Managing Change

Module 10
LIS 580: Spring 2006
Instructor- Michael Crandall

Roadmap

The context
What is organizational change?
Processes for managing change
People and change
Organizational Development
Conflict resolution
Fostering innovation
April 27, 2006

LIS580- Spring 2006

Ghoshal & Bartlett

Old values: compliance, control, contract and
constraint
New values: discipline, support, trust and stretch
Successful change involves simplification, integration,
and regeneration
Phased approach essential, along with focus on
peoples attitudes, assumptions and behaviors
Brings both organizational design and human
resources lessons to bear
Ghoshal and Bartlett provide a high-level model for
change, lets look at some of the details and lessons
learned at a more granular level
April 27, 2006

LIS580- Spring 2006

What is Organizational Change?

An alteration of an organizations
environment, structure, culture,
technology, or people
A constant force
An organizational reality
An opportunity or a threat

Change agent
A person who initiates and assumes the
responsibility for managing a change in an
organization
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LIS580- Spring 2006

Basic Questions for Change

Agents
What are the forces acting upon me?
What are the pressures I should take into
consideration as I decide what to change
and how I should change it?

What should we change?

Should the changes be strategic and
companywide or relatively limited?

How should we change it?

How should we actually implement the
change?
G.Dessler, 2003

April 27, 2006

LIS580- Spring 2006

Forces for Change

External Forces

Internal Forces

Competition Laws and

regulations

Strategy modifications

New technologies

New equipment

Labor market shifts

New processes

Business cycles

Workforce composition

Social change

Job restructuring
Compensation and
benefits
Labor surpluses and
shortages
Employee attitude
Prentice Hall, 2002

April 27, 2006

LIS580- Spring 2006

Three Categories of Change

Organizational Culture

Prentice Hall, 2002

April 27, 2006

LIS580- Spring 2006

Model for Planned Organizational

Change

Source: Adapted from Larry Short, Planned Organizational Change, MSU Business Topics, Autumn 1973,
pp. 5361 ed. Theodore Herbert, Organizational Behavior: Readings and Cases (New York: McMillan, 1976), p. 351.

April 27, 2006

LIS580- Spring 2006

FIGURE 81
G.Dessler, 2003

Two Views of the Change

Process
Calm waters metaphor
A description of traditional practices in and
theories about organizations that likens the
organization to a large ship making a
predictable trip across a calm sea and
experiencing an occasional storm

White-water rapids metaphor

A description of the organization as a small
raft navigating a raging river
Prentice Hall, 2002

April 27, 2006

LIS580- Spring 2006

Change in Calm Waters

Kurt Lewins Three-Step Process
Unfreezing
The driving forces, which direct behavior
away from the status quo, can be
increased
The restraining forces, which hinder
movement from the existing equilibrium,
can be decreased
The two approaches can be combined

Implementation of change
Refreezing
Prentice Hall, 2002

April 27, 2006

LIS580- Spring 2006

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Change in White-water
Rapids

Change is constant in a dynamic environment

The only certainty is continuing uncertainty
Competitive advantages do not last
Managers must quickly and properly react to
unexpected events
Be alert to problems and opportunities
Become change agents in stimulating,
implementing and supporting change in the
organization
Prentice Hall, 2002

April 27, 2006

LIS580- Spring 2006

11

Is a New Structure Really Required?

When
Whenyou
youidentify
identifyaaproblem
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with your design, firstlook
lookfor
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it.IfIfthat
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even reject the design. Heresaa
step-by-step
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Source: Adapted from Michael Goold and Andrew Campbell, Do You Have a
Well-Designed Organization? Harvard Business Review, March 2002, p. 124.

April 27, 2006

LIS580- Spring 2006

FIGURE 82
G.Dessler, 2003

12

Is a New Structure Really

Required? (contd)

Source: Adapted from Michael Goold and Andrew Campbell, Do You Have a
Well-Designed Organization? Harvard Business Review, March 2002, p. 124.

April 27, 2006

LIS580- Spring 2006

FIGURE 82b
G.Dessler, 2003

13

A Nine-step Process For Leading

Organizational Change
1. Create a Sense of
Urgency
2. Decide What to Change
3. Create a Guiding
Coalition and Mobilize
Commitment
4. Develop and
Communicate a Shared
Vision
5. Empower Employees to
Make the Change

6. Generate Short-Term
Wins
7. Consolidate Gains and
Produce More Change
8. Anchor the New Ways
of Doing Things in the
Company Culture
9. Monitor Progress and
Adjust the Vision as
Required
G.Dessler, 2003

April 27, 2006

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Why People Resist Change

Prentice Hall, 2002

April 27, 2006

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How Immune Is the Person to

Change?

Source: Robert Kegan and Lisa Lahey, The Real Reason People
Wont Change, Harvard Business Review, November 2001, p. 89.

April 27, 2006

LIS580- Spring 2006

FIGURE 83
G.Dessler, 2003

16

Dealing with Change

April 27, 2006

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G.Dessler, 2003

17

Barriers to Empowerment

Source: Reprinted by permission of Harvard Business School Press. From

Leading Change by John P. Kotter. Boston, MA. 1996, p. 102. Copyright
1996 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College, all rights reserved.

April 27, 2006

LIS580- Spring 2006

FIGURE 85
G.Dessler, 2003

18

Organizational Development
Organizational Development (OD)
An approach to organizational change in
which the employees themselves
formulate the change thats required and
implement it,
usually with the
aid of a trained
consultant.

G.Dessler, 2003

April 27, 2006

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OD Interventions
Human Process Interventions
Aimed at enabling employees to develop a better
understanding of their own and others behaviors
for the purpose of improving that behavior such
that the organization benefits.

Sensitivity Training (Laboratory or T-groups)

Purpose is to increase participants insight into
their own behavior and that of others by
encouraging an open expression of feelings in a
trainer-guided group.
G.Dessler, 2003

April 27, 2006

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OD Interventions (contd)
Team Building
The process of improving the effectiveness
of a team through action research or other
techniques.

Survey Research
The process of collecting data from attitude
surveys filled out by employees of an
organization, then feeding the data back to
workgroups to provide a basis for problem
analysis and action planning.
G.Dessler, 2003

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April 27, 2006

LIS580- Spring 2006

G.Dessler, 2003

22

Technostructural Applications of
OD
Formal Structure Change Program
An intervention technique in which
employees collect information on existing
formal organizational structures and
analyze it for the purpose of redesigning
and implementing
new organizational
structures.

G.Dessler, 2003

April 27, 2006

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Strategic Applications of OD
Strategic Intervention
An OD application aimed at effecting a suitable fit
among a firms strategy, structure, culture, and
external environments.

Integrated Strategic Management

An OD program to create or change a companys
strategy by:

Analyzing the current strategy

Choosing a desired strategy
Designing a strategic change plan
Implementing the new plan.
G.Dessler, 2003

April 27, 2006

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Organizational Stressors:
Role Demands
Role conflicts
Work expectations that are hard to satisfy

Role overload
Having more work to accomplish than time
permits

Role ambiguity
When role expectations are not clearly
understood
Prentice Hall, 2002

April 27, 2006

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Conflict Handling Styles

Source: Source: Kenneth W. Thomas, Organizational Conflict, ed., Steven Kerr, Organizational Behavior (Columbus, OH:
Grid Publishing, 1979), in Andrew DuBrin, Applying Psychology (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2000), p. 223.

April 27, 2006

LIS580- Spring 2006

FIGURE 87
G.Dessler, 2003

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Conflict Resolution Modes

G.Dessler, 2003

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Stimulating Innovation
Creativity
The ability to combine ideas in a unique way or to
make unusual connections

Innovation
The process of taking a creative idea and turning it
into a useful product, service, or method of
operation

Perception
Incubation
Inspiration
Innovation
Prentice Hall, 2002

April 27, 2006

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Structural Variables Affecting

Innovation
Organic structures
Positively influence innovation through less work
specialization, fewer rules and decentralization

Easy availability of plentiful resources

Allow management to purchase innovations, bear
the cost of instituting innovations, and absorb
failures

Frequent inter-unit communication

Helps to break down barriers to innovation by
facilitating interaction across departmental lines
Prentice Hall, 2002

April 27, 2006

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Next Week

Leading Mondays topic is motivation

Read Chapters 10 and 11 and the assigned
articles

Discussion group-- think about the following

questions:
Does NASA have clear and consistent
leadership?
What are some of the problems with the
leadership structure?
How do you think this affects the motivation of the
engineers and managers?
Does this have impact on safety & performance?
What could be done to improve the situation?
April 27, 2006

LIS580- Spring 2006

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