeeding stages is only undertaken

upon nearing completion of the current stage. Once a stage is approaching completion, the

work for the succeeding stage is planned in detail by the Project Manager and then

subsequently approved by the authority for the project (Project Board in PRINCE2

terminology).

PRINCE2 also utilises the “Managing a Stage Boundary” which is a decision point in the

continuity of the project. This process provides a decision point on whether the project will

be continued as planned, adjusted or stopped. The process involves reviewing the current

stage and determining whether the business case is still valid, and if the project can proceed

to the next stage. The process is managed by the Project Manager, who informs the Project

Board of the likelihood of success in attaining the project business objectives, project plan,
together with associated risks and issues. If the Project Board is satisfied with the current

stage-end and the next stage plan, the project is permitted to continue. Therefore the

‘Managing a Stage Boundaries’ is a vital process in the management of the project.

This process is well suited to CM implementation. This process of separating the project into

stages and managing stage boundaries, is ideally suited to change-projects where there is a

likelihood of alteration to the initial plan upon implementation. Furthermore, it facilitates

ongoing review and justification for the change initiative.

The literature largely fails to consider the likelihood of changes to the plan. Resistance to

change is one scenario where the initial plan of the change-project needs to be altered

although there is an array of possibilities for deviation from the initial plan. Kanter (1992),

emphasises the need for “crafting an implementation plan”, although within his “Ten

Commandments for Executing Change” he fails to identify the need to monitor and adjust the

strategy in response to problems in the change process. Kotter (2003) discusses developing a

vision and strategy which identifies the desired outcome, however this does not lay out the

steps to achieving the objective. Utilising a stage approach and planning the detail of each

stage once progress of the current stage is accomplished would strengthen the CM process by

appropriately dealing with amendments. Kotter & Rathgeber (2006) argue that one clear

lesson learned from successful change initiatives is that change goes through a series of

phases. Therefore, phases are ideally suited to a staged approach. This is reinforced by “7

Steps to Change Management” (Luecke, 2003), which identifies the need to “monitor and

adjust strategies” in response to problems in the CM process. It appears that PM could

provide tools for what is already identified by CM theorists as a need to successfully

implement change initiatives.

4.5. Risk Management


Risk management, an important consideration of PM, could enhance CM initiatives. Within

PRINCE2, risk can be defined as uncertainty of outcome (Pincemaille, 2008). The goal of

risk management is to manage the exposure and militate against risks. The project leadership

or ‘Project Board’ in PRINCE2 has to promote risk management, build up adapted policies,

and assess projects status related to their risks. In the PRINCE2 processes, risk management

is addressed from the conceptual development of a project. Commencing with the ‘Initiating

a project’ process, there is a prevailing insistence on the importance to assess risks. Then, in

the project process ‘Planning’, risk management is utilized again. For each stage of the

project, risk analysis has to be undertaken, to determine whether or not the new plan is

compliant with project constraints, and identified risks; without changing the criticality, the

priority, importance, or the action plan taken to avoid the risk (Pincemaille, 2008). PMBoK

considers risk management integral to the project life cycle, with the six clearly defined

processes of: risk management planning, risk identification, qualitative risk analysis,

quantitative risk analysis, risk response planning, risk monitoring and control (PMI, 2008).

This consideration in PMBoK and PRINCE2 to identify and plan for risks is ideally suited to

the CM process where any number of risks could be encountered over the change process.

5.0. The Importance of Change Management to Project Management

Whilst it has been argued that many of the PM processes and techniques are well suited to

CM, the PM field has traditionally placed a strong emphasis on the management of tasks. The

PM methodologies largely avoid many of the softer issues related to projects: such as the

human, political and organisational change implications. Some of these issues which the PM

professional has traditionally unheeded could be translated into, but not limited to, company

politics and power struggles, stakeholder management, hidden agendas, cultural barriers,

motivation issues, lack of communication, conflict resolution, resistance to change,


ambiguous roles and responsibilities, poor project leadership, insufficient sponsorship

(Turner and Muller, 2005; Toor and Ogunlana, 2009; Levasseeur, 2001). This arguable

deficiency of the traditional PM professionals could be because of their technical

backgrounds, where focus has been enshrined in tactics and results; or even a gender issue

(Paton & Demster, 2002).

In contrast, CM professionals are traditionally from social sciences and humanities

backgrounds and have a tendency to avoid the task and process orientated approach by

placing a much stricter emphasis on the human, political and organisational change

considerations Kotter & Schlesinger, 2008). The CM professional has traditionally lacked the

technical know-how, and has a restricted focus on project objectives - whilst pursuing softer

objectives around those people affected by the change. It is a common theme throughout the

CM literature to adequately build an individual’s awareness and desire for change. However,

implementing and coordinating the logistics of a complex change project requires PM skills

to plan and execute the change initiative (Kotter & Cohne, 2002). Therefore, whilst PM

processes and techniques are ideally suited to CM, its techniques are also valuable to

effective PM. Therefore, it is considered that the two fields should not be viewed as mutually

exclusive. The goals and objectives of CM which are largely focused on organisational

support and adoption are also aligned with those of PM, since the objective of any project

requires the willingness of the organisation to implement; and both are aligned with the

organisational strategy.

A common practice of large organisations undergoing CM is to utilise the human resources

(HR) department for implementation; often with the assistance of third-party advisors. This is

because of the ongoing presumption that CM is about people and the associated soft skills;

and as such CM should be in the HR area of an organisation. Whilst it has been argued above

for the application of PM processes to improve CM outcomes, further research is


recommended into determining whether greater involvement from HR to a project/program

management area of the organisation could deliver better outcomes.

6.0. Conclusion

The rapidly changing business environment has required organisations to seek out effective

processes, tools and techniques to implement successful change. Whilst there is a significant

body of literature surrounding CM, the high failure rate of change interventions suggests

improvements could be made to its management, monitoring and control. The analytical

focus of this research was in how the common and most utilised CM models could be

improved with PM processes in order to appropriately deliver successful change. Using

PMBoK and PRINCE2 as a reference, a number of PM processes and techniques have been

detailed which demonstrate the applicability of project-based processes for implementation of

CM initiatives.

The lack of a suitable guiding framework for CM suggests the creation of a CM body of

knowledge and alignment of CM processes could enhance the field. Although CM

encompasses a broad range of possible change models, the attempts by CM theorists to apply

a formal structure to the change process have been scant. Treating change initiatives as a

temporary project and subsequently integrating CM with PM processes will capture synergies

between the two areas. The social science background of CM professionals and the tendency

for HR to deliver change initiatives has contributed to the lack of appreciation for formal

processes and technical contributions as offered by PM in delivering change. Likewise,

theorists developing CM from non-technical backgrounds tend to focus on the human

dimensions over all other issues. Further research into specific integrated techniques and

tools for delivering change would be valuable with particular focus on technical contributions

to CM. Moreover, the PM field could gain from utilizing CM processes in implementation of
projects. It was purported the technical background of traditional project managers has

resulted in a focus on tasks and results rather than the human aspects and softer skills of CM,

which are equally valuable to project success. Bridging these two gaps could increase the

success of CM initiatives and similarly enhance the success of projects-based interventions.


References

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Kotter, J. P. (1990). A Force for Change: How Leadership Differs from Management. New York:
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Kotter, J. P. (1996). Leading Change. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press.
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management-vs-change-leadership-whats-the-difference
Kotter, John P. & Dan S. Cohen (2002). The Heart of Change. Boston: Harvard Business School
Press.
Kotter, J. P. & Rathgeber, H. (2006). Our Iceberg Is Melting. St. Martin's Press.
Kotter, J. P. (2007). Leading Change. Harvard Business Review, 85(1), 96-103.
Kotter, J. P. & Schlesinger, L A. (2008). “Choosing strategies to change”. Harvard Business Review
ISSN 0017-8012, 07/2008, Volume 86, Issue 7,8, p. 130.
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Interfaces, Jul/Aug; 31, 4, p. 71.
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science Washington: American Psychological Association.
Luecke, R. (2003). Managing Change and Transition. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press.
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International, 6(2), pp. 111–118.
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ed., London: The Stationery Office.
Paton, R.A. & MCCalman, J. (2008). “Change Management – A guide to effective implementation”.
Sage Publications.
Paton, R. & Dempster, L. (2002). “Managing change from a gender perspective”, European
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PMI: Project Management Institute, (2004). The Project Management Body of Knowledge, version 3.
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Table I – PM Methodologies and CM Models

10 Commandments for 8 Stage Process for 7 Steps - Luecke PMBOK Translation of


Executing Change Successful (2003) Steps into Project
Kanter et al. (1992) Organisational Methodology and
Transformation - Techniques
Kotter (1996)
1. Analyse the 1. Mobilise energy and
organisation and its commitment through
need for change joint
identification of business
problems and their
solutions
2. Create a vision and 3. Developing a vision 2. Develop a shared Develop a vision and
a common direction and vision of how to organise corresponding high level
strategy and plan; define stages for
manage for project implementation
competitiveness
3. Separate from the past Identify and develop plan
for risks
4. Create a sense of 1. Establishing a sense of
urgency urgency
5. Support a strong leader 3. Identify the leadership
role
6. Line up political 2. Creating a guiding
sponsorship coalition
7. Craft an Implement plan utilising
implementation plan a stage by stage
approach
8. Develop enabling 5. Empowering broad- Define work packages
structures based and delegate
action responsibilities
9. Communicate, involve 4. Communicating the
people and be honest change vision
10. Reinforce and 8. Anchoring new 6. Institutionalise success
institutionalise change approaches through formal policies, Manage by stages -
in the culture systems and structures Review and adjust plan
where required at end
of
each stage
6. Generating short-term
wins
7. Consolidating gains
and
producing more change
4. Focus on results,
not on activities
5. Start change at Measure success
the periphery, then of project
let it spread
to other units without
pushing it from the top
7. Monitor and adjust Capture and document
strategies in response lessons learned for
to problems in the future projects
change
process
Taken from Todnem (2005: 376) and adapted to link to PM methodologies
Serbian
Serbian Journal of Management 8 (2) (2013) 139 - 154 Journal
of
Management
www.sjm06.com

ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE AND HUMAN RESOURCE


MANAGEMENT INTERVENTIONS: AN INVESTIGATION OF THE
NIGERIAN BANKING INDUSTRY

Adenike Anthonia Adeniji*, Omotayo Adewale Osibanjo and


Abolaji Joachim Abiodun

Department of Business Management, School of Business, College of Development


Studies, Covenant University, Ota, Ogun State, Nigeria

(Received 15 Janauary 2013; accepted 10 June 2013)

Abstract

The objective of this paper was to study the relationship between human resource management
interventionist strategies and organizational change; and flexibility that can make employees more
adaptive and receptive to changes. Out of one hundred and sixty copies of questionnaire
administered, one hundred and twenty three (123) were collected and analyzed. Structural Equation
Modelling (SEM), a hypothesized relationship was tested using Amos 18 that allows test of complex
relationships between variables. Our model shows that relationship exists among human resource
management interventionist strategies and was consistent with organizational change in the studied
industry. However, the study can be extended to other industries, for example manufacturing industry
as well as industry within the merger and acquisition of companies.

Keywords: Organizational change, HR Interventionist strategies, Nigeria, Banking industry

1. INTRODUCTION of the modern age and the need for efficient


and effective services in this industry. The
Demands for greater efficiency, emergence of new banking management
accountability and value for money have led practices has been marked by the
to a re-evaluation of how banking industry proliferation of targets, meeting customers
services are resourced and delivered. and stakeholders’ expectations,
Traditional bureaucratic approaches are no measurement and compliance with
longer adequate to deal with the complexity regulatory standards. Attempt at ensuring
* Corresponding author: anthonia.adeniji@covenantuniversity.edu.ng

DOI: 10.5937/sjm8-3712
140 A.A. Adeniji / SJM 8 (2) (2013) 139 - 154
that banking industry are more responsive to this study views transformational
environmental factors and instilling organizational change regarding the recent
customer service cum commercially focused past acquisition of Intercontinental Bank by
ethos are characteristics of new approaches Access Bank Plc (Nigeria). This
to the banking sector of the Nigeria fundamental change tends to affect the
economy. With rapid changes in emphasis, organizational culture and its operations that
the banking sector is now examining its call for reengineering of processes,
internal structure and reviewing the roles and structures, roles and even underlying
responsibilities of employees and managers assumptions.
so as to deliver the top quality services
demanded by the stakeholders.
More than decades ago, mergers and 2. ACCESS BANK PLC
acquisitions in the banking industry have
become the dominant mode of growth The transformation of Access Bank Plc as
(Arquilera & Dencker, 2004). Human a small Nigerian Bank into an African
resource management has the potential to financial institution has made it to be listed
play important role in mergers and as one of the top 10 largest banks in Nigeria
acquisition integration by reinforcing the in terms of asset base. Access Bank was
new human resource management system issued a banking license in December, 1988
and corporate culture and providing and was incorporated as a privately owned
leadership and communication to reduce commercial bank in February, 1989. After
turnover. the commencement of operation, in March
When an organization is undergoing 1998 to be precised, Access Bank became a
change, what role does human resource Public Limited Liability Company; and
plays? Organizational changes are driven top listed on the Nigeria Stock Exchange same
down and initiated largely due to strategic year. In the year 2001, Access Bank obtained
business goals which the company needs to a Universal Banking License from the
achieve. The human resource function is to Central Bank of Nigeria, which made it
anchor the change management process and possible for the bank to operate in over 310
facilitate the transformation across all teams branches and service outlets located in major
and work dimensions. Each change throws cities and towns across Nigeria, Sub Saharan
up unique challenges and the details which Africa and the United Kingdom.In the year
need to be addressed are diverse in each 2012, Access Bank is said to be one of the
instance. The aim of this paper is to explore Africa’s most successful banks, and was
how human resource management could play ranked amongst Africa’s top
effective role in increasing individual and 20 banks by total assets
organizational effectiveness during (http://www.accessbankplc.com/pages/Page.
organizational change by implementing aspx?Value=3&ln=Gy7UlI4cSJE94Wa2qud
progressive human resource processes. The bFQ%3d%3d).
term “Organizational Change” connotes However, in 2009 the storm of global
significant change in the organization, which financial crisis affected the Nigerian banking
could either be reorganization; adding; or industry, which resulted into some banks
removing new product/service. However, merged and some acquired. In the year 2012,
A.A. Adeniji / SJM 8 (2) (2013) 139 - 154
141
the Group Managing Director/Chief organizational changes in an attempt to adapt
Executive Officer, Access Bank Plc and respond to the changing economic
announced the completion of its acquisition conditions, technological innovations,
of Intercontinental Bank, and stated that the customer and client expectations and a
transaction is significant in the Nigerian shifting workforce. It was estimated that
banking industry, because it preserves 56% of organizations are undergoing three or
hundreds of Nigerian jobs and protects the more complex changes at one time or
savings of millions of Nigerian citizens. another (Barell et al., 2007).
Organizations also, are changing the way
they implement and manage change. Change
management in organizations are now
3. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK shifted from being the responsibility of an
internal or external change agent dedicated
3.1. Overview of Change Management to its implementation and management to
increasingly being identified as a core
Organizational change is seen as a competency for most organizational leaders
necessary concept for organizations to (Doyle, 2002). The human resource function
compete in the ever changing and in increasingly seen as one of the key
competitive business environment. The rapid functions in thedevelopment and
development of information and implementation of strategic responses to
communication technology have prompted increasing competitive pressure as both
many organizations to actively seek for new public and private organizations are forced to
ways, ideas and creative solutions in adapt to domestic and international
improving their current product, process, competition, technological advancements,
system and technology which is referred to slower growth and declining markets
as organizational change, and it had been (Buyens & DeVos, 2001). Such strategic
accepted widely that effective and efficient responses involve effective communication
human management resource practices are of the importance of human resource across
important in extracting positive work the organization and a reconsideration of the
behaviours among employees which role of line managers in human resource
invariably will lead to organization change delivery. As such, the skills required to lead,
(Tan & Nasurdin, 2010). No one would manage and implement change are being
dispute that every organization has incorporated into the existing expectations,
experienced change. Yet despite roles and responsibilities of human resource
organization’s familiarity with change, manager and other employees, (Doyle,
success in implementation is relatively rare. 2002).
It was estimated that 70% of organizational Therefore, it is not surprising that in an
change initiatives fail completely (Bear & environment where the magnitude of change,
Nohria, 2000). Among those deemed its complexity and its frequency are
successful, 75% of them fail to achieve their increasing, the human resource persons and
intended result (Nikolaou et al., 2007). leaders have begun to focus their attention on
Despite these low success rates, the adoption of change management best
organizations still continue with the practices.
142 A.A. Adeniji / SJM 8 (2) (2013) 139 - 154

Change management is an approach to


barriers to successful implementation of
shifting or transitioning individuals, teams
organizational changes, often perceived as
and organizations from a current state to a
an expected, automatic response in
desired future state. It is an organizational
employees that managers need to overcome.
process aimed at helping change
Lewin (1951) was one of the first researchers
stakeholders to accept and embrace changes
to consider the notion of employee resistance
in their business environment.
to organizational change in the management
Organizational change involves both
field. His conception of the term was drawn
managing the change processes and handling
from the physical sciences and considers
human issues at the local level, (Kanter &
resistance to be a restraining force
Dretler, 1998). For example, research has
attempting to maintain the status quo,
often time focused on the competitive
(Piderit, 2000). Resistance is viewed as an
landscape, strategic leadership and
inevitable situation that managers must face
organizational learning; a neglected area is
when planning to introduce or implement an
that of conceptualizing change from the
organizational change (Piderit, 2000). It is
employee’s viewpoints (Hitt et al.,1998;
often said that some people have a natural
Ireland & Hitt, 1999).
predisposition to resist change which is most
Organizational change has become an
times termed “an individual’s tendency to
increasingly pervasive phenomenon in both
resist or avoid making changes” (Oreg,
business and human service organizations
2003). Authors of change management see
due to forces such as globalization and
resistance as a conditioned reflex and
political shifts to neoliberalism (Piderit,
something that will occur regardless of how
2000; Baines, 2007). Despite the increase in
positive organizational members feel about
the perceived necessity of change and
the organization (Lamm & Gordon, 2010).
attempts at implementing organizational
Organizational change is a deliberately
change initiatives, it has been estimated that
planned change in an organization’s formal
at least two-third (2/3) of organizational
structure, systems, processes or product-
change efforts do not result in their intended
market domain intended to improve the
aims nor do they foster sustained change
attainment of one or more organizational
(Choi & Ruana, 2011). Employee resistance
objectives, (Lines, 2005).
is the most often cited problem encountered
Dopson and Newmann (1998) have
by management when trying to implement
perceived change as a necessary evil for
change, yet for an organization to change, it
survival in the context of uncertainty.
is essential that the employees of that
Organizational change has been as an
organization also change (Bovey & Hede,
individual-level phenomenon because it
2001). Therefore, employee cooperation
occurs only when the majority of individuals
with organizational change efforts is
change their behavior or attitudes (Whelan-
indisputably connected and related to either
Berry). Multiple- interacting changes in a
the ultimate success or failure of a change
global environment have led to a highly
initiative.
complex, confusing and unpredictable state.
Moreover, the concept of resistance has a
This led to a shift in focus of the change
long history in business management.
process from product innovation and
Resistance is considered one of the biggest
technological change to behavioural aspects
A.A. Adeniji / SJM 8 (2) (2013) 139 - 154
143
of change and to attitudes about change, Basically, the term organizational change
(Bergquist, 1993). is about significant change in the
Usually, scholars analyze such features of organization which could either be
organizational change as content, type, reorganization or adding or removing new
structure and process. Armanakis and product or service. Organizational change
Bedeian (1999) divided research on can seem like a vague phenomenon that it is
organizational change into: a) Content helpful if one can think of change in terms of
research, b) Contextual research, c) Process various dimensions including; unplanned
research and d) Criterion research. Nutt versus planned change, transformational
(2003) combines structure and process. The versus incremental change, remedial versus
structural research by Nutt (2003) is similar developmental change and organization-
to content research (Armenakis & Bedeian, wide versus subsystem change.
1999) and process research was presented in Unplanned change is the change that
both typologies. Examples of organizational occurs when there is a major, sudden surprise
change include: (1) Mission changes; (2) to the organization which causes its members
Strategic changes; (3) Operational changes to respond in a highly reactive and
(including structural change); (4) disorganized fashion, like when a Chief
Technological changes; (5) Changing the Executive suddenly resigns from the
attitudes and behaviours of personnel; (6) organization, whereas, planned change is
Counter resistance from the employees of when leaders in the organization recognize
companies and align them to overall strategic the need for a major change and proactively
direction of the organization. organize a plan to accomplish the change. It
Although the type of change and the is a change that occurs with successful
process of change are both important implementation or a strategic plan for
building blocks in any model for dealing reorganization or other implementation of a
with change, there is a crucial factor which is change of magnitude.
the readiness to change in the particular Transformational change is much broader
organization. The readiness factors act like a and as a result the organization will more
bridge between identifying what needs to fundamentallychange its culture or the way it
happen and the activity of implementing the operates, e.g. complete reengineering of
change. Struckman and Yammarino (2003) processes, structures or underlying
combine types of change with the readiness assumptions while, incremental change is the
to change, but not the process of change. type of change which involves doing
However, Alas (2007) composed the model something better without necessarily
connecting types of changes, process of changing the underlying beliefs and values
change, readiness to change and the of the organization.
institutional environment as the context of However, remedial change is the one
change. A very important factor is intended to remedy current situation, e.g. to
leadership- that the top management team improve the poor performance of a product
has impact on post-acquisition performance or service or the entire organization; or to
of the company and that they effectively reduce burnout in the workplace.
influence the organizational culture Developmental change on the other hand
(Kiessling & Harvey, 2006). occurs in order to make a successful situation
144 A.A. Adeniji / SJM 8 (2) (2013) 139 - 154

more successful, for instance, expanding the


effective and efficient use of human talent
number of customers served or duplicating a
for achieving goals of organization (Mathis
successful product or service.
& Jackson, 2002). The concept of human
Worthy of mention again is the fact that
resource management goes beyond
organizational change ranges from problem
employment relations or industrial relations.
identification to consultation with behavioral
It includes employees identifying the
science to data gathering and preliminary
interests and goals of the organization, and
diagnosis to communicating the vision down
be aligned and committed in achieving these
to removing obstacles, creating short term
goals. It involves employees adapting
wins and building on the change to anchor
willingly to change within the organizational
the changes in corporate culture.
structure without any strife or prejudice.
Not only that the acceptance of change
The concept emphasizes that high level
and joining the actual process of change
performance attainment of organization
starts from within the people themselves. It is
depends on the quality of members of staff
possible to learn how to cope with change
and management of such organization cum
and the likelihood of success is relatively
matching of human resource strategies to the
greater if people realize the need for
needs of the business strategy.Furthermore,
flexibility and have the ability to act fast.
human resource management includes:
Nothing changes for the better until people
- Encourage the commitment of
have a positive attitude. Thus, in any process
employees to increase their performance and
of change, it is essential to know what is
also be loyal to the organization as a whole;
going on in people’s minds and what
- Emphasis on the quality of
emotions they are going through. Successful
employees engaged in organizations goes a
management of change is based on taking
long way in producing quality goods and
action according to uniform principles i.e.
services, which is of great benefit both to the
everyone involved moves in the same
customers and the organization;
direction. Internal communication can assist
- Ensuring flexibility plays an
members of the organization at all levels
important part in the way employees are
with setting up a uniform plan of
organized, this makes them to be adaptive
communication and the ability to monitor the
and receptive to all forms of changes in all
process from distance. The different phases
aspects of their jobs such as work hours;
of change (i.e. from problem identification to
working methods and;
anchoring the changes in corporate culture)
- Integrating organizational goals into
require different approaches and emphasis. If
strategic planning in order to make these
the people involved in the process of change
policies cut across ranks and files of
are able to contribute to the process, they will
organization and ensuring that they are
accept the new situation more easily.
gladly accepted and implemented on daily
routine by line managers.
3.2. What about human resource
Thus, managing the human resource has
management?
become one of the critical success factors in
organizations. Both the existence of proper
The term refers to design and applications
personnel and the ways people are managed
of formal system in an organization to ensure
are the basis for achieving the competitive
A.A. Adeniji / SJM 8 (2) (2013) 139 - 154
145
advantage. In this study, authors analyze the Minbaeva, (2005) viewed the human
role and practices of human resource resource management practices as a set of
personnel in successful change management. practices used by organization to manage
For instance, when firms develop and human resources through facilitating the
introduce new processes and new development of competencies that are firm,
administrative practices, they will require specific, produce complex social relations
dynamic and creative employees who are and generate organization knowledge to
flexible, risk takers, tolerant of uncertainty sustain competitive advantage. Human
and ambiguity and been able to contribute to resource management practices can generate
producing quality goods and services which increased knowledge, motivation, synergy
will benefit both the customers and the and commitment of a firm’s employees,
organization. Essentially, human capital is resulting in a source of sustained competitive
one of the four types of assets managed in advantage for the firm (Hilsop, 2003). As a
organizations (Adeniji & Osibanjo, 2012); multidisciplinary practice that has evolved as
other assets include physical assets; financial a result of scholarly research, organizational
asset; and intangible assets. These assets are change management should begin with a
essential and vital at varying degrees in the systematic diagnosis of the current situation
operations of any organization; however, in order to determine both the need for
human assets operate at the pivot of the change and the capability to change. The
operations. objectives, content and process of change
should all be specified as part of a change
3.3. HRM Interventionist Strategies in management plan.
Change Management Change management processes may
include creative marketing to enable
As the world is becoming more and more communication between change audiences,
competitive, volatile than we could ever but also deep social understanding about
imagined, organizations either leadership’s styles and group dynamics. As a
manufacturing or service based are seeking viable track on transformation projects,
to gain competitive advantage and turning to organizational change management aligns
more innovative change sources through groups’ expectations, communicates,
human resource management interventionist integrates teams and manages people
strategies. These strategies have been training. It makes use of performance
defined as systems that attract, develop, metrics such as, financial results, operational
motivate and retain employees to ensure the efficiency, leadership commitment,
effective implementation of necessary communication effectiveness, and the
changes and the survival of the organization perceived need for change to design
and the members. These interventionist appropriate strategies, in order to avoid
strategies are also referred to as set of change failures or solve troubled change
internally consistent policies and practices projects.
designed and implemented to ensure that a All change involves the adoption of new
firm’s human capital contribute to the behaviours that need to be accepted and
achievement of its business objectives enforced. It should be noted that where quick
(Delery & Doty, 1996). In the same vein, radical change is required for organizational
146 A.A. Adeniji / SJM 8 (2) (2013) 139 - 154

survival, a dictatorial, coercive management


- Formation of strategic partnerships.
style may be appropriate. Extensive
The followings are the interventionist
collaboration and consultation is associated
strategies and roles of human resource
with a more leisurely form of change that
management in successful change
may be termed as fine tuning. Dunphy and
management.
Stace (1990) clearly regard HRM at the
1) Staffing: Organizational change can
forefront of planning and implementing
create the need for the human resource
organizational change. Thus, successful
department to focus on staffing issues.
implementation of change is a major
Organizations undergoing rapid growth may
challenge for HRM which will encourage
need to add more employees, so human
managers or human resource practitioners to
resource may have to focus on expanding its
actively address issues of resistance,
recruiting base or restructure compensation
behavior change and participation.
programme to attract more talented workers.
Maxwell and Watson (2006), argue that
A company in decline may require human
business partnership between human
resource to develop severance packages and
resource specialists and the employees have
carry out employee terminations. Also,
emerged as the dominant model for human
human resource workers may have to alter
resource operations within organizations.
job descriptions for the remaining workers if
They outline the role of human resource
the layoffs result in a change in job
experts as working alongside other members
functions.
of the organization to help them reach their
2) Alleviating Fears: Organizational
goals by crafting strategies to maximize
change often creates fear and uncertainty for
productivity through alignment of corporate
workers, thus, human resource may need to
resources to these goals. Moreover, the
take steps to alleviate these fears. For
human resource experts’ involvements in
example, when a smaller business is
successful change management offer a
purchased by a large company, the process
number of benefits to organizations –it
can create apprehension for workers
enables them forge closer relationships with
regarding their ability to adapt to new
other managers in the organization which
processes and procedures, even whether their
promotes a partnership model towards
jobs may be in jeopardy. This may require
managing employees. It encourages gifted
the human resource department to assume a
managers to use their initiative and become
public relations role by pointing out the
more involved in day-to-day workplace
potential benefits of the new arrangement,
management decisions and problems or
such as enhanced fringe benefits programme,
issues that can be resolved speedily before
and providing reassurance that jobs are safe,
they escalate. Enablers of human resource
as long as this is the case.
experts’ involvement in change management
3) Effective Communication:
include:
Organizational change is often a time of
- Greater degrees of responsibility and
widespread confusion, resulting in the need
task variation.
for the human resource department to open
- Human resource information
the channels of communication with
systems.
employees. Not only that, keeping
- Close relationships with employees.
employees informed about what to expect
A.A. Adeniji / SJM 8 (2) (2013) 139 - 154 147
during each step of the change process
include policies on work systems, business
through methods such as written
conduct guidelines, office timings, leave,
communications and possibly
travel, benefits, exit, e.t.c.
groupmeetings is necessary. The feedback
6) Creation of job descriptions: Detailed
can let human resource know how well
job descriptions need be developed for
changes are being received and whether
unique roles in the organization across
adjustments may be necessary. Also,
departments for employees in the new
effective communications that informs
dispensation to understand the nature of their
various stakeholders of the reason for the
roles and the responsibilities that they will be
change, the benefits of successful
accountable for in order to ensure the smooth
implementation as well as the details of the
operations of the business. The job
change will aid successful change
descriptions could be prepared by
management.
conducting job interviews with specific job
4) Developing Plan: When upper
incumbents with respect to their primary and
management makes human resource aware
secondary responsibilities including actions
of a pending change, such as a business
that they are directly responsible for. Thus,
expansion requiring the need to hire more
data generated are then used to develop the
workers, the human resource department
role and responsibilities document.
needs to work with management to develop a
plan to implement the change effectively.
For example, it can be difficult to effectively
3.4. Research Questions
recruit and train a large number of workers at
one time. Instead, management and human
The following research questions are
resource can work toward a solution where
formulated for this study in order to identify
workers are hired at intervals to ensure a
the contributions of Human Resource
comprehensive vetting process and thorough
specialists in organizational change:
training.
1) Is there any relationship between the
5) Integrating the existing human
level of human resource management
resource systems: There is the need to create
interventionist strategies in change
a corporate human resource function that
management and commitment of
will allow a common human resource
employees?
framework and ensure uniform
2) Does the level of human
implementation of the same across the
resourcemanagement interventionist
organization. The period of integration will
strategies contribute to producing quality
include activities such as, planning,
goods?
designing and communicating the human
3) Does the level of human
resource programmes and practices to be
resourcemanagement interventionist
implemented across the organization and
strategies in change management ensure
ensuring their implementation at all levels in
flexibility that makes employees more
the organization. Again, integrating the
adaptive and receptive to changes in
existing systems include developing a
organization? and;
common human resource policy manual that
4) Will human resourcemanagement
will work for the new entity. The manual
interventionist strategies influence the
148 A.A. Adeniji / SJM 8 (2) (2013) 139 - 154

integration of organizational goals into systems) is related to achieve flexibility


strategic planning? andmakes employees more adaptive and
receptive to changes.
3.5. Research Hypotheses H4: The human resourcemanagement
interventionist strategies management
From the argument above, the following
(staffing, fear alleviation, effective
hypotheses were formulated, which is also
communication, developing plan and
illustrated in figure 1:
integrating the existing human resource
H1: The human resourcemanagement
systems) is related to integrating
interventionist strategies in change
organizational goals into strategic planning.
management (staffing, fear alleviation,
effective communication, developing plan
and integrating the existing human resource 4. METHODOLOGY
systems) will be related to commitment of
employees. 4.1. Materials and Methods
H2: The human resourcemanagement
interventionist strategies (staffing, fear The adopted research design for this
alleviation, effective communication, survey was a methodological approach that
developing plan and integrating the existing allows the use of primary data gathered from
human resource systems) is related to quality the studied respondents on the effect of
in operations. organizational change on the human resource
H3: The human resourcemanagement management interventions in the Nigerian
interventionist strategies management banking industry. The choice of the Nigerian
(staffing, fear alleviation, effective banking industry for our study rest on the
communication, developing plan and changes experienced through mergers and
integrating the existing human resource acquisitions in the recent past. Therefore,

Source: Survey 2012

Figure 1. Theoretical Model & Research Hypotheses


A.A. Adeniji / SJM 8 (2) (2013) 139 - 154
149
the survey’ data were obtained from both collecting data was a structured
primary source through a questionnaire questionnaire, which the items focused on
survey and personal interviews involving the research variables used in the survey
respondents from Access Bank Plc, which such as quality, commitment, flexibility,
was chosen based on its “remarkable story of integration, staffing, fear alleviation,
the transformation of a small obscure effective communication, and plan
Nigerian Bank into an African financial development. The questionnaire items for all
institution of note; with emerging footprints the variables tested in the study were derived
on the International banking landscape” from literatures, especially from the works of
(http://www.accessbankplc.com/pages/Page. Arguilera and Dencker (2004) and Husain
aspx?Value=3&ln=Gy7UlI4cSJE94Wa2qud and Farooq (2013). The questionnaire is
bFQ%3d%3d); and its recent acquisition of segmented into two; the first part deals with
Intercontinental Bank. Convenience and the respondents’ demographic data; while in
purposeful sampling methods were utilized the second part they were to supply answers
in order to derive the needed data for the to the relationship between the level of
study. Access Bank Plc operates many human resource management interventionist
branches located in major towns and cities in strategies in change management and
Nigeria with its headquarters situated in commitment of employees, the level of
Lagos Southwest Nigeria in which the human resource management interventionist
survey was conducted. Structured strategies in change management ensures
questionnaire was used to collect data and flexibility that makes employees more
this was found appropriate because the views adaptive and receptive to changes in
of the respondents were obtained. A hundred organization. Respondents are expected to
and sixty (160) questionnaires were choose one number on a five-point Likert
administered within the scope of the selected scale of 1- 5 (5 – Strongly agree; 4 – Agree;
location, however, due to elimination of 3 – Undecided; 2 – Disagree; and 1 –
incomplete responses that were classified as Strongly disagree) that best describes the
invalid; the final sample size for the survey extent to which they support each statement
analysis was one hundred and twenty three stated in the questionnaire. The hypothesized
(123) which translate to a response rate of model in figure 1 wastested using Amos 18,
76.8%. The study attempts to add to because of the complex attributes of the
literature on organizational change and HR observed variables and their underlying
interventions in a developing economy such strong constructs (Suhr, 2006). Structural
as Nigeria. Equation Modelling (SEM) represents a
The respondents for this survey possess number of statistical models used to evaluate
adequate knowledge and experience about the validity of substantive theories with
the Banks regarding their merger and empirical data. This statistical tool was
acquisition. Further, they witnessed the adopted for this study because of its
merger and acquisition processes and the generality and flexibility.
role played by the HR department in
ensuring that personnel involved did not
experience emotional and psychological
trauma. The research instrument utilized in
150 A.A. Adeniji / SJM 8 (2) (2013) 139 - 154

5. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS 1994) or .95 (Schumacker & Lomax, 2004),


and the Comparative Fit Index (CFI) exceeds
In terms of model fit, the works of Bentler .93 (Byrne, 1994). However, as obtained
and Wu (2002), Kaplan (2000) and Hair, from Model Fit summary; under the Baseline
Anderson, Tathan and Black (1998) argue Comparisons, the Normed Fit Index (NFI)
that various goodness-of-fit indicators are value for this model is .956, which indicates
used to evaluate research models. In similar the model of interest improves the fit by 90%
direction, Schreiber, Stage, King, Nora and relative to the independence model; and CFI
Barlow (2006), argue that if the greater is .970, which is an indication that the model
number of the indices shows a good fit, then is accepted. As obtained in the literature,
the probability of a good fit is assured. A using The Root Mean Square Error of
model is regarded as acceptable if the Approximation (RMSEA) in determining the
Normed Fit Index (NFI) exceeds .90 (Byrne, model fit, the range of 0.08 to 0.10 provides
Table 1. Overall Model Fit

Source: Survey, 2012

Source: Survey, 2012

Figure 2. Results of Model Fit for Organizational Change & HR Interventions


A.A. Adeniji / SJM 8 (2) (2013) 139 - 154
151
an acceptable fit (Hair et al., 2006; 6. CONCLUSION
MacCallum, 1996; Steiger, 2007). The
RMSEA value for this model is .098, which A model fit was developed to examine the
makes the study an acceptable model fit, the role Human Resource Management
overall Model Fit is illustrated in table 1. Interventionist strategies play in
organizational change. However, this was
5.1. Hypotheses Testing Results done by relating study variables such as
staffing, fear alleviation, effective
The results of the path analysis, presented communication, developing plan and
in table 2, indicate that integrating the integrating the existing human resource
existing human resources appear to affect systems to commitment of employees when
flexibility more than any other factors tested change is experienced in organizations.
with a significant relationship (Hypothesis Adequate and rich empirical studies were
1). In addition, it is evident that staffing utilized to support our proposition;
influences flexibility that makes employees essentially we observed that variations exist
more adaptive and receptive to changes in when change occurs in organizations across
organization with direct positive relationship country or in different economy/industry.
(Hypothesis 2).With respect to effective Specifically, as often practiced,
communication and commitment, result interventionist strategies such as staffing,
points to a positive significant correlation alleviation of fear, etc are universally
between the constructs when changes occur accepted and common among companies
in organization. In same direction, there operating within the same economy or
exists significant positive relationship industry. However, Access Bank Plc
between integration of human resources and (Nigeria), though operate in the same
employees’ commitment. These results industry with Intercontinental Bank, having
suggest that a strong commitment can be been acquired had to alter its HRM processes
expected when employees are effectively in order to create new job structure to
integrated thereby aiding successful change accommodate employees from both
management. companies. In addition, Access Bank Plc
(Nigeria) had to adjust HRM policies so as to
achieve the strategic goals of the
organization. Our model demonstrates that
Table 2. Hypotheses Testing Results

Note: All path coefficients are significant at the p<0.001


Rejected – Path coefficients were positive but insignificant
Source: Survey, 2012
152 A.A. Adeniji / SJM 8 (2) (2013) 139 - 154
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ОРГАНИЗАЦИОНЕ ПРОМЕНЕ И ИНТЕРВЕНЦИЈЕ У
УПРАВЉАЊУ ЉУДСКИМ РЕСУРСИМА: ИСТРАЖИВАЊЕ
У БАНКАРСКОМ СЕКТОРУ НИГЕРИЈЕ

Anthonia Adeniji Adenike, Omotayo Osibanjo Adewale and


Joachim Abiodun Abolaji
Извод

Циљ овог рада је да се изуче односи између интервенционистичких стратегија менаџмента


људских ресурса и организационих промена, као и њиховог утицаја на флексибилност која
може учинити запошљене прилагодљивијим и склонијим прихватању промена. Сакупљен је и
анализиран одговор 123 испитаника од полазних 160 послатих упитника. Хипотезе
међусобних оноса су испитиване путем моделовања структурним једначинама (СЕМ),
софтвером Амос 18, који омогућује тестирање комплексних односа између промењивих.
Добијени модел показује да постоје релације између стратегија интервенције код људских
ресурса и да је у конзистенцији са организационим променама у испитиваном сектору. Ипак,
студије може бити примењена и на друге пословне секторе, нпр. производњу као и на сектор
укрупњавања и преузимања компанија..

Кључне речи: Организациона промена, Стратегије интервенција у људским ресурсима,


Нигерија, Банкарски сектор
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IJ International Journal of
Production Management
http://dx.doi.org/10.4995/ijpme.2013.1502
PME and Engineering Received: 2013-04-29 Accepted: 2013-05-20

Institutions for collaboration in industrial clusters: proposal of


a performance and change management model

Carpinetti, Luiz C. R., & Lima, Rafael H. P.


Department of Production Engineering – University of Sao Paulo (USP).
Av. Trabalhador São-carlense, 400, São Carlos-SP –
Brazil.
carpinet@sc.usp.br
rhlima@sc.usp.br

Abstract: This paper proposes a performance and change management model for institutions for collaboration (IFCs) in
industrial clusters to assist them while planning, conducting and evaluating joint actions. A three-stage implementation
scheme and a self-assessment tool that helps an IFC determine its compliance with the proposed model are also
introduced. The self-assessment tool was applied in three Brazilian IFCs from different clusters. It was found that the IFCs
researched face major difficulties in designing and implementing performance measures to evaluate the results and impacts
of joint actions. However, IFCs have been successful in identifying local infrastructure and devising informal strategic plans.
Key words: industrial clusters, performance management, collaborative networks, institutions for collaboration.

1. Introduction supply chain, but are fundamental for the cluster


activities (Porter, 1998). Examples of such
Geographic agglomerations of firms have been
institutions are universities, research centres,
widely studied in the literature and are often
referred to as industrial clusters. The topic has training centres and specialized service providers.
become top priority in the agenda of many regional Karaev et al. (2007) highlights the existence of local
development agencies and national governments, supporting institutions that are oriented to the
especially due to the competitive advantages and particular needs of the cluster participants. In Brazil
economic development they enable to firms and to it is common to observe local associations that
the regions they are located (Porter, 1998; Mytelka promote initiatives that seek to satisfy some needs
and Farinelli, 2000; Sölvell et al., 2003). Companies common to a subset of the local firms. Some
located in these regions can benefit greatly from authors have reported on cases of such institutions,
external economies, collaboration, and exchange such as Schmitz (1998), Sölvell et al. (2003) and
of knowledge between organizations (Unido, 2001; Gerolamo et al. (2008). The term institution for
Karaev et al., 2007; Capo-Vicedo et al., 2008). Such collaboration (IFC) is used in this paper to refer to
benefits may be extended if firms act together through such supporting associations.
joint actions that stimulate them to collaborate for
This paper studies how IFCs manage joint actions in
the common good (Bititci et al., 2004). However,
industrial clusters. For this purpose, a performance
some authors argue that the execution of joint
and change management model is proposed to guide
actions requires some sort of local coordination,
such institutions in the conduction of joint actions.
whose role is to intermediate the interests of
The model is strongly influenced by the PDCA
companies and coordinate the execution of
activities related to the joint action (Schmitz and cycle and continuous improvement principles. The
Nadvi, 1999; Sölvell et al, 2003; Gerolamo et al., model outlines a series of performance and change
2008). management practices to assist IFCs in the planning,
implementation and assessment of joint actions.
The definitions found in the literature for industrial Therefore, the model stresses the importance of
clusters often emphasize the importance of related performance measurement systems as a way of
institutions that do not participate directly in the demonstrating the benefits gained through joint

https://ojs.upv.es/index.php/IJPME
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Spain
Int. J. Prod. Manag. Eng. (2013) 1(1), 13-26

13
Carpinetti, Luiz C.R., & Lima, Rafael H.P.

actions. Later on the model is organized in three


implementation stages and a self-assessment tool
is devised to evaluate the institution’s management
practices. The self-assessment tool was used
to evaluate the management practices of three
Brazilian IFCs from different industrial clusters –
Sertaozinho (metal-mechanic cluster), Arapongas
(furniture cluster) and Londrina (information and
communication technology cluster).
The article is organized as follows: Section 2
describes the research method and Section 3
presents the theoretical background used to support
the management model. Section 4 introduces the
performance and change management model, the
implementation stages and the self-assessment
tool. Section 5 describes the application of the self-
assessment tool in the three IFCs, whilst Section
6 discusses the data collected. Finally, Section 7
concludes the paper by summarizing the findings
and suggesting topics for future research.

2. Research method Figure 1. Research method.

Figure 1 shows the procedure adopted in this


research. Given the objective of this paper, it
was deemed necessary to review the literature on with the coordinators of each institution. One of the
industrial clusters, performance management in authors acted as a facilitator during the application
industrial clusters, and institutions for collaboration. of the self-assessment tool and in the determination
The knowledge gained during this activity served as of the scores to each requirement. The answers
background for the proposition of the performance given by the coordinator were transcribed and
and change management model. After that, three qualitatively evaluated to determine such scores.
implementation stages and a self-assessment tool The scores were then arranged in a table, in such a
were derived from the management model. This way to enable a cross-case analysis. The findings
tool aims to quantify the extent to which an IFC were based upon the comparison of similarities and
complies with the model, that is, it points what differences between the cases.
management practices outlined in the model the
institution has or has not implemented. The self-
assessment tool, which is described in detail in 3. Literature review
Section 4, consists of 18 requirements derived from
the management model. A supporting question was 3.1. Industrial clusters
associated to each of the requirements, so that the The term industrial cluster was made popular in
person conducting the assessment understands what the late nineties by Porter (1998), who defined it
should be assessed in a given requirement. During as geographic concentrations of interconnected
the self-assessment, a score ranging from 0 to 10 is companies and institutions in a particular field.
associated to each requirement indicating the level His definition also encompasses other entities that
of compliance of the IFC with the management are important to competition, such as suppliers of
model. The scores obtained are then grouped specialized inputs, service providers, specialized
according to the implementation stages to which infrastructure, and governmental and private
they are associated to determine the areas that institutions as universities, training providers
need improvement with respect to the institution’s or trade associations. In Brazil the government,
management practices. funding institutions and some research centres refer
to industrial clusters by the acronym APL, which
The items listed in the theoretical contribution
stands for local productive arrangements, as defined
served as guidance during the self-assessment
carried out in the three cases, which were based
on interviews

14 Int. J. Prod. Manag. Eng. (2013) 1(1), 13-26 Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Spain
Institutions for collaboration in industrial clusters:
proposal of a performance and change management model

by the Brazilian Ministry for Development, Industry their performance measurement systems (PMS)
and Foreign Trade (MDIC, 2010). (Neely, 1995; 2005; Kaplan, 1996; Kennerley,
The fundamentals that seek to explain the 2002; Radnor and Barnes, 2007). As pointed out by
competitive advantages of industrial clusters were Neely (1998), a PMS can be used to four purposes:
set out in the 19th century by Alfred Marshal, check current position, communicate performance,
who noted that geographical agglomerations of confirm priorities and compel progress. This
firms might ultimately result in three types of reinforce the role of performance management in
externalities – pool of specialized workers, strategic issues, such as setting priorities, targets
specialized providers of inputs and services, and the and deploying strategies by cascading down actions
technological spillovers that flow easily among co- that will ultimately make the company achieve its
located firms (Krugman, 1991; Plummer and planned objectives. Due to the apparent importance
Taylor, 2001; Cortright, 2006). These externalities of performance management to individual
are called by Marshal as external economies. organizations, many authors have tried to apply this
Schmitz and Nadvi (1999) added that, aside of theory to measure multi-firm relationships as supply
the unplanned benefits of external economies, chains (Chow et al., 1994), organizational networks
companies in industrial clusters may gain (Camarinha-Matos and Affsarmanesh, 2007) and
competitive advantage through planned joint industrial clusters (Carpinetti et al., 2008).
actions, which are enabled by cooperation and
Indeed, performance management in industrial
collaboration among firms. Two topics are often
clusters has drawn considerable attention from
associated with collaboration in industrial clusters:
several authors and has been viewed as a basis for
- Social capital: refers to the set of intangible the management of a cluster (Sölvell et al. 2003;
factors that exist in a community, such as DTI, 2005; Gerolamo et al., 2008; Carpinetti et al.,
values, norms, attitudes, trust and networks that 2008). Furthermore, the use of numerical means
facilitate coordination and collaboration for the to demonstrate the benefits of collaboration in
common good (Cohen and Prusak, 2001); organizational networks would motivate companies
- Collective efficiency: competitive advantage to collaborate more and establish new partnerships
gained through external economies and joint (Camarinha-Matos and Affsarmanesh, 2007).
actions (Schmitz, 1995). According to a report written to the English
Department of Trade and Industry, measuring a
Some authors contend that concentrations of firms cluster’s performance may be useful to evaluate
foster network formation, since companies can take the appropriateness, effectiveness and efficiency
advantage of the proximity to strengthen the bonds of interventions (DTI, 2005). Collaboration, on
with local firms and establish new partnerships its turn, can be viewed as a metric composed of
(Camarinha-Matos and Affsarmanesh, 2005). There three measurable dimensions: information sharing,
is some empirical evidence in the literature linking decision synchronization and incentive alignment
social networks and the knowledge exchange (Simatupang and Sridharan, 2005). It is thus clear
among co-located firms, which in turn may that, for companies to collaborate with each other in
facilitate innovation among companies (Morosini, joint initiatives, it becomes necessary a coordination
2004; Steiner and Hartmann, 2006). For example, mechanism that balances the interests and serves as
Baptista and Swann (1998) found that the a communication channel among the parties
concentration of specialized workers of a given involved. This means communicating the status of
sector facilitate knowledge spillovers, which in turn ongoing activities and the impacts of joint
may lead to increased levels of innovation. Steinle initiatives, which should be done by means of
and Schiele (2002) argue that companies must performance measures.
interact with each other in order to benefit from
locating within a cluster, which in turn requires a There does not seem to be a sound approach or
climate that stimulates cooperation and intensive framework in the literature that fulfils the need
knowledge exchange. of a performance management model to facilitate
the conduction and assessment of collaborative
initiatives in industrial clusters. There are though
3.2. Performance management in industrial some contributions that try to fill this gap. Sölvell
clusters et al. (2003) developed the Cluster Initiative
Performance management has been a central topic Performance Model (CIPM), in which the
in organizational and operations management performance of a cluster initiative is measured in
(Neely, 2005). This has led many authors to terms of innovation, international competitiveness,
develop frameworks that assist companies in cluster growth, and achievement of goals.
designing According

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15
Carpinetti, Luiz C.R., & Lima, Rafael H.P.

to the authors, cluster’s performance is ultimately - Step 2 – Strategic orientation and definition of
affected by three elements: the social, political and objectives: formulation of a strategic plan that
economic setting within the nation; the objectives balances the interests of local companies as
of the cluster initiative; and the processes by well as other interested parties, such as local
which the cluster initiative develops. Carpinetti authorities and the community.
et al. (2008) proposed a framework to design
- Step 3 – Implementation of improvement and
performance measurement systems for industrial innovation projects: based on the elements
clusters. The authors divided performance measures formulated in Steps 1 and 2, a series of joint
into four perspectives: economic and social results; initiatives should be developed to take
company’s performance; collective efficiency; and advantage each partner’s capabilities as well as
social capital. A similar contribution was made by to increase trust among companies;
Bortolotti and Amato Neto (2006), who developed a - Step 4 – Performance evaluation and
6-dimension framework to characterize and measurement: definition of a process to measure
evaluate industrial clusters. The six dimensions and evaluate the performance and impact of
included in the framework were related to joint actions;
geographic, economic, institutional, social,
- Step 5 – Supporting infrastructure for the
technological and environmental aspects of the
management process: establishment of the
industrial cluster as a whole. The European
infrastructure necessary to support cooperation
Commission carried out seven case studies in
projects, such as a regional office or a regional
networks from the automotive sector and proposed
development agency.
a five-step method to the management of networks
(EC, 2001):
3.3. Institutions for collaboration
- Step 1 – Goal, potential and strategy: consists
Besides the external economies that naturally
of drawing together the key stakeholders of the
emerge in agglomerations, companies my benefit
network;
greatly from local supporting institutions oriented
- Step 2 – Starting the network: setting of
towards satisfying specific needs of the cluster
rules between partners and preparation of the
participants (Karaev et al., 2007). As pointed by
operational background;
Seliger et al. (2008), such institutions are vital for
- Step 3 – Implementation of the network:
the coordination of joint actions and diffusion of
establishment of an appropriate information and
specific knowledge inside the cluster. Schmitz and
communication platform to connect all network
Nadvi (1999) contend that local agencies should
participants;
mediate conflicts of interest that may arise
- Step 4 – Management of the network: between companies within the cluster. The
management of the network activities by existence of local coordination may differentiate a
focusing on information and communication, mere agglomeration of companies from a
training, innovative projects, comprehensive local innovation system that aims to
internationalization, and marketing and improve local competitiveness through joint actions
advertising; and network formation (Gerolamo et al., 2008).
- Step 5 – Evaluation of the network: consists
of auditing the network actions and gathering Several terms can be found in the literature to refer
feedback from network members to to these supporting institutions, such as cluster
continuously improve the management of the initiatives (Sölvell et al., 2003; Ketels and Sölvell,
network; 2006), institutions for collaboration (Sölvell et al.,
2003; 2008), industry associations (ITD, 2009),
An analogous contribution was made by Gerolamo
regional development agencies (Seliger et al., 2008)
et al. (2008), who developed a performance
or institutional thickening (Andriani et al., 2005). In
management model for industrial clusters and
this paper we refer to local supporting institutions in
cooperation networks. Their model is divided into
clusters as institutions for collaboration (IFC).
five steps:
These institutions may assume a variety of forms,
- Step 1 – Identification of the stakeholders: the
such as private organizations, public agencies or
first step is to identify the stakeholders directly
industry associations. The literature reports a
or indirectly related to the cluster activities
number of cases concerning institutions for
(large enterprises, SMEs, local partners, local
collaboration (see some examples in Schmitz, 1998;
associations, the local chamber of commerce
Sölvell et al., 2003; Gerolamo et al., 2008). It
and industry, universities, public authorities,
seems that cultural
financial institutions and so forth;

16 Int. J. Prod. Manag. Eng. (2013) 1(1), 13-26 Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Spain
Institutions for collaboration in industrial clusters:
proposal of a performance and change management model

issues, the type of business, the economic setting, three dimensions – infrastructure, strategic planning
and the existing social capital may influence the and implementation and assessment. The model
form of local IFCs. In spite of that, it seems to be emphasizes the implementation of joint actions
consensus in the literature that regardless of the way that seek to improve some aspect of the industrial
the IFC comes about in a cluster, it plays a vital role cluster’s performance. It does not necessarily mean
in managing interactions, sharing of knowledge and that all companies in the cluster should be involved
in providing a cognitive framework for in every joint action supported by the institution,
transforming information into useful knowledge but rather that each joint action should benefit at
(Audretsch and Lehmann, 2006; Steiner and Ploder, least a subset of the local companies. The execution
2008). of these actions requires strong coordination,
As to the emergence of these institutions, Sölvell especially due to their collective nature. At this
et al. (2003) argue that after a cluster’s formation, point, the support provided by institutions becomes
the region tends to accumulate resources and crucial, since they can serve as mediators between
commitment of its participants, which may the several parties involved in the joint action.
culminate in the establishment of local IFCs. The
authors describe IFCs as formal institutions
4.1. Infrastructure
maintained with fees paid by local firms that seek
to balance the interests of the different actors The model in Figure 2 suggests that the IFC
involved with the industrial cluster. IFCs may act should identify the existing infrastructure prior to
upon several issues by coordinating joint actions the definition and execution of joint actions. By
concerning quality of life, education, infrastructure identifying the local infrastructure, the institution
(transportation, energy, and communication), tax will be able to put forth joint actions that optimize
regulation, export strategy, quality standards, infrastructure utilization and improve existing
research and training, and so forth (Sölvell, 2008; facilities.
ITD, 2009).
Local infrastructure can be analyzed at two major
levels – institutional and regional. At the
4. The performance and change institutional level, the model points to the
management model establishment of a statute to formalize its
management hierarchy and the roles assigned to
The model described in this section aims to help each member. A local office should also be set up
IFCs in industrial clusters in the planning, with the management tools and information systems
implementation and evaluation of joint actions. One necessary for the institution to conduct its activities
such institution may encompass representatives and manage joint actions. Additionally, a
from the various cluster actors, such as the coordinator or a coordination team should be
companies, the government, research centres, chosen to act directly upon the joint actions and
universities and so forth. Figure 2 shows the innovation programs supported by the institutions.
proposed model, which is divided into The role of

Figure 2. The three dimensions of the proposed model.

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Int. J. Prod. Manag. Eng. (2013) 1(1), 13-26 17
Carpinetti, Luiz C.R., & Lima, Rafael H.P.

this coordination body is to mediate the interests of local firms about them. On the other hand,
and assignments between the parties involved with the institution may act as a representative of
a given joint action. companies before the governmental agencies to
The infrastructure elements at the regional level suggest policies that would incentive the local
refer to cluster actors and facilities that can economic activities;
contribute to the execution of joint actions. For - Existing infrastructure: the diagnosis conducted
example, cluster actors such as technical schools, in the first dimension of the model can
specialized service providers and universities can reveal opportunities with respect to the use
provide specific knowledge to the coordination and improvement of the local infrastructure.
team and to the companies involved in a joint Moreover, joint actions may combine the skills
action. Besides these actors, the institution should of a subset of the actors in the cluster to promote
identify the local facilities that could be exploited innovation among businesses.
by local companies. Examples of such In order to formulate the strategic planning, the
infrastructure elements are roads, railroads, model also suggests that the institution should
warehouses, intermodal ports, communication lines, characterize the local productive system and
power supplies, sources of raw material and so identify ongoing joint actions, so that their goals
forth. These need to be mapped by the institution so can be reassessed for the next management cycle.
that actions can be taken, both to use and to With all this information in hand, the institution will
improve the existing infrastructure. be able to determine more appropriate short and
long term goals and set out the joint actions to help
4.2. Strategic planning achieve these goals. Later on, these actions will
have to be deployed to all the parties involved to
From the standpoint of individual firms, strategic determine their roles and activities. The institution
planning is the process by which leaders formulate can refer to the hoshin kanri technique to this end
their vision of future and develop the procedures (Akao, 2004). Finally, three additional aspects
and operations to achieve such vision (Goodstein should be taken into account when formulating the
et al, 1993). In this sense, strategic planning can be institution’s strategic planning:
viewed as a tool to help organizations set priorities
and allocate resources to achieve them (Allison and - The sources of funding for implementing joint
Kaye, 2006). From the perspective of an institution actions;
promoting joint actions in industrial clusters, the - The means by which the results of actions
main strategic objectives differ from the traditional will be communicated to businesses and other
profit and productivity objectives of regular stakeholders;
organizations. The strategic objectives of an IFC - The performance measures that need to be
should be related to the improvement of the various implemented to evaluate the results of actions in
performance dimensions of the industrial cluster. numerical terms.
Hence, the objective of the second dimension of the
4.3. Implementation and assessment
model is to motivate the institution to formulate its
strategic planning. However, the plurality of actors The third dimension of the model consists of
involved with the cluster raises several challenges implementing the items designed in the strategic
to the formulation of short and long term goals that plan.
balance the desires of local businesses that often
compete with each other. For that reason, joint
actions need not necessarily involve all firms, but
rather those whose goals match the purpose of the
initiative being planned. The following sources can
be used to inspire the formulation of joint actions:
- Needs of businesses: the institution may conduct
a diagnosis of local businesses needs and devise
joint actions based upon the needs common to
certain groups of firms;
- Public policies: On the one hand, the institution
may search for public policies that favour local
economic activities and increase awareness Figure 3. The proposed model and the PDCA cycle.

18 Int. J. Prod. Manag. Eng. (2013) 1(1), 13-26 Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Spain
Institutions for collaboration in industrial clusters:
proposal of a performance and change management model

In other words, the institution should execute the it into four stages, by which the institution should
joint actions foreseen in the strategic plan and gradually implement and improve its management
gather data to calculate performance measures as a practices. The dynamics proposed in Figure 4
means of assessing the impacts of such actions. It enables the institution to learn from experience and
becomes now clear that the model is strongly encourages continuous improvement of its planning,
influenced by continuous improvement principles execution and assessment capabilities.
and the PDCA (Plan, Do, Check and Act) cycle.
Figure 3 illustrates this by associating the The stages in Figure 4 are associated with the
dimensions of the model with the phases of the operation of each dimension of the management
PDCA cycle. model. Stage zero (S-0) is the initial stage of
implementation and corresponds to an IFC that
As depicted in Figure 3, the first two dimensions of has no formal planning and control capabilities
the model correspond to the Plan phase of the in place to manage joint actions. The first stage (S-
PDCA cycle, during which the institution should 1) encompasses the characterization of the regional
characterize the local infrastructure, set short and infrastructure and the establishment of the
long term objectives, devise the joint actions to be management tools, information systems and
implemented and define the performance supporting facilities to coordinate joint actions. The
measurement system to be used in the remainder of second stage (S-2) covers the strategic planning and
the cycle. The third dimension of the model the implementation and assessment dimensions.
stretches across the Do, Check and Act phases of It does not regard both dimensions separately, but
the PDCA cycle. During the Do phase, joint actions rather the closed planning, execution and
should be implemented as planned and data for assessment loop, which was depicted in Figure 3.
performance measures should be collected. During Thus, when the institution reaches this stage, it will
the Check phase, performance measures and the have successfully developed practices to formulate
results of joint actions need to be assessed in order strategic plans, design performance measures,
to determine the degree to which the objectives execute joint actions and assess its results and
have been achieved. The last phase of the PDCA outcomes. Stage three (S-3) is achieved when the
cycle corresponds to the communication of IFC has put in place a mature management system
performance and action results, benchmarking with that fully covers the practices from the three
other clusters and the identification of further dimensions of the model. At this stage the
opportunities for improvement. institution will have learned from experience and
improved its managerial capabilities in a way that
4.4. Model implementation future joint actions will be better coordinated
The implementation of the proposed model will between the companies, the institution and other
hardly occur at once. Instead, it is expected that cluster actors. Additionally, the experience gained
institutions will develop some of the practices after several management cycles may teach the
concurrently, regardless of the dimension to institution how to better choose and formulate joint
which they belong. It is thus pointless to devise a actions that will ultimately meet the real needs of
series of steps to implement the model, because local companies and actors. These aspects together
each institution will choose different paths to may increase the success rate of actions and hence
implement it. It is however necessary to understand increase trust between companies and the
the dynamics of the model, that is the structure institution.
required so that continuous improvement may flow
throughout the model. Figure 4 illustrates the 4.5. Self-assessment tool
dynamics of the model by dividing As mentioned earlier, it is very unlikely that an IFC
will implement the management model at once.
Moreover, even though institutions may not be
aware of the model proposed in this paper, many of
them have already implemented managerial
practices that satisfy some of the model
requirements. It becomes thus necessary a tool to
help such institutions evaluate their management
practices in relation to those required by the model
as a way to determine what areas need
improvement. To this end, a set of requirements
were devised to characterize each stage of the
Figure 4. Dynamics between the dimensions of the model management model and organized as a

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19
Carpinetti, Luiz C.R., & Lima, Rafael H.P.

diagnostic tool. Tables 1, 2 and 3 list the


requirements and questions to evaluate each of the 5. Application of the self-assessment
requirements from the stages S-1, S-2 and S-3, tool
respectively.
The tool described in the previous section was
Consistent with the stages in Figure 4, the questions used to evaluate the management practices of three
in Table 1 are related to the characterization of the Brazilian industrial clusters against the proposed
infrastructure at the regional and institutional levels. model. Table 4 lists the three clusters researched
Table 2 puts forth questions to evaluate how the and the institutions in which the self-assessment
institution plans, executes and assesses joint tool was applied. The prevalent economic activity in
actions, which is done by verifying the existence of the city of Sertaozinho (C1) is the production of
strategic plans, performance measures, equipment to the ethanol industry. There is in the
communication with stakeholders and city an above average concentration of metal-
benchmarking mechanisms. Finally, the questions in mechanic firms plus a number of companies that
Table 3 address the effectiveness of the institution’s provide supporting services, such as automation and
management practices and the joint actions it has maintenance (SEBRAE, 2007). The self-assessment
carried out. tool was applied in the APL Metaltec, which is an
The requirements and questions from Tables 1, 2 institution supported by the local association of
and 3 can be used as a self-assessment tool so that entrepreneurs (CEISE) that aims to foster
institutions can evaluate their management practices cooperation and improvement among local firms.
and determine to which extent they comply with the The acronym APL is commonly used in Brazil to
management model. This can be helpful in pointing refer to industrial clusters. APL Metaltec was
areas for improvement in the management of IFCs. founded in 2008 and since then it has been
To this end, the institution should assign scores promoting joint actions, especially among small and
using integral numbers ranging from 0 to 10 to medium-sized firms, to promote continuous
indicate the extent to which the requirement is met. improvement and innovation. Examples of such
The following reference scale can be used to help initiatives are the free consulting services provided
determine scores: to SMEs to teach entrepreneurs about best
management practices and the creation of a local
- 0 to 3 points: indicate that the institution has no seal of quality. Coordination of joint actions is done
adherence to the requirement or at best it has by a SEBRAE (Brazilian Micro and Small Business
plans of meeting the requirement, but no Support Service) consultant fully devoted to the
effective results have been achieved yet; promotion and management of joint actions.
- 4 to 6 points: the institution has conducted
activities that indicate partial compliance with The city of Arapongas (C2) is renowned by its high
the requirement, that is the activities have been concentration of furniture producers. The cluster
reasonably effective but still can be performed covers also the surrounding cities of Apucarana,
better; Cambe, Rolandia and Sabaudia, totalling 545 firms
- 7 to 10 points: the practices being carried out and about 12,000 employees (IPARDES, 2006a).
by the institution demonstrate high or total The Furniture Industry Association of Arapongas
adherence to the requirement. (SIMA) started off in 2005 the Furniture APL of
Arapongas as a side project to support and
coordinate some joint actions that were being
conducted at that time. The

Table 1. Requirements for Stage 1.

Requirement Question
R1 – Establishment of the local office Does the institution have a local office that allows its operation?
R2 – Management tools and Are there appropriate management tools and information systems in place to
information systems assist the institution in its operation and in the coordination of joint actions?
R3 – Coordination Does the institution have a coordinator or a coordination team to manage joint
actions and innovation programs?
R4 – Identification of the Has the local infrastructure (facilities, communication, transportation and so
local infrastructure forth) been formally identified?
R5 – Identification of the cluster actors Have the actors involved with the cluster been formally identified?
20 Int. J. Prod. Manag. Eng. (2013) 1(1), 13-26 Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Spain
Institutions for collaboration in industrial clusters:
proposal of a performance and change management model

Table 2. Requirements for Stage 2.

Requirement Question
R6 – Characterization of the local Has the institution carried out a diagnosis of the local productive system?
productive system
R7 – Awareness of local companies How effective has the work of the institution been towards the awareness of
and other local actors companies and other local actors with respect to collaboration as a means of
improvement and innovation?
R8 – Formulation of the strategic plan Does the institution periodically formulate its strategic plan with short and long
term objectives that aim to improve the cluster’s performance as a whole?
R9 – Formulation of joint actions Are joint actions derived from the strategic plan and appropriately formulated?
(that is with an execution team, determination of responsibilities, associated
performance measures, sources of funding and the like)
R10 – Existence of a PMS Is there a PMS in place that covers all the performance dimensions of the
cluster and that enables the institution to assess the impacts of joint actions?
R11 – Assessment of joint actions Does the institution periodically assess the results of joint actions as a way to:
(i) determine the level of compliance with predetermined goals, (ii) readjust
the plan if necessary or (iii) identify new opportunities for improvement?
R12 – Performance communication Are the results of joint actions and performance measures communicated to all
cluster stakeholders?
R13 – Benchmarking Has the institution implemented mechanisms to benchmark its performance
measures and practices against those from other industrial clusters?

coordinator and vice coordinator of the initiatives software developers, automation firms and a range
are local entrepreneurs who dedicate part of their of other ICT service providers. According to the
time to the management of the cluster’s joint coordinator of the ICT APL of Londrina, the city
actions. They operate from within SIMA by using has approximately 140 ICT companies, among
its infrastructure to promote meetings among which 60 have signed the participation agreement
companies and seminars about subjects of interest so far. The ICT APL of Londrina was started off in
to local firms. Among the ongoing joint actions are 2006 as a joint initiative of local entrepreneurs and
the annual furniture trade fair, business missions to the state government. Joint actions are managed by
international fairs as a way of bringing new ideas a coordinator, a vice coordinator and a secretary,
to local designers, the construction of a quality lab who are also company owners in the city. They
to measure the quality of local products as well as dedicate part of their time to hold meetings with
courses to improve local managers’ capabilities. local companies in order to identify their needs and
suggest actions that should be taken to improve
The information and communication technology
competitiveness and performance of local firms.
(ICT) cluster found in the city of Londrina (C3)
Noteworthy joint actions are the identification of
was identified by IPARDES (2006b) and comprises

Table 3. Requirements for Stage 3.

Requirement Question
R14 – Existence of a mature PMS Is there a stable and mature PMS with historical data stored for at least two
years?
R15 – Learning from experience Has the institution learned from experience with past joint actions so that the
formulation and implementation of new actions that involve local companies
and actors is facilitated?
R16 – Long term initiatives Has the institution formulated and conducted long term initiatives that aim to
improve local infrastructure, both at the regional and institutional levels?
R17 – Involvement of small, medium Have the initiatives started off by the institution drawn interest from small,
and large firms medium and large firms?
R18 – Impact on performance Have the joint actions conducted by the institution been successful in improving
the overall cluster’s performance?

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Int. J. Prod. Manag. Eng. (2013) 1(1), 13-26 21
Carpinetti, Luiz C.R., & Lima, Rafael H.P.

Table 4. Description of the industrial clusters researched.

Industrial cluster Economic sector Institution re-searched Type of coordination


Sertaozinho
Metal-mechanic industry CEISE and APL The coordinator is a full-time SEBRAE
(C1)
Metaltec consultant
Arapongas
Furniture producers SIMA and Furniture The coordinator and the vice-coordinator
(C2)
APL are company owners in the city
of Arapongas
Londrina Information and ICT APL of Londrina The coordinator and the vice-coordinator
(C3) communication technology are company owners in the city

common training needs to specialize local intermediate classification of variability when the
workforce and the establishment of a local business range is equal to 3. By using these criteria, the
centre that can be used both for joint purchasing and requirements R5, R6, R9, R10, R11, R12, R13 and
for selling local products and services to private and R18 showed low variation, whereas the
public organizations. requirements R4, R8, R15, R16 and R17 showed
The self-assessment was conducted with assistance high variation between the cases. Requirements R1,
of the researchers, who used the questions from R2, R3 and R7 fell in the intermediate group.
Table 1, 2 and 3 to interview the coordinators of The observation of the means obtained for each
each institution. The responses given to each question requirement allows the determination of the overall
were transcribed to determine the level of level of compliance with the practices specified in
compliance to each of the requirements. Table 5 the management model. The scale described in
presents the scores obtained after the interviews. Section
The scores in each requirement, as shown in Table 4.5 was used to classify and discuss the means
5, were grouped to determine the average score in observed. However, relying solely on the means or
relation to the three implementation stages. These on the ranges may lead to wrong conclusions. For
results are shown in Table 6. example, if a given requirement showed a low
mean, it does not necessarily mean that all the three
clusters did not perform the practices specified for
6. Discussion that requirement, because there may be high
variability between the cases, which is indicated by
The use of three cases of industrial clusters enabled the range. In order to reach more precise
not only an evaluation of the management practices conclusions with respect to each requirement, it is
at the cluster level, but also a cross-case necessary to analyze
investigation of the practices to establish similarities
and differences between them. The line graph in Table 5. Scores obtained in eah cluster.
Figure 5 shows the scores for each of the 18
requirements in the three clusters researched and the Scores (0 to 10)
mean score for each requirement. Req. C1 C2 C3 Avg. Range
R1
R3 710 107 77 8,0
8,0 33
It is visually noticeable in the line graph that the lines R2
R4 55 59 26 4,0
6,7 34
for each cluster tend to follow the mean line, which R5 9 9 10 9,3 1
indicates little variation in many of the requirements. R6 6 5 7 6,0 2
There is though great variety between the scores of R7 6 9 6 7,0 3
some other requirements. A better measure to quantify R8 3 6 10 6,3 7
this variation is the column Range in Table 5. A great R9 6 7 6 6,3 1
range between the scores of a certain requirement R10 1 3 2 2,0 2
indicates that there is significant difference between R11 4 4 5 4,3 1
the management practices adopted in the three cases. R12 5 6 5 5,3 1
The average range observed is 2,67. We will thus R13 1 1 3 1,7 2
consider that a requirement has little variation in the R14 0 0 0 0,0 0
cross-case analysis if its range is lower or equal to R15 3 6 7 5,3 4
2. Great variation in a requirement is characterized R16 3 6 7 5,3 4
by a range equal or greater than 4. Because scores R17 3 5 8 5,3 5
were defined in integer numbers, we defined an R18 3 5 5 4,3 2
22 Int. J. Prod. Manag. Eng. (2013) 1(1), 13-26 Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Spain
Institutions for collaboration in industrial clusters:
proposal of a performance and change management model

low scores in all clusters because there were no


benchmarking mechanisms in place to assist the
institution in comparing the cluster’s performance
with that of other clusters. The ICT cluster of
Londrina was the only one that was planning to take
part in a SEBRAE benchmarking initiative that
seeks to compare the performance of companies
according to the criteria from the Brazilian national
quality award. Such initiative, however, is still at an
early stage of implementation and concrete results
have not been observed as of the time of this
Figure 5. Line graph with scores in each case
research.
The establishment of a local office (R1), the existence
both their means and ranges. Table 7 classifies the of a coordination team (R3) and the awareness of
requirements according to their means and ranges, companies (R7) also seem to be common practices,
in which the rows represent the categories for the though the observed range for these requirements
mean adapted to real numbers (see Section 4.5) and was equal to 3. In fact, the scores to R1 and R3
the columns represent the three classifications for were equal or greater than 7 in the three clusters,
the range, as previously described in this section. and the range equalled 3 because one of the clusters
One important conclusion that can be drawn from scored 10 in these requirements. As for R7,
Table 7 is that the scores did not differ significantly Londrina and Sertaozinho scored below 7 because
in 9 out of the 18 requirements (see first column in they were facing difficulties in formulating joint
Table 7). Nevertheless, only R5 had a mean score actions that draw the attention from small and large
above 7, which indicates that the identification of companies at the same time. In the case of
the actors involved with the cluster is a common Londrina, the cluster coordinator reported that many
practice in the three clusters researched. The companies have not realized the benefits of taking
diagnosis of the local productive system (R6), the part in the cluster initiatives regardless of their size,
formulation (R9) and evaluation (R11) of joint which partly explains why so many companies do
actions, performance communication (R12) and the not participate in the meetings periodically held in
impact of joint actions (R18) achieved a partial the institution.
level of compliance. In such cases, either the Among the requirements with range greater than
management practices were still being implemented 3, the formulation of strategic plans (R8) and the
or they still needed improvement. For example, all involvement of small and large companies (R17)
the clusters had some qualitative mechanism to were the ones that most differed in the cross-case
evaluate the results of joint actions (R11), which analysis. The cluster of Londrina has steadily
was done mainly in meetings with the institution formulated strategic plans since 2006, whilst in
staff and companies’ representatives, but none had Sertaozinho a formal strategic plan has never been
performance measures to quantify the efficiency written. Arapongas obtained an intermediate score
and effectiveness of the joint action. because the practice was discontinued in 2009 to be
resumed only in 2011. As for the requirement R17,
It is seemingly a consequence of the inexistence
Londrina achieved the highest score because the
of a formal PMS in the three clusters, which is
institution has successfully carried out initiatives
demonstrated by the low scores recorded in R10
that benefit companies regardless of their sizes,
and R14. Besides, the requirement R13 achieved
even though many of the local companies have not
participated in these initiatives. The cluster of
Arapongas, on its

Table 6. Scores grouped according to the


implementation stages. Table 7. Requirements classified according to the
means and ranges observed.
C1 C2 C3
Stage R≤2 R=3 R≥4
Score Avg. Score Avg. Score Avg.
S-1 36 7,20 40 8,00 32 6,40 Mean ≤ 3 R10, R13, R14 - -
S-2 32 4,00 41 5,13 41 5,13 3 < Mean < 7 R6, R9, R11, R2 R4, R8, R15,
S-3 12 2,40 22 4,40 27 5,40 R12, R18 R16, R17

Overall 80 4,44 103 5,72 103 5,72 Mean ≥ 7 R5 R1, R3, R7 -


Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Spain
Int. J. Prod. Manag. Eng. (2013) 1(1), 13-26 23
Carpinetti, Luiz C.R., & Lima, Rafael H.P.

turn, reported that large companies are participating


in the initiatives and meetings, though they act as
observers rather than proactive agents.
Another important analysis that can be made
concerns the average scores obtained by grouping
the requirements according to the implementation
stages. The line graph in Figure 6 was based on
the data from Table 6. It is apparent in this line
graph that the best scores were obtained in the first Figure 6. Compliance to the requirements according to
implementation stage. This is an indication that the implementation stages.
the clusters researched have established their local
offices, coordination teams, and have identified the
local infrastructure. A considerable drop can be implementation stages were identified, which
noted in the second stage, which is caused mainly served as ground to the formulation of a self-
by the requirements R10, R11 and R13. This shows assessment tool that help the cluster determine its
that designing performance measures, assessing the level of compliance with the proposed management
results of joint actions and establishing model.
benchmarking mechanisms are still challenges in all
The tool was used in three industrial clusters to
the clusters.
evaluate their management practices according to
With exception of Londrina, the lowest scores were the model, which led to important insights and
observed in the third implementation stage. It is findings. First, the highest scores were observed in
apparently a consequence of the nature of this stage, the first implementation stage (S-1), which is
whose requirements demand that the management strongly related to the infrastructure dimension of
practices implemented in S-1 and S-2 become more the model. This is an indication that the clusters
mature and effective. Moreover, in order to achieve have not faced great barriers in establishing the
the third stage the cluster needs to learn from infrastructure at the institutional level and
experience with past initiatives. This means that identifying the local infrastructure and actors at the
new joint actions should not only be well managed, regional level. As for the strategic planning, some
but also that they should encompass the real positive practices could be found in all the three
interests of the parties involved so that their clusters, though they have not been able to design
performance is impacted positively. A hypothesis performance measures to assess the results of joint
derived from this reasoning is that an industrial actions in numerical terms. This may prevent future
cluster can achieve high scores in S-3 only after joint actions from drawing more interest of local
several iterations of S-2, which is the continuous companies, mainly because companies will not be
improvement cycle from Figure 3. able to measure precisely the benefits of taking part
in such actions. Additionally, the inexistence of a
performance measurement system hinders the
7. Conclusions benchmarking with other industrial clusters. Based
on the scores obtained by each cluster, it becomes
Institutions for collaboration in industrial clusters apparent that issues related to performance
have played a vital role in improving the measurement prevented them from scoring better in
capabilities of local companies and in carrying out S-3, since this stage requires that the institution
joint actions that extend the benefits of establishes more mature management practices to
agglomeration beyond external economies. This plan, implement and assess joint actions.
was the motivation of this research, which aimed to
contribute to the body of knowledge on industrial Although the findings of this paper cannot be
clusters by putting forth a performance and extended to all industrial clusters, they serve as
change management model to guide IFCs in the empirical evidence that, in general, measuring the
planning, implementation and assessment of joint benefits of joint actions numerically is not a
actions. The model was divided into three common practice yet. Future research on IFCs
dimensions – infrastructure; strategic planning; and should seek ways to overcome the barriers to
implementation and assessment. To each of these performance measurement, strategic planning, and
dimensions, a number of management practices the assessment of joint actions, since no widely
were associated. Based on this model, three accepted solutions for these issues have been
proposed so far.

24 Int. J. Prod. Manag. Eng. (2013) 1(1), 13-26 Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Spain
Institutions for collaboration in industrial clusters:
proposal of a performance and change management model

Acknowledgements: This should always be a run-in heading and not a section or subsection heading. It should not be
assigned a number. The acknowledgements may include reference to grants or supports received in relation to the work
presented in the paper.

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Wyno Journal of Management & Business Studies
Vol. 1(1), PP. 1-18 April, 2013
Available Online at http://www.wynoacademicjournals.org/management_biz.html
©2013 Wynoacademic Journals

THE EFFECTS OF CHANGE MANAGEMENT IN AN ORGANISATION:


A CASE STUDY OF NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF RWANDA (NUR)

Kamugisha Samuel
MBA Coordinating Secretary
National University of Rwanda, Faculty of Economics and Management
P.O Box 117 Butare, Rwanda. Email: samkamugisha@gmail.com
Tel: +250788845648 Rwanda

Accepted Date: 30th January 2013

ABSTRACT
Change has become a constant phenomenon which must be managed properly for an organization to survive.
Knowledge and awareness about many of the critical issues involved in the management of such change is often
lacking.

This study sought to find out the effects of change management in National University of Rwanda. It was guided by the
following specific objectives: to analyze the effect of change management on organization culture at National
University of Rwanda; to determine the effect of change management on Organization structure at National University
of Rwanda; and to investigate the effect of change management on leadership at National University of Rwanda. This
study used a descriptive case study approach.

A purposive sample of 57 senior staff members directly involved in managing organizational change participated. Data
collection was based on secondary and primary sources. The data collected from questionnaires and secondary sources
was summarized according to the study themes; being change management and its effects on organizational structure,
culture and leadership. Quantitative data was analyzed using descriptive statistics like mean, mode, median and
frequencies.
Results were presented inform of charts and tables for quantitative data and in prose for qualitative data. This study
found that there are changes in the management of faculties. There are also changes in the requirements and
performance of the staff, where administrative staffs are now to have at least a bachelor’s degree in relation to the
positions they occupy. Previously, there were no such restrictions and conditions to occupy such slots. The University
Administration has introduced the idea of performance contracting; where employees are required to set targets from
which they are evaluated. Module system was introduced to replace classical way of teaching. These changes were
found to affect the organization human resources in terms of downsizing, outsourcing and recruiting more staff to fill
some new posts. Technological changes in terms of enhanced internet bandwidth in the university have considerably
had a significant impact on the operations of the university both in Academic and administration.

1.1 INTRODUCTION
Many organizations are occasionally faced with challenges that force them to adjust or change (Burnes, 2004).
Development organizations, in particular, regularly have to go through change processes when having to respond to
new development scenarios or simply as part of their expansion or restructuring processes. The implications of change
processes are regularly under-estimated by senior management and not managed adequately. Ansoff (1987) asserts that
it’s known that leadership can make a great difference, and that its importance for organizational success is
intensifying. Yet we still know too little about the qualities and practice of effective organizational leadership and change
management.

Universities are a major sector which has significant contribution to socio-economic development. The external
changes that have been facing the organizations provide an avenue for thinking. Managers have adopted change
practices with varying levels of success. While studies on change have been done on manufacturing, (Shem, 2005)
public sector (Nyamache, 2003) International Development organizations (Muturi, 2006) and in other corporations, none
has been done on the education sector and Public Universities as well in Rwanda. This study will therefore provide
insights on change practices in these organizations.

1
2. Mgt. & Bus. Stu.

Most organizational managers today would agree that change has become a constant phenomenon which must be
attended to and managed properly if an organization is to survive. Changes in technology, the marketplace, information
systems, the global economy, social values, workforce demographics, and the political environment all have a
significant effect on the processes, products and services produced. The culmination of these forces has resulted in an
external environment that is dynamic, unpredictable, demanding and often devastating to those organizations which are
unprepared or unable to respond (Burnes, 2004).
According to Schaffer (1992), those organizations which do survive are often relegated to the role of playing “catch up” to
their competitors, while others are either absorbed into larger entities via mergers or acquisitions or simply dissolved into
a collection of corporate assets and liabilities. In fact, many of the popular trends in management and organizational
consulting such as business process re-engineering, total quality management and the learning organization, represent
systematic methods for responding to and channeling effectively the forces of change. Unfortunately, the vast majority
of improvement initiatives undertaken by organizations, even with the best of intentions, are destined to have little impact.

While organizational change is a constant experience, knowledge and awareness about many of the critical issues
involved in the management of such change is often lacking in those responsible for its progress. Clearly, if
organizations are ever to experience a greater level of success in their development efforts, managers and executives
need to have a better framework for thinking about change and an understanding of the key issues which accompany
change management. Change management has been linked to the organization's competitiveness and response to
changes in the environment. Ansoff and McDonnell (1990), state that changes arise out of the need for organizations to
exploit existing or emerging opportunities and deal with threats in the market. It is crucial that organizations seek to
create a competitive advantage and wherever possible innovate to improve their competitive positions. This implies the
readiness to change within the organization and the ability to implement the proposed change.

A host of external factors influence an organization's choice of direction and action and ultimately, its organizational
structure and internal processes. These factors, which constitute the external environment, can be divided into three
interrelated Strategy categories; that is factors in the remote environment, factors in the industry environment and
factors in the operating environment (Pearce and Robinson, 1991). Organizations manage change directly. Balogun and
Hailey (1999) identify important contextual features that should be taken into account when designing change
programs. These include the scope, institutional memory, diversity of experience within an organization, the capability of
managing change and the readiness for change throughout the different levels in the organization.

There are different approaches to managing change; some are sudden, planned and incremental. Kazmi (2002) says that
change is not linear and therefore cannot be worked on a mathematical formula basis with a set of variables that will
yield a fixed answer for their combination. Aosa (1996) points out the necessity of carrying out change within the
context of unique environmental challenges within Africa. Therefore change is context and environmental dependent,
and there is no one best way.

1.1.1 Public Universities in Rwanda


According to the National Council of Higher Education (NCHE), there are 17 Public Higher Learning Institutions in
Rwanda. The Public Higher Learning Institutions are National University of Rwanda, Kigali Institute of Science and
Technology, Kigali Institute of Education, School of Finance and Banking, Higher Institute of Agriculture and Animal
Husbandry, Umutara Polytechnic, Institute of Legal Practice and Development, Kabgayi School of Nursing and
Midwifery, Rwamagana School of Nursing and Midwifery, Byumba School of Nursing and Midwifery, Kavumu
College of Education, Rukara College of Education, Kibungo School of Nursing and Midwifery, Kicukiro College of
Technology, Tumba College of Technology, Kigali Health Institute, and Nyagatare School of Nursing and Midwifery.
By categorization, they are 10 Colleges, 1 Polytechnic, 5 Institutes and 1 University (National Council of Higher
Education website http://www.highereducationcouncil.org).

1.1.2 The National University of Rwanda (NUR)


The National University of Rwanda (NUR) is a Rwanda’s state university, founded in November 1963 as an institution of
higher learning, with a mission to provide higher education, conduct research, and offer services to the community. It
is the oldest and largest University in the country. The University is located in the Southern Province, 150 km south of
the capital city of Kigali. It was the only publicly funded university until the 1990’s. Before the 1994 war and genocide, it
had three campuses in Butare, Kigali and Ruhengeri. After 1994, because of resource constraints, the three campuses
merged into one campus in Butare. Since the reopening of NUR in 1995, 8,747 students have graduated from NUR.
With over 10, 000 students registered this year. NUR has over one third (1/3) of the total student population in all the
higher education institutions in Rwanda. NUR is currently having 7 Faculties, 2 Schools and 6 Centers. NUR has also 10
Postgraduate

2
3. Samuel

Programs. The medium of teaching and learning is English. The current staff is around 1035 including Academic,
Administrative and Technical.
Between April and July 1994, the University community lost a good number of its staff and students who were killed
during the genocide. The University suffered a great loss; laboratory equipment, the computer equipment and academic
infrastructure were destroyed or taken away. NUR was closed because of the prevailing war in the country, those who
were not killed had to hide themselves, and others fled in exile. In 1995 the university reopened. The campus of
Ruhengeri and the Kigali Faculty of Law shifted and became part of the campus of Butare. The main change was that
all the faculties and schools were regrouped in Butare Campus for security and administrative reasons. The beginning
was not easy but the government decided the smooth running of NUR at all costs. The Campus that was supposed to
cater for 1,600 students now lodged more than 4,500. NUR took off smoothly but surely despite the wounds to dress,
the buildings to repair and English became a new language of teaching (National University of Rwanda website:
http://www.nur.ac.rw). The National University of Rwanda is committed to building an institution whose motto is
‘Excellence in Education and Service to the People.’ As it is vivid no country can develop without adequate knowledge
institutions supplying relevant expertise and skills for social and economic transformation. In all successful nations, the
role of the university has gone beyond the traditional missions of teaching and research. NUR is as a matter of fact the
“engine of social and economic development” in terms of innovations and the commercialization of ideas that lead to
entrepreneurial activities and the formation of business enterprises. The university, above all, provides the bulk of the
required skills and knowledge for the national labour market to meet both public as well as private sector demands. In
Rwanda, Vision 2020 recognizes the need for a critical mass of skills in all areas of national life. As the premier
knowledge institution in Rwanda, the National University of Rwanda is repositioning itself so that it can play a
developmental role and thereby assist the country to realize its vision (National University of Rwanda website:
http://www.nur.ac.rw).
According to Aosa (1998), organizations being environmental dependent have to constantly adapt their activities and
internal configurations to reflect the new external realities and failure to do so may put the future success of an
organization in jeopardy. Rwandan environment is not isolated from happenings on the global scene. National
University of Rwanda is facing several challenges and how to manage their effects, including inadequate resources,
rapid technological changes, growing number of students as a result of increasing demand for higher education, the
changing of the medium of instruction from French to English, and the introduction of the Bologna system of education
based on student centered learning (National University of Rwanda: Strategic Plan 2008-2012).
Change has become a constant phenomenon which must be attended to and managed properly if an organization is to
survive. Changes in technology, the marketplace, information systems, the global economy, social values, workforce
demographics and the political environment have a significant effect on the processes, products and services produced.
The culmination of these forces has resulted in an external environment that is dynamic, unpredictable, demanding and
often devastating to those organizations which are unprepared or unable to respond (Burnes 2000). While
organizational change is a constant experience, knowledge and awareness about many of the critical issues involved in
the management of such change is often lacking in those responsible for its progress. Clearly if organizations are ever
to experience a greater level of success in their development efforts, managers and program officers need to have a
better framework for thinking about change and an understanding of the key issues which accompany change
management. Change management has been linked to the organization’s competitiveness and response to changes in
the environment (Ansoff and McDonnell, 1990). This implies the readiness to change within an organization and the
ability to implement the proposed changes.

According to Pearce and Robinson (1991) a host of external factors influence an organization’s choice of direction, action
and ultimately, its organizational structures and internal processes. These factors, which constitute the external
environment, can be divided into three interrelated strategy categories that are factors in the remote, industry and
operating environment. National University of Rwanda is one of the institutions that has tried to implement changes
over a number of years in order to deliver its services to the ever growing population of students.

Though change management is a subject studied extensively in Kenya, the subject is least if not at all studied in
Rwanda. Most studies in this area have embarked on the process of change management. Rukunga (2003), studied
strategic change management at the Nairobi Bottlers Ltd and found out that Nairobi Bottlers Ltd had successfully
embraced change management as a strategy and that it had positively affected their operations. Ongaro (2004),
conducted a study on strategic change management practices at Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH), he concluded that
change management were needed in service industries and that implementation of reforms was successful at KNH.
These studies have all been carried out in Kenya and none has crossed or tackled a Rwandan context. It is therefore
imperative to note that there is a need for this research to be undertaken to investigate and establish the effects of
change management in organizations in Rwanda. The problem of this study therefore was to find out the effects of
change management in National University of Rwanda.

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4. Mgt. & Bus. Stu.

1.2 Organizational Change and the Effects on its Management


Generally, it is assumed that managers are in favour for or against a (new) strategy “neither as a habit nor as a mindless
repertoire.” (Stubbart, 1989, p.330) but for rational reasons and on the basis of objective facts. And one can hear a lot
about the official reasons for managerialistic change; to increase efficiency and reduce costs, to increase profits and
growth, to become more business-like and to secure the survival of the organization – you name it. All these claims
might be true, many managers may really believe in what they say and work very hard to achieve the changes and
results proclaimed. However, behind such claims there can be also reasons and drivers which are being mentioned less
often, if at all. Despite all assurances by the proponents of new public management that the new agenda is solely about
rational strategic responses and “technical” aspects, organizational politics imply otherwise. Strategic change
initiatives, their formulation and implementation are much about influence, power and control (Diefenbach 2006).
Walsh (1995) (similar Humphrey (2005)) draws the attention to the fact “that the struggle for power in an organization is
often a struggle to impose and legitimize a self-serving construction of meaning for others”. Managers want to get
“their” version through, their interpretation of how the world “is” and what the organization should be doing – because they
know very well that getting ones “meaning” through will generate further chances and possibilities. Organizational
change is a socially constructed reality with negotiated meaning as outcomes of power relationships and struggles for
supremacy (Grant et al., 2005). “Between the lines” a particular strategy is primarily about power and control,
dominance and supremacy, whose access to resources will be enlarged or reduced, who can stay and who has to go.
Managers might have to deliver “results” and therefore are not absolutely free in their choices. But they make decisions
on quite a rational basis – seen from their perspective. Hence, many managers – like many other people – make decisions
first with regard to their personal interests (in the West, at least), to their own position and career aspirations, to their
families and social affairs and the like (Willmott, 1997, p. 1335). These personal interests usually fit to group interests, i.e.
to strengthen the roles, position and influence of managers (in comparison and against other professions, lower ranks or
external stakeholders). Strategic change initiatives, discourses about strategy, change, and other management issues
provide excellent opportunities for senior and middle managers to set the agenda, to get their ideology through as the
organization’s primary strategic objectives, to strengthen their role and position, to keep, gain or increase internal
influence. Managerialistic strategies and change management are “the modernist project which has as its heart the
transcendence of professional management as a means of achieving control in organizations” (McAuley et al., 2000):
For those who believe in the principles that underlie it, managerialism as a philosophy legitimize ‘the interests of
management in how organisations are managed, stressing the role and accountability of individual managers and their
positions as managers’ (Lawler and Hearn, 1996; McAuley et al., 2000). By pursuing their personal interests they also
pursue group interests. New public management change initiative is an odd combination of managerialistic ideology,
personal and group interests.

1.3 Conceptions of Change and Strategic Management


The strategic management model assumes that the changes in the organization can be captured by one or a few
objectives (Thompson and McEwen, 1958). But what if the change-process involves multiple changes simultaneously?
This question leads the discussion into a path discussing hierarchies of objectives or complexity. Therefore, it is often
assumed that the strategic management effort solves a single business problem or situational challenge. In most modern
theories of managing change, the goal-setting and objectives have been substituted by the vision as a driver for planned
change. The vision plays a central role in modern change management as an abstract organizing and driving force
creating meaning and motivation in the change process (Kotter, 1990, 1995, 1996; Beer et al., 1990; Li, 2005; Kaplan
and Norton, 2007).
There is a generic difference between incremental changes on the one hand and major or radical changes on the other
hand. There are four basic ways of understanding change. If these four basic ways of understanding organizational
change are looked at, then the practical paradox challenge to the strategic balance assumption and planning when the
demand for strategic change is more frequent than the strategic ability to plan and implement change strategy can be
seen. The faster the change cycle runs and the frequency raises, the more paradoxical strategic planning and managing
intentional change processes becomes, since vision, mission, and strategies cannot be changed too often without
making the strategic efforts meaningless. There is some inspiration towards dissolving or coping with the practical
paradox of keeping up with strategy in reference to the theory of evolution.
Change may be understood relative to its’ frequency (how often does change occur), and its’ intensity (is it minor,
incremental, stepwise, or major, radical). The intensity may be subdivided into whether the change is continuous,
evolutionary, developmental, or is discontinuous, revolutionary, or transformational. But change should also be
understood relative to its’ degree of successfulness – how much time does it contribute to survival and sustainability by
creating periods of relative stability.

1.4 Employees Resistance to Change


People do not like change, any change. A “strong preference for stability and continuity” (Brooks and Bate, 1994, p. 181)
might be in the human nature. People only want to change when both the pull- and push-forces are that strong that people

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themselves see no other solution anymore than to change. An allegedly “much more challenging business
environment” and a “vision” of a “more business-like” organization are definitely not enough to convince employees to
change their daily routines at their desks.
Another issue people are quite sensitive about is the “technical” aspects of change initiatives, i.e. how change is
introduced, communicated and discussed, if and how their viewpoints are not only being heard but seriously taking into
account. Many people are (still) of the opinion that an organization is or should be much more than a profit-generating,
efficiency-improving machinery. Such values and convictions can be quite deeply embedded in an organization’s
culture and people’s attitudes (Kirkpatrick and Ackroyd, 2000). Any change initiative has to take this into account:
There is a significant body of literature that draws attention to the difficulty of changing organizational culture on the
grounds of that culture is deeply ingrained in the underlying norms and values of an organization and cannot be imposed
from above (Parker and Bradley, 2000).
In this sense, many people seem to be against top-down and paternalistic approaches of leadership and centralization of
power and control (Diefenbach, 2006). But what many people perhaps resist the most is the cynical use and misuse of
“grand” ideas for personal and group interests. People resist ambitious senior managers who join organizations they do
not know, who are only interested in furthering their own career and market-value, mess with several change management
initiatives, and then leave the organization in a state worse than before for good and with a golden handshake. People
resist managers who have only little understanding of the business, who do not care for the ideas and needs of their
employees, and the organizational necessities and opportunities, with managers who pretend to be busy and important,
even crucial for the sake and survival of the unit but at the end of the day are only interested in their career and the
increase in their market value, in strengthening their position and securing their pension scheme. Therefore, people are
not against change per se, but these specific tendencies. Managerialism produces resistance (Kirkpatrick and Ackroyd,
2000)
– and other negative outcomes. It is often the cause of the problem and not the cure.

1.5 Change Management and the Challenge to Rationality


Those charged with bringing about changes in organizations have a myriad of challenges to deal with. There is
evidence to suggest that the universal, prescriptive model of change management is inadequate to describe the diversity
of approaches actually used by organizations (Dunphy and Stace, 1993). Some seek to restrict the meaning of change
management to the felt need to improve organizational performance and members’ own position within the
organization (Goodstein and Burke, 1991). Dawson (1996) has discussed the limitations of adopting such a simple
definition of change. She sees conflicting interests and resistance as some of the barriers to achieving the desired results in
the felt need for change. Other researchers (Tichy, 1983) acknowledge the frustration that manager’s feel when their
organizations do not respond to elaborately analyzed plans, where there is a lack of interaction between decision and
action.

There are those who perceive change management as a systemic process incorporating systems of interpretation and
meaning (Hassard, 1991; Knights and Willmott, 1995). This view is particularly important, as it emphasizes the social
aspects of exchange through which the locus of knowledge and the understanding of “real” things is subjectively
shared and shaped by individuals through conversation and dialogue. What is seen as real is made real through sense-
making processes (Weick, 1995), and “the social world is best understood from the viewpoint of the participant-in-
action” (Hassard (1991, p. 277). In an empirical sense, this perception of change management reflects the management
of processes through liberal exchange of knowledge, building of trust and acknowledgement of the heterogeneity in
values, preferences and interests. In spite of the attention that the management of change has received, organizations
continue to have problems in managing organizational change and “the search for generalized laws of change still
pervades the discipline” (Wilson, 1992). There is a gap between what the rational-linear change management approach
prescribes and what change agents do.

1.6 Change Management and the Rational-Linear View of Change


In line with the classic argument on “environmental determinism” (Burns and Stalker, 1961), change in organizations
is perceived by internal change agents in this study as being triggered by change in environmental conditions such as
competitive pressures, legislation, environmental and safety regulations, world-wide economic threats, key
stakeholders and leadership preferences and technological advancements. However, the wider political struggles to
gain control over scarce resources emerge as the most powerful stimulator of change. As far as the cases are concerned,
considerable time is invested into building relationships to this end.
Unity in goals and full participation in change efforts, despite the fact that such participation may not generate a complete
agreement on various aspects of the change process, are seen as desirable conditions for effective implementation of
organizational change. These espoused values reflect a “‘unitary’ frame of reference which emphasizes the philosophy
that organizations have goals to which all organizational members subscribe, with all working towards their
attainment” (Senior, 1997, p. 167). The need for united efforts is exemplified by the need for integrated systems and

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change initiatives.

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It is claimed that change regarding a tangible output, such as a capital investment or a new building, is easier to bring
about than change concerning an intangible output, such as the degree of learning. This is because procedures that
guide actions in the case of tangible product changes are seen as more codifiable than those for tangible outputs
(Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1995). There is an extensive difference in the way change management is perceived between
managers having administrator roles and engineers reflecting the non-linear, quasi-rational nature of change.
Administrators are seen by some of the engineers as heavily embedded in politics and detached from actual change.

1.7 Discourse-Based Theory of Organizational Change


A number of studies have suggested that discourse theory and the analysis of organizational discourse offer considerable
potential for understanding the nature and complexity of organizational change. However, while these studies demonstrate
some of the potential contributions that a discourse based theory of organizational change might make, they also
exhibit two inter-related problems. First independently or in combination, none of the studies attempts to provide a
comprehensive or integrated discourse theory of change. The discursive change model, if one exists, is implicit, but not
fully articulated. Second, by virtue of the model being underspecified, the value of the observations and results of
studies of organizational discourse and change are potentially open to question or even undermined (Ford, 2008).
In reference to level of change related to discourses, it operates at several different levels. It is possible to identify five
that merit attention in relation to organizational change – the intrapsychic, the Micro, the Meso, the macro and the
Meta. At the intrapsychic level a discourse might manifest itself in the form of internalized stories and introjected
beliefs that an individual tells them self. It can also refer to cognitive frames and schemas (Ford, 2008). Analyses of
discourses at the micro level focus on the detail of language in use by individuals. Beyond the individual focus of the
micro-level, it is possible to consider discourse at the meso-level to explore the interpersonal. At this level discursive
interactions will impact on the actions and behavior of individuals within a localized context, e.g. a department or
among a specific group of actors who socially interact on a regular basis (Mumby, 2004).
Macro level discourses can be viewed as an aggregation and accumulation of an amalgam of meso-level discursive
interactions in organizations. Here, interactions such as conversations and texts coalesce to form the dominant thinking,
institutional practices and collective social perspectives within an organization. Meta level discourses have been
described as discourses that are recognized and espoused at the broader societal level and across institutional domains.
As such they might address “more or less standard ways of referring to/constituting a certain type of phenomenon”
(Alvesson & Kärreman, 2000: 1133). The texts within any level of discourse are linked to, and informed by discourses
and the texts that operate from other levels. This inter-textuality means that it is important to identify and analyze
specific, micro-level discourses pertaining to change, within say a conversation, and to then place them in the context of
other meso, macro or even meta discourses (Boje, 2001).

1.8 Three-Step Change Theory


Kurt Lewin (1951) introduced the three-step change model. This social scientist views behavior as a dynamic balance
of forces working in opposing directions. Driving forces facilitate change because they push employees in the desired
direction. Restraining forces hinder change because they push employees in the opposite direction. Therefore, these forces
must be analyzed and Lewin’s three-step model can help shift the balance in the direction of the planned change.
According to Lewin, the first step in the process of changing behavior is to unfreeze the existing situation or status quo.
The status quo is considered the equilibrium state. Unfreezing is necessary to overcome the strains of individual resistance
and group conformity. Unfreezing can be achieved by the use of three methods. First, increase the driving forces that
direct behavior away from the existing situation or status quo. Second, decrease the restraining forces that negatively
affect the movement from the existing equilibrium. Third, find a combination of the two methods listed above. Some
activities that can assist in the unfreezing step include: motivate participants by preparing them for change, build trust and
recognition for the need to change, and actively participate in recognizing problems and brainstorming solutions within a
group
(Robbins 564-65).
Lewin’s second step in the process of changing behavior is movement. In this step, it is necessary to move the target
system to a new level of equilibrium. Three actions that can assist in the movement step include: persuading employees
to agree that the status quo is not beneficial to them and encouraging them to view the problem from a fresh
perspective, work together on a quest for new, relevant information, and connect the views of the group to well-
respected, powerful leaders that also support the change.
The third step of Lewin’s three-step change model is refreezing. This step needs to take place after the change has been
implemented in order for it to be sustained or “stick” over time. It is highly likely that the change will be short lived
and the employees will revert to their old equilibrium (behaviors) if this step is not taken. It is the actual integration of the
new values into the community values and traditions. The purpose of refreezing is to stabilize the new equilibrium
resulting from the change by balancing both the driving and restraining forces. One action that can be used to implement
Lewin’s

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third step is to reinforce new patterns and institutionalize them through formal and informal mechanisms including
policies and procedures (Robbins 564-65). Therefore, Lewin’s model illustrates the effects of forces that either promote
or inhibit change. Specifically, driving forces promote change while restraining forces oppose change. Hence, change
will occur when the combined strength of one force is greater than the combined strength of the opposing set of forces
(Robbins 564-65).

1.9 Phases of Change Theory


Lippitt, Watson, and Westley (1958) extend Lewin’s Three-Step Change Theory. Lippitt, Watson, and Westley created
a seven-step theory that focuses more on the role and responsibility of the change agent than on the evolution of the change
itself. Information is continuously exchanged throughout the process. The seven steps involve diagnosis of the
problem; assessing the motivation and capacity for change; assessing the resources and motivation of the change agent;
choosing progressive change objects; selecting and clearly understanding role of change agents by all parties so that
expectations are clear; maintaining the change; communication, feedback, and group coordination are also essential
elements in this step of the change process; finally, the change agent should gradually withdraw from their role over
time. This will occur when the change becomes part of the organizational culture (Lippitt, Watson and Westley 58-59).
Lippitt, Watson, and Westley point out that changes are more likely to be stable if they spread to neighboring systems or
to subparts of the system immediately affected. Changes are better rooted. Two examples are: the individual meets
other problems in a similar way, several businesses adopt the same innovation, or the problem spreads to other
departments of the same business. The more widespread imitation becomes, the more the behavior is regarded as normal
(Lippitt, Watson and Westley 58-59).

2.1 METHODOLOGY
This is a case study that has utilized a descriptive case study approach to achieve the set objectives. According to
Yazici (2009), a case study places more emphasis on a full contextual analysis of fewer events or conditions and their
interrelations. This design was suitable because the study requires an accurate examination of the effects of change
management; whereby in-depth, insightful and unique information on the effect of change management at National
University of Rwanda can be obtained best through a descriptive case study method.

2.2 The Population and Sample Design


The study population was staff of National University of Rwanda who has experienced various forms of organizational
change. The population targeted for the study must have been involved in organizational change both directly and
indirectly impacted upon by the new administrative systems. The total population of staff at the National University of
Rwanda is 1035 out of which the researcher targeted 57 staff members involved in making decisions and are the top of
management in the institution.

A purposive sample of 57 staff members who were senior staff and are directly involved in managing organizational
change were involved in the study. According to Winter et al. (2009), a purposive sample is a non-probability sample that
conforms to a certain criteria. The research took purposively 57 staff members who are at the top management of the
University.

2.3 Data Collection


Data collection is the process of gathering information about a phenomenon using data collection instruments (Sekaran,
2000). Data collection was based on secondary and primary sources where primary data was obtained through the use
of questionnaires as the main data collection instrument while secondary data was obtained from journals and books in
the library and the University’s annual reports. Questionnaires was both open ended and closed and were also both
qualitative and quantitative in nature to capture all the aspects of the effects of change management in an organization.
A total of 57 questionnaires were developed which were then be administered through drop and pick method.
2.4 Data Analysis
Data was analyzed using content analysis of written materials drawn from personal expressions of participants. The
data collected from questionnaires, interviews and secondary sources was summarized according to the study themes
being change management and its impact on organizational structure, culture and leadership. Data was then analyzed to
determine its accuracy, credibility, usefulness and consistency. According to Cooper and Schindler (2011), content
analysis measures the semantic content or the “what” aspect of the message. Its breadth makes it flexible and wide-
ranging tool that is used as a methodology or as a problem-specific technique. Quantitative data was analyzed through
coding in SPSS version data editor where inferences were drawn and descriptive statistics like mean, mode, median and
frequencies of responses were used to give the results of the analysis which were then presented inform of charts and
tables and prose for qualitative data.

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3.1 DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION OF FINDINGS


This section discusses the interpretation and presentation of the findings. The purpose of the study was to examine the
effects of change management in an organization; taking a case of National University of Rwanda. The objectives of
this study were to analyze the effect of change management on organization culture at National University of Rwanda;
to determine the effect of change management on Organization structure at National University of Rwanda; and to
investigate the effect of change management on leadership at National University of Rwanda. This chapter focused on
data analysis, interpretation and presentation. The researcher made use of frequency tables and percentages to present
data.
The researcher targeted a sample of 57 staff members who are at the top management of the University out of which 49
responses were obtained. This represented an 85.96% response rate. According to Babbie (2002) any response of 50% and
above is adequate for analysis thus 85.96% is even better.

3.2 General Information


As part of their general information the researcher requested the respondents to indicate their gender. The results are
shown in figure 3.1 below:

Figure 3.1: Gender of the Respondents

It was realised that 56.25% of the respondents in this study were male while 43.75% were female. This clearly shows
that majority of the respondents in this study were male.

Figure 3.2: Respondents’ Age Bracket

On the respondents age bracket, the study found that majority of the respondents (50.02%) were aged between 31 and
45 years, 28.57% were aged between 46 and 60 years and 20.40% were aged between 18 and 30 years. This shows that
majority of the respondents were aged between 31 and 45 years.

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Figure 3.3: Respondents Education Level

On their level of education, 46.94% of the respondents indicated that they had masters’ degree, 38.78% had
postgraduate diploma and 14.29% had PhDs. This shows that majority of the respondents had masters degree.

Figure 3. 4: Work Experience

In an effort to determine the respondents work experience the researcher requested them to indicate the number of
years they had been working at National University of Rwanda. From the findings 35% of the respondents indicated
that they had been working in the university of Rwanda for between 5 and 10 years, 24% had been working there for
between 10 and 20 years, 16% had been working there for between 3 and 5 years, 14% had been working there for more
than 20 years and 11% had been working there for between 1 and 3 years. This clearly shows that majority of the
respondents had a working experience of between 5 and 10 years.

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Figure 3.5: Number of Staff Supervised

On the number of staffs the respondents were supervising, 44% indicated that they were supervising more than 20
staffs, 21% were supervising 10 to 20 staffs, 19% were supervising 5 to 10staffs, 11% were supervising 4 to 5 staffs
and 5% were supervising 1 to 3 staffs. From these findings we can deduce that majority of the respondents were
supervising more than 20 staffs.

3.3 Effect Of Change Management On Organization Culture


3.3.1 Changes in Line with Responsibilities
On the changes the respondents were overseeing in line with their responsibilities the respondents indicated that they
were overseeing changes in Academics, Administration and Management of the Faculty.
Regarding administration, there are changes in the requirements and performance of the staff. Administrative staffs are
now to have at least a bachelor’s degree in relation to the positions they occupy, this affects the existing culture, where
for administrative staff there were no such restrictions and conditions to occupy such slots. Module system was
introduced and it replaced the classical way of teaching by course units, now similar/related units are grouped into one
module and taught one after the other, in a logical and chronological order.
The University Administration has introduced the idea of performance contracting. Here all employees are required to
set targets from which they are evaluated and/or appraised. The influence of culture is an impediment since it affects a lot the
implementation of performance contracting. This is because, employees are required to deliver and perform effectively
compared to the previous way of how things were done.

3.3.2 Impact of Change in an Organisation


The study established that the changes have a significant impact on the whole institution. Such changes include:
Human resources; downsizing, outsourcing and recruiting more staff to fill some new posts. Technological changes; the
increase of the internet bandwidth in the university has considerably had a significant impact on the operations of the
university both in Academic and administration. These changes mostly have a fundamental impact on the University.
The study also sought to determine the changes that were essential. From the findings the respondents indicated that the
fundamental changes are essential; this is because they have a paramount impact on the whole institution. However,
even other changes depending on where they are initiated and implemented are also very essential in the University. This is
due to the fact that such changes in different units add up to organizational change, for example, changes in the
academia especially the language of instruction, changes in administration and the increased use of IT in the University.

3.3.3 How Changes Arise


The study also sought to know how the changes arised. The respondents indicated that most of these changes were
planned and come or take place in an incremental form. However, some of these changes came in abruptly. On the
ideal procedure for making changes upon request the respondents indicated that the ideal procedure is that the idea has
to be endorsed by all the University organs especially top management and the University board.

3.3.4 Change Management Procedure


On the change management procedure applied the respondents indicated that the university was applying planned
change management process procedure. Change requests are made by the units with change initiative and they are
endorsed by the top management.

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3.3.5 Situations that Interfere with the Change Management Procedure


The study sought to determine the situations that interfere with the change management procedure. From the findings
the respondents indicated that it is too tedious to get all the university management organs to approve change initiatives.
They further added that the process is too bureaucratic and many change initiators find it as stumbling block to their
development ideas.

3.3.6 Monitoring the Change Management


The study also sought to know who monitored the change. The respondents indicated that the Directorate of
Monitoring and Evaluation was established to oversee and monitor the decisions taken by the top management of the
University.
On how and where the change documentation was stored the respondent indicated that the Directorate of Monitoring
and Evaluation and the Unit(s) which initiate the idea keep and mostly make a follow up of the change initiatives and
therefore, keep all the necessary documentation on change management.
On whether there were alterations that needed to be made to the change management system the respondents indicated
that a proper change management procedure should be established in order to track well the effects of change
management.
The study found that the types of emergency changes that have been experienced included change of the Language of
Instruction; from French and English to English only and the introduction of the Module system (Bologna System of
Education) in the University and the whole country was too abrupt. Others changes have also occurred in a reactive
manner. For example, after Rwanda joined the East African Community, it has embarked on harmonizing its operations
to the rest of the community, though such initiatives come in a reactive and abrupt manner. On how the emergencies
were dealt with, the respondents indicated that in case of emergencies the university management introduces and
induces the staff to adopt such changes. However, in some cases when such emergencies are initiated at a higher level,
for example from the Ministry of Education and the Cabinet, the University just implements the decision.

3.3.7 Approval of Various Changes


On approval of various changes that were to be made the study found that most changes are approved by the University
Management. Some are approved by the Management Committee, the Executive Committee and the Academic Senate.
However, the overall body that oversees and approves all the University change ideas and activities is the Board of
Directors which is the highest decision-making organ of the NUR, appointed by the Cabinet. On the level of management
that was involved in the change process the respondents indicated that mostly the middle level managers are more
involved in the management of change at NUR. On the process of approval the respondents indicated that after all the
necessary organs or levels have approved and/or endorsed the idea, the University Board of Directors then finally
adopts the idea which is then implemented thereafter.
The respondents indicated that the change approval was not easily obtained. This is because the process of approval is too
bureaucratic and centralized in the Board of Directors. The Board of Directors is the only body or level mandated to
oversee and endorse all the university activities.

3.3.8 Main Challenge Facing Change Management


The respondents indicated that the main challenge facing the management was inadequate resources, lack of enough
skilled and experienced staff due to low motivation in terms of salaries and wages, inadequate infrastructure, and
strong resistance from the staff due to the organizational culture.
On how the change was dealt with the respondents indicated that a consultative way of handling and implementing change
should be adopted in the University, otherwise there will always be resistance to change initiatives by some members
of the staff who also would like to be part and parcel of the change initiators and implementers.

3.4 Effect of Change Management on the Organization Structure


The study sought to determine the kind of impact change had on an organization’s structure. From the findings the
study found that one of the greatest challenges the University faces today is helping their workers deal with change. It
is important that you are prepared to help your workers navigate this complex and often emotional process.
Understanding how people deal with change will help you manage a successful transition. Change affects workers in
different ways. Some common responses that observed are: conflict, confusion and loss of confidence. Other kind of
impact that change has on the University are; university restructuring, expansion and introduction of new programs
especially at post graduate level. The study depicted that there was no approved organization structure (organization
chart) of the University.

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3.4.1 Organizational Change


The respondents also agreed that organizational change was experienced. They further added that there have been
several changes all over the institution which amounts to organizational change. Most of the changes have had a
fundamental impact on the whole University.
From the respondents who indicated that organizational change was being experienced, the study also sought to know
there was a need for organizational change to be frequently experienced. The respondents indicated that there was need
for frequent organizational change to be able to cope up with the ever/turbulent environment in which the University
operates. Failure to adapt and adopt change in the organization would lead to stagnation and therefore unfit to compete
favorably with other actors in the industry.

Figure 3.6: Those Directly Impacted by Change

The study sought to determine who in the University was directly impacted by the change. From the findings as shown by
figure 3.6 above the study found that senior employees were impacted most (32%). These were followed by junior
employees (31%), managers (20%) and senior mangers (17%). This clear shows that the change was directly impacting
the low level management most.

Figure 3.7: Sole Responsibility to Monitor the Impact of Change

On whether there was a dedicated team of members that were having the sole responsibility to monitor the impact of
the change, 71.43% of the respondents indicated there was while 28.57% indicated that there wasn’t. This clearly
shows that there was a dedicated team of members that were having the sole responsibility to monitor the impact of the
change.
The respondents further added that the university Management through Board of Directors has established a new
Directorate of Monitoring and Evaluation. It’s headed by a director with 4 other staff members. The Directorate is
responsible for following up, monitoring and evaluating the University decisions, resolutions and projects. This
Directorate gathers information from departments, centers, schools and other units which are then evaluated to advice
on the implementation of different projects in those units.

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Table 3.1: Main Important Problems during Change Implementation Phase


Problem Mean Std. Deviation
Barriers between departments 4.23 .725
Not enough support from senior management 4.00 1.080
Resistance of middle management to change 4.00 .739
Focus too much on technological aspects, too less on people 3.92 .760

Scope not well defined, project is oversized 3.85 .555


Resistance of users to change 3.92 .641
Project does not have appropriate priority 3.85 .899
Not enough resources available 3.77 .599
Budget needed, higher than expected 3.54 .967
Organisation and procedures are not adapted to the new situation 3.92 1.115
(technological and organisational integration on different levels)
No transparent goals/objectives 3.85 .689
Time for implementation needed, longer than expected 3.73 .599
Goals are to aggressive, organization is not capable to cope 3.59 .961
Availability of people from implementation team 4.64 .519
Technological limitations (performance/missing functionality) 4.58 .506
Barriers to external stakeholders (customers/supplier...) 3.72 .768
Intercultural problems (i.e. language barriers) 3.58 .519

Table 3.1 shows the findings on the main important problem during change implementation phase. A five point Likert
scale was used to interpret the respondent’s responses. According to the scale, those problems which were considered
very important were awarded 1 while those which were considered not important were awarded 5. Within the
continuum are 2 for less important, 3 for not sure and 4 for less important. Mean (weighted average) and standard
deviation were used to analyze the data.
According to the researcher those problems with a mean less than 3.5 were rated as important while those with a mean
less than 3.5 were rated as not important. On the same note the higher the standard deviation the higher the level of
dispersion among the respondents.
From the findings, the study found that all the listed problems were important problem during change implementation
phase. The problems that were rated as important include Barriers between departments (M=4.23, SD=0.725), Not enough
support from senior management (M=4.00, 1.080), Resistance of middle management to change (M=4.00, SD=.739),
Focus too much on technological aspects, too less on people (M=3.92, .760), Scope not well defined, project is
oversized (M=3.85 .555), resistance of users to change (M=3.92, SD=.641), Project does not have appropriate priority
(M=3.85, SD=.899), Not enough resources available (M=3.77, SD=.599), Budget needed, higher than expected
(M=3.54, .967), Organization and procedures are not adapted to the new situation (technological and organizational
integration on different levels) (M=3.92, SD=1.15), No transparent goals/objectives (M=3.85, SD=.689), Time for
implementation needed, longer than expected (M=3.73 SD=.599), Goals are to aggressive, organization is not capable
to cope (M=3.59, SD=.961), Availability of people from implementation team (M=4.64, SD=.519), Technological
limitations (performance/missing functionality) (M=4.58, SD=.506), Barriers to external stakeholders
(customers/supplier...) (M=3.72, SD=.768) and Intercultural problems (i.e. language barriers (M=3.58, SD=.519).

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14. Mgt. & Bus. Stu.

Figure 3. 8: Implementation Approach

On whether the implementation approach depended on the organization culture, 41% of the respondents indicated that
it sometimes depended on the organizational culture, 23% indicated that it depended on organizational culture and 12%
indicated that it did not depend on organizational culture.

3.5 THE EFFECT OF CHANGE MANAGEMENT ON LEADERSHIP

Table 3.2: Leading and Managing Change


Task Mean Std. Deviation
I create a sense of urgency to reinforce the need for change 3.53 0.897
I provide people with facts, figures and evidence to persuade them for change 4.03 0.895
I select the right people to form the guiding coalition 4.21 0.976
I get the guiding coalition to work together as a team 4.23 0.765
I create clear and tangible vision for change 4.01 0.956
I construct effective strategies to deliver the vision 3.98 1.02
I change systems that get on the way of the changed vision 3.89 1.11
I recruit promote and develop the right people to promote change 3.97 1.07
I ensure the right people are chosen for the role of change development 3.78 0.967
Table 3.2 shows the findings on the extent to which they practiced the stated practices. A five point Likert scale was used
to interpret the respondent’s responses. According to the scale, those practices which the respondents were practicing
(always) were awarded 5 while those which they were not practicing (never) were awarded 1. Within the continuum are
2 for rarely, 3 for sometimes and 4 for mostly. Mean (weighted average) and standard deviation were used to analyze
the data.
According to the researcher those practices with a mean less than 3.5 were rated as practiced while those with a mean
less than 3.5 were rated as not practiced. On the same note the higher the standard deviation the higher the level of
dispersion among the respondents.
From the findings the respondents indicated that when they were leading and managing change they were creating a
sense of urgency to reinforce the need for change (M=3.53, SD=0.897), they were providing people with facts, figures
and evidence to persuade them for change (M=4.03, SD=0.895), they were selecting the right people to form the
guiding coalition (M=4.21, SD=0.976), they were getting the guiding coalition to work together as a team (M=4.23,
SD=0.765), they were creating clear and tangible vision for change (M=4.01, SD=0.956), they were constructing
effective strategies to deliver the vision (3.98, SD=1.02), they were changing systems that get on the way of the
changed vision (M=3.89, SD=1.11), they were recruiting promote and develop the right people to promote change
(M=3.97, SD=1.07) and they were ensuring the right people are chosen for the role of change development (M=3.78,
SD=0.967).

4.1 SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS


This section presented the discussion of key data findings, conclusion drawn from the findings highlighted and
recommendation made there-to. The conclusions and recommendations drawn were focused on addressing the purpose
of the study which was to examine the effects of change management in an organization; taking a case of National
University of Rwanda. The objectives of this study were to analyze the effect of change management on organization
culture at National University of Rwanda; to determine the effect of change management on Organization structure at
National University of Rwanda; and to investigate the effect of change management on leadership at National
University of Rwanda

1
15. Samuel

4.2 SUMMARY OF KEY FINDINGS


This research study found that the respondents were overseeing changes in Academics, Administration and
Management of the Faculties. Regarding administration, there are changes in the requirements and performance of the
staff. Administrative staffs are now to have at least a bachelor’s degree in relation to the positions they occupy, this
affects the existing culture where for administrative staff there were no such restrictions and conditions to occupy such
slots. Module system was introduced and it replaced the classical way of teaching by course units, now similar/related units
are grouped into one module and taught one after the other, in a logical and chronological order. The University
Administration has introduced the idea of performance contracting. Here all employees are required to set targets from
which they are evaluated and/or appraised. The influence of culture is an impediment since it affects a lot the
implementation of performance contracting. This is because, employees are required to deliver and perform effectively
compared to the previous way of how things were done.
The study established that the changes have a significant effect on the whole institution. Such changes include: Human
resources; downsizing, outsourcing and recruiting more staff to fill some new posts. Technological changes; the
increase of the internet bandwidth in the university has considerably had a significant impact on the operations of the
university both in Academic and administration. These changes mostly have a fundamental effect on the University.
The study also sought to determine the changes that were essential. From the findings the respondents indicated that the
fundamental changes are essential; this is because they have a paramount effect on the whole institution. However,
even other changes depending on where they are initiated and implemented are also very essential in the University. This
is due to the fact that such changes in different units add up to organizational change for example, changes in the
academia especially the language of instruction, changes in administration and the increased use of IT in the University.
The study also sought to know how the changes were arising. The respondents indicated that most of these changes
were planned and come or take place in an incremental form. However, some of these changes came in abruptly.
On the ideal procedure for making changes upon request the respondents indicated that the ideal procedure is that the
idea has to be endorsed by all the University organs especially top management and the University board. On the
change management procedure applied the respondents indicated that the university was applying planned change
management process procedure. Change requests are made by the units with change initiative and they are endorsed by
the top management.
The study sought to determine the situations that interfere with the change management procedure. From the findings
the respondents indicated that it is too tedious to get all the university management organs to approve change initiatives.
They further added that the process is too bureaucratic and many change initiators find it as stumbling block to their
development ideas. On how and where the change documentation was stored the respondent indicated that the
Directorate of Monitoring and Evaluation and the Unit(s) which initiate the idea keep and mostly make a follow up of
the change initiatives and therefore, keep all the necessary documentation on change management.
The study also sought to know who monitored the change. The respondents indicated that the Directorate of
Monitoring and Evaluation was established to oversee and monitor the decisions taken by the top management of the
University. On whether there were alterations that needed to be made to the change management system the
respondents indicated that a proper change management procedure should be established in order to track well the
effects of change management.
The study found that the types of emergency changes that have been experienced included change of the Language of
Instruction; from French and English to English only and the introduction of the Module system (Bologna System of
Education) in the University and the whole country was too abrupt. Others changes have also occurred in a reactive
manner. For example, after Rwanda joined the East African Community, it has embarked on harmonizing its operations
to the rest of the community, though such initiatives come in a reactive and abrupt manner.
On how the emergencies were dealt with, the respondents indicated that in case of emergencies the university
management introduces and induces the staff to adopt such changes. However, in some cases when such emergencies
are initiated at a higher level, for example from the Ministry of Education and the Cabinet, the University just implements
the decision.
On approval of various changes that were to be made, the study found that most changes are approved by the
University Management. Some are approved by the Management Committee, the Executive Committee and the
Academic Senate. However, the overall body that oversees and approves all the University change ideas and activities
is the Board of Directors which is the highest decision-making organ of the NUR, appointed by the Cabinet.
On the level of management that was involved in the change process the respondents indicated that mostly the middle
level managers are more involved in the management of change at NUR. On the process of approval the respondents
indicated that after all the necessary organs or levels have approved and/or endorsed the idea, the University Board of
Directors then finally adopts the idea which is then implemented thereafter.
The respondents indicated that the change approval was not easily obtained. This is because the process of approval is
too bureaucratic and centralized in the Board of Directors. The Board of Directors is the only body or level mandated to
oversee and endorse all the university activities. The respondents indicated that the main challenge facing the
management was inadequate resources, lack of enough skilled and experienced staff due to low motivation in terms of

1
16. Mgt. & Bus. Stu.

salaries and wages, inadequate infrastructure, and strong resistance from the staff due to the organizational culture. On
how the change was dealt with the respondents indicated that a consultative way of handling and implementing change
should be adopted in the University, otherwise there will always be resistance to change initiatives by some members
of the staff who also would like to be part and parcel of the change initiators and implementers.
The study also sought to determine the kind of effect change had on an organization. From the findings the study found
that one of the greatest challenges the University faces today is helping their workers deal with change. It is important that
you are prepared to help your workers navigate this complex and often emotional process. Understanding how people deal
with change will help you manage a successful transition. Change affects workers in different ways. Some common
responses that were observed are: conflict, confusion and loss of confidence. Other kind of impact that change has on
the University are; university restructuring, expansion and introduction of new programs especially at post graduate level.
The respondents also agreed that organizational change was experienced. They further added that there have been
several changes all over the institution which amounts to organizational change. Most of the changes have had a
fundamental impact on the whole University. From the respondents who indicated that organizational change was
being experienced, the study also sought to know there was a need for organizational change to be frequently
experienced. The respondents indicated that there was need for frequent organizational change to be able to cope with
the ever turbulent environment in which the University operates. Failure to adapt and adopt change in the organization
would lead to stagnation and therefore unfit to compete favorably with other actors in the industry.
The study also realized that change was directly impacting the low level management most and there were dedicated team
of members that were having the sole responsibility to monitor the impact of the change. The respondents further added
that the university Management through Board of Directors has established a new Directorate of Monitoring and
Evaluation. It’s headed by a director with 4 other staff members. The Directorate is responsible for following up,
monitoring and evaluating the University decisions, resolutions and projects. This Directorate gathers information from
departments, centers, schools and other units which are then evaluated to advice on the implementation of different
projects in those units.
On the main important problem during change implementation phase, the study found that all the listed problems were
important problem during change implementation phase. The problems that were rated as important include Barriers
between departments, Not enough support from senior management, Resistance of middle management to change,
Focus too much on technological aspects, too less on people, Scope not well defined, project is oversized, resistance of
users to change, Project does not have appropriate priority, Not enough resources available, Budget needed, higher than
expected, Organization and procedures are not adapted to the new situation (technological and organizational
integration on different levels), No transparent goals/objectives, Time for implementation needed, longer than
expected, Goals are too aggressive, organization is not capable to cope, Availability of people from implementation
team, Technological limitations (performance/missing functionality), Barriers to external stakeholders
(customers/supplier) and Intercultural problems (i.e. language barriers).
The study also found that when they were leading and managing change they were creating a sense of urgency to
reinforce the need for change, providing people with facts, figures and evidence to persuade them for change, selecting
the right people to form the guiding coalition, getting the guiding coalition to work together as a team, creating clear
and tangible vision for change, constructing effective strategies to deliver the vision, changing systems that get on the
way of the changed vision, recruiting, promote and develop the right people to promote change and ensuring the right
people are chosen for the role of change development.

4.3 CONCLUSIONS
On the effects of change management on organization culture at National University of Rwanda the study concludes that
the staffs were overseeing change in line with their responsibilities in Academics, Administration and Management of
the Faculty. Regarding administration, there are changes in the requirements and performance of the staff.
Administrative staffs are now supposed to have at least a bachelor’s degree in relation to the positions they occupy, this
affects the existing culture where for administrative staff there were no such restrictions and conditions to occupy such
slots. Module system was introduced and it replaced the classical way of teaching by course units, now similar/related units
are grouped into one module and taught one after the other, in a logical and chronological order. The University
Administration has introduced the idea of performance contracting. Here all employees are required to set targets from
which they are evaluated and/or appraised. The influence of culture is an impediment since it affects a lot the
implementation of performance contracting. This is because, employees are required to deliver and perform effectively
compared to the previous way of how things were done. The study also concludes that there was need for frequent
organizational change to cope with the ever turbulent environment in which the University operates. Failure to adapt
and adopt change in the organization would lead to stagnation and therefore unfit to compete favorably with other actors
in the industry.
The study also concludes that when they were leading and managing change they were creating a sense of urgency to
reinforce the need for change, providing people with facts, figures and evidence to persuade them for change, selecting
the right people to form the guiding coalition, getting the guiding coalition to work together as a team, creating clear and

1
17. Samuel

tangible vision for change, constructing effective strategies to deliver the vision, changing systems that get on the way
of the changed vision, recruiting promote and develop the right people to promote change and ensuring the right people
are chosen for the role of change development.

4.4 RECOMMENDATIONS
The study found that one of the main problems the University was facing in the implementation of change was barriers
between departments. This study therefore recommends that the management should ensure that teamwork is enhanced
in order to get rid of conflict of interest between departments. This will also help to curb resistance of middle level
management to change.
The study also found that there were no transparent goals/objectives. The study therefore recommends that the
university management should ensure that organizational goals, objectives, vision and mission are clear. From the study
and related conclusions, the researcher recommends further research in the area of the role of organizational culture in
strategic change implementation.

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35
Challenges in Change Management in Central Banks

Journal of Central Banking Theory and Practice, 2013, 1, pp. 35-49 UDK: 336.71:005.6
Received: 28 March 2013; accepted: 19 April 2013

Radoica Luburić * * Executive Director


of the Central Bank of
Montenegro
Challenges in Change Email:
Management in Central Banks radoica.luburic@cbcg.me

(Based on the Systemic and Process Approach to Total


Quality Management and Operational Risk Management)

Progress is impossible without change, and those who


cannot change their minds cannot change anything.
George Bernard Shaw

The best way to predict future is to create it.


Peter F. Drucker

People don’t resist change. They resist being changed.


Peter Michael Senge

Abstract: Someone said long time ago that everything is subject to


change and that change is the only constant. If changes, as occur-
rences of long duration, are viewed through their temporal dimen-
sion, we will see that they are unstoppable. This is how it has
always been and how it will always be. What is a novelty, however,
is that changes have accelerated over the recent years and this trend
could continue in the future. Scientists have been warning that this
accel- eration of changes should be taken very seriously because
these are not some kind of sporadic and accompanying occurrences
of limited effects and duration but ongoing and dynamic processes
taking place in every sphere of social life to varying degrees.
Successful change management, therefore, has been increasingly
gaining importance and becoming the conditio sine qua non for a
sustainable develop- ment of organisations and, therefore, of
financial and banking insti- tutions. Although I tried to focus on
central banking here, it could be said that the key challenges in
change management in central banks are much alike challenges that
arise throughout the financial and banking system from which
they are inseparable. Certain specific
36
Journal of Central Banking Theory and Practice

features that are characteristic of a central bank are primarily determined with the importance
this supreme monetary authority has not only in the financial system of a country, but also in
the entire society. The main task of a central bank is the preservation of price and financial
stability, and indirectly and keeping in mind the global interconnections, even broader than
that. Acceleration of changes in all spheres of social life calls for not only the need to question
the traditional understanding of change management in central banks, but also to redesign and
innovate the existing models thereof. If central banks change following the principles of qual-
ity management and if they successfully manage risks and become more committed, powerful
and transparent in strengthened their role in the area of social responsibility, they will have the
opportunity to go down the road of success, regardless of all temptations that will be waiting
for them on this road.

Key words: change management, systemic approach, process approach, total quality manage-
ment, operational risk management, financial and banking system, central banks

JEL classification: E58, M00

1.Introduction

In order for institutions in the financial and banking systems to successfully


manage changes, they must create an environment that will allow the application
of the systemic and process approaches to management. These approaches pro-
mote full customer orientation, continuous improvement and innovation, team
leadership and teamwork, and in particular, full involvement of employees in all
work processes and, as required, in decision-making. However, this is easy to
say but not that easy to implement because the systemic and process approaches
to organisation management are very complex and demanding tasks. These ap-
proaches inevitably require certain changes in order to create awareness in
or- ganizations, not only of those who manage and work in these organisations
but also of their customers and stakeholders. These approaches allow for
effective and efficient achievement of sustainable success because they are
beneficial to the organisation and its overall improvement. It is very
important that people who manage organizations realise on time that it is much
better to meet ever ac- celerating changes than to lag behind them because
changes are inevitable and everyone will face them, sooner or later.

Although central banks are conservative institutions by nature and not prone
to rapid changes, we cannot say that these are not dynamic systems that do not
change to the extent inherent to their purpose of existence. Those who work
in these institutions for a long time consider this to be an advantage not a
handi- cap because they have seen in practice that any accelerated change, and in
par- ticular radical ones in conservative organisations such as a central bank
entail a big risk. Fast-paced and extensive changes can cause functional
disturbances in
37
Challenges in Change Management in Central Banks

its numerous and diversified subsystems that would not change synchronously.
Practice has shown that too rapid changes greatly reduce the possibility of syn-
chronous effectiveness and efficiency. All this could lead to some disintegration
of the system, and this means many different problems and conflicts. This, how-
ever, should not be an excuse to the financial and banking sectors to fail in timely
anticipation of changes, their creation, improvement of their work processes; in
other words, failure to give full and ongoing attention to changes. This sector, as
one of the most important subsystems in the social and governmental system and
its bloodstream, should have to be more aware and up to date with changes
in the environment, and in certain segments to be changing faster than the
system itself.

Let us remember the financial crisis that erupted in late 2008 and is still ongoing,
and which consequences will be long felt. The financial, and especially the bank-
ing sector, have been blinded by enormous profits and failed to timely anticipate,
create and innovate; simply put, they did not adequately manage changes. When
the crisis already emerged, stereotypical contingency plans were being prepared
but without any significant results. Many early warning mechanisms that had
already been in place failed to detect danger in timely manner. Moreover, they
proved to be insufficiently functional and ineffective, which means that change
management was unsuccessful. Joseph Stiglitz links the causes of the crisis to
untimely and inadequate change management, defining them as follows: “Sins of
both commission and omission – most notably, excessive deregulation, a failure
to effectively enforce the regulations that existed, and the failure to adopt new
regulations reflecting changes in financial markets – made the economies of the
United States and, to some extent, Europe vulnerable to collapse. These failures
led to the crisis and have continued in its wake” (Blanchard, Romer, Spence
& Stiglitz 2012, p. 31).

Although the creators of the financial boom at the beginning of this century have
been identified as the main culprits of the current economic and financial crisis,
its severe consequences have been suffered by everybody else other than those
who caused it. Paul Krugman believes that “the fundamentals of the world econ-
omy aren’t, in themselves, all that scary; it’s the almost universal abdication of
responsibility that fills me, and many other economists, with a growing sense of
dread” (Krugman, 2012). Such an approach to the rapidly changing world should
be changed everywhere, even in these institutions, but this will not be easy be-
cause it is necessary to change the awareness and it is most difficult to change.
All the aforesaid could apply to any organisation, but here we focus on the
financial and banking sector, including central banks, as in these turbulent times
of crisis, much greater social responsibility for overcoming the crisis is expected
from cen-
38
Journal of Central Banking Theory and Practice

tral banks as well as financially (and not just financially) powerful institutions
than from other institutions. We have often witnessed that these institutions are
the ones that are often the target of numerous discontent people worldwide. And
if life problems of people are not quickly and adequately addressed, such occur-
rences may be more frequent and more dramatic as time goes on and people find
it increasingly difficult to get by. But `profit and profit only` are the words that
are often heard in the business world. Ichak Adizes worryingly notes: “Profits
should not be the goal. They should be the constraint: Of course we do not want
to go bankrupt, but the goal should be to make a better world. The benefit must
be higher than the cost –– and I’m talking about the cost not just to the company
but also to the world, to society, to our children” (Adižes 2011a, p. 155).

Accelerating changes and the current economic and financial crisis have made all
advantages and disadvantages of the global society whose backbone is the “digital
world” come to surface more clearly than ever. Another issue has also emerged
here and it is not exactly encouraging: How come that in the informational, tech-
nological and in every other sense we are more developed than we have ever been,
yet we are not able to successfully cope with many nowadays problems? Many
have lived in the illusion that the “digital world” can solve everything quickly
and efficiently. Such thinking is very dangerous for young people but also to all
others who think alike and are addicted to it. The virtual world can be intoxicat-
ingly imaginary, yet the life is inevitably realistic. Economic problems will not be
solved either by the “virtual consciousness” dictated by the information capital
or by economic theories offered by “virtual economy”. People need fast, clear
and concrete solutions from a real human and not from some “virtual”
character. Something they will truly believe.

Someone has wittily said that there is no difference between theory and practice
- except in practice. Theory is necessary, but it predominantly remains in the
sphere of imagination. If it were only to theory and theoretical
considerations, there would never be a crisis because everything is mostly
thought out in theory. Life, however, is different. We should learn lessons from
life, and not just those of yesterday but those experienced by many generations
before us and which we call historical lessons. Have the institutions in the
financial and banking sector, including central banks, drawn lessons from the
recent crisis? Even in the full swing of the crisis, Krugman viewed this
through the prism of preventive ac- tions “Everything that needs to be
regulated in a financial crisis, because it plays the key role in financial
mechanisms, should be subject to regulations in normal times with a view to
preventing excessive risk-taking” (Krugman 2010, p. 200). The philosophy of
change management, as well as risk management, should pri- marily aim at
preventive acting. In order to successfully manage both changes
39
Challenges in Change Management in Central Banks

and risks in crisis times, these should be much better managed in normal times.
As vividly noted by R. S. Kaplan and A. Mikes, “A firm’s ability to weather
storms depends on how seriously executives take risk management when the sun
is shin- ing and no clouds are on the horizon” (Kaplan & Mikes 2012, p. 58).

2. Systemic and process approaches to change management in


central banks

Everything in this world is a system. The Earth is a system as well - it is divided


internally, but externally it is round and complete. And each system, by its
na- ture, is composed of subsystems. The Earth, as a perfect system, consists of
nu- merous and various subsystems such as continents, countries and cities. The
rule, therefore, is universal and applies to every system, every organisation
regardless of the business it pursues, including financial and banking institutions
and cen- tral banks as well. Since anything that consists of subsystems at
different levels is considered a system, everything is subject to change. When a
change occurs, however, subsystems do not change synchronously. A lack of
synchronization creates gaps that manifest themselves through what are initially
called problems, and later a crisis, if the problems are not tackled in timely and
appropriate fash- ion but are left to expand and erupt.

It may sound paradoxical, but while on one hand we develop owing to changes,
on the other hand, the very same or new changes will make us stagnate sooner
or later. And so this goes on forever because this is the road that has no end.
John Harold Johnson was obviously right when he said: “Whatever has made
you successful in the past, won’t in the future” 1.While it is necessary and cannot
be stopped, any change ultimately leads to both integration and disintegration
as the respective roots of every success and every failure. Why is this so? Because
a lot of things change before people realize that benefits brought by the old
changes have well worn. And despite all kinds of progress, not only that the
problems have not disappeared but they have merely changed appearance,
becoming more complicated to deal with and expanding their range
substantially.

From one reason or the other, neither people nor organisations are eager to make
changes. Why is the resistance to change so deeply rooted in people’s minds so
they feign them rather than truly implement them? A funny yet insightful
answer to this question was given by Peter Michael Senge: “People don’t resist
change.

1
John Harold Johnson is an American business and publicist.
40
Journal of Central Banking Theory and Practice

They resist being changed!”(Sengi, 2003). However, if they must change, people
rather choose small over big changes. Small changes require less effort, entail
fewer problems, speed of change is less conspicuous, expectations are low, and
everything is much easier to be “put under control”, including trials and surpris-
es. Big changes, however, represent big challenges to any system, its
management and employees. Nevertheless, they also represent a great
opportunity and entail a big risk.

Why is this so?

Because there has to be a good judgment of timing the changes, it must be


de- termined in advance who is going to lead and carry them out at each level,
sup- port forces, and what is more important - how and at what pace they
should be implemented (extremely carefully, thought out, programmed and
controlled and not without a “brake”, without synchronization, “mindlessly”;
organically rather than mechanically). Bearing in mind that changes are constant,
the foun- dations have to be extremely strong so that they could stabilize,
build into the system and their infrastructure consolidated, as well as make
them functional and effective. All this, in one way or the other, is necessary to
repeat the entire life. Adizes advises that whenever we are faced with a
change that requires us to behave differently, we ask ourselves these questions:
“Who needs to change? (and here you start from yourself ). How big is the
change? Is the commitment to change proportional to the size of the change? Is
the price you are willing to pay proportional to the size of the changes you want
to make? Are you launching big ships in shallow waters or in sufficiently deep
waters?” (Adižes 2011a, p. 128).

Peter Drucker warned that before you go on with a change you take a good look
at the steps you can take “in order to change and to stabilize the change.” When
you make a decision or implement the change, ask yourself “Who should be
informed about it?” He says: “For me the tension between the need for continuity
and the need for innovation and change was central to society and civilization”
(Draker 2006, p. 40, 45). What does this mean? It means that there is no point in
starting everything all over again like nothing has existed or has been good
before you, which, unfortunately, often happens in this region. Where executives
are alter- nating per political or any other directive, discontinuing practices of the
previous management in all aspects and at all costs can be detrimental to
successful man- agement of changes. Precious time can be wasted on
experimenting with what in general should not have been experimented with. It
is necessary to change only what is not good and continuously improve and
innovate everything else. And not to forget that after the occurrence of the
change it has to be incorporated into the system to avoid system disintegration
process instead of integration.
41
Challenges in Change Management in Central Banks

It is the nature of people to feel safest in a familiar and stable environment,


which is not characteristic of changes since they bring along uncertainty and
unease, as well as numerous problems. People, as we have already said, do not
bother about changes that happen to others, but they reluctantly accept and
implement them if they refer to themselves, especially if they are to interfere with
the privileges they have acquired. Simply put, both people and organisations
would like to live and work peacefully and avoid problems. But this is not
possible, and even if it were, it would not be good for neither of them. People
and organisations could temporar- ily avoid problems if, temporarily, they
would be able to stop changes - but their systems would inevitably die out. For
changes, in fact, make life. Where there is no life, there is no change. The same
applies to organisations of any profile, so in that sense, central banks as well.

In order for both people and organisations to become more sustainably success-
ful, they must build their own system of success and continuously improve and
innovate it, especially its weakest parts because the system is only as strong as its
weakest link. Brian Tracy believes that you cannot reach the results you want if
you think like a layman so he says: ”You must have a system. Without a system
that will enable you to integrate ideas that you’ve learned, you are like a person
trying to put together a jigsaw puzzle without having seen the picture of what it
represents. Any system or blueprint for success is better than none at all” (Trejsi
2005, p. 36).

People need to be meticulous in developing and preparing their plans of changes


since changes do not include only progress but also problems that need to be ad-
dressed. Many problems arise from our failure to adapt to changes. If managed
timely and adequately, there is no need to fear changes and problems they entail.
Ichak Adizes claims that problems induced by changes can be proactively
tackled because their causes are predictable, which means that every phase in the
change management has a predictable chain of events as well as predictable
problems (Adižes 2011b, p. 237).

In addition to this, there are no changes that are linear and that progress in a
straight line, especially those that are rapid and radical. Even if they are skilfully
managed, you cannot go only straight forward, but you must also go backwards.
Usually you must take a few steps forward and at least one step back. As
time passes by, the distance between these steps reduces, leading to the
escalation of problems as well as conflicts. Constructive conflicts do not
represent problems because they are unavoidable in the process of change
management and can often be beneficial, unlike destructive conflicts that may
occur if there is insufficient mutual trust and respect for proper conflict
resolution in an organisation. Full
42
Journal of Central Banking Theory and Practice

significance of the human factor – both of the management and employees –


is best recognized in change management. It is unreasonable to expect that
organi- sations can perform better if people who manage them fail to change for
the bet- ter. On the other hand, employees can give a full swing to an
organisation with their latent creative abilities and energy, balance the systems
and processes, and effectively work on continuous improvements.

Decision-making should be based on the principles of quality management and


risk management, paying particular attention to their synergistic effects as the
key segments (Luburić, 2012). If central bank employees successfully manage op-
erational risks whilst managing processes based on total quality principles, they
will also be able to manage changes.

As a paradigm of business excellence, total quality management has the ability


to stabilise and strengthen the key prerequisites for development and sustainable
success of central banks, regardless of all limitations. Operational risk manage-
ment, on the other hand, is predetermined to be an indispensible managerial
tool that allows central banks to survive in all circumstances. The focus is on a
comprehensive and continuous improvement and innovation of the system and
processes, with the participation of all employees and their full commitment to
preventive actions in emergency and unforeseen situations such as natural disas-
ters and the like (Claudio, 2011; Woods, 2011).

Total quality management represents a philosophy that is based on continuous


improvements and efforts by all employees in the organisation aimed at under-
standing, meeting and exceeding requests, needs and expectations of users. It
also represents a learning system and a collection of several methods, techniques
and tools needed to meet the needs of users, employees, business partners and
stakeholders. Quality acts as a pillar that supports this corpus of approaches and
participants in the system, and in addition to other management systems, it
is especially complemented by risk management. Total quality management
relies on several approaches, but essentially depends on efficiency of
implementation of the process approach and involvement of employees (Hubert,
2010). As pointed out by O. Rentzhog (2000, p. 17-18, 42) “the result never gets
better than the pro- cess that forms it, and therefore, working with process is a
key principle.”

3. Leadership and change management in central banks

Talented persons, that is, leaders of changes are crucial for the successful changes
in all organizations, in particular in central banks (Peter F. Drucker). They have a
43
Challenges in Change Management in Central Banks

chance to survive in times of fast structural changes, precisely due to their capa-
bility to see the chances and possibilities and not only threats and danger. To the
leaders of changes, as well as to those who are not leaders, Peter F. Drucker sent
the following message: “Do not “master” people. People should be guided. The
goal is to make special virtues and knowledge of each individual productive”. In
particular, Peter F. Drucker thought that managers, in general, make bad deci-
sions related to the promotion of employees: “Percentage of good decisions does
not exceed one-third. In the best case, one-third of decisions turn to be good,
one-third is very efficient while one third is completely wrong. Other
manage- ment areas do not have that bad result”. In addition, Drucker claims
that the most important decision is in relation to the top position, which is the
most difficult decision to be cancelled: “If we do not spend four hours on
appointing a person, we will spend four hundred hours on correcting our own
mistake”. Drucker was amazed how “completely innocent” people, become
bosses: “The largest waste of resources I have ever seen in all organizations was
wrong decision on promotion” (Draker 2003, p. 68).

If management wants to be successful, it has to take proper decisions as well as


to implement them. This is not an easy task, since each management consists of
people with different personalities, which means different management styles.
In order to bring proper decisions, in addition to competences and moral quali-
ties, managers have to work as a team, to cooperate and be devoted to reaching
goals. However, this is not always the case, since all managers do not share same
interests. Maybe the goal is the same in the beginning, but as time goes by and
changes speed up, different interests emerge not only among managers, but also
among employees. Therefore, mutual trust and respect are the keys for a suc-
cessful change management and for the success of every organisation, including
banking and financial institutions as well as central banks. Faster and more radi-
cal changes generate more complex problems, which calls for mutual trust and
respect.

Team work and team leadership play special roles in change management in cen-
tral banks. Top management has critical responsibility, while activities of middle
and lower management, including all employees, play very important roles.
Team work in change management in central banks is not only a
precondition for its establishment and development but also for its survival.
Managers and people we work with represent the key to our success or our
failure. According to many management theoreticians, the most important
decision is the decision on staff selection, which is confirmed in practice.
Management is a very complicated pro- cess – it represents skills, science,
privilege, profession, knowledge and talent. In reality, it represents managerial
skills. Ability to engage staff for different tasks
44
Journal of Central Banking Theory and Practice

represents the base of the management. For example, if a governor and


his/her team in a central bank do not emphasise the importance of change
management and processes improvement, no one will pay any special
attention to this. Bad examples are followed primarily by those who are closest
to them despite the ef- fort not to do so.

The first responsibility of the management is to show results, thus, imputation


of guilt to others is not a good choice. Thereby, this is not an easy task. On
the contrary, “a manager must, so to speak, keep his nose to the grindstone,
while lifting his eyes to the hills – quite an acrobatic feat”, as Peter F. Drucker
once ex- plained. Managers should be at a high enough level to have the
authority to make a decision and on sufficiently low level to know the details.
Finally, a success- ful management requires competences rather than formal
positioning. In many organizations, especially in central banks, a typical
hierarchical and functional approach is still dominant and this creates difficulties
in focusing on main tasks, creation of values for beneficiaries. Thus, it is
necessary to focus more on benefi- ciaries than on hierarchical structures,
although this is much easier to say than to implement in a traditional (and
still transitional) society.

Success in central bank operations depends mostly on its managers. Thus, it


is very important for them to be honest, competent and responsible.
Employees should contribute to success as well by working hard, by being loyal
to the institu- tion in which they earn much more than employees in other
institutions, and by loving their job. Anyhow, we should be realistic – few
organizations were closed down due to incompetent employees, but many of
them collapsed due to incom- petent managers! For those who are just initiating
changes aimed at successful management and those who already reached success
and want to maintain this level as much as possible, I tried to create twenty
guidelines towards this goal based on discoveries and life experience of
many eminent scientists, philoso- phers, traditional wisdom, as well as on my
own research and life experience, convinced of their efficiency in organisations
such as central bank. However, feel free to judge for yourself ... (Luburić,
2010).

 Focus should always be on people. Search for the best among them, which
primarily refers to honest, competent and hard working ones. Haters
and schemers are not welcome especially as associates or, even worse, as
friends.
 Make an effort to make good decisions regarding staff, otherwise you will
take risk of generating worse results. You are risking your reputation as
well as the reputation of your institution.
45
Challenges in Change Management in Central Banks

 Be open-minded and do not stop the process of hiring young, competent


and talented people. You cannot have too much of such people.
Neverthe- less, do not estimate life experience – experience is everlasting
life coach.
 Support women in organizations, you will not regret. Foster adventur-
ous spirit as it stimulates changes, and considers enthusiasm as a driving
force of your organization. Do not hobble imagination. Your future will
be limited only by limits of your own imagination!
 If you haven’t done this already, introduce team work, do not
suffocate creativity and individuality. Create opportunities for
leadership on every level. The one who tries to do all work by himself
and to take all credits for it will never be a good leader. A good leader is
the one who works on making himself replaceable.
 Lead by trying to win people over and command them only if necessary.
Manage facts. You should know this as well – keep your friends close but
your enemies even closer, if you can recognize them for who they are.
But don’t despair. Greatness of the many was paved by their enemies…
 Keep an open dialogue with your associates and subordinates and point
to the importance of respect and trust. Try to help them whenever
you can. To have is to give – the hand that gives is above the hand that
takes, and life gives you back only what we give to others.
Communication is one of the most important elements of success.
 You have to set up goals because if you do not have your own you will be
forced to work on achieving the goals of others. Goals are not destiny;
they represent directions and a road. Live in harmony with nature
and ethic principles, and let your inner peace become your ultimate
objective.
 Always welcome changes, choose priorities, and delete the unnecessary
from your life. There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently something
that should not be done at all.
 Never ignore your “inner voice” and intuition. They transcend knowl-
edge.
 Follow business trends and be forward-looking. Business, as any other
game, has its players, language, rules, controversies and rhythm. The
best thing is when money works for you and not when you work for
money! And remember: the one who knows when enough is enough,
will always have enough.
 Praise and encourage people skills, especially innovation and innovators.
Innovations should be assessed according to their contribution to the
market and buyers. Thus, make an effort to make sufficient investment
in innovations in order to be prepared for the day when you
profitable business becomes outdated.
46
Journal of Central Banking Theory and Practice

 Set very high standards and introduce a quality system. Cheap quality is
expensive, good quality is cheap.
 Improvement, improvement, improvement (this refers to the entire or-
ganization). You cannot improve your products if you do not improve
yourself.
 Use benefits of the digital technology – but keep your soul. In the digital
world, information flow is your bloodstream. Not only that the big eat
the small, but in many cases, the fast eat the slow.
 Always have time for your family, especially for your children. They rep-
resent the measure of your success and they will be your future judges.
 Preserve health. A healthy person has thousand wishes, and a sick person
only one – to get well. Therefore, keep smiling – smile heals soul and fol-
lows success.
 Whenever you reach success celebrate it with your family, co-workers
and friends.
 Find the measure of perfection if you can as nobody has found it yet.
If you don’t succeed, always strive for perfection. This means you should
make and effort to be as perfect as possible. Perfection represents an at-
tempt to be better than others. Therefore, in order to become successful,
work hard and in order to stay successful, work even harder!
 Finally, try not to miss the goal when you get so close to it; so, be as
careful at the end as at the beginning. Don’t forget your failures in the
moments of success or your benefactors. And pray that success does not
come be- fore you are ready to deal with it.

Conclusion

This paper has focused on challenges in change management in central


banks in times of accelerated political, economic and technological changes,
more fre- quent natural disasters, terrorist attacks, and other external events. Our
analysis is focused on systemic and process approach to total quality
management and operational risk management, since these are two very
compatible and comple- mentary approaches which synergic effects may
substantially contribute to a more successful change management in central
banks. Comprehensive but grad- ual and continuous changes designed as small
steps in which all employees are participating and which are based on
continuous improvements may give better results than when they are fast and
radical, and they are much more applicable in institutions such as central banks,
even if they are very limited in coverage and time.
47
Challenges in Change Management in Central Banks

For change management to be adequately implemented in the financial and


banking sector, specialised knowledge in finance, banking and central banking
is not sufficient any more. This also requires many other interdisciplinary knowl-
edge, experiences and skills. The world in which we live and work is more ad-
vanced than it has ever been, and at the same time it is becoming more and more
complicated, complex and unsafe place for living and changing much faster than
we could have imagined it. Looking at the big picture, the world is a large
and complex system consisting of many subsystems. When subsystems do not
change simultaneously and do not coexist for the sake of the entire system,
disturbances occur that lead to disintegration and problems. If these problems
compound and are not resolved in timely manner, various turbulences and
crisis are bound to occur. Why do we link all this to the financial and
banking sector when it has “survived” the crisis, continues to make profit, and
even follows the same old pat- terns of behaviour? Because risk and change
management in these sectors have proved to be unsustainable and unacceptable
in many aspects, especially observ- ing from the aspect of social responsibility.
These institutions should anticipate changes in timely fashion, create and
manage them properly, which is, de facto, the most complex part of this task.

If financial and banking institutions, in particular central banks as the regula-


tors and supervisors act as self-sufficient isolated islands lagging behind changes
instead of anticipating, creating and managing them in a proper manner, if they
fail to work on fast-paced introduction and implementation of the systemic and
process approaches to management, especially change and risk management, if
they do not realize that accelerating changes also change our environment and
that external events may have disastrous effects if they fail to ensure timely and
proper response, they will find themselves on a slippery and foggy road – with
much more severe consequences than in the case of the existing crisis. The sooner
they realize this the sooner they will be facing numerous challenges arising from
the accelerating changes. However, we should have in mind that starting with
timely changes does not represent any reliable guarantee of success, even if they
are properly managed. But, this is certainly one of the key and inevitable precon-
ditions for reaching success. In simple words, if organizations do not manage
changes successfully, they will not be able to manage anything with success,
even if these are central banks.
48
Journal of Central Banking Theory and Practice

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International Affairs and Global Strategy www.iiste.o
ISSN 2224-574X (Paper) ISSN 2224-8951
(Online) Vol.9, 2013

Employee Engagement and Change Management Programmes:


a Comparative Study of Organisational Commitment between
Thai and Irish Cultures

Mark J. Dunne
Ramkhamhaeng University, Institute of International Studies,
Ramkhamhaeng Road, Huamark, Bangkok 10240, Thailand
Email: mjadunne@yahoo.com

Bahaudin G. Mujtaba (correspondent author)


Nova Southeastern University
H. Wayne Huizenga School of Business and Entrepreneurship,
3301 College Avenue, Fort Lauderdale, FL. 33314-7796, USA
Email: mujtaba@nova.edu
ABSTRACT:
The objective of this research was to explore the nature of employee commitment and to determine if this
commitment is enhanced if the company encourages a climate of inclusive change and whether there is a
difference in the nature of this relationship based on nationality. The survey was conducted amongst 121
respondents in full-time employment in Thailand and Ireland. The findings indicate that change management
styles in both countries show some statistically significant changes along with room for improvement and
that the appetite for more active participation in change management programmes does exist. Limitations
and implications for management and future research are presented.
Key Words: Change climate, change management, commitment, Ireland, Thailand.

INTRODUCTION
Change is an inevitable and constant feature of modern corporate life. Whether the process is called ‘re-
engineering’, ‘downsizing’, ‘rightsizing’ or ‘strategising for efficiencies’ it can be a very expensive
undertaking, and not only in monetary terms: traumatic for employees, demanding and difficult for
management and disruptive to company productivity. Most employees tend to react with resistance rather
than seeing change as an opportunity to initiate improvements. The legacy of a difficult Change Management
process can linger long after the actual programme has been completed and can adversely affect employees’
sense of job security, satisfaction, trust and can lead to issues with staff retention. However, change
processes conducted in an open and inclusive manner can facilitate new thinking, enhance efficiencies,
improve innovation, inspire all employees to work at higher levels of self-awareness and should lead to a
greater degree of commitment to the organisation.
This study investigates the relationship between the level of an employee’s commitment to his/her
employer organisation and the environment in which change management programmes are implemented

1
International Affairs and Global Strategy www.iiste.o
ISSN 2224-574X (Paper) ISSN 2224-8951
(Online) Vol.9, 2013

within that organisation. Does an open and inclusive change management climate engender greater
commitment from employees? ‘Commitment’ is seen according to Allen and Meyer’s (1991) three-
component model: Affective, Continuance and Normative.
Furthermore, it attempts to identify if there is a significant difference in the nature of this
relationship between European and South-East Asian work cultures, specifically Ireland in the former
category and Thailand in the latter category.

LITERATURE REVIEW
In today’s fast-moving and increasingly globalised business world ‘change’ is not the exception but rather a
steady, relentless process. This is evident in the inexorable move from legacy, top-down, value creation
models to more horizontal models that necessitate collaboration across different work groups, departments,
companies, cultures and even countries. The cultural and business revolution initiated by invention of the
Internet, the creation of the World Wide Web and the mass availability of open source software to leverage
the power of both has had profound effects on companies and countries. An increasingly interconnected,
multi-cultural, multi-ethnic society is in evidence all across the developing and developed worlds. To operate
in this new world and profitably engage with it organisations require confidence, structural agility, flexibility
of thought and, critically, an ability to welcome change and see the opportunities it presents. Change is an
unavoidable process in modern business life and, if handled insensitively, it can have an insidious effect on
the level of employee commitment to his/her company. On the other hand it can provide benefits for all
stakeholders if the ‘Change Management’ process is transparent and inclusive.
Change requires the continuous adaption of corporate strategies, and consequent changes in
company structures, as well as innovation in business processes to respond to changes in the external and
internal environments. In this context change may be concerned with a wide variety of issues, from
introducing a new product line to implementing a completely new corporate strategy. Organisational change
can be described as a way of altering the structure and/or processes of an existing company in order to
increase its effectiveness in pursuit of its strategic objectives.
Change management means to plan, initiate, realise, control, and finally stabilise change processes
on a corporate and personal level. Change management comprises both, revolutionary one-off projects and
evolutionary transformations (Frans, 2010).
In a business environment where change is unrelenting, and its rate increasing, organisational
structures must be nimble enough to support change and empower their people, not only embrace change but,
to drive it also. Burke and Cooper (2009, p.XXI) state that there is increasing evidence that people, their
management and their organisational culture are the only really unique source of competitive advantage
available to companies today.
It has been widely known that high levels of organisational commitment from employees lead to
higher productivity, reduced levels of staff turnover, lower rates of absenteeism and the urge to ‘go the extra
mile’ in seeing a job done well. How is it possible to maintain such high levels of commitment from people in
the face of constant change and uncertainties about their futures? Worley and Lawler (2006, p.4) contend
“built-to-change firms are anxious about being caught off-guard, so they place everyone close to customers
and the environment…That way, when the time comes to alter the direction of the organisation, everyone

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moves together based on a common understanding and felt need for the change.” Additionally they state
that ‘shared leadership’ facilitates effective change management but requires constant input from
employees to develop business strategy (p.7).
Conger and Pearce (2003, p.1) offer the following definition of ‘shared leadership’: “A dynamic,
interactive influence process among individuals in groups for which the objective is to lead one another to
the achievement of group or organisational goals or both”. They continue, “This influence process often
involves peer, or lateral, influence and at other times involves upward or downward hierarchical influence”.
According to Duck (2001), the four main reasons for people’s resistance to change are as follows:

 Parochial self-interest – people are fearful of the potential losses as a result of the change,

organisational objectives are given secondary consideration;

 Misunderstanding and lack of trust – people misunderstand the drivers and objectives of the

changes, this attitude is hardened if there is a high degree of organisational distrust;

 Different assessments – people’s (managers and employees) decision-making abilities are based on

different knowledge sets, even within these groups there can be a broad spectrum of opinion;

 Low tolerance for change – people may be fearful that their present skills and competencies do not

equip them to perform well when the changes are implemented, others may be reluctant to expend

the additional effort required to gain new skills.

The difficulty lies in motivating people to accept change, embrace it and leverage it to produce new
opportunities for growth for themselves and for their organisations. People typically perceive change in
seven stages (Recklies, 2001):

(1) Shock – faced with an unexpected situation people can suffer a loss of self-confidence;

(2) Denial – people believe change is unnecessary, ‘if it’s not broken don’t fix it’;

(3) Rational Understanding – realise that change is necessary but personal behaviour patterns remain

embedded;

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(4) Emotional Acceptance – management need to influence people to change personal habits, beliefs

and values fundamentally;

(5) Exercising and Learning – change champion needs to implement new processes and encourage new

behaviours;

(6) Realisation – positive feedback from new behaviours encourages new thinking patterns;

(7) Integration – new behaviours and beliefs are completely assimilated.

Lewin (1947) contended that most people are fearful of change and are more confortable in a stable,
unchanging environment. In order to overcome this fear-driven mindset he proposed a three stage model
involving (1) ‘unfreezing’ old ways and attitudes, (2) establishing a new vision and learning through
inclusion, training and empowerment, and (3) ‘refreezing’ this new behaviour, through support,
reinforcement and feedback, so that it becomes the new norm. This process was to be repeated each time a
new change is required.
Burke and Fiksenbaum (2009, p.23) states “emotions that work against change include anxiety, fear,
insecurity, fatigue, cynicism, pessimism, arrogance and anger. Emotions that support change include
optimism, urgency, trust, passions, hope enthusiasm and excitement”. Senge (2006, p.18) observes that
many see themselves as working in a system over which they have no control. They do what is expected of
them and go home – their responsibilities end at the boundaries of their roles. So it is essential that people
are motivated to act for the right reasons; the ability to tap into the emotions associated with employee-
supported change are powerful enablers towards enhanced performance at a personal and organisational level.
For managers to perform this task they must have finely honed ‘soft skills’, excellent interpersonal
communication, empathy and political skills, as well as more traditional management skills such as business
and analytical skills. Fullan (2002, p.8) states that,

Leaders must be consummate relationship builders with diverse people and groups —
especially with people different than themselves. This is why emotional intelligence is
equal to or more important than having the best ideas. In complex times, emotional
intelligence is a must.

Managers must get the ‘buy-in’ of all stakeholders involved in the change in order for that change to be
successful. Employees, particularly, need to understand the objective of the change, must see the benefit for
them and must be active in the implementation, if not the development, of the change so that they can bring
all their skills, experience and enthusiasm to bear to change ingrained habits and work towards new goals.

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Organisational managers with responsibility for implementing change need to create an open,
accommodating and inclusive climate in which to engage with their employees. Clear communication is
critical to all such undertakings. Managers need to employ a number of influencing techniques to establish a
trusting environment, throughout the organisation, within which to elicit the best from their staff. For
example, Vengel (2000) identified two types of energy that can be used to influence people: ‘push’ energy
which is forceful, persuasive and ‘pull’ energy which is involving, inclusive (Mujtaba, 2014). Other
techniques include building rapport, consultation and, importantly, appeals based on friendship. All these
techniques illustrate that building and maintaining relationships are the keys to successful change
management. Employees need to believe that they are included in the process, their opinions have value and
their voices are heard.
The organisational structure must facilitate unleashing the creative forces within employees to
harness and direct those energies towards achieving corporate objectives. Senge (2006, p. 7) describes the
concept of ‘personal mastery’ as “the discipline of continually clarifying and deepening our personal vision,
of focusing our energies, of developing patience and of seeing reality objectively”. He says that this is a
cornerstone of a learning organisation but that few such organisations exist and the vast majority of
organisations do not encourage the personal growth of their staff. Senge goes on to state that employees
with high levels of mastery are highly committed, learn fast, take responsibility and work under their own
initiative (p.133). Bill O’Brien (as cited in Senge 2006, p.134) said “to seek personal fulfilment only outside
of work and to ignore the significant portion of our lives which we spend working, would be to limit our
opportunities to be happy and complete human beings.”
If the premise is accepted that, in response to the increasing pace of globalisation and business
innovation, all organisations’ new modus operandi in dealing with a never-ending series of change processes
then it is essential to include employees in the shared leadership process, motivate them towards continued
self-development and leverage their intellectual capital in responding to developing business challenges.
Senior management need to demonstrate that tacit knowledge is valued for the asset it really is and
organisational memory is recognised and utilised for its ability for comparing past outcomes and making
inferences about what actions will improve future results.
Mahler and Casamayou state “it is not enough that information exists somewhere in the
organization. It must be shared, interpreted, argued over, and reinterpreted to tease out trends and understand
the link between actions and results” (2009, p.203).
This concept is of such critical importance that the US Army even has an office called the ‘Center
for Army Lessons Learned’ located in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Here the Army tries to learn from
encounters with the enemy and then incorporate these lessons into its training manoeuvres (Ricks, 2006,
p.193). Kanter (1979, p.72) argues that,

Powerless people are usually the last ones to whom anyone wants to entrust more power,
for fear of its dissipation or abuse. But those people are precisely the ones who might
benefit most from an injection of power and whose behaviour is likely to change as new
options open up to them.

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He goes on to explain that the reasons that most organisation’s are not inclusive and do not empower
employees are mundane: current managers will feel threatened, the existing hierarchy will not be respected,
less skilled people should not be opining on management issues, and that predictability is rated more highly
than flexibility(p.74).
Conger and Kanungo (1988, p.476) believe that “empowerment processes may allow leaders to
lessen the emotional impact of demoralising change or to mobilise organisational members in the face of
difficult competitive challenges”.
Eisenberger et al. (1986, p.501) defined an employee concept of ‘perceived organisational support’
and noted that employees “develop global beliefs concerning the extent to which organisations value their
contributions and cares about their well-being”. Furthermore they state that, assuming expectations for praise
and reward for extra effort are met, employees would identify themselves with the organisation and develop a
positive affective attachment. Thus there would be an increase in the employee’s efforts to achieve
organisational objectives.
The concept of ‘organisational commitment’ and its relationship to job satisfaction, innate employee
beliefs and behaviours has been widely researched and documented in the public, private and not-for-profit
sectors (Porter et al., 1974, 1976; Mowday et al., 1979; Vandenberg and Lance, 1992; Haluk, 2008).
Organisational commitment is defined as acceptance as well as a strong belief in the organisation’s
goals and values, a willingness to exert considerable effort on behalf of the organisation, and a desire to
maintain organisational membership (Mowday et al., 1979).
Furthermore, Allen and Meyer (1990, p.1) defined three distinct components of organisational
commitment as:

 Affective commitment – ‘employees’ emotional attachment to, identification with, and

involvement in, the organisation’;

 Continuance commitment – ‘based on the costs the employee associates with leaving the

organisation’;

 Normative commitment – ‘employees’ feelings of obligation to remain with the organisation’.

In addition, research (Allen & Meyer, 1990) has also investigated the antecedents of commitment, including
work experience (affective commitment), perceived lack of alternatives & magnitude of side-bets
(continuance commitment) and family and cultural socialisation experiences (normative commitment).
The rise of interest in this concept is due to the increased dislocation of the world of work and its
perceived effects on the output and efficiency of employees. Due to the rapid changes in business over the
last thirty years employees in modern organisations are expected to be more proactive than ever before. The
expectation from management is for employees to show more flexibility, initiative, motivation, and
commitment while the employees may be inclined to display less of these qualities due to a perceived lack

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of reciprocal commitment from their managers. The success of any organisation depends, not only on how
it leverages its human capital and organisational memory but also, on how it encourages further
commitment and innovation from its employees in the face of market pressures, rapid market changes and
increased pressure on existing corporate structures and processes.
Organisational leaders need to create a coherent overview of the change they are seeking,
communicate this vision to all employees and invest resources into building and maintaining the processes
required to embed these practices and engage their staff in a consistent, meaningful and rewarding manner.
Real inclusion must mean more than rhetoric.
Ackoff (2006) defined two types of mistakes that organisations could and should learn from: (1)
errors of commission – something that should not have been done, (2) errors of omission – something that
should have been done. According to Ackoff, the latter are not recorded, are unacknowledged and there is
no accountability for them. He states,

In such a situation a manager who wants to invoke as little disapproval as possible must
try either to minimize errors of commission or transfer to others responsibility for those
he or she makes. The best way to do this is to do nothing, or as little as one can get away
with. This is a major reason that organizations do not make radical changes (2006, p.4).

Many studies have been undertaken to investigate the relationship between job satisfaction and
organisational commitment, and these have shown that there is a positive correlation between the two. The
focus of this study is on the influence of change management culture on all three elements of organisational
commitment. However, if we assume that if an organisation fosters a more open and inclusive change
management policy, and this leads to increased levels of job satisfaction for employees, then we would
expect such a policy to also lead to greater levels of commitment to one’s organisation.

HYPOTHESES
This study focuses on the potential relationships between an organisation’s change management philosophy
or climate and the degree of commitment to that organisation experienced by its employees. As stated
previously today’s increasingly globalised business world is characterised by ‘change’ being the norm rather
than the exception. If it could be demonstrated that an inclusive company-wide change management climate
leads to higher levels of employee engagement and commitment then there are significant implications for
senior management teams regarding organisational strategy, and therefore structure, as well as middle
managers, coaches and mentors.

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Figure 1: Model of hypotheses

This is a quantitative study where the data was gathered by using a Web-based questionnaire survey
instrument. The unit of analysis is the individual respondent who completed the survey. The six hypotheses
that were tested are:

1. Irish employee’s organisational commitment (affective, continuance and normative) will be higher

if the organisation in which he/she works employs a more inclusive type of change management

style.

2. Irish employees with longer company service have a greater degree of continuance commitment.

3. Irish employees with higher educational qualifications have a greater degree of affective

commitment.

4. Thai employee’s organisational commitment (affective, continuance and normative) is unaffected

by the climate for change applied in his/her company.

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5. Thai employees with longer company service have a greater degree of normative commitment.

6. Thai employees with higher educational qualifications have a greater degree of affective

commitment.

METHODOLOGY
The dependent variables are ‘Organisational Climate for Change’ and ‘Organisational Commitment’. The
latter is sub-divided into ‘Affective Commitment’, ‘Continuance Commitment’ and ‘Normative
Commitment’, as identified by Allen and Meyer (1991). The independent variables are the demographic
information comprising the respondents’ nationality, gender, age, education, number of service years, and
occupation grade.
The survey was targeted at a population sample of two hundred (200) Irish nationals working
mainly, but not exclusively in the Republic of Ireland, and two hundred (200) Thai nationals working mainly,
but not exclusively in Thailand. The population was aimed at employees working in full-time employment in
companies, from small- to large-scale enterprises. No industries were deemed as excludable.
In actuality 131 responses were collected, of which 121 were valid for the purposes of this project.
Fifty-three (53) were from Irish respondents (43.8% of total) and sixty-eight (68) were from Thai respondents
(56.2% of total). In addition six (6) responses were collected from nationals outside these target populations.
This latter category was not considered for data analysis.
The survey instrument used in the collection of data for this research consists of forty (40)
statements divided into four sections:

 Section 1 - consists of seventeen (17) statements that comprise the ‘Survey of Organisational

Climate for Change’ questionnaire (Mujtaba and McCartney, 2010);

 Section 2 - consists of eight (8) statements that comprise the ‘Affective Commitment’ component

of Allen and Meyer’s organisational commitment questionnaire;

 Section 3 - consists of nine (9) statements that comprise the ‘Continuance Commitment’

component of Allen and Meyer’s organisational commitment questionnaire;

 Section 4 - consists of six (6) statements that comprise the ‘Normative Commitment’ component

of Allen and Meyer’s organisational commitment questionnaire.

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The final section consists of the six (6) categories that describe the demographic data of the sampled
population.
The respondents were asked to consider each statement in turn and indicate their level of agreement
by placing a checkmark on a five-level Likert scale: (1) Strongly Disagreeing, (2) Disagreeing, (3) Neutral,
(4) Agreeing, (5) Strongly Agreeing.
The survey was prepared in English, however considerable efforts were made to ensure the survey
introductory statement, instructions and research statements were accurately translated into Thai and back-
translated into English language by another person who spoke both languages fluently to make sure there is
equivalency in the meaning. As a result, minor adjustments were made prior to implementation.
The decision to expend efforts in translation was driven by the need to make the survey instrument
as accessible as possible to potential Thai respondents. The aim is that the survey would be answered by
Thais not normally exposed to non-Thai nationals or non-Thai work cultures. The survey instrument was bi-
lingual (English and Thai).
The survey was initially sent to Thai students of the part-time MBA programme at the Institute of
International Studies, Ramkhamhaeng University who were engaged in full-time employment, as well as
professional contacts in Thailand’s telecommunications industry.
Similarly, the survey was initially sent to friends, former colleagues and professional contacts in
Ireland’s telecommunications industry. In both cases it was requested of the initial respondents that they
forward the survey to friends and colleagues employed full-time in as wide a spectrum of industries as
possible in order to obtain a more representative population sample. The survey instrument was distributed as
a unique weblink through e-mail.

Data analysis
Frequency analysis was used to indicate the respondent’s opinions on each of the survey statements. Then,
as the aim of the study was to determine the relationship between employees’ organisational commitment
and their perception of change management climate, Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was used. The
hypotheses were tested using one-way ANOVA, mean, standard deviation, t-test and F-test.
Using the online survey collection method a total of 131 responses were collected, of which 121
were deemed valid for the purposes of this project. 53 were from Irish respondents (43.8% of total) and 68
were from Thai respondents (56.2% of total).
Reliability analysis was conducted using SPSS for Windows Version 16 statistical analysis
programme and this resulted in the calculation of an overall Cronbach's α co-efficient of 0.902 for the 46
items that constituted the survey instrument.

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Demographic characteristics of respondents


Gender. Of the total number of responses 40.5% were from females and 59.5% were from
males, however there was quite an imbalance between the sexes if viewed across the nationality
category. Irish responses were decidedly male, 92.4%, versus 33.82% for Thai respondents. Females
only accounted for 7.55% of Irish respondents whereas they accounted for almost two-thirds of Thai
respondents, 66.18%.
This can probably be attributed to the way in which the survey instrument was initially distributed.
For Irish respondents the survey was sent to friends and former work colleagues of the first author who
used to be employed in the telecommunications industry. In Ireland this has traditionally been a male-
dominated profession, although this is changing in recent years. One consequence of this is very few women
have yet to reach middle- and upper-management grades. However, this is changing, and will continue to
change, as more women are entering tertiary level education in general and engineering in particular. Due to
the low numbers of total responses received and the small representation of females in the sample, one can
surmise that the survey instrument was not circulated much beyond the initial recipients and, therefore,
was primarily answered by male telecommunication engineers and managers.
Over 60% of the Thai respondents were female, and this is due to the fact that the initial circulation
for the survey was amongst colleagues who worked in a diverse range of business sectors. In addition,
many of them passed on the survey to their friends, mostly female, in full-time employment. This was
confirmed by follow-up discussions with respondents.
Age. There were also significant differences in the age profile between Irish and Thai
respondents. Half of the Thai respondents were between 21-35 years of age, but only 25% of the
Irish respondents were in this category. The 36-50 age category accounted for 44% of Thai, versus
66% of Irish, respondents. This disparity may again be explained by

 the age profile of the first author’s peer group in Ireland’s telecommunication industry;

 the suspected lack of success in circulating the survey instrument beyond the initial target group;

 the significant age spectrum that existed in the researcher’s MBA programme class;

 the age profile of the peer group of the MBA programme respondents who participated in the

survey.

Table 1: Respondents by Age

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Education. One very noticeable feature of the education profile is that all Thai respondents
were qualified to a minimum of Bachelor’s degree level and about 46% had attained a Master’s
degree or above.
In stark contrast 45% of Irish respondents had attained a Bachelor’s qualification and only 26% had
a Master’s degree or above. A further 9.4% had a diploma. Surprisingly, nearly 19% had no qualification
beyond a high school education. Without having specific knowledge of the industry background of the
respondents it is impossible to draw any kind of conclusion from this statistic, beyond stating that it does
seem high given the profile of the population sample.
A discussion with one Thai respondent on this issue prompted them to say that a minimum of a
Bachelor’s degree qualification was required to secure any kind of decent job, regardless of its specification
or responsibilities, in the Thai labour market. This seems to result in academic inflation but, as a result,
Thai society places great store on achievement of a tertiary level qualification.

Table 2: Respondents by Education

Service Years. In this category the results showed similar percentages for Thai and Irish in
each of the four categories. The majority of respondents of both nationalities were in the sub-10 year,
at over 60%. There were three Irish respondents in the 31-40 year service category and two Thais,
accounting for 4% of the total.

Table 3: Respondents by Service Years

The large number of Irish respondents in the sub-10 year category may be accounted for by the economic
boom that occurred in that country between 1998 and 2007. Many new technology companies, in particular,
were established during that period, the labour market was very vibrant and the economy effectively had
full employment. There was much fluidity in the job market for suitably qualified personnel, leading to
frequent job changes, increased salaries and accelerated advancement up the managerial ladder. It is
interesting to note that, although 66% of total Irish respondents were between 36-50 years old, 62% of total
respondents had less than 10 years service in their present companies. One would normally expect

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employees in an older age group to change jobs less frequently.


Compare this to the Thai nationality, where a much smaller percentage of total respondents (44%)
were between 36-50 years old, but 66% of total respondents had less than 10 years service in their present
companies.
If causation could be proven we would expect this trend to be reversed as Ireland is now in the early
stages of a prolonged recession and, conversely, Thailand is entering a period of sustained economic
prosperity as they prepare to take full advantage of the opportunities offered by the ASEAN trade
agreement initiating in the coming two years. This environment should facilitate greater fluidity in the job
market with consequent rises in salaries and accelerated career development, but there may be socio-
cultural aspects that come into play. This topic is worthy of further research.
Occupation Grade. Nearly 65% of Thai respondents were in the ‘Staff’ occupation grade
versus 34% of Irish respondents. This may be explained by the fact that Thais accounted for nearly
twice the percentage of Irish respondents in the 21-35 age group, 64.7% and 33.96% respectively.
One would normally expect that younger staff would occupy a proportionate amount of junior
positions.

Table 4: Respondents by Occupation Grade

The first-line management grade shows comparable percentages between the two nationalities, 20.59% and
20.75% respectively.
The mid-level management category accounts for 13% of Thais but 30% of Irish respondents. This
may be explained by the different age profiles discussed previously, as could the percentages in the senior
management categories.

Hypotheses Testing
The hypotheses were tested using one-way ANOVA, mean, standard deviation, t-test and F-test. A
significance level of 0.05 was selected to determine if a hypothesis was supported by the collected data or
not.
Hypothesis 1. Irish employee’s organisational commitment (affective, continuance and
normative) will be higher if the organisation in which he/she works employs a more inclusive type of
change management style.
One-way ANOVA was used to test this hypothesis, with the dependent variable being the degree of
organisational commitment (affective, continuance and normative). This resulted in a calculated
significance level or p-value = 0.527. As this number is greater than 0.05 it means that there is a 'difference'

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but this difference is 'Not Significant', therefore the research hypothesis is not supported. The measured
value obtained in the sample is not consistent with that implied in the hypothesis.
This implies that an organisation with a more inclusive type of change management style does not
cause an Irish employee's organisational commitment (OC) to be higher. The ‘mean’ data does show that
Irish employees that work in organisations with more inclusive style of change management will have a
higher level of organisational commitment, however the difference across the five groups of the Likert
scale is such that this ‘difference’ is not deemed to be statistically significant. There is a steady rise
visible in the mean commitment level until that category of employee who perceives that that change
management climate was most inclusive (group 5), where a drop in commitment was recorded.
This is an interesting result – intuitively one would have expected the hypothesis to hold true. Any
organisation that actively engages its employees in decision-making, shared leadership and empowerment
should engender greater levels of commitment. It is possible the result for group 5 is an anomaly since the
number of respondents in this group is quite small and other, more transitory or superficial (for example a
negative performance review), factors may be involved that served to reduce overall commitment level at
the time of the survey. Maybe a larger sample would provide more conclusive evidence in this regard.
It is interesting to note that no Irish respondents chose Option 1 (Strongly Disagree) for the
statements relating to change management style and only one Thai respondent chose this option. The three
middle options (Disagree, Neutral and Agree) accounted for 96% of Irish respondents’ and 94% of Thai
respondents’ opinion.
Hypothesis 2. Irish employees with longer company service have a greater degree of
continuance commitment.
The dependent variable is the degree of organisational continuance commitment. This resulted in a
calculated significance level or p-value = 0.078. As this number is greater than 0.05 it means that the
research hypothesis is not supported. The measured value obtained in the sample is not consistent with that
implied in the hypothesis.
This implies that, overall, Irish employees with longer company service do not have a greater
degree of continuance commitment, i.e. employees will not stay with the organisation just because they feel
they have to. Closer examination of the ‘mean’ data does show that employees with 21-30 years service
show an increased level of continuance commitment but this is at odds with reduced level of commitment
in the 11-20 years service category. It is interesting that the mean continuance commitment should reduce
after the first decade in an organisation increase and then fall off in the 31-40 years service category.
There are so many factors that may play a role in this, such as cultural, societal and economic. As
discussed previously the dramatic change in Ireland’s economic fortunes, and hence its labour market and
work attitudes, over the last 30 years may help explain this. For example, because of the world economic
crash in 2008 and its consequences for the Irish economy, those employees with relatively short service
who retained their jobs were probably more inclined to feel that they had to stay in their jobs as they
provided a degree of financial security. Those with 11-20 years service, having lived through a period of
unprecedented growth and prosperity, may have felt that opportunities would always exist for people (like
them) of talent and experience. Employees with 21-30 years service would have lived through a period of
economic stagnation and mass unemployment so they would place great store on a job, continuance

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commitment and the security they provided. It is difficult to explain the mean in the last service year
category with only three respondents. It is possible that employees so close to retirement may have other
priorities that impact negatively on their continuance commitment.
Hypothesis 3. Irish employees with higher educational qualifications have a greater degree
of affective commitment.
The dependent variable is the degree of organisational affective commitment. This resulted in a calculated
significance level or p-value = 0.05. In itself this result is insufficient to prove that the data supports the
hypothesis or not. By using Scheffe’s Theory (as the samples are of unequal sizes) as a secondary test, the p-
values calculated range from 0.085 to 0.973. As these numbers are greater than 0.05, therefore the research
hypothesis is not supported. The measured value obtained in the sample is not consistent with that implied in
the hypothesis.
This implies that, overall, Irish employees with higher educational qualifications do not have a
greater degree of affective commitment, i.e. employees will not stay with the organisation just because they
want to continue work there – they could be easily tempted by other offers of higher salaries or better working
conditions. This indicates that the social aspect of work, for example esprit de corps, workplace friendships
and a mutually supportive and comfortable environment, become less important as employees attain higher
levels of education. Maybe this is because, with better education, career advancement and managerial
aspirations become more important than the social aspect of the workplace. A senior manager interviewed
remarked, “I didn’t earn an MBA and become a manager to make friends” (John Cusack, personal
communications, 17th March 2012).
Additionally, during the boom years in Ireland there were significant shifts in societal priorities and
a boom in the middle-class (and the extent of their aspirations). Greater emphasis was placed on attaining
higher levels of education and post-graduate degrees as these were seen as the way to corporate respectability
and managerial (and therefore financial) success. As a result there was fluid labour market for qualified staff
and opportunities for advancement were in abundance. This led to wage inflation and an increased emphasis
on financial incentives as the main arbiter of job satisfaction and commitment, with a reduced emphasis on
the, heretofore, valued social aspects of work and the workplace.
Hypothesis 4. Thai employee’s organisational commitment (affective, continuance and
normative) is unaffected by the climate for change applied in his/her company.
The dependent variable is the degree of organisational commitment (affective, continuance and normative).
This resulted in a calculated significance level or p-value = 0.92. As this number is greater than 0.05,
therefore the research hypothesis is not supported. The measured value obtained in the sample is not
consistent with that implied in the hypothesis.
This implies that an organisation with a more inclusive type of change management style does
cause a change in Thai employee's organisational commitment (OC). The ‘mean’ data seems to show that
Thai employees that work in organisations with more inclusive style of change management will have a
higher level of organisational commitment up to a certain point, however the difference is not deemed to be
statistically significant.
What is interesting is that there seems to be a positive correlation between an open change climate
and organisational commitment and then a decrease in the level of the latter before it rises again as the

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change management climate tends towards the most inclusive. The mean result for category 5 may be an
anomaly as a result of the small number of respondents (there were only 3 in this category). A larger
sample would probably provide more conclusive evidence in this regard.
In the cases of both Hypotheses 1 and 4 there does seem to be a positive correlation at the lower
end of the change management climate scale but the higher end of the scale produced contrary results. In
both cases the number of respondents was quite small and therefore may provide false readings.
The intention of Hypothesis 4 was to see if Thai employees were ‘immune’ to change management
climate as a result of inherent cultural mores and the data seems to show that this is not the case. Has this
always been the case or is a result of attitudinal shifts in the workplace amongst the younger generation of
Thai employees? This is an area ripe for further research.
Another observation is that in both Thailand and Ireland the change management climate is
unremarkable, i.e. opinion of the vast majority of both nationalities was that their respective companies’
practices were average. This would indicate that there is much room for improvement in the need for
perception-shift on the part of senior managers to fully appreciate the value of organisational memory and
employee empowerment.
Hypothesis 5. Thai employees with longer company service have a greater degree of
normative commitment.
The dependent variable is the degree of organisational normative commitment. This resulted in a calculated
significance level or p-value = 0.007. As this number is less than 0.05 it means that there is a 'significant
difference', therefore the research hypothesis is supported. The measured value obtained in the sample is
consistent with that implied in the hypothesis.
Thai employees with higher educational qualifications have a greater degree of normative
commitment. The increase in the value of the 'mean' from the <10 years service group 1 (2.7889) to the 31-
40 year service group (3.9167) shows a large increase in normative commitment in the groups with more
years of service. However, as commented on previously, with the small number of respondents in the latter
group this high ‘mean’ level could be anomalous – a re-test with a larger sample would probably provide
more conclusive evidence in this regard.
This result complies with earlier studies and highlights the importance of loyalty to older
employees with long service to one company. This is also probably true in Ireland but there are also
specific cultural dimensions to be considered in Thailand. Relationships and hierarchy are fundamentally
important concepts in Thai culture and they both take time to build. In Thailand, there are some norms
which can be said to exist:

 Thais work hard to build and maintain relationships among a wide and complex network of people;

 Thais’ interactions are more or less controlled within the context of a strong hierarchical system

(Holmes & Tantongtavy, 2000, p. 17).

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It would seem logical that to function effectively in an organisation is predicated on one’s success in building
and developing personal networks throughout the organisation. Once an employee leaves the organisation the
network ceases to provide the advantage it once did. In addition older people generally feel more loyalty to
their employers, particularly if they have long service.
In more developed Western countries, this sentiment has changed amongst the younger generation as
a result of the restructuring of labour markets and increased globalisation over the last twenty years. It will be
interesting to see if similar cultural changes occur amongst Thailand’s educated younger population in light
of the country’s flourishing economy and advent of the ASEAN Free Trade Area in 2015.
Hypothesis 6. Thai employees with higher educational qualifications have a greater degree of
affective commitment.
The dependent variable is the degree of organisational affective commitment. This resulted in a calculated
significance level or p-value = 0.306. As this number is greater than 0.05 it means that the research
hypothesis is not supported. The measured value obtained in the sample is not consistent with that implied
in the hypothesis.
This indicates that Thai employees with higher educational qualifications do not have a greater
degree of affective commitment, i.e. employees will not stay with the organisation just because they want to
continue work there – they could be easily tempted by other offers of higher salaries or better working
conditions. This indicates that the social aspect of work has become less important. This is an interesting
finding, as it seems to be contrary to the value that most Thai’s find in workplace relationships. According to
Holmes and Tantongtavy (2000, p.76), Thais feel that the ultimate workplace is where he or she feels at
home. For most Thais the workplace should have ‘gan eng’, a pleasant and friendly atmosphere.
Another perspective on this issue is that maybe modern day workplaces in Thailand no longer have
these attributes due, as in the Irish case (Hypothesis 3), to a burgeoning economy, fluid labour market and a
cultural shift (however slight) away from group orientation towards individual self-realisation.
There are an increasing number of Thais who are receiving tertiary, and some receiving secondary
and tertiary, education in the US, UK, Australia, and New Zealand over the last 10 – 20 years. This must be
having an effect on their career expectations and managerial performance on returning to Thailand. This
‘Westernisation’ of work attitudes, in conjunction with an increasingly globalised business environment, may
have an effect on the traditional social norms of individual and group behaviour.

DISCUSSION
The purpose of this research project was to investigate if there was a positive correlation between an open and
inclusive change management climate and an increased level of organisational commitment from employees.
Furthermore, a nationality dimension was added to see if there was any difference in the nature of this
relationship between Irish and Thai employees.
The data showed there was a positive correlation between change management style and levels of
organisational commitments for both Thais and Irish employees, however at the more inclusive end of the
change management scale the survey showed contrary results. The Irish respondents’ commitment dropped
sharply while the Thais’ commitment rose. What caused this?

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It may be an error due to the small sample sizes for both nationalities in this category. It would seem
that few companies in either country provide truly open and inclusive change management climates. For
Hypothesis 1 (Irish) and Hypothesis 4 (Thai) over 90% of all respondents selected statements characterising
their change management climate in the ‘Disagree’, ‘Neutral’ or ‘Agree’ categories. This indicates that the
majority of organisations are still being driven in a top-down style of management. In light of the
fundamental changes in the business environment over the last 15 years it is questionable as to where this
style of management in still appropriate for companies as the 21st century lies ahead of them.
In the case of Hypothesis 1 (Irish), it is surprising that there were not more instances of higher
ratings for open change management climate. The Irish economic boom of the last 15 years certainly
improved salaries, facilitated accelerated career mobility but, on the basis of this research data, has done little
to improve the application and practice of advanced management techniques such as empowerment,
distributed leadership and the learning organisation. Anecdotal evidence points to an increase in the
availability and uptake of post-graduate management studies and yet there seems to be little evidence of the
active application of these management theories in the workplaces of those surveyed.
It is possible that it will take time for such practices to ‘trickle up’, either by the senior management
teams being convinced of their merits or by the promotion of the technique practitioners into influential
positions such that they are able to implement new policies, change structures and evolve strategy in a
direction more congruent with the requirements for business survival and prosperity in the globalised
business world.
In the case of Hypothesis 4 (Thai), we found the results were also surprising but for a different
reason. Thai cultural traits are generally believed to include risk avoidance, an ingrained respect for
hierarchy, non-questioning of the ‘normal’ way of doing things and a generally conservative outlook. All of
which leave employees with little chance to try new ideas or questions old ways. Knowledge of these traits
informed the construction of Hypothesis 4. The data did not support this hypothesis – there does seem to be
evidence of a positive correlation between the two. Why is this the case as it seems to contradict accepted
Thai traits?
It is difficult to provide a definitive answer. Also more detailed enquiries need to be made into the
backgrounds of the Thai respondents to determine if the results are related to:

1. age;

2. education received in an international school in Thailand;

3. education in a foreign university (UK, Australia, USA, Canada, India, New Zealand etc.);

4. international work experience;

5. work experience in a Thai-based multinational or multi-domestic company.

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Are these changes a result of direct foreign education and/or work experience? Are they locally-driven
changes as a result of years of Western teaching methods and textbooks filtered through the prism of local
cultural sensibilities and nuances? This is a topic that invites further research. The findings indicate that,

1. practised change management styles show room for improvement in both countries;

2. Thai respondents are open to fuller engagement with inclusive change management styles if given

the opportunity;

3. Irish respondents are in a similar position, but it is surprising that inclusive change management

styles are not more widespread given the recent period of unprecedented economic growth, labour

market development and ubiquity of professional management education.

In the cases of Hypotheses 3 and 6 the findings indicate that personal motivation and the desire for self-
realisation might become more important in both Thai and Irish society – the root causes are unknown and
would provide another interesting topic for research.

LIMITATIONS AND IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE


The study was limited by the small sample size, the imbalance in respondents’ gender and the non-uniform
size of each age category. All of these factors have the potential to provide greater insight into the issues
investigated. Attempting to identify the real driver for increased appetite for participation amongst Thai
employees, for example, could provide a very interesting topic for further research.
The implication for managers and organisations in both countries is that the appetite for more active
participation in change management programmes exists and will be embraced if employees are provided with
the appropriate support and structures. However, it is important to note that policies must be taken at senior
management level and must be identified and prioritised as strategic goals of the organisation. Deeds must
follow words.
The difficulty for many organisations is that there can be a gulf between the inclusive policies
espoused by the management and what is actually practiced. The first author worked for a large US
multinational for six years. This company invested heavily in corporate training and orientation programmes,
but to little effect. From the employees’ point of view it just seemed as if there was a new programme every
quarter with accompanying inspirational posters and coffee mugs. The employees became cynical of these
efforts, as there were no real structural changes to facilitate programme implementation and subsequent
monitoring of progress. They became increasingly frustrated as there was a disconnect between what
management said and actually did. The moral is that real inclusion must mean more than rhetoric.
Senior management needs to create a coherent overview of the change they are seeking, invest
resources into building and maintain the structures required to embed these changes and engage their staff in

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a consistent, meaningful and rewarding manner: reward success and tolerate failure. There has to be goal
congruence, follow-through and a willingness to amend or scrap change programmes that are judged to be
defective or unworkable. Openness, mutual respect and communication are critical to greater openness:
clarify expectations, dispel rumours, harness creativity and focus enthusiasm towards realising corporate
objectives.
Among the recommendations for organisations and managers are the needs to facilitate job
enrichment, empower employees, optimise knowledge management and harness organisational memory.
Charles Handy said “trust, like learning, requires unconditional support, and forgiveness for mistakes,
provided always that the mistakes are learnt from” (1997, p.190).
Retention of qualified and experienced staff needs to become a strategic goal of the organisation.
Only by valuing employees, promoting their self-development, actively seeking their opinions and
facilitating them in participating in developing and achieving strategic goals can an organisation hope to
maintain competitive edge in the 21st century business world.
Thomas Friedman in his award-winning book, ‘The World Is Flat’, which examined the
implications of the globalised world for people and businesses in the 21 st century, states that “the great
challenge for our time will be to absorb these changes in ways that do not overwhelm people or leave them
behind. None of this will be easy...It is inevitable and unavoidable” (2006, p.49).

CONCLUSIONS
Charles Franklin Kettering, inventor and businessman, said “the world hates change, yet it is the only thing
that has brought progress” (as cited in Bateman and Snell, 2010, p.321).
Too often change is presented in a negative light and, for many employees, experience has taught
them to engage with it in a circumspect manner due to the dichotomy between the words and deeds of their
company’s management with respect to planning and implementing it.
Amongst the findings the data indicates that change management styles in use in both countries
show room for improvement. The implication for managers in both countries is that the appetite for more
active participation in change management programmes exists and will be embraced if employees are
provided with the appropriate support and structures.
Senior management need to create a coherent overview of the change they are seeking and engage
their staff in a consistent, meaningful and rewarding manner: reward success and tolerate failure. Jack Welch,
former CEO of General Electric, said “I’ve learned that mistakes can often be as good a teacher as success”
(as cited in Bateman and Snell, 2010, p.313).
Change is unavoidable in the modern business world and needs to be embraced fully and
implemented inclusively for all its benefits to be realised. Ricks (2006, p. 194) states that “…all big
organisations tend to do what they know how to do, rather than what they need to do differently to address the
situation they face.” This strategy is no longer commensurate with survival, never mind success, in the
globalised world in which we now live. The key to understanding the ‘situation’ is to engage fully with the
people who deal with the daily realities of the business, the employees.

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AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY:

Mark J. Dunne is a project manager, telecommunications consultant and an MBA graduate from
the Institute of International Studies, Ramkhamhaeng University in Bangkok, Thailand. His areas of business
research interests include leadership, change management, motivation, and cross-cultural management.
Mark can be reached through e-mail at: mjadunne@yahoo.com

Bahaudin G. Mujtaba is Professor of Management and Human Resources at the Huizenga School
of Business and Entrepreneurship; Nova Southeastern University, Florida, U.S.A. Bahaudin has worked as an
internal consultant, trainer, and teacher. His areas of research include business ethics, diversity management,
change management, and cross-cultural management. Bahaudin can be reached through e-mail at:
mujtaba@nova.edu

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JOURNAL OF STRATEGIC 1
LEADERSHIP

Change Management

Jeff Slattery
Azusa Pacific Online University

The ubiquitous nature of change seems to imply that change comes easily, but this is certainly not the
case in most instances. The world of business and information technology requires frequent, and at times
significant, change initiatives. Successful change appears even more elusive, and thus, the following
information strives to address the major factors that aid in change management. The paper describes the
technical and human elements of change and includes components of change management that relate to
the field of information system management. The results provide guidelines and processes for
successfully implementing change initiatives.

The level of global competition, corporate scandals, and continually changing governmental
regulations and standards requires that firms of all sizes implement change initiatives in order to
survive, remain competitive, and be in compliance with laws and standards. The changes range
from minute to enterprise-wide and bring many challenges and benefits. Firms that embrace
change and utilize it to their advantage receive a comparative advantage that increases their
ability to compete and remain efficient in the marketplace. Due to the critical nature of change,
the following information describes the role of change management in organizations, discusses
the key factors of change, the potential impact, leadership characteristics, common barriers to
change, and offers guidelines to aid in the successful implementation of change initiatives.

Gans (2011) states that 80% of firms polled reported experiencing “some” confusion with the
concept of change management and another 57% indicated that they “often” experienced
confusion during the process of change. These statistics clearly indicate the necessity to
implement a clear, consistent, and comprehensive change management strategy (p. 48).
Information technology projects are not devoid of change issues, as well. In fact, as Flynn, Pan,
Keil, and Mahring (2009) state, IT projects at times “grossly exceed their planned budget and
schedules, often by a factor of 2-3 fold or greater”; again these instances emphasize the need to
focus on key initiatives and the process of change management (p. 131). The stakes are simply

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too high; firms must take change management seriously and dedicate the time and resources
necessary to effectively implement the initiates. The very survival of a firm often depends on
their ability to adapt and effectively change with the quickly adapting global business
marketplace.

As stated prior, change in business remains a constant and continual process. Firms need to
manage changes and, at times, seek to limit the degree of change while at the same time
aggressively forging forward with changes, prioritizing becomes a key point.

Change creates a sense of uncertainty, stress, and anxiety for employees, which is often
interpreted as resistance by change agents who are already aware of the change and the end
results or ramifications. The change agents have spent countless hours developing, revising, and
strategizing about how the change will improve business operations or advance the firm, but
when the information is presented to frontline employees, they are often surprised and upset by
the suggested or required changes. Balestracci (2003) states that firms and individuals in our
technological age are “ expected to absorb in 10 years what used to be assimilated in two or three
generations,” which creates untold stress and has been identified as “ corporate craziness” (p.
39). This same author goes on to cite the 85/15 rule: 85% of the problems in an organization
derive from faulty process while only 15% or fewer are related to employees, and thus,
management should take the stance to “ blame the process, not the person” (Balestracci, 2003, p.
40). For some firms this may be a major cultural shift, but doing so decreases defensiveness,
makes the actual problem the problem, and enables employees to unite against the problem in
creating a solution. Depersonalizing the problem decreases the emotional reactivity to the
situation, which allows for, and even encourages, change. Once the emotional reactivity has
dissipated, the firm and employees are able to move into the change mode. The ability to
respond appropriately requires five essential skills:

1. Self-awareness

2. Emotional maturity

3. Self-motivation

4. The ability to show empathy

5. The ability to develop and maintain positive relationships (Balestracci, 2003 p. 42)

Displaying these skills and abilities makes the change process much easier and flow more
smoothly, but there are leadership and corporate cultural characteristics and factors that are also
essential for a success change process.

Bejestani (2011) states that, “management is partly science and partly art” (p. 302). The human-
side or soft-skills account for a major element of change, even with regard to the technical
aspects of change. IT systems or applications do not develop, install, and maintain themselves.
People are at the center of change, and the successful implementation of change requires
leadership and management acumen. Great leaders and managers are able to overcome

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resistance, unite employees, create a shared vision, and motivate employees or a team to
implement change and accomplish tasks. Bejestani (2011) lists the following leadership
characteristics:

 Consistency—to build confidence in the people who work for you

 Observation—to observe team members and their behaviors in a positive light

 Problem solving—to make right decisions and solve problems, especially in critical
situations
 Training friendly—to believe in the necessity of training and provide resources for
training

 Humor—to build happiness without non-logical stress

 Communication—to have face-to-face interactions

 Responsibility—to be responsible for completing objectives (p. 303)

In addition, Bluestone (2011) notes the difficulties associated with change and states that leaders
should work to create a culture where mistakes are allowed and discussed in a positive light,
using the mistakes and failures as learning opportunity. Employees should not be afraid to report
mistakes and failures. The corporate culture should encourage a sense of forgiveness and
restoration; employees should not obsess on making the right and perfect decision at the expense
of actually implementing a decision and experiencing an error or setback. Bluestone (2011) ends
by stating that “cultural change is evolution, not revolution”; this speaks to the continual process
of organizational change and change management (p. 21).

Gee and Gee (2011) continue with the same line of thinking by stating the firms should work to “
create a culture of change and innovation…which is one the best ways to build organizations that
can respond to change in a positive and proactive manner” (p. 31). The actions and behaviors of
managers account for up to 50% of how employees view a firm. Managers who encourage the
following behaviors and attitudes are working to instill a culture of creativity, innovation, and
change, which again provides a competitive advantage for their firm:

 Encourage new and creative idea sharing

 Promote diversity of thinking

 Support conflicting or opposing points of view

 Allow time for innovation and provide resources

 Allow people the freedom to make decisions with parameters

 Nurture risk taking as opposed to being risky (Gee & Gee, 2011, p. 31)

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Similarly, firms that primarily operate from a top-down mentality are punitive, allow silos to
exist, fail to communicate decisions, are overly controlling and fail to see the value of their
employees, severely limit or hinder their ability to react quickly to market trends and implement
creative and innovative change initiates. Although the soft-side of change requires extensive
management and interaction, the technical aspects remain and are vital to the process.

Hayes (2010) notes that IT projects are vital for all firms but the role of many IT professionals
has changed. IT managers and even frontline staff are not simply able to maintain and interact
with IT systems; they are being required more and more to collaborate and negotiate with other
functional areas of the business. Hayes (2010) goes on to state that, “the change from
provisioning physical IT assets and virtual IT assets is changing the relationship between IT and
business units inside and organization” (p. 54). IT professionals are being pushed to not only
upgrade existing skills and competencies but to learn, acquire, and utilize a whole new set of
skills beyond specific IT skills (Hayes, 2010).

Firms must move beyond utilizing standard management and IT-related change management
software and applications, such as SWOT analysis or Balanced Scorecards (Barraso, 2011).
Firms that embrace and utilize project management techniques in addition to the standard
techniques in developing and designing change management systems and protocols will become
much more efficient and innovative in implementing changes that will serve to advance their
firms. The time of being able to set back and rely upon prior successful change initiatives and
practices has past. Firms must take advanced of their employees’ enthusiasm, creativity, and
innovative spirit when diving into major change initiates. The results will be astonishing;
successful, innovative, and creative change projects will become the norm as opposed to the
dreaded.

About the Author

Jeff Slattery, MA., DBA., is the discipline chair for management at Azusa Pacific Online
University. He can be reached for questions regarding this article at jslattery@apou.net.

References

Balestracci, D. (2003). Handling the human side of change. Quality Progress, 36(11), 38-45.

Barroso, B., H. (2011). The balanced scorecard: The evolution of the concept and its effects on
change in organizational management. EBS Review, 28, 53-66.

Bejestani, H. (2011). Improving project change management using leadership spirit. iBusiness, 3,
302-306.

Bluestone, A. (2003, July). Process of change: What it really takes. Practice Management
Solutions, 21.

Journal of Strategic Leadership, Vol. 4 Iss. 2, Spring 2013, pp.


1-5
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JOURNAL OF STRATEGIC 5
LEADERSHIP

Flynn, D., Pan, G., Keil, M., & Mahring, M. (2009). De-escalating IT projects: The DMM
model. Communications of the ACM, 52(10), 131-134.

Gans, K. (2011, October). Should you change your thinking about change management?
Strategic Finance 48-50.

Gee, V., & Gee, S. (2011, October). Business improve creates a culture of change and
innovation. The Journal for Quality & Participation, 30-33.

Hayes, J. (2010, September 24). Virtual impacts. Engineering & Technology, 54-55.

Journal of Strategic Leadership, Vol. 4 Iss. 2, Spring 2013, pp.


1-5
© 2013 Regent University School of Leadership & Business
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON SOFTWARE ENGINEERING, VOL. 16, NO. 11, NOVEMBER 1

The Evolving Philosophers Problem:


Dynamic Change Management
Jeff Kramer and Jeff Magee

Abstract-One of the major challenges in the provision of distributed


systems is the accommodation of evolutionary change. This may involve Distributed systems potentially offer a flexible environment for
modifications or extensions to the system which were not envisaged dynamic modification and extension [4], [15). The underlying
at design time. Furthermore, in many application domains there is support mechanisms for change (software component creation,
a requirement that the system accommodate such change dynamically, binding, and deletion) are readily available. However, there has
without stopping or disturbing the operation of those parts of the system
unaffected by the change. Since the description of software structure been little suggestion as to how such dynamic change should
(components and interconnections) provides a clear means for both sys be specified, managed, and controlled. This paper describes an
tem comprehension and construction, it seems appropriate that changes approach based on a separation of concerns: functional concerns
should also be specified as structural change, in terms of component of the application processing components which can be pro vided
creation/deletion and connection/disconnection. These changes are then
applied to the operational system itself to produce the modified system.
with a general capability for change independent of what structural
This paper presents a model for dynamic change management which changes are introduced, and structural configuration concerns for
separates structural concerns from component application concerns. This specifying structural change without the need to consider
separation of concerns permits the formulation of general structural application state.
rules for change at the configuration level without the need to consider Recent work on distributed software specification and con
application state, and the specification of application component actions
without prior knowledge of the actual structural changes which may be struction confirms the benefits of separating the software compo
introduced. In addition, the changes can be applied in such a way as to nent programming concerns from those of system configuration
leave the modified system in a consistent state, and cause no disturbance [3), [15), [17). A separate configuration specification is useful
to the unaffected part of the operational system. The model is applied to both as a description of the system structure and to generate
an example problem, "evolving philosophers." The principles described in
this model have been implemented and tested in the Conic environment
the actual system. As for software construction, we believe that
for distributed systems. change is well handled at the configuration level in terms of
software components and their interconnections [10), [14). Fig. 1
Index Terms---Change management, distributed systems, dynamic con
figuration, system evolution. identifies the central role of configuration management which is
required to interface between the functional view of application
programming and the structural view of system configuration.
I. INTRODUCTION Changes are specified declaratively in terms of system structure
only. The system itself is modified by the application of proce
ISTR IBUTED computing systems are in widespread use in
D commercial, industrial, and research establishments. One of
the major difficulties in the development and maintenance of
dural change transactions, which include ordered sets of structural
and control actions. These change transactions are derived by
management from the change specifications. Hence, the system
such systems is that of systems management, particularly with
evolves incrementally by the application of change
respect to the management of change. Distributed systems need
specifications as shown in Fig. 2. Alternatively, a change
to evolve as human needs change, technology changes, and the
specification could be derived by comparing the desired
application environment changes. It has been argued [18) that
configuration specification with that of the current system.
the introduction of the computing system is itself a stimulus for
change. These changes may require modification of a function In addition to the means for specifying and performing change,
already provided by the system, or extension by the introduction it is also necessary to provide facilities for controlling change
of new functions. In general, these changes, termed evolutionary, such that application consistency is preserved both while the
are difficult to accommodate as they cannot be predicted at change is applied and subsequent to the change. This is the role
the time the system is designed. Consequently, we would like of change management.
systems to be sufficiently flexible to permit arbitrary, incremental What exactly are the required characteristics of a configuration
change. In addition, we believe that systems should be capable management system for managing dynamic change? Section II
of supporting such change dynamically, without interrupting the identifies the objectives of change management, and defines more
processing of those parts of the system which are not directly precisely the distributed system environment in which it is ex
affected. Hence, it should be possible to direct changes at the pected to operate. The form of interaction between management
operational system itself. and the application nodes (software components) is presented in
Section III, defining the management view of node states and the
desirable properties which this provides. This leads to the devel
opment of a management protocol in Section IV which describes
Manuscript received July 6, 1989; revised May 8, 1990. Recommended by
how change management is applied, illustrating the process with
N. Schneidewind. This work was supported by the SERC ACME Directorate
under Grant GE/E.62394 and by the CEC under the REX Project (2080). some simple examples. It also briefly discusses the required
The authors are with the Department of Computing, Imperial College of application contribution to the change process. This is followed
Science, Technology, and Medicine, University of London, 180 Queen's Gate, in Section V by a detailed example, the Evolving Philosophers.
London SW7 2BZ, England. Section VI extends the work to cover systems with more interde
IEEE Log Number 9038334.
pendence, and illustrates the principles for the evolving philoso-

0098-5589/90/1100-1293$01.00 © 1990 IEEE


1 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON SOFTWARE ENGINEER I NG, VOi.. 16 , NO. 11, NOVEMBER

configuration / change uration management can exploit para llelism for implementing
specification
changes. Declarative specificati ons leave such decisions to the
im plementation mechanisms .
::.i"!.t .u .,..:·t.-.J t I
Df Jrl l _(I UM ..r.,!] !; Change specifications should be independent of the algorithm s,
/i prvtv cvls, and state!; of the appli cution.
£: -'.D S H ! :a r n e
In order to provide generic configuration management , the
configurati on management system which carries out the changes
should be independent of the application. Since changes are to
;-:-·; f i'1 J1:◊ n·!f l
.;\ )) j:l'lJce iJ'l l0 Jl be specified in terms of the configu ration s t ructure, the paper
'.,j c,.'.d Y <): i'J'. .l (.;$ will demonstrate that dependenc e on aspec ts such as application
state can be abstracted to a general requirement for application
quiescence, and dependence on application algorithm to a need
for co mp onent connection initialization /fina lization actions.
Fig. I. System configur at ion and change management. Changes should leave the system in a consistent state.
Informally, a consistent application state is one from which the
system can continue processing no rmally rather than progressing
configuration
changes towards an error state. It is usually ex presse d in terms of some
global sys tem invariant. A system is viewed as moving from

configuration specification i configuration specification i-+ 1

Con tiguratlo n Management

Fig. 2. Evolution of a sys tem by incremental changes. one consistent state to the next. In fact, application transactions
modify the state of the appl ic ation, and, while in progress, have
transient sta te distributed in the system. While transactions are
phcrs problem. The concluding section of the paper discusses in prog ress the internal states of nodes may be mutually incon
othe r approaches to dynamic change management which range sis tent. In order to avoid the loss of application transactions and
from pragmatic support for procedure replacement to the more ac h ieve a consistent state after change, a consistent application
formal transformational approach. The conclusions also examine state is required in the affected part of the system before the
the adequacy of our approach and discuss its implications. change.
Changes should minimize the disruption to the application
II. DYNAMIC CHANGE MANAGEMENT
system.
It should not be necessary to stop the whole of a running
This section identifies the objectives of change management, application sys te m to modify part of it. The management system
and defines more precisely the distributed system environment shoul d, from the chang e specification, be able to determine a
in which it is expected to operate. These objectives represent an minimal set of nodes which are affected hy the change. The rest
approach which clearly separates application specific functions of the sys tem should be able to continue its execution normally.
from structural configuration functions. As mentioned , the These objectives have a number of consequences for both
intention is to provide an application independent configuration the application and the configuration management system. In
management facility. particular, the management system must give the affected part
of a system the opportunity to reach a consistent state before
A. Objectives a change is performed. The managem ent system does not force
Changes should be specified in terms of the system structure. changes but waits for the application to reach a consistent state.
Systems, and in particular distributed systems, are constructed This consistent state requires that there is no communication in
in a modular way consisting of a configuration of software nodes. progress between the affected nodes nor with their environment.
We propose that system evolution at the level of programming Each node is said to be in a quiescent state. Further, the nodes
in the small (6] is at too low a level, being both too detailed must remain quiescent while the change is execute d. This gives
and impractical due to the tight coupling of program elements. newly created nodes the opportunity to he initialized in a state
Instead, change should be supported at a component node level which is consistent with the res t of the sys tem and nodes which
(or levels) where the possibility exists for understanding the arc being removed the opportunity to leave the system in a
effects of change and where the internode coupling is such that consistent state. Later sections will describe how the affected
change is both possible and pragmatic. nodes are identified and controlled by management, and discuss
Change specifications should be declarative. the application level responsibilities.
By this we mean that it should be the responsibility of the
configuration management system, not the user, to determine
the specific ordering of actual change operations applied to the 8. Distributed System Model
system. This clearly separates the change required (which is In order to provide a sound basis for a discussion on change
application specific) from how it is to he executed. Config- manag eme nt, we first describe the environment and the assump
tions made. We also briefly define the terms used.
• System: A system is ass ume d to consist of a set of processing
nodes with directed connec tion s indi ca ting the communica tion
paths between the nodes.
• Node: A node is a processing entity which can initiate and
service transactions.
• Connection: A connection is a directed communication path
from the initiator of the communication exchange to the
recipient (Fig. 3).
KRAMER AND MAGEE: EVOLVING PHILOSOPHERS 1

Initiator
Recipient
(a)

complete

Fig. 3. A connection. (bl

A system may thus be represented as a directed graph


t
(Fig. 1). The edges in the figure indicate that node Nl may complete

initiate and receive transactions with both of N2 and N4. Fig. 4. Examples of (two-party) transactions.
N2 may only initiate transactions with Nl, but may receive
transactions from nodes Nl and N3. The next section describes the interface between management
• Transaction: A transaction is an exchange of information and the application nodes and refines the notion of quiescence.
between two and only two nodes, initiated by one of the
nodes. Transactions are the means by which the state of a III. APPLICATION-MANAGEMENT INTERACTION
node is affected by other connected nodes in the system.
Transactions consist of a sequence of one or more message When performing configuration changes it is important that
exchanges between the two connected nodes. It is assumed application information is not lost and that the application is left
that transactions complete in bounded time and that the in a consistent state. To do this, the management system should
initiator of a transaction is aware of its completion. have an interface with the application which allows it lo direct
Fig. 4 illustrates valid examples of transactions. In prac the application towards an appropriate state for reconfiguration.
tice they may consist of a remote procedure call (rpc) or Further, the management system must be able to confirm that
request-reply message exchange as in (a), or some sequence the application has reached this state. The interface between
or combination of rpc's or message passing as shown in application and management system must be a generic one which
(b). The only requirement is that one of the two parties makes management independent of the particular application. To
is identifiable as the initiator of the transaction and is meet this objective, application state is abstracted into a set of
informed of the completion of the transaction. Completion configuration management states for each node. This set of states
of transactions at the initiator is required to ensure correct provides sufficient information about application slate to allow
termination of the management protocol described later. We the management system to perform changes which leave the
assume only independent transactions, where completion of application in a consistent state. These configuration states and
a transaction does not depend on any other (possibly nested) the transitions between them arc outlined below.
transactions with other nodes. Section VI discusses the A. Node Configuration States and Transitions
implication of relaxing this restriction to permit dependent
transactions, where completion is dependent on consequent The state transition diagram of Fig. 5 specifies the possible
transactions with other nodes. states for an application node from the configuration viewpoint
• Change: A change is described in terms of modifications (cf. process states from an operating system viewpoint). The
to the structure (configuration) of the application system. interaction between configuration management and the node
Changes take the form of node creation and deletion, and are indicated as transitions. These transitions are instigated by
connection establishment and removal. Changes are effected configuration management (cf. "control actions" [8)) and should
by a Configuration Manager. Previous work [14), [19) has be distinguished from the normal application level transactions
identified a set of management primitives for both specifying ("basic communications").
and modifying the structure of systems. In abstract form
B. Transitions
these arc:
create N:T [at L) Each transition depicted in Fig. 5 represents the management
Create node N of type T, optionally specify at action which initiates the transition. Node application actions are
physical location L. required to reach the destination management state (Fig. 6).
The name N must be unique within the system. The temporary state involved in each transition gives a node
(For simplicity, Tis omitted in later examples where the opportunity to perform the initialization and finalization
the type is obvious.) actions necessary to preserve application consistency when it is
remove N created/removed and when connections are linked/unlinked.
Remove node N The application indicates that these actions are complete by
link Nl to N2 asserting the destination state of the transition to the change
Create a connection from node Nl to node N2. management system. Activate and passivate (Fig. 5) are the
(For simplicity, we omit the detail of multiple con transitions between the active and passive states described below.
nections between nodes since this docs not alter the
algorithms presented in the following.) C. States
unlink Nl from N2 • A node in the active state can initiate, accept, and service
Remove a connection between node Nl and node N2. transactions.
• Consistency: This is determined by the relationship between • A node in the passive state must continue to accept and
node application states and is usually described by some service transactions, but
global invariant (constraint) which must be preserved. For 1) it is not currently engaged in a transaction that it
local consistency of a node, it is necessary that there arc no initiated, and
partially complete transactions at the node. 2) it will not initiate new transactions.
1296 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON SOFTWARE ENGINEERING, VOL. 16, NO. II, NOVEMBER 1990

link
produce further output. Our notion is stronger in the sense that
the trace produced by a quiescent node will not be extended by
activate any further output.

ACTIVE
E. Resultant Properties for Systems Using
Independent Transactions
passivate Given that the passive and quiescent states are desirable node
management states, we now show how they can be achieved
for systems constructed from independent transactions. From
Section II, an independent transaction is a two party transaction
Fig. 5. Node state transitions. whose completion does not depend on any other transaction. In
these systems, a transaction serviced by a node may cause that
management action node to initiate transactions to other nodes, however, completion
of the service may not depend on completion of any transaction
which the node may initiate. Section VI discusses the extensions
required for dependent transactions.
The following propositions and justifications demonstrate the
Fig. 6. Node transitions.
reachability of the passive state, the relationship between passive
and quiescent states and the reachability of the quiescent state.
The particular state identified as necessary for reconfiguration Proposition 1: Reachability of the Passive state.
is the passive state. A node in the passive state must continue to In independent systems, a node can move from the active to the
accept and service transactions while it is in the passive state, but passive state in bounded time, irrespective of the configuration
it must not initiate any new transactions as a result of accepting state (active or passive) of the nodes to which it is connected.
or servicing transactions. This passive state is so defined as to Justification 1:
permit connected nodes to progress towards a passive state by To be passive, the node must satisfy two conditions:
completing outstanding transactions. In addition it contributes i) it is not currently engaged in a transaction that it initiated:
to system consistency by completing transactions. However, the A node will complete in bounded time any transaction
passive state is not sufficient for reconfiguration as it may still which it initiated since transactions complete in bounded
be processing transactions initiated by other nodes. time and completion is independent of the completion
of transactions at other nodes. Transactions complete in
D. Node Quiescence
bounded time even if the recipient node is in the passive
For consistency during change we require, a stronger property, state since passive nodes accept and service transactions.
viz. that the node is not within a transaction and will neither ii) it will not initiate new transactions.
receive nor initiate any new transactions. This property is called This property can be immediately satisfied by the ap
quiescence of a node and is that state in which the node is both plication.
passive and has no outstanding transactions which it must accept For systems using independent transactions, we define the
and service. Such a state depends not only on the node itself, but passive set PS of a node Q, denoted PS(Q), to consist of:
on the connected nodes.
1) the node Q
Consequently, a node is quiescent if:
2) all nodes which can directly initiate transactions on Q, i.e.,
1) it is not currently engaged in a transaction all nodes with connection arcs directed towards Q.
that it initiated, }passive
Proposition 2: Passive requirements for the Quiescent state.
2) it will not initiate new transactions, }properties
In systems using independent transactions, Q is quiescent if
3) it is not currently engaged in servicing a transaction, and
all nodes in PS(Q) are in the passive state.
4) no transactions have been or will be initiated by other nodes
Justification 2:
which require service from this node.
A node is quiescent if:
In the quiescent configuration state, the application state of
i) it is not currently engaged in a transaction that it initiated,
a node is both consistent and frozen. It is consistent in that
ii) it will not initiate new transactions,
the application state does not contain the results of partially
iii) it is not currently engaged in servicing a transaction, and
completed transactions, and is frozen in that the application state
iv) no transactions have been or will be initiated by other
will not change as a result of new transactions. Quiescence is
nodes which require service from this node.
significant for dynamic configuration changes since, in cases
such as unlinking, it permits a node to make decisions based Conditions i) and ii) follow from the passive state of Q, i.e.,
on a stable and consistent state regarding the particular actions Q is in PS(Q).
it should take before it is unlinked. For instance, the node may Conditions iii) and iv) follow from the passive states of the
pass a consistent uptodate version of its application state to its nodes in PS(Q), i.e., if all nodes which can initiate transactions on
environment before it is unlinked. Q are also passive, then all transactions involving Q are complete
Our notion of quiescence is loosely based on earlier work and no new ones will be initiated.
[13] which specified node behavior using a "quiescent invariant": Hence Q is in a quiescent state.
the stable, steady properties of a node characterized by a local Proposition 3: Reachability of the Quiescent state.
invariant preserved by the node. Quiescence is also related to that In systems using independent transactions, a node Q can move
defined by Misra [20], except that the discussion there focuses from the active to the quiescent state in bounded time if all the
on traces and termination, whereas we focus on node state and nodes in PS(Q) are directed to move into the passive state.
consistency. Misra defines a node as quiescent if it may not Justification 3:
KRAMER AND MAGEE: EVOLVING PHILOSOPHERS PROBLEM 1297

Since all nodes will achieve the passive state in bounded this can be achieved by requiring that all nodes in PS(N) are in
time (Proposition 1), and the passive state of all nodes in PS(Q) the passive state.)
imply quiescence of Q (Proposition 2), then Q will achieve the Justification: Quiescence of the initiator node ensures that its
quiescent state in bounded time. state is consistent and frozen with respect to that connection,
This section has defined an interface through which a config thereby enabling connection initialization/finalization to occur in
uration manager communicates with and controls an application a stable environment.
node. Communication between configuration maqagement and iii) Node Creation---<:reate.
the node is synchronous in the sense that a management action is Rule: The precondition is trivially true.
always confirmed by the node. (For pragmatic reasons, it may be Justification: When a node is created it is initially isolated and
necessary to support the forced removal of "rogue" nodes which consequently must be in the quiescent state since it can neither
do not obey or react correctly to configuration commands. These respond to nor initiate transactions on other nodes.
can be added as remove transitions from the active state.) Note 2) Change Transactions: A change transaction consists of a
that the node configuration state is the only way that configuration set of partially ordered configuration actions (or commands),
management can affect the application state. The passive state which is derived from the structural change so as to satisfy the
has been carefully defined to be readily achievable by a node preconditions outlined above. One possible algorithm for deriving
by completion of any transactions which it initiated. Since change transactions is outlined below.
transactions complete in bounded time, the passive state can Step I: Determine the set of connections CS which must be
be achieved in bounded time. Similarly, since the passive state unlinked to isolate nodes to be removed [to satisfy i)]. From this,
permits servicing of transactions initiated by connected nodes, together with the set of connections LS directly specified in link
they too will be permitted to progress to a passive state. However, or unlink directives, determine the set of nodes QS (quiescent
for the configuration manager to achieve quiescence of some set) which must be made quiescent to satisfy i) and ii) above,
target node, it is necessary to make the target node passive and i.e.,
also to create a region of passive nodes (the passive set) around it. CS = { connections c I c is a connection to/from a node to be
This will achieve a stable situation where there are no incomplete removed}
or active transactions. This together with the abstraction of LS = {connections l I l is a connection in a link/unlink
application state into configuration management states forms the directive}
basis of the change protocol outlined in the next section. QS = { nodes n I n is the initiator node on a connection in
(CS U LS) or n is to be removed}.
Step 2: Form the change passive set CPS as the union of
IV. CHANGE MANAGEMENT PROTOCOL passive sets PS of each node in QS, i.e.,

A. Management View
CPS= u PS(i) forall i in QS.

In this section we outline a change protocol for systems


constructed from independent transactions. This protocol meets Step 3: Perform the configuration actions in the following order:
the change management objectives of Section II. In particular, passivate <all nodes in the change passive set CPS>
the objective of a declarative, as opposed to imperative, change unlink
specification means that changes are specified using only struc tural remove
actions create, remove, link, and unlink (see Section II). The create (could be performed at any time before link)
activate and passivate actions on nodes are essentially an link
implementation device which should not be visible to a user. activate <CPS - removed nodes + created nodes>
The following outlines a change protocol in which the change It should be noted that if the change management system
transactions, including activate and passivate actions and the permits multiple change transactions to be performed in parallel
ordering of execution, can be automatically derived from the then the set of nodes which must be locked for a change is a
change specification (see Fig. 1). superset of the change passive set. In detail, the lock set is
I) Change Rules: The change protocol involves establishing
a region of quiescence, specified as the set of nodes required LockSct = CPS U { nodes n I n is a recipient node on a
to be passive, where the change is to occur. As mentioned
connection in (CSU LS)}.
in Section II, changes involve node creation and deletion, and
connection establishment and removal. We now examine each of
the possible changes in tum and present the rules for contributing The lock set includes nodes to which connections are directed
nodes to the passive set. so that a change transaction does not attempt to make a con nection
i) Node deletion-remove. to a node which has been deleted by another concurrent transaction.
Rule: The precondition for removing a node N is that it is 3) A Simple Example: In order to illustrate the management
quiescent and isolated. By isolated, we mean that it has no view of the change protocol, we briefly describe some possible
connections directed to it from other nodes or from it to other changes for a simple client-server system. The system graph for
nodes. the client-server system is shown in Fig. 7.
Justification: An isolated node cannot affect the system and i) Adding a client: Change Passive Set = { }
so can be independently removed. ii) Unlinking or
ii) Connection-link and unlink.
Rule: The precondition for either linking or unlinking is Removing a client Cl: Change Passive Set = {Cl}
that the node N from which the connection is directed must iii) Removing the server S: Change Passive Set = { Cl, C2,
be in the quiescent state. (From Proposition 2, we know that C3,S}.
1298 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON SOFTWARE ENGINEERING, VOL. 16, NO. 11, NOVEMBER 1990

the connection initialization/finalization actions are likely to be


correspondingly complex.
The application contribution is illustrated in the detailed ex
ample in the next section.

V. EVOLVING PHILOSOPHERS

To illustrate the management scheme developed in the


Fig. 7. A simple client-server system. preceding sections, it is applied to the Dining Philosopher's
(Diners) problem (7). Philosophers are arranged in a ring with
neighboring philosophers sharing a fork. A philosopher is either
S is passive when all client transactions have completed. In
thinking, hungry, or eating. To move from the hungry to the
order to replace the server S with a modified server S', the
eating state a philosopher must acquire both his left-hand and
following change specification is provided:
right-hand fork. The solution presented below is a modification to
remove S <and unlink dangling connections> the fully distributed diners solution due to Chandy and Misra (5)
to permit dynamic change. First, we outline Chandy and Misra's
create S'
solution for a static number of philosophers and then describe the
link Cl to S', C2 to S', C3 to S' modifications necessary to permit arbitrary changes to a dining
philosopher system such as the addition/deletion (birth/death)
and the derived change transaction is as follows:
of philosophers and the merging/splitting of communities of
passivate Cl, C2, C3, S & create S' philosophers. Coping with these dynamic changes is the evolving
philosophers problem. Based on the change model, a solution is
unlink Cl from S, C2 from S, C3 from S
described below. This solution has been implemented and tested
<unlink dangling connections> in the Conic environment for distributed programming (14), (15),
remove S [19).

link Cl to S', C2 to S', C3 to S'


A. Chandy and Misra 's Hygienic Solution to the Diners Problem
activate Cl, C2, C3, S'
Each philosopher P; is implemented as a process which
communicates with its left- and right-hand neighbors by asyn
B. Application Contribution
chronous message passing. The system structure is depicted in
The description so far has concentrated on the management Fig. 8.
view of change. System consistency is an application dependent Chandy and Misra describe their solution informally as fol
notion and in general requires nodes to contribute to its preserva lows: "A fork is either clean or dirty. A fork being used to eat
tion. One of the main contributions that an application node with is dirty and remains dirty until it is cleaned. A clean fork
must make is preservation of the passive state, i.e., the remains clean until it is used for eating. A philosopher cleans a
application must not initiate any new transactions, but must be fork when mailing it (he is hygienic). An eating philosopher does
prepared to service transactions from other nodes. The change not satisfy requests for forks until he has finished eating." When
from active to passive state is implemented in a node by not eating, philosophers defer requests for forks that are clean
converting the general description of the passive state into an and satisfy requests for forks that are dirty. This solution can be
invariant constraint in application terms (i.e., referring to local considered to implement a precedence graph such that an edge
node variables) that must be preserved by the node. When in the directed from a node u to v indicates that u has precedence over
passive state, the node confirms this by responding v (Fig. 9).
assert(passive) (Fig. 6) to management. In the diners solution a philosopher node u has precedence
Furthermore, in order for a newly connected application node over its neighbor v if and only if 1) u holds the fork and it is
to preserve consistency, it must be given the opportunity to clean, or 2) v holds the fork and it is dirty, or 3) the fork is in
initialize itself so as to be consistent with its new environment. transit from v to u. Chandy and Misra showed that if initially
Similarly a node which is about to be disconnected must be given all forks are dirty and located at philosophers such that the
the opportunity to clean up in order to leave its environment precedence graph is acyclic it will remain acyclic since 1) the
in some consistent state. These opportunities are provided for direction of an edge (from u to v) can only change when u starts
in the management protocol by the link and unlink transitions eating and 2) both edges on a philosopher are simultaneously
(Fig. 5) where the node can, if necessary, execute such actions directed towards him when he starts eating. Chandy and Misra
as necessary. These actions may include communication with prove that since immediately on finishing eating a philosopher
other nodes. Again, completion of these actions is confirmed by yields precedence to his neighbors, all hungry philosophers will
an assert(passive) response to management. commence eating in finite time, i.e., no philosopher remains
Obviously the actual actions which need to be executed hungry forever.
at these times are application dependent. However, these are More precisely the algorithm is described as follows:
simplified by the fact that, by the change rules described above, Messages:
there is no transient information in the node. In general, these forktoken1 Passes fork f to neighbor which shares f (f can
actions may include the initiation of queries on connected take the value left or right).
nodes. The complexity depends on the complexity of the reqtokenf Passes request token for fork f to neighbor.
application and the autonomy of the node. This confirms Boolean Variables:
our intuition that, if a system is designed such that its fork(!) Philosopher holds fork f.
constituent nodes are tightly coupled and interdependent, then reqf(f) Philosopher holds the request token
KRAMER AND MAGEE: EVOLVING PHILOSOPHERS PROBLEM 1299

(R6) Philosopher eating to thinking transition:

eating,eating time expired=> thinking := true;


eating:= false

(R7) Philosopher thinking to hungry transition:

thinking,thinking time expired=> hungry := true;


thinking := false
Fig. 8. Schematic and structure of the diners system.

B. An Evolving Community of Dining Philosophers

/ P1"' 4 / P1 '
In the following we consider the creation of a ring (com

; 2p \ ;2
munity) of philosophers, addition of a new philosopher (birth),

p\ and deletion of an existing philosopher (death). Major changes


in the community are performed as the merging/splitting of
communities of philosophers.
J) Application Contribution for Dynamic Change: To permit
P4_...,..P3 P4_...,..P3
(a) (bl philosopher nodes to be subject to change we must extend the
Fig. 9 Precedence graph. (a) Pl hungry. (b) Pl eating. above algorithm to support the management/application inter face
described in Section III. In particular, the algorithm must
support the passive state and provide initialization (finalization)
for fork f.
dirty(!) Fork f is at philosopher and is dirty. actions when a philosopher is linked (unlinked) to (from) another
thinking/ hungry/eating: State of philosopher.
philosopher. The consistency requirements in the system are:
Initialization:
i) that a fork is always shared between two adjacent, con
1) All forks are dirty. nected philosophers, and
2) Forks distributed among philosophers such that the prece ii) that the precedence graph remains acyclic.
dence graph is acyclic.
The base case of a single philosopher node is taken care of by
3) If u and v are neighbors then either u holds the fork and v
connecting it to itself, thereby permitting it to possess two forks.
the request token or vice versa.
a) Philosopher Passive State: From the definition of passive
The algorithm for each philosopher is described as a set of (Section III) a philosopher is in the passive state if firstly, it is
rules guard=>action which form a single guarded command. not currently engaged in a transaction which it has initiated (i.e.,
(Rl) Requesting a fork f: it has not sent a reqtoken which has not yet been answered by
a forktoken) and secondly, it will not initiate new transactions,
i.e., it is not hungry and it will not become hungry.
hungry,reqf(f), ~fork(!)=> send(reqtokenf);
active True when this philosopher is in the active man-
rcqf(f) := false agement state.
passive True when this philosopher is in the passive state.
(R2) Releasing a fork f: activate Management request to make philosopher active.
passivate Management request to make philosopher passive.
(R7)* Philosopher thinking to hungry transition:
~ eating,reqf(f),dirty(f) => send(forktokenf);
active,thinking,thinking time expired=>
dirty(!) := false; fork(!) := false
hungry := true; thinking:= false

(R3) Receiving a request token for f: (R8) Passive to active transition:

activate=> assert(active)
receive(reqtoken f) => reqf(f) := true
(R9) Active to passive management transition:

(R4) Receiving a fork token for f: ~ hungry,passivate => assert(passive)

The modified rule (R7)* ensures that a philosopher can only


receive(forktokenf) =>fork(!):= true{~ dirty(!)} move into the hungry state when it is active. Rule (R9) ensures
that a philosopher can only become passive when it is not
hungry. Since a philosopher can only initiate and be engaged in
(R5) Philosopher hungry to eating transition: transactions when it is in the hungry state, the above rules satisfy
the management requirements for active and passive states. Note
hungry, fork(left), fork( right) = > that, when neighboring philosophers are both passive, neither
is hungry. In this case, the shared fork will be dirty and the
eating:= true; hungry:= false; dirty(left) := true; precedence edge will be directed towards the holder of the dirty
dirty(right) := true; fork.
1300 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON SOFIWARE ENGINEERING, VOL. 16, NO. 11, NOVEMBER 1990

b) Philosopher Link and Unlink Actions: The following rules


When two philosophers are connected together, we can satisfy
deal with the actions required to unlink and link a connection
fork sharing by ensuring that only one fork is allocated between
between philosophers.
them. To achieve this, we assume that each philosopher has a
Messages:
unique identity and that these identities have a total ordering.
new_forRtoken r Passes new fork f to neighbor which shares The philosopher which precedes its neighbor in the total
f for connection initialization. ordering decides where a fork is to be allocated. Consequently
new_reqtokenr Passes new request token for fork f to only one fork is allocated. To satisfy preservation of the acyclic
neighbor. precedence graph, allocation must be such that at least one
link(pr) Management request to initialize a connec philosopher ends up having two dirty forks or none. In the
tion to philosopher which shares fork f with following, we demonstrate that rules (R12) and (R13) maintain
this philosopher. an acyclic precedence graph for arbitrary changes.
Management request to finalize a connection 2) Creating a Community of Philosophers: The following con
to philosopher which shares fork f with this figuration specification describes a ring of N philosopher pro
philosopher. cesses:
thisp The unique identity of this philosopher. RING(p, N) ::
other(!) The other fork from/that a philosopher uses
(e.g., other(left) = right). forall i: l..Ncreate p[i];
(RlO) Connection finalization: forall i : l..N
unlink(pr) => link p[i] to p[(i mod N) + l],
fork(!) := false; reqf(f) := false; dirty(!) := false p[(i mod N) + 1] to p[i];
assert(passive) The corresponding change transaction in this case is simply the
specification with the added activate actions as follows:
(R11) Initializing a connection to Pr where Pr= thisp (i.e., this
philosopher) forall i : l..N activate p[i].
link(Pr),Pr = thisp => To preserve the precedence graph invariant, the forks must be
fork(!) := true; reqf(f) := false; dirty(!) := true distributed asymmetrically such that at least one philosopher has
assert (passive) no forks and correspondingly one has two forks (see
initialization conditions for the original algorithm). Rules (Rl2)
(R12) Initializing a connection to Pr where Pr > thisp (i.e., this and (R13) achieve this since the identity of one philosopher must
philosopher allocates fork) precede all others in the total ordering. This philosopher will
allocate forks to both its neighbors (Rl2) and consequently have
link(pJ),PJ > thisp => no forks itself.
if fork (other(!)) then { if the philosopher has 3) Birth of a New Philosopher: The following configuration
the other fork} specification adds a new philosopher x between existing neigh
bors u and v, where the other neighbors of u and v are t and w,
fork(!) := true; dirty(!) := true; respectively:
send (new_reqtoken r)
unlink u from v; unlink v from u
else
create x
reqf(f) := true; send(new_forktokenf)
link x to v; link x to u; link u to x; link v to x
assert(passive)
Applying the change algorithm of the previous section to
(R13) Initializing a connection to Pr where Pr < thisp (i.e., the the above change specification produces the following change
other philosopher allocates fork) transaction. From both the preconditions of unlink and link, the
quiescent set QS is determined as the two neighbors u, v of
link(pJ),Pr < thisp =>
the node to be created x. The change passive set is t, u, v, and
receive( new_reqtokenf) => reqf(f) := true w. Since neither t nor w will initiate transactions on u or v to
or receive(new_forktokenr) =>fork(!):= true; request forks, u and v can make decisions based on the state of
their forks which will not change. For example, to insert a new
dirty(!) := true
philosopher P6 between PS and Pl in the system depicted in
assert (passive) Fig. 8, PS and Pl must be quiescent since they are both linked
to each other and will be linked to the new philosopher. The
Rule (RlO) ensures that when a connection between two change passive set includes P2 and P4 as well. Note that, in the
philosophers is unlinked, the shared fork is removed. Rules (Rl change transaction outlined below, actions on the same line may
1, R,12, R13) are responsible for the allocation of forks when be executed in parallel.
connections are linked.
Rule (R11) deals with the trivial case where there is only
one philosopher which is connected to itself. In this case the passivate t, u, v, w; create x
philosopher is allocated two dirty forks so that it can eat. Rules unlink u from v; unlink v from u
(R12) and (R13) ensure that the global consistency requirements
of a system with two or more philosophers are not violated. link x to v; link x to u; link u to x; link v to x
activate t, u, v, w, x
KRAMER AND MAGEE: EVOLVING PHILOSOPHERS PROBLEM 1301

The fork shared by u and v will be discarded when they are


unlinked. On linking the pairs u and x, and x and v, the allocation
of the shared fork in each case will be made by one of the pair
such that one of each pair will end up with either two forks or
no forks.. For instance, in the example above of the addition of
P6, Pl aqd PS will perform the allocation as they precede P6 in
the total ordering. If the fork shared by P2 and Pl is currently
held by Pl, then Pl will retain the dirty fork shared with P6;
(a) (b)

and if PS does not have the fork shared with P4, then it will Fig. 10. Addition of a philosopher. (a) Before addition. (b) After addition
of P6.
allocate the other shared dirty fork to P6 (Fig. 10). This clearly
preserves the acyclic graph.
4) Death of a Philosopher: Removal of a philosopher x with
neighbors u and v (where the opposite neighbors of u and v are
t and w, respectively) is specified by the following program:

remove x P4 .P3

link v to u; link u to v (a) (b)

Fig. 11. Removal of a philosopher. (a) Before removal. (b) Pl removed.

l
This results in the following change transaction:

passivate t, u, v, w, x
RING(pa,N) RING(pb,M)
unlink u from x; unlink v from x link

remove x I M

link v to u; link u to v
activate t, u, v, w -1-
- 1

2
- 5

4
I 3

This transaction ensures that u, v, and x will be in the quiescent Fig. 12. Merging philosopher rings.
state before x is unlinked and removed. Consequently, on linking,
u and v can make decisions based on the state of their forks which
will not change. As before, allocation will ensure that one of the
pair ends up with two or no forks. For example, if in Fig. 11 we link pa[l] to pb[l], pb[l] to pa[l],
removed philosopher Pl, P2 would retain the dirty fork shared pa[2] to pb[2], pb[2] to pb[2]
with PS as it has the fork shared with P3, thereby preserving
acyclic precedence. activate pa[N], pa[l], pa[2], pa[3], pb[M], pb[l], pb[2],
5) Merging Two Communities of Philosophers: Given two pb[3];
communities (rings) of philosophers, called pa of size N and pb
of size M, respectively, Fig. 12 shows which connections must To justify that this change maintains an acyclic precedence
be unlinked and which must be linked to merge the two rings of graph we need only be concerned with the connection between
philosophers. The shaded nodes indicate the change passive set. philosophers which completes the ring. In Fig. 12, this is per
The change is specified as follows: formed between pa[l] and pb[l] or between pa[2] and pb[2].
Rules (Rl2) and (R13), defined for the linking and unlinking
MERGE:: of philosophers, ensure that the philosopher which allocates the
fork on that connection retains the fork if it has the other shared
unlinkpa[l] from pa[(l mod N)) + 1],pa[(l mod N)) + 1] fork, otherwise it allocates the fork to its neighbor. In the former
from pa[l], case, the allocating philosopher will have two dirty forks, in the
pb[l] from pb[(l mod M)) + l],pb[(l mod M)) + 1] latter no forks. In fact, in the situation where neither the allocating
philosopher nor its newly connected neighbor has another fork, it
from pb[l]; does not matter where the new fork is allocated since some other
link pa[l] to pb[l],pb[l] to pa[l]; philosopher must have two forks. This can be easily argued as
follows:
pa[(l mod N)) + 1] to pb[(l mod M)) + 1], There are n philosophers and n forks; the two philosophers
pb[(l mod M)) + 1] to pa[(l mod M)) + 1]; being connected have 1 fork, consequently the remaining n-2
philosophers have n-1 forks. Therefore, one of these n-2 philoso
The corresponding change transaction is: phers must have 2 forks. The original algorithm ensures that a
philosopher cannot hold a clean and a dirty fork simultaneously;
MERGE_TRANSACTION :: consequently, the precedence graph must be acyclic.
passivate pa[N], pa[l], pa[2], pa[3], pb[M], pb[l], pb[2], Note that inserting a new philosopher into an existing ring of
pb[3]; philosophers is equivalent to merging a ring of one philosopher.
RING(newphil,1), with an existing ring. Splitting a ring into two
unlinkpa[l] frompa[2],pa[2] frompa[l], smaller rings requires a change specification opposite to that of
pb[l] frompb[2],pb[2] frompb[l]; MERGE. As before, the connection which completes each ring
preserves the global invariant.
1 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON SOFTWARE ENGINEERING, VOL. 16, NO. 11, NOVEMBER

This section has shown how the management protocol is


applied to a specific application. Only those philosophers in the

G
s1/r1
change passive set are affected by the change allowing the rest
of the system to proceed with its normal execution. Changes
can be carded out in parallel as the stable states ensured by node
e
s21r2

quiescence permits consistent decisions to be made during linking


0)
s3/r3
and unlinking. The different cases described in this example
have been prototyped and validated in the Conic environment Fig. 13. Client-agent-manager interaction using dependent transactions.
for distributed programming [14), [15], [19]. Further work is
required to integrate the change management states into the
current environment. ing transactions. There arc two main approaches to providing
quiescence in such systems with dependent transactions:
1) Require that consequent transactions are recognized in the
VI. DEPENDENT TRANSACTIONS application.
In the discussions above, we have considered only two party M must recognize that the transactions with S are part of and
independent transactions. We now relax the restriction of in a consequence of a wider transaction, and that the passive state
dependence and discuss systems using dependent transactions, can only be reached when that client transaction completes (i.e.,
which involve one or more consequent transactions. In general, M must wait for completion of the client usc of the printer before
systems include both independent and dependent two party it can become passive). This approach has the disadvantage of
transactions. having to embed, in the application, knowledge of all the transac
• A dependent transaction is a two-party transaction whose tion dependencies. In addition, this information would be hidden
completion may depend on the completion of other conse from the configuration view. Transactions would implicitly ripple
quent transactions. back and require some time to complete, although we would still
require that they do so in bounded time. Another possibility is
This is described more precisely as follows: l; is a dependent to abort transactions with consequents when in the passive state.
transaction if there exists a chain of transactions t,, tn • • • t, in For example, M could abort the client transaction with C. This
which each, with the exception of t,, may depend for completion
carries the overhead of complicating C such that it must regain
on the completion of its (consequent) successor transaction. We
consistency after transaction abortion (cf. recovery). Aborting
do not forbid cycles in this chain, but require that:
reduces dependent transactions to independent transactions at the
1) progress is made to ensure that the transaction is still expense of complicating the application code.
bounded, 2) Expand the passive set to include all nodes initiating depen
2) that deadlock is avoided (for example, that it is not a cycle dent transactions which result in transactions on the link or node
of nested transactions). targeted for change.
We require that the initiator of a dependent transaction is This requires that transaction dependencies are reflected up to
informed of the completion of consequent transactions. This and taken account of at the configuration level. Since it is at the
enables a node to determine when transactions, which it initiated, configuration level that we wish to manage changes, this is the
have completed and hence when it has achieved a passive state. preferred approach.

A. Extension of the Independent Transaction Approach


B. Generalized Passive State for Systems Using
Consider a number of client nodes Ci which access a printer Dependent Transactions
server S via their agent Ai and a server manager node M (Fig. 13).
The proposed approach for systems using dependent transac
In this case, a transaction may consist of a sequence of message
tions is to expand the passive set PS(Q) to include those nodes
interactions involving Ci, Ai, M, and S. For instance, Cl may
which initiate transactions which have consequent transactions on
initiate transaction s1 to request a print service; completion
the node Q required to be quiescent. However, the passive state
of s1 is dependent on the consequent transactions rl and p,
may not be reachable for nodes utilizing dependent transactions.
which Al and finally M will initiate to S, to actually print the Consider the example in Figure 14. In this system suppose N3
lines. Dependent transactions and their potential consequent(s)
is in the passive state and NI has initiated transaction a. In this
are denoted as dependent/consequent(s), as illustrated in Fig. 13
situation transaction a cannot complete because transaction b can
where si is dependent on ri, which is dependent on p.
not complete because N3 cannot initiate c. Consequently, neither
The change transaction discussed in relation to independent NI nor N2 can move into the passive state in bounded time
transactions, such as removal of S, would require that M is if requested. Hence, Proposition I does not hold for dependent
quiescent and all agents Ai, M, and S are in the passive state. systems.
This implies that S could be removed when M and A complete We could consider providing an ordering on the passive set
their current two party transactions ri and p, and S completes the such that nodes are made passive in the order of the dependence
associated processing. However, since Ci may still have further graph. In the example in Fig. 14 we would passivate in the order
lines to send (si is not complete and may require further ri and Nl then N2 then N3. However, this order cannot be determined
p transactions), this is clearly not sufficient to maintain system in general. In the example in Fig. 15, transaction alb requires Nl
consistency. before N2, whereas c/d requires N2 followed by NI.
Hence, if the change passive set of nodes consists only of the A more appropriate approach is to generalize the definition of
set of nodes which can initiate transactions on a target quiescent the passive state to include the means for dependent transactions
node plus the node itself, there is no guarantee that the node to complete:
is in the quiescent state. Nodes may still initiate consequent
• A node in the general passive state must accept and service
transactions on the target node to satisfy completion of arriv-
transactions and initiate consequent transactions, but
KRAMER AND MAGEE: EVOLVING PHILOSOPHERS 1

a/b blc

• Fig. 14. A system with cyclic dependencies. Fig. 16. Independent and dependent transactions on node N.

Proposition 3': Reachability of the Quiescent state.


Given the generalized definition of the passive state and the
enlarged passive set, Proposition 3 holds for both independent
Fig. 15. A system wilh mutual dependencies. and dependent systems.
.Iustification 3':
Follows directly from Propositions 1' and 2'.
1) it is not currently engaged in a (nonconsequent) trans
action that it initiated, and D. Change Rules
2) it will not initiate any new (nonconsequent) transactions. The change rules remain as before, except that the region of
Thus a node in the general passive state must respond to quiescence where the change is to occur results in an enlarged
transactions while it is in the passive state, and, it must initiate set of passive nodes specified by the EPS.
any consequent transactions required for the completion of the
transactions to which it responds. For independent transactions, E. Composition Rules
the definition of the general passive state reduces to the same
In the foregoing, we have been concerned with flat or one level
as passive.
graphs of connected nodes. However, in general, we arc concerned
For example, in Fig. 16, if node N is in the general passive
with an hierarchic graph structure such that nodes at one-level may
state it must not initiate x or y as a result of responding to b
themselves be implemented as graphs of connected nodes at the
or c. However, it may initiate x to permit completion of a. (For
next level of detail. For example, in the Conic system which
conciseness, we henceforth use passive to mean general passive
represents systems as configurations of logical nodes, these logical
where such use is unambiguous.)
nodes are themselves implemented as a graph of subnodes or tasks.
The Conic logical node is the unit of change and allocation, and the
task is the unit of concurrency [19]. To ensure that the change
C. Resultant Properties for Systems Using management system need be concerned with only one level of the
Dependent Transactions configuration graph at a time we must be able to derive the
transaction dependency relations of a node from those of its
Proposition 1': Reachability of the Passive state. subnodcs. In the following, a node which is composed of subnodes
Given the generalized definition of the passive state, is referred to as a composite node. A substitution rule can be used
Proposition 1 holds for systems using both independent and to determine the dependencies of composite nodes from the
dependent transactions. dependencies of their constituent nodes.
Justification I': Node Composition by substitution: In composing two nodes,
As for Proposition 1, with the added justification that depen substitute the consequents for each occurrence of the dependent
dent transactions will also complete in bounded time even if transaction which is hidden by the composition (see Fig. 17).
the recipient nodes are in the (general) passive state since they For more complex structures, the rule can be used for each
respond to and can initiate consequent transactions. connection and by repeated application for each node composi tion.
The definition of quiescence for systems using dependent For example, consider the fork structure in Fig. 18, where a is
transactions remains the same as that for independent transactions potentially dependent on b and/or c.
(see Section III). However, as discussed above, the passive set Internal transactions are not visible in composite nodes. For
must be expanded in order to account for dependent transactions example, each philosopher node of the Evolving Philosophers
which lead to consequent transactions on the node. problem can be (and was) implemented as a composite node
• The enlarged passive set EPS for a node Q, EPS(Q), is as shown in Fig. 19. This solution structure follows that of [1]
defined as follows: (which addresses only the original Dining Philosophers problem).
1) all nodes in PS(Q) are in EPS. The philosopher subnode implements a simple state machine
2) all nodes which can initiate dependent transactions which to control the transitions between thinking, hungry, and eating,
result in consequent transactions on Q are in EPS. while the servant subnode encapsulates the protocols necessary to
Proposition 2': Passive requirements for the Quiescent state. acquire forks. The internal transactions re/forks and getforks are
Given the generalized definition of the passive state and the not visible in the composite node Phil. it should also be noted
enlarged passive set, Proposition 2 holds for both independent that the dependency of the philosopher transaction getforks on
and dependent systems (i.e., if node N and all nodes in the the consequent transactions reqright and reqleft (the transactions
enlarged passive set with respect to N are passive, then N is to request a left and a right fork) is uot visible in the composite
quiescent). node. However, this dependency means that for the node Phil
Justification 2': to be passive both its subnodes (philosopher and servant) must
As for Proposition 2, with the added justification that all be passive.
nodes which can initiate transactions (independent, dependent, In our prototype implementation of change management in
or consequent) on N are passive, then all transactions involving Conic, we have adopted the following simplified but pragmatic
N will be complete. strategy. The change management system views the system as
a one-level graph of logical nodes. As mentioned above, logical
1 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON SOFTWARE ENGINEERING, VOL 16, NO. 11, NOVEMBER

Change specifications should be independent of the algorithms,


protocols, and states of the application.
The node configuration states (active, passive) abstract away
the specific application states, and provide a convenient means
Fig. 1 . Derived dependencies for simple node composition. for viewing and controlling the application.
Changes should leave the system in a consistent state.
The passive and quiescent states together with the possi ble
inclusion of connection initialization and finalization code
provide the application with the means to preserve application
consistency in a convenient and pragmatic manner.
Changes should minimize the disruption to the application
system.
The change passive set identifies the set of nodes affected by
Fig. 18. Derived dependencies for repeated node composition. a change. In fact, the set is not currently minimal. For instance,
in the client server example in Section IV, the clients need only
be passive with respect to the particular server being removed
and need not actually be prevented from initializing transactions
on other (unillustrated) nodes.
Let us consider the connection level further. The current model
provides for change in the form of creation and deletion of
.. ht
nodes, and connection changes. Change which only involves
connections could place emphasis on each connection rather
---+-<re qright reqlett
than the entire node which initiates that connection. Thus the
state of each connection (disconnected or connected-passive or
connected-active) could be modeled, together with the consis
tency preserving actions associated with each connection. This
Fig. 19. Composite philosopher node. leads to a finer grain model in which a node can be active with
respect to one connection yet passive with respect to another.
This approach appears to be promising in its ability to describe
nodes are both the unit of change and the unit of allocation in connection changes at a finer level of granularity however, it
Conic. Logical nodes are constrained by design to communicate does require more passive substates. Furthermore, the design of
by independent transactions so that the management system need the connection level actions seems to be more difficult since
not be aware of dependency information. The structure of a the node and its environment may be partially active thereby
logical node is fixed at node instantiation time. Transactions making consistency more difficult to attain. Hence, although
between subnodes can be independent or dependent as shown our current approach of requiring complete node quiescence
in Fig. 19. To simplify local node management we have may not be minimal in terms of the disruption to a system,
implemented the rule that a logical node is passive when all its it does seem to be sufficient and far simpler to reason about
constituent nodes are passive. A local entity collates management and use.
state for each logical node.
Composition thus provides a coarser grain for system con
figuration and dynamic change management. For a finer grain, A. Dependent and Independent Transactions
decomposition can be used (where appropriate) to expose the
internal structure of connected nodes to make them accessible The approach adopted for dependent transactions generalizes
to change. the passive state of a node to permit initiation of consequent
transactions and enlarges the passive set to include nodes
which can initiate dependent transactions with consequents
on the nodes previously in the set. This expansion of the
passive set corresponds to our intuition that changes to systems
VII. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS which are more interdependent require more global quiescence
This paper has presented a comprehensive model of change and cause more disturbance (i.e., close-coupling makes change
management which clearly separates the management respon more difficult). We believe that the model confirms and, to
sibilities and view from that of the application (see Fig. 1). some extent, quantifies that interdependence. One approach
In particular, the objectives given in Section II have been ap to alleviating this interdependence, is to compose dependent
proached as follows. nodes together so that composite nodes communicate using
Changes should be specified in terms of the system structure. only independent transactions. Changes must then be performed
Changes are specified in terms of the primitives create, at a "coarse grain" level on composite nodes rather than on
remove, link, and unlink which refer only to system structure. In constituent dependent nodes. Alternatively, dependent systems
fact, changes specified in these primitives could be derived from can be reduced to independent systems for the purpose
the difference between specifications of the current and desired of management, if transactions can be aborted by passive
system structures. nodes. The cost of this is the extra complexity incurred
Changes specifications should be declarative. by the application to preserve consistency in the presence
It is the derived change transactions which include the change of aborted transactions (cf. atomic transactions). However,
control actions (activate and passivate) and specify the paral in real systems, this cost may be inevitable to deal with
lelism or sequencing of the actual change execution. failure.
KRAMER AND MAGEE: EVOLVING PHILOSOPHERS 1

B. Detection of the Passive State


way. Given that even the transformational approach needs to
The transactions used in the model require that the initiator describe nontrivial systems as some composition of components,
is aware of the completion of the transaction, whether it is our model provides a means for obtaining the required structural
dependent or independent (see the definition in Section II). This changes from the new structural specification (Fig. 2) and of
is required _in order that a node can determine when outstanding deriving the change transactions for integration of the changes
transactions that it initiated are complete and hence when it is dynamically. Hence, although at first sight the two approaches
passive. If this were not the case, it is possible that a node appear to be incompatible, our model provides a systematic and
could assume completion of a transaction which was actually pragmatic basis which could be used in conjunction with the
delayed in communication and still outstanding. This requirement transformational approach.
could be relaxed to permit, for instance, asynchronous messages
if the node or management system used some other method D. Further Work
for detecting termination of transactions. This would require
use of a distributed termination algorithm such as the diffusing The paper has concentrated on evolutionary change where
detection algorithm of Francez [8]. Assuming that messages do change is instigated by an agent external to the system. However,
not overtake one another, the management system could initiate the change protocol can equally be invoked internally by the
detection by sending queries along the dependency chains of the application. The application can minimize the disruption caused
nodes in the passive set and obtaining confirmation if all nodes by a change by instigating the change when quiescence is
agree that they are indeed passive. detected rather than externally imposed.
Change could also occur as a result of failure. Although
not explicitly handled by the model, we believe that failures
C. Related Work can be handled if the nodes incorporate the necessary recovery
The changes described in this model are directed at the actions. These would be used to restore the remaining system to
operational system itself, in terms of changes to the software consistency in conjunction with the reconfiguration actions which
components and their interconnections. It can be contrasted with could be triggered by detection of failure. This area requires
the model for change incorporated in the Inscape Environment further investigation.
[21] which concentrates on change validation in relation to The management of evolutionary change is a difficult but
a static definition of the system. lnscape utilizes a semantic important issue. It is therefore essential that the techniques
interconnection model which could form a useful adjunct to our adopted are both practical and soundly based. We believe that
model by permitting static change validation before application to our approach, with its clear separation of structural management
the system itself. A promising and related approach which could and application concerns, is very promising in these regards.
be used to model and analyze dynamic configuration changes Some small case studies have been prototyped and tested in the
has been suggested using graph grammars (Garp [11] and b. Conic environment for distributed programming which provides
Grammars [12]). This provides a formal graphical description both textual and graphical facilities for performing dynamic
of system structure which is equivalent to our configuration configuration changes [16]. It now remains to be further refined,
specification. Changes are specified in terms of b. transitions formalized, and tested on larger case studies.
which act on the system structure to produce new structures.
However, unlike our approach, they have chosen to model aspects ACKNOWLEDGMENT
such as message passing at the structural level, thereby making
The authors would like to acknowledge discussions with our
the specification of changes rather more complex than ours at
colleagues M. Sloman, N. Dulay, K. Twidle, and K. Ng during
the configuration level. Also, their model appears to be purely
the formulation of these ideas. In particular we acknowledge the
for specification purposes, and gives no indication as to how
contribution of A. Young in prototyping and refining the change
it might be realized. For instance, it is not clear how detailed
management model.
consistency constraints, such as those preserved by the actions in
the evolving philosophers, could be modelled in b.-grammars.
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[4] T. Bloom, "Dynamic module replacement in a distributed system,"
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using transformational techniques. However, in order to avoid Eds. New York: Academic, 1972.
[8] N. Francez, "Distributed termination," ACM TOPLAS, vol. 2,
regenerating the entire system, the changed parts need to be iden no. 1, pp. 42-55, Jan. 1980.
tified and generated. Also, dynamic introduction of the changes to [9] 0. Frieder and M. E. Segal, "Dynamic program updating in a
an operational system would still need to be supported in some distributed computer system," in Proc. IEEE Conf Software Main
tenance, Phoenix, AZ, Oct. 1988, pp. 198-203.
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[10] S. A. Friedberg, "Transparent reconfiguration requires a third-party


connect," Dep. Comput. Sci., Univ. Rochester, Rochester, NY, Jeff Kramer received the B.Sc. (Eng) degree
Tech. Rep. TR220, Nov. 1987. in electrical engineering from the University of
[11] S. M. Kaplan and G. E. Kaiser, "Garp: Graph abstractions for Natal, South Africa, in 1970, and the M.Sc.
concurrent programming," in Proc. ESOP '88, Nancy, France, and Ph.D. degrees in computing science from
March 1988. New York: Springer-Verlag, pp. 191-205. Imperial College, London, England, in 1972 and
[12] S. M'. Kaplan, S. K. Goering, and R.H. Campbell, "Specifying 1979, respectively.
concurrent systems with .6.-grammars," in Proc. 5th Int. Workshop He is currently a Senior Lecturer in the De
Software Specification and Design, Pittsburgh, PA, May 1989, partment of Computing at Imperial College. His
pp. 20-27. research interests include requirements analysis
[13] J. Kramer and R. J. Cunningham, "Towards a notation for the techniques, design methods, software construc
functional design of distributed processing systems," in Proc. IEEE tion languages, and tool support environments,
1978 Int. Conf Parallel Processing, Aug. 1978, pp. 69-76. especially as applied to distributed software. He was principle investiga
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tributed systems," IEEE Trans. Software Eng., vol. SE-11, no. 4, of the various research projects which led to the development of the
pp. 424-436, Apr. 1985. Conic Environment for Distributed Programming. He is coauthor of a
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building distributed systems," IEE Proc., vol. 134, part D, no. 2, Technical Director of a major ESPRIT project, REX, on reconfigurable
pp. 73-82, Mar. 1987. and extensible parallel and distributed systems.
[16] J. Kramer, J. Magee, and K. Ng, "Graphical configuration program Dr. Kramer is a member of the IEE, the Association for Computing
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Nov. 1982.
sity, Belfast, Northern Ireland, with a degree
[19] J. Magee, J. Kramer, and M. Sloman, "Constructing distributed sys
in electrical engineering in 1973. After working
tems in conic," IEEE Trans. Software Eng., vol. 15, pp. 663-675,
with the British Post Office on the design and
June 1989.
[20] J. Misra, "Reasoning about networks of communicating processes," development of System X he returned to college
INRIA Advanced NATO Studies Inst. Logics and Models for where he received the M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees
Verification and Specification of Concurrent Systems, Nice, France, in computing science from Imperial College,
1984. London, England, in 1978 and 1984, respec
[21] D. E. Perry, "Software interconnection models," in Proc. 9th Int. tively.
Conf Software Engineering, Apr. 1987, pp. 142-149. He is currently a Senior Lecturer in the De
partment of Computing at Imperial College. His
research interests include parallel algorithm design, distributed operating
systems and languages, and tool support for distributed systems. He was
a principle investigator of the various research projects funded by
British Coal and SERC which led to the development of the Conic
Environment.
Dr. Magee is a member of the IEE.
New Paradigms in Organization Development: Positivity, Spirituality, and Comp...
Fahri Karakas
Organization Development Journal; Spring 2009; 27, 1; ABI/INFORM Global
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Full length Research Paper

Clarifying spiritual values among organizational


development personnel
Akbar Husain and Aqeel Khan*
Department of Educational Psychology and Counseling, Faculty of Education, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala
Lumpur, Malaysia.
Accepted 17 December 2009

Values lie at the core of all human behavior. Initially, it was believed that human behavior could be best
explained in terms of one’s personality system, including needs, motives, beliefs, goals and attitudes.
But eventually, the emphasis shifted towards values, as there are many aspects of human behavior that
cannot be attributed to the former concepts, but where values play an important role. The authors
believe that values make personnel life more meaningful and give them a sense of direction for
organizational performance and development. In this article, the authors have discussed the sources of
values, early assumptions about values, a value based approach to organizations and value
assessment. Recommendations have also been offered for the human resource managers to inculcate
spiritual values among personnel that may in turn be fruitful for organizational development.

Key words: Spiritual values, organizational development.

INTRODUCTION

Industrial organizations are mainly concerned for produc- Spiritual leadership and values
tivity and quality by personnel. Spiritual values of the
personnel are the prerequisites for the organizational Earlier studies has established link between spiritual
health and development. Surprisingly, spiritual values of values and leadership. For example, Fry (2003) defines
the personnel are treated casually in organizations. This spiritual leadership as “the values, attitudes, and
fact has made many organizations to think that person- behaviors necessary to intrinsically motivate one's self
nel’s spiritual values should be viewed as a potential and others so that they have a sense of spiritual survival
resource in organization rather than as something to be through calling and membership” (p. 694-695). He says
ignored. According to Mohamed et al. (2001), organiza- that spiritual leadership is treated more as an observable
tional theories and models that ignore the spiritual phenomenon occurring when a person in a leadership
dimension will remain deficient. They said in this context: position embodies spiritual values such as integrity,
“our current models of micro and macro behavior do not honesty and humility, creating the self as an example of
account for spirituality and its effects and, as such, some someone who can be trusted, relied upon and admired.
of these models may be misleading or incomplete” (p. A research on effective leadership traits and behaviors
647). Values of the personnel may improve quality of pro- (Den Hartog et al., 1999) claims that attributes and
ducts and services and a better workplace. To achieve practices widely associated with spirituality have been
the organizational goal, that is, a satisfied workforce, found to have a global appeal. More than half of the
spiritual values must be owned and practiced by all the universally endorsed leader attributes (14 out of 22) may
personnel. be considered to be associated with spirituality, values
and ethics: “positive, trustworthy, just, win-win problem
solver, encouraging motive arouser, communicative,
excellence-oriented, confidence builder, honest, dynamic,
*Corresponding author. E-mail: draqeelkhan@gmail.com. team builder, motivational and dependable” (Den Hartog
Husain and Khan 279

et al., 1999, p. 239). Leaders who view their own work as world (Richards and Bergin, 1997). The following
a means of spiritual growth have also been shown to assumptions about values, particularly naturalism, ethical
increase organizational performance (Himmelfarb, 1994). relativism, ethical hedonism and positivism seem to be
Mitroff and Denton (1999) found that many individuals are closely linked to the organizational development.
looking for ways to express their spirituality in their work.
Workers who are able to express their spirituality through
their work, find work more satisfying. Early assumptions about values
Realizing the importance of incorporating spiritual
values in the workplace and the possession of spiritual Naturalism
values in spiritual leaders and workers, we considered
that organizations should consider the value system, par- It is the belief that the “universe is self-sufficient, without
ticularly the spiritual ones, among personnel to facilitate supernatural cause or control” (Honer and Hunt, 1987,
their job performance and productivity that in turn may be p.225). Naturalists assume that human beings and the
important for organizational development in a number of universe can be understood without restoring to spiritual
ways. This article also discuss sources of values, some explanations and that “the explanation of the world given
early assumptions about values, value based approach to by the sciences is the only satisfactory explanation of
organizations and value assessment. reality” (Honer and Hunt, 1987, p.225). This assumption
led many behavioral scientists to conclude that all moral
values are ephemeral and of human origin.
The sources of values

In an ancient tradition like India, the spiritual values as Ethical relativism


embodied in its religion and philosophy can claim to be
the primary and original source of all derived social This is the belief that “there are no universally valid
values (Ganguli, 1989). Sinha (1972) pointed out that “the principles, since all moral principles are valid relative to
moral and social qualities that are valued in a society cultural and individual values” (Percesepe, 1991, p.572).
have their roots in religion, philosophy and tradition and Thus, “whatever a culture or society holds to be right is
are relatively more enduring facets of our existence” therefore right or at least, right for them” (Solomon, 1990,
(p.153). p.235). Values are considered as relevant to profess-
There are empirical evidences that the transcendental sionals and organizations. Ethical relativism led to
and spiritual values that Indians hold is acquired from conclude that, if values are relative, then organizations
their religions and philosophies (Kakar, 1978; Mukerjee, should lay emphasis on the values of the personnel.
1949; Nehru, 1946, 1981; Radhakrishnan, 1968; Roy and
Srivastava, 1986; Sinha, 1988; Sinha, J.B.P, 1982;
Tandon, 1981; Tripathi, 1988; Verma, 1987). Ethical hedonism
Hinduism, Islam and Buddhism have been the mother
religions and the sources of values for millions of people This is the belief that “we always ought to seek our own
around the world. They are the underlying religious pleasure and that the highest good for us is the most
traditions for the systems of Yoga, Sufism and Zen, and pleasure together with the least pain” (Honer and Hunt,
are the basis of Eastern psychologies and philosophical 1987, p.222). According to some behavioral scientists
thought. (Hillner, 194; Lundin, 1985; Watson 1924/1983), human
Yoga, Sufism, Buddhist teachings have been originated beings are basically hedonistic and reward seeking. This
from a common need to understand the relationship is the reason for contradicting the assumptions of ethical
between religious practices and everyday life. All these relativism by endorsing hedonistic ethical values. Relying
three viewed morals and values in an iconoclastic and on this assumption, organizations should encourage their
practical way. Furthermore, each of them emphasized personnel to “throw off the shackles” of religion and be
transpersonal growth and experiences of the adherent. more accepting of their hedonistic tendencies.
The value systems of most cultures and societies
described as profoundly religious, have emphasized the
meditative and ecstatic experiences of the willing Positivism
individual and has meticulously outlined the process of
transpersonal growth of the self (Angyal, 1956). It holds that “knowledge is limited to observable facts and
Modern psychology began late in the 19th century. To their interactions” (Honer and Hunt, 1987, p.226), and
escape religion’s influence, behavioral scientists have that the scientific theories can be “shown to be true on
adopted a number of assumptions about reality that the basis of evidence” (Bechtel, 1988, p.18). Positivists
directly conflicted with traditional religious views of the assume that it is possible for scientists to be objective,
280 Afr. J. Bus. Manage.

impartial observers and that their empirical observations


2. The most ethical way for organizations is to assess
will eventually lead to a complete understanding of
values of the personnel during in-job training. Value
reality. Logical positivists sharply distinguished facts and
imposition should not occur when training is imparted to
values. They have advocated that only scientific thinking
the employees.
and logical assertions were to be cognitively meaningful
3. Personnel should be encouraged to have their
(Tolmin and Leary, 1992) values (understood in ethical
personal value system while disagreeing with their
terms) and were regarded as intellectually meaningless
superiors on certain issues.
(O’ Donahue, 1989; Putnam, 1993).
4. Spiritual values and beliefs affect personnel’s goals,
The assumptions discussed above could bring the
lifestyle, physical, social, mental, emotional, and spiritual
major influence on organizations’ beliefs about how
health. When appropriate, organizations should let
personnel values should be managed. In the light of the
personnel know that values have personal and
above mentioned assumptions, it hardly need to be em-
organizational consequences and help them increase the
phasized that the ultimate objective of the organization-
quality and productivity.
quality and productivity will be influenced by the values of
5. Teaching, training, and modeling spiritual values
the personnel which in turn would improve interpersonal
should be the desirable and honorable activity for the
relationships and pave the way for smooth organizational
organizational development personnel. Trainers should
change and rapid development.
accept the fact that they are value agents and purposely
Although values were excluded from mainstream
attempt to model and teach value systems to their
psychology for nearly a century, this normlessness is
personnel.
ending. Many organizations are now incorporating value
6. Personnel’s spiritual values can have a significant
system into practice. It is believed that, spiritual values of
impact on their mental, physical, social, emotional and
the personnel could increase the organizational perfor-
spiritual health. Organizations should help the personnel
mance in the right perspective. We therefore, suggest
to utilize their values and resources to assist them in their
that the organizations should pay full attention to the
efforts to grow and develop, as fully functioning persons.
clarification of spiritual values among personnel.
Spiritual values are built in the universe that is eternal
and beneficial. Spiritual values promote spirituality, health
Value assessment
and harmonious relationship. According to Richards and
Bergin (1997), humans should “often forego their own
rewards (pleasure) for the welfare of others. Respon- We believe that, there are some spiritual values that
sibility, self-sacrifice, suffering, love, and altruistic service should be cultivated among personnel through training to
are values above personal gratification (p.30). Personnel promote the organizational development. Organizations
cannot keep their values out of work domain, such as can appeal to both the human resource managers and
performing organizational roles, taking part in training, personnel for developing insights to the spiritual values.
productivity, nor should they always change or try. When Miller and C’de Baca’s (1994) list, includes a sizable
appropriate, organizations should explicitly endorse and number of spiritually-oriented values that we believe is
respectfully teach healthy values. It is the responsibility of more suitable for organizational development personnel.
the organizations to explore the personnel values, Examples of values are as follows: achievement, attrac-
especially spiritual values, to promote growth and well- tiveness, career, caring for others, equality for all, fame,
being. family, forgiveness, fun, God’s will, growth, happiness,
healthy, honesty, intimacy, justice, knowledge, loving,
pleasure, popularity, power, rationality, romance, self-
control, self-esteem spirituality and wealth.
Value-based approach to organizations
Organizations can use several techniques to assess,
explore and modify their personnel’s values and life style.
The most ethical and effective approach for organizations
For example, organizations can simply ask to the
is to assess the value of the personnel and to adopt a
personnel value-related questions such as the following:
valuing style. The spiritual valuing style may be the best
way for organizational performance and development and
1. Are you spiritually oriented?
consequently to improve quality of work life and
2. Do you believe in God or a supreme being?
satisfaction of the personnel.
3. What is purpose of your life?
Value based approach should consider the following
4. What gives your life meaning?
assumptions.
5. What is most important to you in life?
6. What spiritual values do you use to guide your life?
1. Organizations’ theoretical orientations, goals, assess-
7. What are your goals and aspirations?
ment methods and training of the personnel should be
8. Do you feel that your behavior is consistent with the
well grounded in spiritual values.
values you profess?
Husain and Khan 281

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Strategic Planning, Organizational Development, and School Page 1

Best Practices in Strategic Planning, Organizational


Development, and School Effectiveness 1

Howard M. Knoff, Ph.D.

Arkansas Department of Education—Special Education


Project ACHIEVE Incorporated

Running Head: Strategic Planning, Organizational Development, and School Effectiveness

1
This chapter is based on previous material and published works copyrighted by Project
ACHIEVE Incorporated Press, Little Rock, AR 72212. As such, the material in this chapter is
covered under those previous copyrights.
Strategic Planning, Organizational Development, and School Page

Overview

Over at least the past twenty-five years, virtually every state and school district in the country

has worked in the area of school improvement in order to improve the academic and social-

behavioral outcomes of all students. Prompted in the 1980s by the business community’s

demand for a more prepared workforce, in the 1990s by eight National Education Goals

(National Education Goals Panel, 1999), and in the new millennium by the No Child Left Behind

legislation, school-wide efforts to hold educators accountable for student outcomes are now

required, continuously monitored, and reported annually. And while a number of school

improvement models exist, their outcomes have varied (Comprehensive School Reform Quality

Center, 2006), largely due to the interdependency between these models’ ability to adapt and

respond to local school and district conditions, and the local acceptance of a particular model

along with a commitment to its sound implementation. In the end, schools and districts should

focus first on the evidence- or research-based blueprints that can help guide their school

improvement efforts. Using these blueprints as a foundation for all school-based initiatives,

strategies, and activities, schools should be able to individualize their school improvement efforts

while utilizing defensible, accountable school and schooling practices.

This chapter will integrate a number of evidence-based blueprints to provide schools and

districts with a strategic “road-map” toward successful strategic planning, organizational

development, and school effectiveness. Focused ultimately on students’ academic and social-

emotional progress and success, the blueprints also will address school management, classroom

instruction, and professional development. As a first pragmatic step, however, schools need to

be guided by four fundamental questions as the core of their continuous, outcome-based

improvement journey:
Strategic Planning, Organizational Development, and School Page

1. How do we design and deliver an evidence-based academic and instruction system that

successfully addresses the differentiated needs of all students while improving their rate of

learning such that they progress through the grade levels and graduate from high school with

functional and extended skills; and how do we create functional assessment and monitoring

approaches that are curriculum-based and that are used to evaluate the impact of this

instructional system and guide development of successful, strategic interventions when students

do not respond to effective instruction?

2. How do we design and deliver an evidence-based positive behavioral support system that

increases all students’ interpersonal, problem-solving, and conflict resolution (i.e., social) skills;

that creates safe and connected classroom and school environments; and that maximizes

students’ motivation and their academic engagement, independence, and confidence; and how do

we create functional assessment and monitoring approaches that are ecologically-based and

culturally-sensitive, and that are used to evaluate these school-wide efforts and guide the

development of successful strategic and/or intensive interventions when students do not respond?

3. How do we increase our parent outreach and involvement so that all parents are motivated,

capable, and involved in activities that support and reinforce the education of all students? To

complement this, how do we increase our community outreach and involvement so that real

interagency and community collaboration occurs resulting in effective, efficient, and integrated

services to all students at needed prevention, strategic intervention, and intensive service levels?

4. Finally, how do we design and deliver this integrated, unified educational system through a

strategic planning and organizational development process that incorporates data-based

functional assessment and problem-solving to guide decision making and provide ongoing

formative and summative evaluation? Moreover, how do we institutionalize this process such
Strategic Planning, Organizational Development, and School Page

that it becomes self-generating, self-replicating, and responsive to current and future student

needs?

All of these needs and questions are essential to ongoing school improvement and success.

But one “common denominator” determines all levels of improvement and success: the positive,

collaborative relationships among the individuals actually implementing any strategically

planned evidence-based initiative. That is, any school can choose and plan to implement an

evidence-based school improvement program. But, process determines outcome. If that

program is not implemented with integrity, enthusiasm, commitment, collaboration, and

consistency, the “evidence base” becomes irrelevant and insignificant. School improvement and

success is “all about the people.” And the process needed for success involves “Seven C’s”:

Communication, Caring, Commitment, Collaboration, Consultation, Consistency, and

Celebration.

On a more formal level, we have known, figuratively, about the Seven C’s for over a decade.

For example, the Annie E. Casey Foundation (1995) sponsored a 5-year, five community New

Futures grant program to prepare disadvantaged urban youth for successful lives as adults. After

investing an average of $10 million in each community over 5 years, the foundation evaluated

the implementation and planned change process to help future initiatives to be more efficient and

effective. In the end, the key lesson was that, in the low-income communities involved, systems-

level initiatives, by themselves, could not transform poor educational, school, and health

outcomes for vulnerable children and families. That is, institutional change was not enough; the

comprehensive change process required home school and community collaboration that included

social-capital and other economic-development initiatives targeting entire low-income

neighborhoods. Among the other lessons described in this report were the following:
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1. Comprehensive reforms are very difficult and involve, at times, the path of most

resistance. True integration at the service-delivery level requires collective decision making

across budgeting, staffing, and resource allocation; good communication and clear program

planning, purpose, design, and expectations; attention to issues of power, race, and ethnicity; and

time, trust, risk-taking, and perseverance.

2. Comprehensive reform requires advanced and ongoing efforts to build constituencies

that are committed to long-term efforts, to strategic planning, and to the development of systems

that can sustain the change process over time and through changes in leadership.

3. Comprehensive reform is not for every community, nor is every community at a

readiness level to begin this process. Comprehensive reform efforts must be planned, public,

realistic, and shared; and they need core leadership, management systems and skills, conviction

and momentum, and credibility and legitimacy to have any hope of success.

4. Comprehensive reform requires a blend of outside technical assistance and local

commitment, leadership, planning, funding, and evaluation that results in local ownership and

self-renewal.

5. Comprehensive reform requires repair, revision, reassessment, and recommitment.

Significant modification should not be interpreted as a sign of failure.

6. Comprehensive reform often requires the development of entirely new systems and

ways of being. The alteration of existing systems or the implementation of new systems built

alongside old systems often will not lead to real change and enduring outcomes.

And so, with the focus on people, process, and the Seven C’s as a given, the remainder of this

chapter will describe some essential evidence-based blueprints outlining a “road-map” toward

successful strategic planning, organizational development, and school effectiveness.


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Basic Considerations

To coordinate and facilitate a school-based organizational change and strategic planning

process, school psychologists must have expertise and skills in four primary areas: (a) the

evidence-based components, activities, and interactions underlying effective schools and

educational practices; (b) the data-based problem-solving and decision-making processes,

including the planning and development cycles, of schools and districts from an organizational

perspective; (c) how to guide or support strategic planning processes such that effective,

functional school improvement plans are written and executed; and (d) the consultation skills to

facilitate proactive organizational change, effective group processes, student-focused

instructional and behavioral skills and mastery, functional assessment, and strategic and

intensive interventions. Among the more specific skills needed to succeed in these primary areas

are the following: effective functional assessment and data-based problem solving skills;

system, school, and classroom ecological or environmental assessment and intervention skills;

system, staff, and student instructional, academic, and behavioral intervention skills at the

prevention, strategic intervention, and intensive need levels; and action research and program

evaluation skills. Among the beliefs needed to succeed in these primary areas, school

psychologists need to: accept responsibility for all systems, staff, and students while

differentially evaluating and attending to their respective strengths and needs, weaknesses and

limitations, history and experiences, and opportunities and potential; deliver services based on

functional needs and not perceptions or labels; commit themselves to continuous growth,

viewing all challenges as professional development opportunities; and recognize that people, not

just programs and interventions, facilitate short- and long-term change.

Best Practices
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In the context of continuous school improvement (or any other planned change process), it is

important to note that organizational change and strategic planning should be natural, necessary,

and ongoing components of any healthy, evolving school. Indeed, as schools focus on student

outcomes, they must attend to these organizational change and strategic planning processes to

build the “infrastructures”—at the staff, school, system, and community levels—that coordinate

resources, build capacity, support school-wide programs, and maximize success. As with most

systemic endeavors, a comprehensive problem-solving process is needed (see Chapter XX in this

Volume). But this process is facilitated by understanding (a) the components of an effective

school; (b) how strategic planning fits into these components; and (c) how the school

improvement process is organized through the committee structure of the school and the

activities of school-level committees. Ultimately, a school or district’s School Improvement

Plan (SIP) is the public “document of accountability,” and it synthesizes all of these planning and

implementation processes. And yet, an essential question is, “Is the SIP a piece of paper written

annually by one or two individuals to meet a state mandate, or is it a functional, comprehensive

document that guides the monthly, weekly, and daily operation of the entire staff in the school?”

The Components of an Effective School. While their specific titles may vary slightly across

different evidence-based school improvement models, a common core of effective school

components has been consistently used to organize organizational development and strategic

planning processes and procedures. Using Project ACHIEVE’s evidence-based model as a guide

(e.g., Knoff, Finch, & Carlyon, 2004), seven interdependent components are described briefly—

components that form the foundation of a school’s continuous improvement, committee-focused,

professional development, and student-specific instructional activities. These components—(a)

Strategic Planning and Organizational Analysis and Development; (b) Problem Solving,
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Teaming, and Consultation Processes; (c) Effective School, Schooling, and Professional

Development; (d) Academic Instruction linked to Academic Assessment, Intervention, and

Achievement; (e) Behavioral Instruction linked to Behavioral Assessment, Intervention, and

Self-Management; (f) Parent and Community Training, Support, and Outreach; and (g) Data

Management, Evaluation, and Accountability—are also depicted in the figure below.

Figure 1. Project ACHIEVE’s Seven Interdependent Components of an Effective School

Effective School,
Schooling, and
Strategic Planning and Professional
Organizational Development
Development
Academic Instruction
linked to Academic
Problem Solving, Assessment, Intervention,
Teaming, and and Achievement
Consultation Processes
Behavioral Instruction
linked to Behavioral
Assessment, Intervention,
Parent and Community and Self-Management
Training, Support, and
Outreach
Data Management,
Evaluation, and
Accountability

1. The Strategic Planning and Organizational Development Component initially focuses on

assessing the organizational climate, administrative style, staff decision-making, and other

interactive and interpersonal processes in a school. Activities then move into identifying and

reinforcing, or establishing and implementing the organizational policies, procedures, and

cyclical approaches that support the academic and social-emotional/ behavioral success of all
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students. While this process is outlined in more detail below, the ultimate “product” of this

component are three- and one-year School Improvement Plans that help schools build capacity

and autonomy, identify and focus resources, facilitate stability and sustainability, and realize

student, staff, and system success.

2. The Problem Solving, Teaming, and Consultation Processes Component focuses on

consistent, school-wide data-based, functional assessment, problem-solving approaches that all

staff learn and use when developing effective instructional processes and then addressing

students who are not responding to this instruction and the next “level” of evidence- or research-

based classroom instruction or interventions. This “Response-to-Intervention” component

emphasizes a “problem-solving/consultation/ intervention” mode of operation that directly

contrasts with past “wait-to-fail” and “refer-test-place” approaches, and it is applied with

students experiencing academic and/or behavioral concerns. As such, this component provides a

foundation to the primary (whole-school), secondary (strategic intervention), and tertiary

(intensive need, crisis management, and/or wrap-around/systems of care) prevention continua

reflected in the academic and behavioral components below. And, as noted earlier, it recognizes

that problem solving and intervention processes involve teams that work collaboratively for the

school’s “greater good,” and professionals who work, as colleagues and consultants, to share

knowledge, skill, expertise, and experience for the benefit of all students.

3. The Effective School, Schooling, and Professional Development Component focuses on

processes that ensure that effective and differentiated instruction and effective and positive

behavior management exists in every classroom for every student, and that involve all teachers,

administrators, related service professionals, and others. To support this, effective schools

recognize that professional development occurs, formally and informally, every day for every
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staff person, and they systematically plan and implement ongoing professional development

programs and processes resulting in increased knowledge, enhanced skills, and emerging

confidence and autonomy. This occurs through in-service instruction and a clinical supervision

approach that involves modeling, guided practice, informed feedback, planned applications, and

the transfer of training. Ultimately, as with other components, the primary goal is to maximize

students' attention to task, academic engaged time, positive practice repetitions, and academic

and behavioral achievement.

4. The Academic Instruction linked to Academic Assessment, Intervention, and Achievement

Component focuses on positively impacting the “Instructional Environment” in every classroom

within a school. The Instructional Environment consists of the interdependent interactions, in a

classroom, of the Teacher-Instructional process, the Student, and the Curriculum. Expanding

briefly, the Instructional Environment involves (a) the different curricula being taught, as well as

their respective standards, benchmarks, and scope and sequence objectives (i.e., “What needs to

be learned?”); (b) the teachers who are teaching, and how they organize and execute their

classroom instruction (i.e., “Are appropriate instructional and management strategies being

used?”); and (c) the students who are engage in learning, and their capacity to master the

instructional material, along with their response to effective instruction and sound curricula (i.e.,

Is each student capable, prepared, and able to learn, and are they learning?”).

Critically, the data-based, functional assessment, problem-solving process and effective

school and schooling practices, described in earlier components, are implicit in this component

as the three facets of the Instructional Environment are analyzed continually to determine how

students can be most academically and behaviorally successful, and what is happening when

success is not occurring to the degree desired. When the latter occurs, a functional, curriculum-
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based assessment and intervention approach to student achievement that uses, as much as

possible, direct instruction and a mastery-model perspective of academic outcomes is

recommended (e.g., Shapiro, 2004). This involves teaching teachers how to identify and analyze

curricular and instructional variables and their relationship to student achievement outcomes,

how to assess curricular (i.e., scope and sequence) placement and performance expectations, and

how to complete curricular task analyses such that assessment is functionally linked to

intervention in the classroom. Additionally, research results from learning theory and practice

are integrated into the classroom to enhance the learning environment and process and to

facilitate more positive outcomes (e.g., Stoner, Shinn, & Walker, 2002).

5. The Behavioral Instruction linked to Academic Assessment, Intervention, and Self-

Management Component focuses on implementing comprehensive positive behavioral support

systems across schools. Again using Project ACHIEVE and its evidence-based Positive

Behavioral Self-Management System (PBSS), this whole school approach involves students,

staff, administration, and parents building and reinforcing (a) students’ interpersonal, problem-

solving, and conflict resolution skills and interactions; (b) positive, safe, supportive, and

consistent school climates and settings; and (c) school and district capacity such that the entire

process becomes self-sustaining. Thus, “Self-Management” occurs at three levels: student, staff

and school, and system and district. This is accomplished through six domains at the primary,

secondary, and tertiary prevention levels. The first three domains include: (a) the direct

instruction of social skills for all students in the classroom by general education teachers with the

support of other mental health professionals for more challenging students (e.g., Knoff, 2001);

(b) the development and use of school-wide accountability systems that specify expected student

behavior, connected with positive responses, incentives, and rewards, and “intensity levels” of
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inappropriate behaviors, connected with evidence-based responses and interventions that help

decrease or eliminate these behaviors while establishing and increasing appropriate behaviors;

(c) staff, setting, situations, system, and strategic consistency relative to social skills instruction

and student accountability. The latter three domains include: (d) analyses and interventions, as

needed, for a school’s “setting and student special situations”, which involves the common areas

of the school (i.e., setting) and incidents of teasing, taunting, bullying, harassment, and fighting

(i.e., student); (e) crisis prevention, intervention, and response; and (f) community and parent

outreach and involvement, which should occur within all five of the domains noted above.

When students do not respond, behaviorally, to the preventative strategies within the six

domains above, functional assessment is conducted and linked to strategic behavioral

interventions that are designed to resolve identified behavioral problems and/or to improve

staff’s related instructional and classroom management procedures (Kerr & Nelson, 2002;

Stoner, Shinn, & Walker, 2002). These interventions focus, for example, on specific referred

problems exhibited by students (e.g., not completing homework, noncompliance, swearing,

threatening others) or specific behaviors that, inappropriately, are or are not exhibited by

teachers as part of the instructional process (e.g., not providing advanced organizers or

appropriate instructional feedback, reinforcing inappropriate behavior through attention or using

discipline inconsistently). In this context, staff need to have skills in behavioral observation, data

collection, consultation, intervention, and intervention evaluation strategies and techniques.

Interventions here typically address the direct instruction of specific behavioral skills, stimulus

control approaches, behavioral addition approaches, behavioral reduction approaches, behavioral

maintenance approaches, and behavioral generalization approaches (Kerr & Nelson, 2002;

Stoner, Shinn, & Walker, 2002).


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6. The Parent and Community Training, Support, and Outreach Component focuses on

increasing the involvement of all parents, but especially the involvement of the parents of at-risk,

underachieving, and students with disabilities (Raffaele & Knoff, 1999). Parental involvement

in the school and educational process often occurs less in the homes of these latter students, and

it often discriminates achieving from underachieving students (Christensen, Rounds, & Franklin,

1992; Dunst, Trivette, & Johanson, 1994). Relative to community involvement, many schools

do not use, much less know, the expertise and resources available to them that can help their

mission and the progress of their students. For students with significant academic or behavioral

challenges, the coordination and integration of community-based professionals and services

often results in stronger and more pervasive progress and outcomes.

Among the activities that schools may consider here are: (a) conducting needs assessments to

look at the current and desired state of parent involvement and home-school-community

collaboration; (b) organizing building staff around collaboration and community outreach

through the school improvement process and plan; (c) teaching parents about the school’s

academic program and how to support students at home relative to study skills, homework, and

literacy; (d) directly training parents to transfer critical school academic and behavioral

interventions into the home; (e) creating Parent Drop-In Centers to encourage parent

participation in school activities and parent access to training and learning materials; (f)

completing community audits and resource directories to identify important organization,

agency, and professional programs, skills, and expertise in areas relevant to the school, staff, and

students; and (g) reaching out to these community resources, formally and informally, to

establish communication, collaboration, and coordination, especially relative to services for at-

risk, underachieving, and challenging students.


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7. The Data Management, Evaluation, and Accountability Component focuses on actively

evaluating, formatively and summatively, the status and progress of students’ academic and

behavioral mastery of skills and concepts, as well as the processes and activities inherent in all of

the other supportive components (see above) of an effective school. Part of this process involves

collecting formative and summative data that validate the impact of a school’s strategic planning

and school improvement efforts; its professional development and capacity-building efforts

relative to the staff; its selection, training and implementation of academic and behavioral

curricula and, later, interventions; and its effectiveness relative to the functional assessment,

strategic intervention, and response to intervention services for students not making appropriate

academic and behavioral progress. Another part of this process involves evaluating the

consultative success of related service and support personnel with classroom teachers, as well as

the interpersonal interactions that address the other process-oriented parts of the Seven C’s that

influence system, staff, and student success. Critically, this latter evaluation should evaluate

“staff to staff, staff to parent and community, staff to student, and student and student

interactions. All of these interactions collectively determine the climate and functioning of a

school.

The Strategic Planning Process. Strategic planning is a continuous, systematic process that

helps schools and districts to anticipate and plan their annual and multi-year goals and activities

by analyzing their system-specific strengths, weaknesses, threats, and opportunities, as well as

those of their communities. Designed to increase organizational and staff capacity and resources

while facilitating outcomes, strategic planning involves ongoing activities whereby schools and

districts (a) develop, implement, and evaluate programs and activities designed to meet their

mission, goals, and student-related outcomes; (b) track their needs, plans, and progress over time,
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(c) analyze and decide what programs, curricula, or interventions to add, delete, substitute, or

supplement to existing programs, while determining when and how to make the “mid-course

adjustments” to maximize these programs’ success; and (d) anticipate and respond to upcoming

or future events that may affect them in their pursuit of educational excellence. Ultimately,

strategic planning uses a systems perspective to the organization and execution of the

educational process emphasizing effective and efficient data-based planning and decision-

making, personnel and resource development and management, fiscal and technological

integrity, and school and community integration. While virtually every school and district is

now mandated to have a School/District Improvement Plan, the “public” outcome of strategic

planning, this does not mean that they have been trained in or have engaged in effective or

comprehensive strategic planning.

Cook (1990) and Valentine (1991) provide two complementary perspectives as to how

strategic planning should occur. Cook divides strategic planning into five phases: Phase I--

Preparing for Planning and Change; Phase II-- Developing the Goals and Outcomes of the

Strategic (or School Improvement) Plan; Phase III-- Outlining the Strategic Plan’s

Implementation Process; Phase IV-- Implementing and Monitoring the Plan; and Phase V--

Renewing the Plan.

During Phase I, the school or district engages in the following activities:

1. An External Environmental Scan and Analysis where (a) economic, demographic,

social, political, and education trends are analyzed; (b) national, state, regional, and local patterns

in the trend areas above are evaluated; (c) scenarios that predict future environmental events and

their impact on the school are created; and (d) school-based responses to the most likely

scenarios, within the resources and the school’s capabilities, are generated.
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2. An Internal Organizational Scan and Analysis where the strengths (or assets),

weaknesses (or limitations), resources (or opportunities), and barriers within the school are

identified, guided by the components of an effective school described above (see again Figure 1).

3. An Analysis of Stakeholder Perceptions and Expectations, where the needs and goals of

the staff and students are identified and analyzed, along with those of critical stakeholders (e.g.,

parents, businesses, others) in the community.

4. A Community Education Process that ties the entire process together (a) by helping all

internal and external stakeholders understand the data that have been collected, the trends and

scenarios identified, and how these data will be utilized during the next strategic planning

phases, and (b) by involving these stakeholders as equal partners in the change process to come.

In Phase II, the foundation to the strategic (or school improvement) plan is drafted by taking

the results of the external and internal scans and sequentially developing a vision statement, a

mission statement, strategic goals and desired outcomes. Consistent with the previous section,

the strategic plan should have prominent sections focusing on the each of the components of

school effectiveness. That is, sections of the plan should describe the annual goals and

outcomes for the school or district’s (a) strategic planning and organizational development

processes; (b) early intervention, problem solving, teaming, consultation, and response to

intervention processes; (c) effective school, schooling, and professional development processes;

(d) student-focused academic achievement, and curriculum and instruction processes; (e)

student-focused behavioral outcome and positive behavioral support processes; and (f) parent

and community training, support, and outreach processes. Beyond this, each section of the plan

should have its own data management, evaluation, and accountability activities built in to

determine the whether the specified goals and outcomes have been attained.
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Once drafted, this foundation to the strategic plan is reviewed by members of the planning

team, by critical client and stakeholder groups, and by others who might be either politically or

functionally important to the implementation process. Ultimately, the feedback from this review

process is synthesized and evaluated, and revised goals and outcomes are finalized. According

to Cook (1990), when first engaging in the strategic planning process or when a strategic plan is

being changed in comprehensive ways, the Phase II process may take a school or district up to 3

months. Even then, the strategic plan’s goals and outcomes still may be adapted in Phase III.

In Phase III, all of the strategic (or improvement) plan’s implementation steps and processes

are written and formalized at the school and/or district levels. Thus, in each of the six

components noted, the objectives, activities, timelines, resources, and evaluation tools and

procedures needed to attain the previously identified goals and outcomes are specified. In

addition, the strategic planning process now must be coordinated with the district’s budgeting

cycle. More specifically, most districts finalize their budgets each new school year (typically

beginning on July 1st), during the prior spring. This provides the district, and its schools, with

operating funds to, for example, hire new staff, purchase new equipment and curricula, and

initiate needed construction projects. Given this, most schools complete their strategic plans

with budget requests by early February. Most districts present these plans and budgets to their

school boards by March. And, most school boards approve these plans and pass their budgets by

May. Once these activities are completed, the district and its schools know what financial,

personnel, and material resources will be available to support strategically planned activities.

At times, school districts write 3- to 5-year “Strategic Operation Plans” (SOPs) to guide the

development of their annual district improvement plans. These strategic operation plans most

often contain a series of operational goals and objectives for each of the district’s organizational
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units or departments (e.g., Administration, Leadership, and Human Resources; Financial and

Legal; Transportation, Maintenance, and Food Services; Curriculum and Instruction; Personnel

and Professional Development; Public Relations and Community and Family Outreach,

Accountability and Evaluation), along with a prioritization of these goals, and the activities,

resources, and budget needed to accomplish these goals. These operational plans work

symbiotically with the district and its schools’ annual school improvement planning process and

eventual plans, providing structure and direction for their Phase III planning.

In Phase IV, the strategic (or school improvement) plan is implemented and evaluated

formatively and summatively. While the SIP guides all school, staff, and student activities, it is

supplemented—at the staff level—by a Professional Development Plan (PDP) or Individual

Performance Plan for every staff person in a school. The PDP documents each staff member’s

professional goals, objectives, and responsibilities for the school year, and it identifies the

outcomes and procedures needed to evaluate every staff member’s year-long performance and

accomplishments. Significantly, PDPs are based on the activities outlined in the district’s

strategic operation plan and the school’s individual strategic plan. In fact, PDP goals and

outcomes directly assist the school and district to accomplish SIP goals and outcomes. Thus, an

important interdependence exists across SOPs, SIPs, and PDPs, and across the entire strategic

planning process.

Finally, after implementing a strategic (or school improvement) plan for almost a year, it is

reviewed and renewed during Phase V. At this point, the school typically has accomplished a

great deal, and yet it must determine if its strategic direction and activities are still valid. To do

this, the strategic planning team should re-evaluate the school’s external and internal

environmental conditions since the writing of the original plan, re-visit the mission statement and
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strategic goals, review the district’s SOP, and re-focus the strategic plan as necessary, assessing

the organization’s commitment, resources, and energies toward the next level of

accomplishment.

Valentine (1991) organizes her strategic planning process into five levels: Level 1-- The Pre-

Planning Stage of the Planning Process; Level 2-- Re-Defining the Organization’s Direction;

Level 3-- Developing the Strategic Mind-Set; Level 4-- Implementing Goals, Objectives, and

Strategies; and Level 5-- Reassessing and Institutionalizing the Change Process (see Figure 2).

While Valentine’s strategic planning process appears more complex and comprehensive than

Cook’s (1990), hers is actually just a more descriptive expansion. Thus, it is instructive to review

her process and compare it to Cook’s approach above. In the end, every facet of Valentine’s

model has already been described. It does, however, provide a good summary to this section of

the chapter.

[INSERT FIGURE 2 ABOUT HERE]

The Committee Structure of a School. The SIP, which operationally reflects the

characteristics of an effective school (see discussions above), is best implemented through a

school committee structure that maintains the same consistent organization. To this end, the

diagram below presents a recommended “organizational map” for a school’s building-level

committees. The suggested structure is a flexible blueprint that should be adapted to fit a

school’s strategic needs, organizational realities (e.g., state statutes, school size, local politics),

and desired outcomes. But, the premise behind this structure is that, just like a business, an

effective school must have committees and people to take responsibility—in organized, planful,
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and coordinated ways—for the goals, activities, and outcomes of its SIP using shared leadership

approaches.

Figure 3. Blueprint and Recommendation of an Organizational Map of a School’s


Committee Structure

Curriculum & School Improvement


School Discipline/ Professional Development/
Instruction Committee Team
Climate Team Teacher Support
Committee

SPRINT Team Parent Involvement/


(School Prevention, Review, Community Outreach
and Intervention Team) Committee

Briefly, the committee structure recommended above has six primary committees. The

committee that coordinates and guides all of the strategic plan and implementation processes in a

school is the School Improvement Team. This committee is made up of the chairs of all of the

other school-wide committees and a representational sample of teachers, related service staff,

support staff, school administrators, parent and/or community leaders, and sometimes students.

This committee is primarily responsible for overseeing the Strategic Planning and Organizational

Analysis and Development component and activities of the SIP, for most site-based management

and related fiscal decisions, and for evaluating all school-level and student-specific outcomes. It
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is significant to note that the School Improvement Team is the super-ordinate committee to

which all other committees report. The remaining five committees include:

The Curriculum and Instruction Committee looks at the most effective ways to implement

new and existing district- and building-level curricula into the classroom such that they are most

effectively taught to all students. This committee is largely responsible for the school and SIP’s

Academic Instruction linked to Academic Assessment, Intervention, and Achievement

component and activities.

The School Discipline/School Climate Committee is the building-level committee that

oversees the implementation of the school’s positive behavioral support system consisting of the

social skills, accountability system, special situation analyses, crisis prevention and management,

and related parent and community outreach programs. Thus, this committee is largely

responsible for the school and SIP’s Behavioral Instruction linked to Behavioral Assessment,

Intervention, and Self-Management component and activities.

The Professional Development/Effective Instruction/Teacher Mentoring Committee organizes

and oversees the school’s professional development and peer-supervision activities to ensure that

all teachers and staff are teaching and interacting with students at the highest levels of

effectiveness and professionalism. This committee is largely responsible for the school and

SIP’s Effective School, Schooling, and Professional Development component and activities.

The SPRINT (School Prevention, Review, and Intervention Team) Committee (Knoff, 2005)

is responsible for developing and implementing—especially in general education classrooms

with the teachers teaching there—the data-based problem-solving and intervention process that

addresses the academic and/or behavioral needs of students who are not responding to effective

instruction. The SPRINT team is composed of the strongest academic and behavioral
Strategic Planning, Organizational Development, and School Page

intervention specialists in and available to the school, and it is also responsible for determining a

student’s eligibility for more intensive special education services if strategic interventions, over

time and consistent with IDEA, are not successful. Given this, this committee is largely

responsible for the school and SIP’s Problem Solving, Teaming, and Consultation Processes

component and activities, but this committee’s activities clearly overlap with other committees,

especially those focused on the school’s academic and behavioral programming for all students.

Finally, the Parent Involvement/Community Outreach Committee is responsible for actively

involving parents in school activities and in supporting the educational process for all students at

home. It also helps to coordinate community resources such that needed and effective home-

school-community partnerships are created to address the needs of all students, parents, and

others. Thus, this committee is largely responsible for the school and SIP’s Parent and

Community Training, Support, and Outreach component and activities.

Bonus Best Practices

Beyond the best practices already discussed, five practical “bonus best practices” are

recommended to complement the broader, more systemic strategies above. These best practices

emphasize the importance of effective team functioning, resource recognition, periodic reviews

of consultation and intervention activities, and the need to transfer the “student lessons learned”

in effective ways.

Choosing and Rotating Committee Members. In order to fully implement a “shared

leadership model” of organizational development and school improvement, it is strongly

recommended that every instructional staff member be on at least one school-level committee

(some staff, due to their leadership positions either at a grade level or of a committee, also may

be on the School Improvement Team). If a grade level has, for example, four teachers, a sound
Strategic Planning, Organizational Development, and School Page

approach to committee membership would have one teacher on a separate committee (e.g., on

the Curriculum and Instruction, School Discipline/School Climate, Professional

Development/Effective Instruction/Teacher Mentoring, and Parent Involvement/Community

Outreach Committee, respectfully). Beyond this, it is recommended that the teachers on each

committee serve a three-year term (that may be renewed once), and that the committee terms be

staggered so that only one-third of a committee rotates off a committee in any one year. All of

this ensures that school-level committees have appropriate grade-level teacher representation

(related service and other non-instructional specialists are assigned to committees more in line

with their skills and potential contribution to the committee), continuity, and yet, that their

membership periodically changes so they don’t become “stale” or “institutionalized.”

Publishing a School Resource Directory. In order to facilitate problem-solving and formal

and informal consultation for teachers who have students with academic or behavioral

challenges, the development of a School Resource Directory is recommended. Developed after a

school’s entire staff has completed a brief two-page questionnaire, this Directory identifies staff

member’s formal degrees and areas of certification or specialization, formal areas of in-service

training and professional development, academic and/or behavioral areas of expertise, and

special skills or talents or hobbies. The front section of the Directory is organized by grade level

and teacher, while the back section is organized across specific skill areas, listing all of the

teachers who feel comfortable being formal or informal consultants to another colleague in each

area.

Completing Report Card Scans. Given the primary focus on students’ academic and

behavioral skills, mastery, and self-management, it is important to functionally track students’

progress over time. While this is best done by classroom teachers who continuously monitor the
Strategic Planning, Organizational Development, and School Page

progress of students using classroom- and curricularly-sensitive authentic measures, other

evaluation “layers” help to confirm and extend teacher-generated data. One layer involves the

academic, behavioral, and attendance data on students’ report cards.

It is recommended that schools’ SPRINT teams complete a “report card” scan, after each

marking period, of every students’ academic grades, behavior ratings (if documented), and

attendance. Usually done electronically (or by teacher report), students can be “red-flagged” if

there are significant (downward) changes in grades or classroom behavior from one quarter to

the next, and/or significant problems with attendance, including school tardiness or requests to

visit the nurse’s office. By creating decision rules (e.g., a drop of three total grade blocks in

more than one academic subject—say, three courses dropping from Bs to Cs—or a drop of two

grade blocks in any one academic subject; being absent from 10% or more of the instructional

days in the quarter), teachers and other professionals can be consulted regarding red-flagged

students to determine the need for further problem solving, functional assessment, and

interventions.

Conducting a Year-End Consultation Referral Audit. In order to analyze the referral patterns

for early intervention services at any level of the SPRINT process (i.e., grade-level or building-

level SPRINT requests for consultation), it is essential that SPRINT teams conduct at least an

annual Consultation Referral Audit. Typically done in April or May, this audit involves

summarizing all of the SPRINT referrals for the past year across the following dimensions: (a)

student age and grade; (b) time of year when referred; (c) specific presenting problem(s) (e.g.,

reading fluency, mathematical applications, ability to sustain academic attention and

engagement); and (d) specific interventions identified, implemented, and successful. With this

information, the SPRINT team can identify referral trends and patterns; “early warning”
Strategic Planning, Organizational Development, and School Page

indicators so that younger students, who may eventually experience similar concerns, can receive

early, preventative interventions; and professional development needs so that teachers, who will

likely need more intensive interventions for underachieving and challenging students, can be

trained before actually needed these interventions—thus facilitating the consultation and

intervention process. In this way, past referrals result in future effective and preventative

practices, allowing students to receive strategic intervention services, earlier, more quickly, and

more successfully, from more prepared general education teachers with or without the need for

related service or other SPRINT-related consultations.

Identifying “Get-Go’ Students for the New Year. Too often, teachers and SPRINT teams or

consultants spend a lot of time completing functional analyses of students experiencing academic

or behavioral challenges and implementing successful strategic or intensive interventions only to

have all of these processes discontinued with the end of the school year. That is, many schools

do not strategically plan a transition process for student interventions from one school year to the

next. Using the belief that “the new school year begins in April,” it is recommended that the

SPRINT team, with relevant classroom teachers, complete a review of all students who have

received pre-referral or early intervention services, at any level of intensity, during April. Thus,

the review should include all students on IEPs, 504, or state-required Academic Intervention (or

Behavioral) Plans. During this review, three groups of students are identified: (a) “Get-Go”

students who need immediate academic or behavioral interventions on Day 1 of the new school

year, (b) “At-Risk” students, who have enough intervention needs that their new teacher(s) need

a systematic briefing from the previous year’s teacher(s) and consultant(s) before the next school

year begins; and (c) “Check-In” students, who need someone from the SPRINT team to check in
Strategic Planning, Organizational Development, and School Page

with their teacher(s) approximately 2 to 4 weeks into the new school year. Medically fragile and

students with attendance problems should also be “challenges” that the SPRINT team considers.

By completing this “Get-Go” process, the probability that the functional assessment,

consultation, and intervention “lessons learned” will be effectively transferred from one school

year to the next is increased. Moreover, this process may help determine how students will be

functionally grouped the next year, and what teachers will have the greatest potential for success.

And, finally, this process can ensure that the “next year” teachers will receive the needed

intervention information, training, and support before the new school year begins so that the

services and strategies needed by the selected students are delivered in timely and effective

ways.

Summary

This chapter has focused on the important processes and procedures that relate to school

improvement and effectiveness as facilitated by strategic planning and organizational

development strategies. Focusing on students’ academic and social-emotional progress and

success, four fundamental questions—addressing academics and instruction, behavior and school

climate, parent and community involvement, and planning and evaluation decisions, were

presented as the core of any school’s continuous improvement journey. To further guide this

journey, three major areas were detailed: (a) the components of an effective school; (b) how

strategic planning fits into these components; and (c) how the school improvement process is

organized through the committee structure of the school and the activities of school-level

committees. The school or district School Improvement Plan (SIP) was identified as the public

“document of accountability” that synthesizes all of these planning and implementation

processes. During this discussion, two complementary strategic planning models were presented

by highlighting their most important elements across five sequential phases: Phase I--Creating a
Strategic Planning, Organizational Development, and School Page

Base for Planning and Change; Phase II--Developing the Strategic Plan; Phase III--Developing

the Implementation Plan; Phase IV-- Implementing and Monitoring the Plan; and Phase V--

Renewing the Plan. The chapter concluded by briefly describing five “bonus best practices”

related to choosing and rotating committee members, publishing a School Resource Directory,

completing report card scans and year-end Consultation Referral Audits, and identifying “Get-

Go” students in May for the new school year.

Today’s children are coming to the schoolhouse door significantly at-risk for both educational

and social failure. Schools and districts must use systematic and strategic planning and

implementation processes so that they build the “infrastructures”—at the staff, school, system,

and community levels—that help to coordinate resources, build capacity, support school-wide

programs, and maximize the academic and social-emotional/behavioral success of all students.

With this success, current and future generations of students will more quickly and readily

demonstrate the independent learning and behavioral self-management skills that they need—not

just when they are in school, but when they return to their homes, when they enter the workforce,

and when they progress beyond to lead their communities and our country.
Strategic Planning, Organizational Development, and School Page

Figure 2. Valentine’s Strategic Management and Planning Model


Adapted with permission from Valentine (1991).
Strategic Planning, Organizational Development, and School Page

References

Annie E. Casey Foundation. (1995). The path of most resistance: Reflections on lessons learned

from New Futures. Baltimore, MD: Author.

Christenson, S.L., & Close-Conoley, J. C. (Eds.) (1992). Home-school collaboration:

Enhancing

children's academic and social competence. Silver Spring, MD: National Association of

School Psychologists.

Comprehensive School Reform Quality Center. (2006). CSRQ Center Report on Elementary

School Comprehensive School Reform Models. Washington, DC: American Institutes for

Research.

Cook, W. J. (1990). The planning discipline. Cambridge, MA: The Cambridge Management

Group.

Dunst, C. J., Trivette, C. M., & Johanson, C. (1994). Parent-professional collaboration and

partnerships. In C. Dunst., C. Trivette, & A. Deal (Eds.), Supporting and strengthening

families (Volume 1): Methods, strategies, and practices (pp. 197-211). Cambridge, MA:

Brookline Books.

Kerr, M. M., & Nelson, C. M. (2002). Strategies for managing behavior problems in the

classroom (4th Edition). Columbus, Ohio: Charles E. Merrill Publishing Company.

Knoff, H. H. (2005). Building strong schools to strengthen student outcomes: The DVD Series.

Little Rock, AR: Arkansas Department of Education—Special Education Unit.

Knoff, H. M. (2001). The Stop & Think Social Skills Program (Preschool – Grade 1, Grades

2/3, Grades 4/5, Middle School 6-8). Longmont, CO: Sopris West.
Strategic Planning, Organizational Development, and School Page

Knoff, H. M., & Batsche, G. M. (1995). Project ACHIEVE: Analyzing a school reform process

for at-risk and underachieving students. School Psychology Review, 24, 579–603.

Knoff, H. M., Finch, C., & Carlyon, W. (2004). Inside Project ACHIEVE: A comprehensive,

research-proven whole school improvement process focused on student academic and

behavioral outcomes. In K. Robinson (Ed.), Advances in school-based mental health: Best

practices and program models (pp. 19-1 to 19-28). Kingston, NJ: Civic Research Institute,

Inc.

National Education Goals Panel. (1999). The National Education Goals report: Building

a nation of learners. Washington, DC: U. S. Government Printing Office.

Raffaele, L., & Knoff, H. M. (1999). Improving home-school collaboration with parents of

children at-risk: Organizational principles, perspectives, and approaches. School

Psychology Review, 28, 448-466.

Stoner, G., Shinn, M. R., & Walker, H. M. (Eds.). (2002). Interventions for achievement and

behavior problems-II. Silver Spring, MD: National Association of School Psychologists.

Valentine, E. P. (1991). Strategic management in education: A focus on strategic planning.

Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

Annotated Bibliography

Blankstein, A. M. (2006). Failure is not an option: Six principles that guide student

achievement in high performing schools. New York: Sage Publications.

Based on fifteen years of practical research on what is working in schools, this book

emphasizes the importance of professional learning communities as the center of school reform.

In this context, six guiding principles are described for creating and sustaining a high performing
Strategic Planning, Organizational Development, and School Page

school: (a) a common mission, vision, values, and goals: (b) systems for prevention and

intervention; (c) collaborative teaming for teaching and learning; (d) data-driven decision-

making and continuous improvement; (d) active engagement from family and community; and

(f) building sustainable leadership capacity. The book provides a theory-into-practice

perspective, and provides a number of case studies or vignette that help to concretize its points.

It also looks at ways that schools have been both successful and unsuccessful so that schools can

avoid pitfalls while implementing successful strategies.

Comprehensive School Reform Quality Center. (2006). CSRQ Center Report on Elementary

School Comprehensive School Reform Models. Washington, DC: American Institutes for

Research.

This updated guide reviews and evaluates 22 comprehensive school reform models relative

to their quality and effectiveness. Providing snapshots of each approach’s implementation

process, first-year adoption costs, and effects on student achievement, this guide also lists papers,

articles, and books about each model and their documented effectiveness. While the guide does

not endorse or discredit any of the approaches—trying, instead, to describe and objectively

evaluate—this resource provides a good overview of many of the school reform approaches used

nationwide with decision-making guidelines on how to evaluate school reform and improvement

efforts.

Darling-Hammond, L. (1997). The right to learn: A blueprint for creating schools that work.

San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.


Strategic Planning, Organizational Development, and School Page

An important work by an educator and researcher who began her work as a public school

teacher and has been involved in the policy and practice of school reform for many years.

Darling-Hammond’s book describes ways to significantly improve not only individual schools

but the overall system of education. Focusing especially on the needs and diversity of students,

this book addresses such topics as how to structure “learner-centered” schools, to staff schools

for teaching and learning, to reinforce teaching as a profession, and to respond to standards

without losing the educational process.

Hirsch, E. D., Jr. (2006). The knowledge deficit: Closing the shocking education gap for

American children. Charlottesville, VA: The Core Knowledge Foundation.

Authored by the founder of the Core Knowledge, this book provides a roadmap toward closing

the achievement gap in our country’s schools. Recognizing that many students, even those who

have mastered reading skills during the early elementary school years, begin to slide after fourth

grade and fail at more difficult comprehension tasks, this book advocates the use of core

curricula that are explicitly outlined, focused on content and comprehension, and that provide

students the foundational knowledge and context that they need to understand concepts,

constructs, and areas requiring higher ordered thinking skills. This book is the culmination of

Hirsh’s many years implementing the school reform principles and practices of Core Knowledge,

one of the long-recognized national school reform models that has been implemented in

hundreds of schools across the country. It integrates the latest scientific thinking on neurological

development and applies it to instruction that must meet state, national, and international

standards. And, it takes a preschool through high school perspective that is specific, practical,

and has already been “scaled up” and demonstrated to be successful.


Strategic Planning, Organizational Development, and School Page

Valentine, E. P. (1991). Strategic management in education: A focus on strategic planning.

Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

This “book” (which is actually sold in a three-ring binder) provides a comprehensive strategic

management model that is designed to assist the reader in guiding a school district through the

strategic planning process. Supported by case studies and citations from the management

literature, the book has three parts: Strategic Management—Its Role in Education; Planning for

Strategic Change; and Creating Strategic Change Within the Organization. In addition, the book

has over 30 step-by-step worksheets that operationalize the process and make the author’s

approach an easy one for anyone who understands the interdependent components of the school

system to implement. This is a useful book that can help a reader to more completely understand

the inner workings of strategic planning.


Reliability, Risk and Safety: Theory and Applications - Brls,
Guedes Soares & Martorell (eds)
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-55509-8

Assessment of HSE aspects by employees' participation in organizational


development processes: "What you ask is what you get"

Margit Hermundsgiird & Lisbeth Hansson


SINTEF.Trondheim, Nonvay.

ABSTRACT: This paper discusses from a discourse study perspective how HSE (health, safety and environ
ment) aspects can be taken care of in large change processes together with the role of the employees in these
processes. The development process related to implementation of Integrated Operations (10) in the oil- and gas
industry on the Norwegian continental shelf represents the case studies in this paper.
Employee participation is important in implementation processes in Norway, and interviews are well suited
for engaging employees in the process and for gathering of data. But an interview still has its strength and
weakness regarding the quality of the participation processes. On one hand, it involves the employees directly
in the project, and exploits their knowledge about their own working day, functions and work place. On the
other hand, you are dependent on the interviewee's ability to identify the HSE implications. To understand and
assessing the influence on HSE from a change process such as IO, an understanding of the quite complicated
concept of HSE is mandatory.
Viewing the methods used in the organizational development processes as communicative activities can make
us capable of recognizing the factors we need to be aware of as facilitators and researchers.

INTRODUCTION and strategies of Integrated Operations.

Employee participation is important in implemen


tation processes in Norway. This is in line with
the "Scandinavian model"; Scandinavian employees
demand involvement and influence, and participation
is an important element in a successful organizational
development process. The two case studies described
in this paper are both concerned with a large
organiza tional development process goingon in the
Norwegian oil-and gas industry called Integrated
Operations (IO). IO introduces more extensive
cooperation between the onshore organisation and the
operation units off shore. Some functions such as
planning are allocated from offshore to onshore and
the enhanced coopera tion is supported by use of new
JCT solutions both for communication means and for
decision support. The main changes introduced by
Integrated Operations are changes in the way people
work. More collective work modes also require
different work environments. Cell offices for example
are in most cases not compatible with these new work
modes.
The case studies concern the effect on HSE from
the IO development process. While the first
casestudy, called IO MTO, is a functional
reallocation analysis, the second study called RNNP,
represents a qualitative measure of the HSE
effectoflO. Interviews are central parts in both case
studies.
In the IO MTO case study, the employees map
their daily work tasks and gather data for developing
a new organizational model which fulfils the visions

7
Inthe RNNP casestudy,employees are not
involved in an organizational development, but
give input to a description of an overall picture
for the HSE level in the petroleum industry.
Tounderstand andassess the influence on HSE
from a change process such as IO, an
understanding of the quite complicated concept
of HSE is mandatory. The IO impact on HSE will
be quite differently dependent on the elements
we are studying.
The strengths and weaknesses with qualitative
HSE assessment are discussed in this paper. The
two case studies are described and the results are
discussed based on theory on employees'
involvement and the qualitative interview method
as a communicative activity.

2 THEORY

2.1 Quantitative and qualitative


methods in HSE assessments
HSE assessments have a long tradition within the
oil and gas industry. These assessments use a
wide range of methodologies, from the strict
quantitative meth ods such as QRA (Quantitative
Risk Analysis) and FMECA (Failure Mode Effect
and Criticality Anal ysis) to the more qualitative
methods such as HAZOP (HAZard & OPerability
analysis). Most methods com bine qualitative and
quantitative data and approaches. For example, an
FMECA basically uses generic fail ure data,
"expert judgments" are likewise important.

7
The main objective for HSE assessments or risk anal Likewise when choosing to answer from a labour
ysis on technical safety is to calculate an overall risk union representative
factor or to ensure a safe design. It has, however,
been considered that the involvement of the
operational personnel given input to the failure rates
or expert judgments has a value in itself. The
involvement in a HAZOP, for instance, gives
enhanced risk perception
and important reflection on safety issues.
When the HSE assessment is carried out in the
context of an organizational development process,
qualitative methods such as interviews are important.
The involvement process of the interviews is
essential.

2.2 lnvolveme11t and participation


Employee participation is important in organizational
change processes in Norway (Grnnhaug & Hansen
2001) and one way of involving employees is to ask
themabout what they think and use theirexperiences
to get the bestdata.Theemployees are the most
appropri ate individuals to describe their work as it is
currently performed. Another way of engaging the
employees is to involve representatives in the project
group as part of the organizational change project.
The dilemmaofengagingemployees is thatthe deci
sion of implementing an organizational change is not
something the employees can "vote against".
Involve ment in organizationalprocesses is not
democracy, but it is an important arena in which the
employees can influence the results.

2.3 Com11111nicative activities


People always approach situations with the question
"What is going on here?" in the back of their mind .
Based on experiences, situations are defined and peo
ple act as they think is in line with rules, norms and
expectations of each defined type of situation (see
Goffinan 1974). So also for a interview situation.
An interview is what we in discourse studies call a
co1111111111icative activity (Sarangi & Coulthard 2000)
that has a communicative goal, a situational frame
and a set of participation roles. Examples of differ ent
communicative activities are committee meetings,
lunch breaks, court hearings and job interviews. In
these situations we act and talk differently. For
exam ple, a meeting at work might be held in the
same place and with the same participants as the
lunch break, but in contrast to the lunch break the
conversation is more structured and one of the
participants holds the role as chairperson.
In an interview, both the interviewer and the inter
viewee can have different roles or positions. An
employee can be a representative from a job cate
gory, but on the other hand also be a representative
from a labor union.The employee's answers will differ
depending on whether he chooses to answer as a
repre sentative from a job category perspective,
representing all in that category, or just himself.

7
perspective. All these positions or roles might give
different answers to the same question.
Acommunicative activity is alsodefined by its main
communicative goal and this might not always be as
clear as the type of situation. What is the overall goal
for that special meeting; is it information sharing or is
it solving a problem? An interview concerning organi
zational change might have several goals. It might be
to collect the employees' stories about the changes, or
ideas on what should be changed.
Without a categorization and definition of the sit
uation it might be difficult to interpret the social
interaction and what is meant in the conversation. Is it
an informal conversation or is it a formal meeting?
Defining a communicative activity as a meeting or an
interview is often done explicitly, often by introducing
and starting the meeting.
Ifthc framings arc not clear, or it is not clear what
the main communicative goal(s) is, the participants
might not know what is expected to be relevant
contri butions (Linell & Tunquist 2003). Another
example is when there is a mix of activities, for
example a meeting and an interview. The overall
communicative goal of the communicative activity
lays the premises for the contributions in the
interview.

3 CASE DESCRIPTIONS

3.1 /11trod11ctio11
The case studies are based on two different interview
methods.The firstcasestudy uses the IO MTOmethod,
while the second case study uses more traditional
semi structured interviews.
The IO MTO method has been used for several off
shoreorganizations on the Norwegian continental
shelf as part of implementing Integrated Operations.
The purposeoftheseinterviews is to involve
theemployees affected by the desired organizational
change directly in the project, and to exploit their
knowledge about their own working day, functions
and work place. The pointof mapping tasksand
functions is to get a realistic picture of what different
job categories are filled with. By mapping all
functions and tasks in the organiza tion it is possible
to develop a new organisation model which fulfils the
visions and strategies of an effective and operational
offshore organisation.
Instead of more traditional interview questions, the
interviewees are asked to construct a normal work ing
day detailed in each task or function. This would be
tasks like attending morning meetings, reporting,
waiting for new work orders, preparing a meeting and
coffee breaks. Each task is written in an excel file,
projected on a screen for all to see.
The RNNP case study is using a more traditional
interview method, called semi structured. Semi struc
tured meansthat theinterviews arc less structuredas an
questionnaire,but more structured than a free conver
sation on one topic. The interviewers use an interview
guide listing topics they want to talk about. For each
topic there are some central questions.

7
dealing with HSE questions within the petroleum
3.2 IO MTO case description industry. The

The IO MTO method has two main phases where


employee representativesare involved. First is the
data gathering phase where representatives from
different job categories are interviewed, and second is
the ana lyzing phase where representatives from the
project group analyse the mapped tasks. In this paper
we are concentrating on the first data gathering phase
where employees are invited in for an interview.
The data gathering phase in the IO MTO method
is called interview, but differs from more traditional
interview situations with one or two interviewers ask
ing questions from an interview guide. In the IO
MTO interviews there were up to five persons in
addi tion to the employee: An interviewer and a
secretary responsible for reporting the interview data
into an excel document. Representatives from the
company:
A project representative from the project manage
ment with responsibility for taking care of the holistic
perspective. A representative from the project group
with special responsibility for the employee's rights
in the interview situation for example the need for
breaks. In addition to this there was an HSE expert,
often a researcher from the company's research- and
development department, with special responsibility
concerning HSE aspects. For each job category, two
employees were invited to do an interview together,
but often only one had the possibility to attend.
Inmoretraditional interviews, the interview is often
done on the employee's place of work. In this case,
the employees worked offshore and were invited to
the interview in their off period. The physical setting
of the interviews was therefore not a familiar place
for the employees being interviewed.
The interview was structured by asking the
employ ees to listtheirworking tasksduring a normal
work day in an excel file. After listing a normal
working day, the representative was asked to go
through all tasks and functions to see
hypothetically if some of them could be moved to
another role or place, for example onshore. If a task
could be moved the next question was if allocation
would impact HSE. One might think it is possible
that it hasa high positive impact or a neg
ative impact. The participants were asked to make an
estimation of this impact on each task. In this part of
the interview, the HSE expert's role was important by
asking follow up questions to help the representatives
to think of possible HSE implications.

3.3 RNNP case description


RNNP is a biyearly investigation carried out by the
Norwegian Petroleum Directorate. The investigation
uses input from statistics, questionnaires and inter
views to give and present a picture of the overall risk
in the petroleum industry. This case study covers the
qualitative part of the investigation. Around 20 per
sons,all with central HSE positions, were
interviewed; most of them members of a safety forum

7
comfortable being the only representative for their
interviews covered many topics, one of them job
being the effect on HSE from the organizational
development processes in Integrated Operations.
Some of the interviews were done face-to-
face, but to save some time and resources most of
them were telephone interviews. All the
interviews were taped to support the
documentation and the use of quota tions in the
report. The interviewees were contacted prior to
the interviews and the interview guide was
distributed. The taping of the interview was
approved by the interviewees prior to the
interviews and the quotations being used in the
report was approved in a written format. The
interviewees had the right to be anonymous.
Two researchers did the interviews, one as the
main interviewer and one as a secretary. Most of
the inter views had a single interviewee; some
were group interviews with twointerviewees.The
interviews were accomplished within I to 2
hours.
The form of the interviews were semi
structured, and even if the interview guide
contained several detailed questions about each
subject, the choice and number of questions used
in each interview depended on the interviewees'
interest and insight in the subject. The following
questions were about IO:
- What is your interpretation about IO?
- What has the safety forum been engaged in
regard- ing IO?
- Has IO contributed to an improved level ofHSE?
- Has IO contributed to the quality of
planning and preparation for work activities?
And has this improved the safety level?
- How has IO influenced the manning level
offshore and the split between the "stable"
personnel and the nomads? What implications
do changes havefor the HSE level?
- What are the parameters used to examine/measure
the effect ofIO?

4 RESULTS

4.1 Results from the IO MTO case study


The participants were invited to the interview,
but not given much information about how the
interview was supposed to be arranged. This
might have contributed to some uncertainty in the
interview situation. The IO MTO methods
datagathering phase was not something that the
employees have participated in before. Many of
theinterviews started byusinga lot of timeto
inform and explain what this was about and how
it would be carried out.
Nor was it obvious to all participants what the
purpose of the interviews was in the ongoing
organi zational process. Despite assurances from
the project group members, some thought that
this mapping and questions about moving tasks
had to be a tool to cut down on personnel in
general.As a result of this, some of the
representatives expressed that they were not

7
category; they were afraid to give a wrong answer or the onshore support. To be available all day long and
be responsible for giving data that might contribute to even during weekends and holidays for key
cuts in personnel. Some employees had a strong wish personnel, is seen as a possible source for stress.
to argue against the organizationalchanges in general. The decision processes are heavily affected by the
When the employees came to the point in the inter implementation of IO. Decisions shall be taken by
view wherethey were asked to thinkhypotheticallyand teams rather than by individuals and these teams may
consider if some of their work tasks might be moved, be distributed on different locations such as for
many thought this wasdifficult. In othermethods exam ple onshore and offshore. More planning
when hypothetical situations are used, the situations activities from onshore are regarded as positive by
are described as scenarios, but this was not the case the intervie wees and the enhanced cooperation
here. This might have contributed to distorting the between onshore and offshore is positively received
evalua tion of theHSE impact on the possible as well.
movingof tasks. One reason for the difficulty of Integrated operations and the consequences for
performing the evaluation of the HSE impact, was HSE had only been discussed on a brief level in the
that the relation was often considered as indirect. safety forum.
When a task is, for example not checking levels on
an indicator has clear negative impact on HSE. But
on work tasks as plan ning a meeting, reading 5 DISCUSSION
reports, attending meetings, the possible HSE impact
is more indirect and might be difficult to point out. 5.1 /11volve111e11t
The answer on the HSE impact therefore was typical The IO MTO interview is a method for mapping
general formulations as "youJose information of job tasks and not the participant's opinion concern ing
theoverall picture"and"looses transfer the organizational changes in general. In other more
of experience".
traditional interviews there is more room for the
representativesto give their viewon aspects of an
orga nizational change. In the IO MTO interview
4.2 Results of the RNNP case study there are no tape recordings, only the excel file.This
The resulting analysis based on the interviews did not means that if participants in the interview want to
give any clear and unambiguous picture of the effects have their views made known, they had to find a way
from IO on the HSE level. The understanding of the to fill it into the Excel table. Thus, a commentary
concept of IO varied widely among the interviewees column was added in the Excel table. This has to do
and influenced their ability to answer. Some thought with the motivation to participate in an interview.
IO is about remote control of offshore installation, Many think that partic ipating in an interview is an
oth ers that it is about improved support from onshore opportunity to give their opinion on the changes. This
to offshore and improved cooperation and other again means that an IO MTO interview has to meet this sort
focused on more use of real time data. As IO is an of expectation.
organizational development process and not primar As the RNNP case study was not a part of the
ily an HSE initiative, it has only an indirect effect on organizational development process itself, the aspect
HSE and is thus more complicated to assess. None of involvement is not applicable for discussion.
the interviewees could give any concrete measures of
the effect; one expressed quite clearly that "There is
no concrete evidence that IO has improved the safety 5.2 lllterviewee roles
level today". In the IO MTO case study the information role was
Remote control of installations from onshore is an clear concerning what aspects they were supposed to
interpretation of IO that gives a negative association, talk about, everything was concerning their normal
but when it comes to safety it is seen as positive as work day.The challenge concerning interviewees
none of the personnel will be directly exposed to the roles were more on whom they represented in the
risks from the plant itself. As long as there are inter view setting. Several of the employees pointed
personnel onboard, it is seen as a major hazard that out that they only could speak for themselves. They
the control room and decision takers will be located were asked to share their data collection with
at another place than the dangerous sources. colleagues after the interviews and some returned
Transportation by helicopter will be reduced and this with additional information.
will directly affect the safety level. In the RNNP case study the expectation was quite
Improved support from onshore was mentioned clear; these senior safety personnel were asked to
as one aspect giving improved operation and hence give their view on the overall development of the
improved HSE. The onshore support will contribute HSE level as a consequence of this new way of
with more continuity as the personnel onshore are on organiz ing the work. Some of the interviewees had
duty every day of the week, while the personnel off however some difficulties in dividing between the
shore work for two weeks and then have 4 weeks off function they had as members of the safety forum
duty. The onshore support should be 24/7 (24 hours a and the posi tion they had within their own
day, 7 days a week) to be optimal. This may, company. They also
however, have some negative HSE effects for those based their view on an experience through many
working in
7
years and this experience could be from several
companies or institutes.

7
In addition to interviewees representing different answer to this question formed the content of the rest
companies within the petroleum industry some inter of the interview. It is of no use to go into details
viewees represented the government and different about HSE consequences of Integrated Operations if
unions. These interviewees can have their own the interviewee is not familiar with the subject.
agenda and politics, and it was a challenge to As the interviews went on the interviewers
penetrate this surface in some of the interviews. The uninten tional started the analysis and this
face to face interviews had an advantage as regards influenced some what on the rest of the interviews. It
the question of "digging behind the surface", it was was observed a tendency to search evidence to this
possible to see the reaction of the interviewees both analysis through the use of leading questions. An
in attitude and body language. example being that onshore support was described as
For the same reason it was a great advantage to be a positive contribu tion to the HSE level and the
two interviewers; one being the secretary while the interviewer "decided" that this was due to the
main interviewer could concentrate fully on the inter continuity this support repre sents. In the following
view. It was possible for the secretary to ask follow interviews it was tempting to ask about the continuity
up questions. on the onshore side. A sort of leading questions can
however be used to ensure that all details
arebeingcovered.Thiscanbea dilemma and the
5.3 Qualitative HSE assessment interviewers should be aware of it and try to bal ance
The HSE assessment in the IO MTO method was between objectivity and the search for a correct
detailed down to single tasks in an hypothetical situa description.
tion where the task might have been moved to
another role in the organization. This gave the
employees an challenge concerning two things, f"rrst 6 CONCLUSION
the vague "hypothetic situation" and second the
estimation of something that often had an indirect "What you ask is what you get" is not always true.
effect. It is impor tant to have the HSE aspect in a As we have discussed in this paper; the situation,
mapping of work tasks, but maybeit should be the framework and the complexity of the question is
considered to find a more direct way of selecting the likewise important to get a good and relevant answer.
most important tasks when it comes to HSE impact.
HSE as such is a complicated notion and to be able
to have opinions about HSE effects, the HSE concept REFERENCES
should be divided into more details. One division
is between major accidents, personal injuries and Goffmann, E. (1974): Frame a11a lys i s. Northeastern Univer
health risk. In the RNNP case study most of the sity Press, Boston.
Gnmhnug, K. & Hanscn,K. (2001): Medvirlmi11g, lreri11g og
intervie wees were, at least in theory, aware of the ko11kummseev11e.Oslo: Fagbokforlagel.
division between these three categories. The opening Sanangi, S. & Coulthard, M. (red.) (2000): Discourse a11d
question in theRNNP study ("What is Social Life. Harlow: Lo11gman.
yourinterpretationabout IO?") wasimportant as the Linell, P.& Tunquist, D. Persson (2003): Moving in and out
interpretation oflntegrated Operations varied a lot of frames: activity contexts in talks with young
between the interviewees. The unemployed peoplewithin a training project. Pragmatics
35 (409-4 34).

7
Reliability, Risk and Safety: Theory and Applications - Bris,
Guedes Soares & Martorell (eds)
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-55509-8

Job satisfaction and extensive participation processes in organizational


development -A case study from the Norwegian petroleum industry

T. Korsvold, L. Hansson & A.D. Lauvsnes


S!NTEF Tecl,110/ogy and Society. l11d11strial Manage111e11I,Tro11dhei111, Nonvay

ABSTRACT: This paper discusses participation and researcher involvement as core components in an organi
zational development (OD) process. The focus is on how broad participation, facilitated through participatory
methods from action research, is crucial to bring the OD process forward towards creating the new work
practices as aimed for. A core principle of action research is to heavily involve personnel affected by the
development processes. Likewise important is the involvement from the researchers. Involvement will if
handled properly, give increased job satisfaction. The case study providing data for this paper is an R&D
project for a company within the oil and gas industry in Norway. The R&D project aims at creating an OD
process to empower both the individual employees and team collaboration in order to increase the ability of the
company in getting the most out of the existing organization and be prepared for growth. Different methods
from action research used during the OD process are described and the experience with these is discussed
related to the aspects of participation and job satisfaction.

INTRODUCTION
2 THEORY
Organizational development (OD) through action
2.1 Action research and orga11izatio11a/
research empowers the organization through involve
deve/opme11t
ment and engages the researchers by close integration
with the client organization. An important OD pro The main perspective in this paper is to view
cess going on in the Norwegian petroleum industry organiza tional development (OD) as a jointly created
is named Integrated Operation (IO). IO implies more learning process constituted by activeparticipation
extensive cooperation between the onshore organiza between the local practitioner and the researcher in a
tion and the operation unit offshore. This enhanced participa tory action research process (Levin & Ravn
cooperation is supported by use of new ICT solu 2007). The local practitioner is defined as the insider
tion both for communication means and for decision of the client organization, e.g. operational
support. management or employees, while the action
The case study providing data for this paper is an researcher (or researcher for short) is defined as the
R&D project for a company within the oil and gas external by having the role as the outsider only. The
industry in Norway. The R&D project aims at creat very aim of the OD process is active problem solving,
ing an OD process in line with the ideas oflntegrated collective reflec tion and knowledge development on
Operations. This will empower both the individual pertinent local problems or challenges at stake as
employees and team collaboration in order to increase experienced by the local practitioner in daily
theability of the company in getting the most outof operation of the organiza tion. The role of the
the existing organization and beprepared for growth. researcher in the OD process is to arrange for
Cen tral in the OD process taking place in this case suitable reflection arenas between the local
study is the rearrangement of the workspace for the practitioner being the insider, and the external
onshore operation centre. This workspace researcher being the outsider, aiming at a continu ous
rearrangement will support more collective work and shared collective learning process between all
practices utilizing and mobilizing knowledge across involved participants in the OD process.A model of
disciplines and locations toward building the IO an OD process viewed as collective learning,
compliant organization. alsolabelled co-generative learning, is illustrated in
Thispaper presents thecasestudy as an OD process, Figure I below (Greenwood & Levin 1998).
its results and discusses the results of the OD process The model represents a framework for integrating
with reference to theory on action research, partici communicative processes on different arenas into one
pation and job satisfaction. Action research was used and the same integrated learning process. As such,
throughout the different phases of the casestudy using the aim is the developmentof solutions on actual
a range of qualitative and quantitative methodologies. organiza tional issues. The model has three central
key points.

22
laterexperiences and perceptions of

Figure I. The co-generative learning model (Greenwood


nnd Levin 1998).

First, all actors involved in the OD-process partici


pate in the same collective learning process. This is
because knowledge creation in OD-work is fundamen
tally viewed as a process in which allparticipants
learn together. Second, the outsider, that is the
professional action researcher, is an external both as
an integrated and independent actor in the process.
Third, knowl edge creation processes are linked to
concrete actions for solving the actual issues
perceived as central for the organization.
Thus, co-generative learning is knowledge
creation through real collective learning based on
concrete actions driving the OD, or change process
forward. Therefore, the fundamental challenge is to
provide suitablearenas ofdialogue in which
theinvolved actors can meet and start learning
together. In that way, the OD-work means to plan for
the learning processes together, not for theresults.
Next, theaction researcher as outsider is responsible
for choosing an appropriate and useful arena for
learning.Third, the arenas arepre conditions for the
OD process providing change and innovation
through a continuous learning spiral to be integrated
in daily practice.
The Jong- te rm goal of OD-work based on the prag
matic co-generative model is that the change process
is taken over by the local practitioners or participants
themselves. Therefore, the learning process should
develop from interplay with the external researcher
towards becoming an integrated element in the daily
operative new, collective work practice of the client
organization.

2.2 Datafrom researchers


Thedata from the present casestudy was collected ret
rospectively by the researchers themselves. There
was nopossibility to validate thedata against any
historical documentation.This undertaking raises
some method ological questions concerning
thevalidity of these data (e.g. Gutek 1978, Miller et
al. 1997) since they will often bebiased by

22
the projects. This cognitive bias may hence influence
the accuracy of the recalled memories (e.g. Scwarz
2007).

2.3 Participation and job satisfactio11


Contrary to common held beliefs, the concept of
participation is notin itself strongly predictive ofsatis
faction and performance or productivity. Rather
other, often situational variables are more predictive
of sat isfaction and performance (Wagner 1994,
Miller & Monge 1986). Specifically the participative
climate as an organizational feature, rather than
participation in specific decisions has some effect on
job satisfaction (Miller & Monge 1986).The
Demand-control-support model proposed by Karasek
and Theorell (I 990) is widely accepted as a model
that describes the rela tionship between job related
strainand (mental) health. The model suggests that
the relationship between job demands and job strain
(job decision latitude) is medi ated by social support
and other available resources. The term 'job decision
latitude' is used to describe to which degree the
employee is able to exert con trol over how, when
and whether to do their work. High degree of
participation and involvement may increase the
experienced 'job decision latitude' and hence
moderate job satisfaction and mental health. This is
commented more on below. Change cyni cism is
thought to rise from fruitless change pro cesses, lack
of feedback to the employees and so called 'pseudo-
involvement' (Amundsen & Kongsvik 2008) and thus
shares features with decision latitude models.

2.4 Job satisfaction and perfo1111ance


The interest in workplace attitudes, such as job sat
isfaction, may date back to the start of industrial/
organizational psychology, and is often mentioned
causally together with performance and productivity.
Some studies show job satisfaction to cause high per
formance (Judge et al. 200I), whilst there is some
indication that the causal direction may run in the
other direction from job performance to job satisfac
tion (e.g. MacKenzie et al. 1998) and there is even
some, however ambiguous results suggesting that the
relationship is reciprocal. In a meta-analytic review
using both qualitative and quantitative analysis,
Judge et al. (2001) found 7 possible models for the
job per formance and job satisfaction relationship,
but these only aggregated a mean correlation of.30
between the two constructs. Based on their
qualitative assessment of the reviewed studies, they
went on to describe an integrative model of the job
performance/satisfaction relationship that includes
both mediating and moder ating factors in a
reciprocal relationship between the two.Thismodel is
shown belowandincludes a rangeof influencing
factors, some which are intra-psychic (e.g. moral
obligation, goalprogressand positive mood) and
some oforganizational nature (e.g. goal progress and
job characteristics).

22
I
Satisfaction
Job Phase1 Phase2 Phase3 Phase4\

Moderators Initial Onshore Offshore Worl<spac/e


wor1<shop
. f
Personolily/soff-<:enccpt survey
Mediators SUTVey develop,
•Autonomy
Nenno Success and men!
Moralobfigalion achievement
Cognffiilo aceessibDlly
1---< Task-op<>dfic cfllcacy
AggfC!Jallon Goalprogres!l
Level cfanolysls Posttlvo mood Figure 3. The fourphases in the organizationaldevelopment
(OD) process.

Moderators avoidance,

-
Pe!fonnonaHOY1'8rdo
contlngoncy
Mediators
Job characlorl•tlco
Bohnvforallntentlom,
Need foroehlovumonl
Low performance os
Woilt cuntra&ly
wllhdrawal
A09regation
PosHfVo mood

I Job
Performance

Figure 2. Integrative model of the relationship between job


satisfaction and job performance.

2.5 Health and well-being


Job satisfaction has shown to have a correlative rela
tionship with good health (Faragher et al. 2003) and
general well being (Wright & Crapanzano 2000).
High demands (strain) and low decision latitude are
predictiveof poor mental healthand thus thepsychoso
cial work environment is important for mental health
(Stansfeld & Candy 2006). In addition effort-reward
imbalance tends to have a significant effect on job
sat isfaction, well-being and mental health (de Jonge
et al. 2000, Stansfeld & Candy 2006).

2.6 Border objects


It is important for successful organizational devel
opment to give the stakeholders a language and a
common ground to communicate their needs and
demands regarding their physical work environment
and its organization. This is often referred to as 'bor
der objects' and may be used to translate 'business
language' into a needs specification (Jens0 & Blak
stad 2003). These border objects can take many
forms. They can be concrete and clearly distinct work
pro cesses, visual material, or language (e.g.
metaphors) (Ewenstein & Whyte 2009). The goal is
also to create a common ground for people of
different professions and organizational levels and
enable them to discuss the same issues and concepts
with precision (Jens0 & Blakstad 2003).

2.7 C11lt11ral issues in management


4 dimensions may be used to distinguish between
national cultures; powerdistance, uncertainty

22
individualism (collectivism) and masculinity (femi
ninity).'Power distances' is the extent to which
people within the society accept that power is
distributed unequally, 'uncertainty avoidance' is the
degree to which the member adapt ambiguous and
unsure sit uations by creating more formal rules and
conform their views. Individualism and masculinity
are self explicatory (Jaeger 1986). National culture
may be a predictive, moderating or mediating
variable that influence response and approach to
organizational development (Tsui et al. 2007).
National culture may be more evident in values than
practices and organi zational culture resides more in
practices (Hofstede 1994). The differences in
national culture may thus be of importance when
implementing new technolo gies and work practices
(Krumbholz & Maiden 2001), making it crucial to be
culture specific when doing organizational
development (Jaeger 1986).

3 CASE

The case study outlines the organizational develop


ment (OD) process facilitated by an action research
team and organized around four phases labeled 'Ini
tial workshop' (Phase 1), 'Onshore Survey' (Phase 2),
'Offshore survey' (Phase 3) and 'Workspace devel
opment' (Phase 4) as showed in Figure 3. The OD
process in all four phases was facilitated according
to the principles of the co-generative learning model
(see Figure 1).
The action researchers (or researchers for short)
used a range of different tools and interventions to
achieve the stated purpose. Initially, in phase 1 the
researchers participated as moderators in a two-day
workshop with participants from an external consul
tantagency and staff from the client company.A
major ity of the participants at the workshop were
offshore employees. This workshop concluded with
a need to work proactively with work process
development.
In phase 2 a survey of work processes in the oper
ations department corporate headquarters was done
usingstructured observations, questionnaire and
inter views.The focus of this survey was to createa
descrip tion of how their offices influenced on their
work processes. In this survey the need to use
metaphors as so-called border objects when
conducting the inter views was important. Based on
the expressed needs of the employees graphic
generic models were used as illustrations as showed
in Figure 4.

22
: Adjacent ;
. - Qui t roorhs

In ul

In proximity
- E/1and
Process Figure 6. Border objects constructed as 3D architect
draw ing.
Figure 4. Generic model.

and displayed within the department as showed in


Figure 6.
In this phase it became clear that it would be
impor tant toinvolve departments surrounding
theoperations department, such as the technical and
HR department, as the results headed towards a more
functional divi sion of work, with professionals being
organized by installation rather than by discipline.
During the project the company became a fully
owned subsidiary ofa North-American company. The
acquiring company already had a guideline for office
premises that was somewhat controversial to the out
come of the workshops, especially with respect to
Figure 5. Border object constructed with Playmobile toys the degree of openness in the offices. It thus became
unclear whether the findings and results were accept
At this point in the OD process (or project for able for senior management or not and this resulted
short) the focus was to identify office solutions that in a series of meetings involving HR, the researchers,
would promote communication and collaboration both members of staff in the operations department and
horizontally and vertically in the organization. This senior management. Finally it was decided that the
included creating physical space to collaborate better guidelines would haveconsequences in that
with offshore installations and geographical locations morewalls would have to come down.
as well as internally between departments in the During the redesign process in phase 4 one of
head quarters. There were no prerequisites on the the researchers 'moved in' with the client company
results at that point except the wish for more during 2 months. This was supposed to facilitate
efficient use of office space. The results were then com munication, generate data and keep the OD
validated in a plenary meeting with all involved process progressing as there was no obvious change
personnel from the operations department. manage ment in place within the company. Together
Another central element in phase 2 was the estab with an advisor from the HR department a reference
lishing of an operation leadership team that was group for the rebuilding process was put in place and
intended to create an arena for management level met on 3 occasions in the pianningphase.The aim
employees of the operation department to discuss was to ensure information flow both in to the design
and decide on strategic issues. These monthly and planning and amongst the employees in the
meetings were facilitated by the action research team operation depart ment. The group consisted of
and held mostly off-site. representatives from all levels anddisciplines within
In order to concretize the findings from the office theoperations department as well as the main
survey in phase 2 new workshops were planned dur employee safety representative. Therewere
ing the spring of 2008. One decided that the need for norepresentativesfrom external stakehold ers. As the
border objects was still present and decided to use responsibility for this reference group was transferred
Playmobile toys to design the floors in phase 4 as to the HR department, the meetings were halted,
illustrated in Figure 5. pending final decisions on the design scheme. In
An interior architect together with the action phase 3 one of the main points of the rebuild ing
research team was participating in the total of 6 process was of course to provide better oper
work shops. From this3D architect drawings were ational support to the 'customers' on the offshore
produced installation. To evaluate the effect on their customer

22
satisfaction a questionnaire was construed using The survey
ques tions from previously published research
concerning distributed team work, customer
satisfaction and tech nology acceptance. The
company's 'people survey' is done annually and will
enable the company to see any changes of the
employees' perception of their work environment.

4 RESULTS

4.1 Phase l l11itial workshop


The aim of theinitial workshop was to establish a
com mon understanding regarding future
organizational development (OD) needs including
challenges and opportunities in today's offshore unit
operation. The workshop was facilitated by the action
researchers and organized as a two days dialogue
conference shifting between work in groups and
plenum. In the plenum sessions the group answers
were pre pared and concluded as concrete actions
adjusted for immediate and proactive follow-up in
their respec tive operational work processes. The
actions were both at the workshop and in the
aftermath prepared in a matrix sorted in Man,
Technology and Orga nization (MTO} categories.
The overall result was a mutual and renewed trust
in the further growth strategy of the company
underpinned by a shared col lective understanding
regarding the prioritized "low hanging-fruits" actions
for operational improvements and development.

4.2 Phase 2 onshore s11rvey


The onshore survey and interviews were performed
duringa summer period.The summer period was how
ever not optimal due to the absence of some
personnel either for the survey period or for the
presentation of the results.
The results from the study were presented in a
plenary meeting in the department. The CEO coin
cidently was present in this meeting and based on his
positive comments the study was given an extra cred
ibility. The resulting recommendation was presented
in a report. This report included theory on workspace
principles, recommendations for further development
of the workspace and a guideline for the workspace
development.
At this point in the process the level of
concreteness was still fairly low. The employees were
interested in the change process, but not yet fully
engaged.

4.3 Phase 3 offelwre s11n 1ey


The main aim of the survey among offshore employees
was to collect information about the support from the
onshore organization. Another objective was to
ensure follow-up of the results from the initial
workshop (Phase I) and continued involvement of the
offshore organization in the ongoing OD process.

22
provides a measure of the quality of the onshore conditions for the workspace development. One
sup port and by repeating it after the major aspect was that cell offices could only be
implementation of the new workspaces onshore approved in very rare situations. The
the eventual improve ment of this support could
be measured. The quality and relevance of the
survey were validated against personnel in the
onshore organization.
Even if the aim of the survey were
communicated at several occasions in the
onshore organization, it was questioned why we
should bother to involve the off
shoreorganization.They were characterized as a
group thatwould useallsuchopportunities to
complain about the company and the
organisation. The response to the survey
washigh.The possibility to use thisas a channel to
complain was however not conspicuous.
It was hard to convince the onshore management
that this survey represented an important
development tool.The first presentation of the
survey in the onshore leadership meeting was
kept on a superior level to adapt to the arena.
This was however not a success as the response
(maybe influenced by the negative attitude
against the survey in the first hand) was that "this
is nothing new, we !mow this from before". On a
later stage the final report from the survey includ
ing all the details was presented in written form
and the reception was more positive. It was
indicated that there were some interesting
findings within the report. One result mentioned
several times was the fact that the use of
videoconferencing correlated with the satis
faction of the onshore support. This has been
taken as prove that Integrated Operation is
important for the cooperation between onshore
and offshore. The offshore survey report was also
distributed electroni cally to the respondents
offshore. We are not aware of any response from
the offshore personnel at this stage. The negative
attitude to the offshore survey and the result was
experienced as a strain by the researchers
involved.

4.4 Phase 4 workspace development


The process towards a new office design was
long and complicated with a wide range of
stakeholders. The information exchange was
complicated with so many persons and groups
involved but this was sim plified by the
establishment of the reference group. Due to the
size of the OD-project, an adding challenge was
the coordination effort within the team of action
researchers having different roles in the OD
process. One role was more dedicated to facilitate
and prepare the regularstrategy meetings of the
operation manage ment team as well as the
project status meetings with management of the
client organization. Another role was dedicated
to prepare and facilitate the workshops in the
workspace development process.
An introduction of the newcorporate guideline
from the top management halfway in the
process caused a lot of frustration as the
guideline involves major changes to the frame

22
process was also disturbed by som in emal introduction of these had a negative effect on the
organi_sa tional issues addressing the orgamsational process.
belongmg of some of the central persons in the
onshore support group. There was also a competitive
situation around some new positions including
several departments.

5 DISCUSSION

5.1 /11volveme11t a11djob satisfaction


Initial!y, in phase I and 2, e degree of invol e ment
m the OD process was high and was met with an
open attitude both from management and the action
researchers. Because of this and the envisioned
possibility of implementation of the want_ed and pro
posed solutions the decision latitude dunng phase 2
was high. This in tum led to high job satisfaction
both among researchers and employees in the client
company. . .
The period after the new corporate gmdelmes for
office design were introduced and imposed contained
somewhat low enthusiasm, more cynicism towards
change and less of the wanted behaviour of creativ ity
and participation, typical consequences of lack of
positive reinforcement. Likewise the researchers'
perception of the work was influenced. A pote?t. osi
tive reinforcement for the engaged researcher m1t1ally
would be to experience participation,development
and enthusiasm from the employees. When
thisstopped we as researchers for some time increased
in our efforts to restore and continue the process that
had been so rewarding, before eventually partly
withdrawing from the OD project, somewhat
exhausted.
Another important aspect of this is decision
latitude and the demand-control-support model of
job-strain. At the same time the 2008/09 financial
crisis hit and the demands on efficiency were
augmented, increas ing the demands. This aspect
seems to have hit the researchers as well as the
decision latitude with respect to facilitating the
process was smaller.
Although we do not yet have any data describing
any negative health effects of this process, it seems
reasonable to presume that such effects might come
with the lack of positive reinforcement.
The way the corporate guidelines for office design
were introduced and imposed and its accompanying
organizational response, raises questions about cul
tural specificity in organizational development. As
earlier described it has been the perception of the
researchers that the organizational culture in the client
department has been inclusive and democratic in i_ts
practices, this is much in line with values embedde m
the Scandinavian national work culture.The orgamza
tional culture of the acquiring company is not known
to any significant extent by the researchers and it is
therefore too difficult to determine whether the top
down way of imposing the guidelines is a result of
organizational- or national culture. Nonetheless the

22
The results from phase 2 were based on both a
thor ough review of existing literature on office
design and workspace development partly developed
prior to and after the onshore survey, these results
which were vali dated in thedepartment, wereonly
partly used in phase 4, partly because of the large
action research team, but maybe also due to a fear
with action researchers to be too suggestive and
empirically driven.

5.2 Methods in action research


The use of border objects was rewarding in the ini tial
phase of this project and the researchers. oted that the
initial enthusiasm was influenced positively by the
introduction of metaphors, architect drawings and
Playmobile figures. One important aspect that was
noted from the process was the degree of con
creteness of the border objects. At one point in the
process a power point presentati n of design prin
ciples with random pictures of different offices as
illustrations placed next to the text was presented
to the participants, this had the unintended effect of
restraining and creating resistance towards the fol
lowing process. When the possibilities were left open
on the other hand, more alternatives were generated.
Also, practical border objects s_e:m gly gene ted
more suggestion and other participative behaVIours
than verbal objects.
Itseems that when the policy issues related to office
layout were introduced that the border objects lost
someof their motivating effect that had been observed
previously. As described above border objects also
allows for some immediate positive reinforcement on
behaviour related to change and creativity in the OD
process. However, over a number of weeks this
positive reinforcement was alleviated from thi pr?
cess, it seems that the employees stopped engagmg m
the participation; in behaviouristic terms this means
that the creative- and participative behaviours were
extinguished leaving exhaustion and cynicism towards
change.
As described in the introduction of this paper the
retrospective reporting of attitudinal data may be of
concern with respect to the validity of that data. In
this paper this may especially be true when it comes to
the data collected from the researchers as these were
collected only after the project was partly terminated
and a fairly long and exhausting process of trying to
keep the OD process moving was finished. This has
probably added a bias to our reporting.on. our o
reactions, it is difficulthowever to determme1ft11e b t
s is positive or negative. The data from the employees
m the client organization was collected in more
temporal proximity to the actual events.

6 CONCLUDING REMARKS

This organizational development (OD) project started


out with highdecision latitude for the employees of
the client organization, but as new restrictions on
possible

22
outcomes were imposed on the design-process by the Hofstede, G. 1994.Cultures and Organisations,lntercultum/
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