Learning Outcomes –

Organizational Change
 Describe the driving forces for change
 Define the role of change agents
 Identify why people resist change
 Discuss the ways organizations may
overcome the resistance to change

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 Organizational Change
 “The illiterate of the 21st century
will not be those who cannot read
or write, but those who cannot
learn, unlearn, and relearn.”
Alvin Toffler
 What is he saying to us? We must
learn how to change to increase
our knowledge.
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 Organizational Change
 Change is the single most important
factor in business today:
 every business is an ongoing source of
change.
 every professional discipline is a process of
change.
 every fundamental business principle
directs us to change.

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 Organizational Change
 Every market force (customers,
competitors, technology,
regulations, distribution channels,
suppliers, etc.) creates change that
forces our change in response.
 Globalization of markets demands
globalization of businesses.
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 Organizational Change
 Change with times, or get left behind.
 You will be hired to bring about change;
not to just maintain the status quo.
 You will need to become a change
agent.

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 Organizational Change
 People who drive change are
change agents.
 We are all agents of change:
 Change-agent skills are as important to our
success as our professional discipline skills.
 The purpose of our jobs is to change what is
possible, as companies and as individuals, by
adding value every day.

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 Organizational Change
 Driving forces of change are:
 Technology
 Nature of the workforce
 International effects
 Mergers – competition
 Economic shocks
 Social trends

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 Organizational Change
 Change is everywhere – it’s
constant.
 Everyone is affected by change.
 The pace of change is accelerating.

If the above is true, why do people and

organizations resist change?
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 Organizational Change
 We, as leaders, have a
responsibility to bring about
planned change.
 “If you have always done it
that way, it is probably wrong.”

Charles Kettering

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 Organizational Change
 Managing today would be more
accurately described as long
periods of ongoing change,
interrupted occasionally by
short periods of stability.

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 Why People Resist Change
 Habits – We are creatures of habit.
 Fear of the unknown.
 Security – The higher the need for
security, the stronger the resistance.
 Economic factors.
 Selective information processing – We
all have our own ideas of what is right.

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 Why Do Organizations Resist
Change?
 Group inertia – Peer pressure, group norms.
 Security.
 Threat to established power relationships.
 Threat to established resource allocations.
 Limited focus of change – Change affects
others in the organization.
 Poor communication.
 Threat to expertise.

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Lewin’s Three-Step Change Model

Unfreezing

Movement or
Refreezing Transition

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 Organizational Change
Restraining
Desired
Forces
State

Status
Quo

Driving
Forces

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 Organizational Change
 Three options to bring about change:
 increase the driving forces.

 decrease the restraining forces.

 do a combination of the two

approaches.

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 Getting People and Organizations
to Change (Driving Forces)
 Education and training
 Participation and cooperation
 Support
 Economic incentives
 Increased communication
 Negotiation
 Coercion – Forcing
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 What Can Change Agents
Change?
 Structure – Change agents can alter one or more of
the key elements in an organization’s design.
 Technology – Competitive factors or innovations
within an organization often require change agents to
introduce new equipment, tools, or methods.
 People – Change agents help individuals and groups
within the organization work more effectively
together.
 Physical Settings – Change agents can affect their
environment.

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 Organizational Change
 Resistance is not all bad. Resistance:
 forces management to check and recheck the
proposals.
 helps identify specific problem areas where
change is likely to cause difficulty.
 gives management information about the intensity
of employee emotions on the issues.
 provides a means of release of emotions. This
causes employees to think and talk more about
the changes.

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 Organizational Change
 “The trouble with the future is
that it usually arrives before
we’re ready for it.”
Arnold H. Glasow

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