Robbins & Judge

Organizational Behavior
14th Edition

Change management

Kelli J. Schutte
William Jewell College

Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall 18-1

Planned Change
 Change
Making things different
 Planned Change
–Activities that are intentional and goal-oriented
–Goals of planned change
• Improving the ability of the organization to adapt to changes in
its environment
• Changing employee behavior
 Change Agents
–Persons who act as catalysts and assume responsibility for managing
change activities
–Act as leaders in the change process
–They are able to see and implement a vision for the organization
Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall 18-2
Forces for Change
 Nature of the Workforce

 Technology

 Economic Shocks

 Competition

 Social Trends

 World Politics
E X H I B I T 18-1

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Resistance to Change
Resistance to change can be positive
Forms of resistance:
– Overt and Immediate
• Complaints, work slowdown, a strike threat
– Implicit or Deferred
• Loss of employee loyalty or motivation, increased errors,
increased absenteeism
• Deferred actions cloud the link between a change and the
reaction to it

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Sources of Resistance to Change

E X H I B I T 18-2

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Tactics for Overcoming Resistance to Change

 Communication

 Participation

 Building Support and Commitment

 Implementing Change Fairly

 Manipulation and Cooptation

 Selecting people who accept change

 Coercion

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The Politics of Change

 Encouragement for change is likely to come from outside

change agents, new employees or managers outside the main
power structure

 Employees who have spent a long time with an organization and

achieved a senior position can be impediments to change

 For them, change can be a threat to their positions

 So long-time power holders tend to implement incremental

changes only

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Lewin’s Three-Step Change Model
 Unfreezing the status quo
Change efforts to overcome the pressure of both individual
resistance and group conformity
 Movement to a desired end state
 Refreezing the change
Stabilizing a change intervention by altering driving and restraining
forces

E X H I B I T 18-3

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Approaches to Unfreezing
 Driving Forces – increase
Forces that direct behaviour away from the status quo
 Restraining Forces – decrease
Forces that hinder movement away from the equilibrium
 Combination

E X H I B I T 18-4

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Kotter’s Eight-Step Plan
 Builds on Lewin’s model

 To implement change
1. Establish a sense of urgency
2. Form a coalition
Unfreezing
3. Create a new vision
4. Communicate the vision
5. Empower others by removing barriers
6. Create and reward short-term wins Movement
7. Consolidate, reassess and adjust
8. Reinforce the changes Refreezing

E X H I B I T 18-5

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Action Research
A change process based on systematic collection of data and
then selection of a change action based on what the analyzed
data indicates

 Process steps
1.Diagnosis
2.Analysis
3.Feedback
4.Action
5.Evaluation

 Action research benefits

–Problem-focused rather than solution-centred
–Heavy employee involvement reduces resistance to change

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Organizational Development (OD)
 A collection of planned change methods designed to
improve organizational effectiveness and employee
well-being

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Techniques for OD

1. Sensitivity Training
Training groups (T-groups) that work to change behaviour through
unstructured group interaction

2. Survey Feedback
–The use of questionnaires to identify discrepancies amongst member
perceptions
–Discussion follows and remedies are suggested

3. Process Consultation (PC)

A meeting in which a consultant assists a client in understanding
process events and identifying processes that need improvement

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Techniques for OD
4. Team Building
High interaction amongst team members to increase trust and
openness
5. Intergroup Development
Efforts to change the perceptions and attitudes that groups have of
one another
6. Appreciative Inquiry
–To identify the unique qualities and special strengths of an
organization, which can then be built on to improve performance
–Steps in the process
• Discovery: Identifying the strengths of an organization
• Dreaming: Speculation on possible futures of the organization
• Design: Finding a common vision of how the organization will
look in the future
• Destiny: Deciding how to fulfill the dream

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Creating a Culture for Change: Innovation

1. Stimulating a Culture of Innovation

– Innovation: a new idea applied to initiating or improving a
product, process or service

– Sources of Innovation (structural variables)

• Organic structures
• Long tenure in management
• Abundance of resources
• Interunit communication

– Idea champions: individuals who actively promote the idea,

build support, overcome resistance and ensure that the idea is
implemented

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Creating a Culture for Change: Learning

2. Learning Organization
– An organization that has developed the continuous
capacity to adapt and change
– In a learning organization, members
• Put aside old ways of thinking
• Openly communicate with one another
• Understand how the organization really works
• Form a vision everyone can agree on
• Work together to achieve that vision

E X H I B I T 18-6

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Creating a Learning Organization
 Overcomes traditional organization problems
– Fragmentation creates “walls”
– Too much competition
– Reactiveness misdirects management’s attention to solving
problems rather than creating

 Manage learning by:

– Establishing a strategy
Management needs to make explicit its commitment to change,
innovation and continuous improvement
– Redesigning the organization’s structure
• Flatten the structure and increase cross-functional activities
– Reshaping the organization’s culture
• Reward risk-taking and tell employees it is ok to make some
mistakes

18-17
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Work Stress
 Stress
An unpleasant psychological process that is a response to
environmental pressure

 Types of Stress
–Challenge Stressors
• Work load and time urgency
–Hindrance Stressors
• Stress that keeps you from reaching your goals, such as office
politics
• Produce more strain than challenge stressors

E X H I B I T 18-7

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Demands-Resources Model of Stress

 Demands
– Responsibilities, pressure, obligations and uncertainty in the workplace

 Resources
– Things within an individual’s control that can be used to cover demands

 Adequate resources help reduce stress from demands

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A Model of Stress

E X H I B I T 18-8

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Not All Stress Is Bad
 Some level of stress can increase productivity
 Too little or too much stress will reduce performance
 This model does not have a lot of empirical support

E X H I B I T 18-9

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Managing Stress
 Individual Approaches
– Improving time management
– Increasing exercise
– Use relaxation techniques
– Maintain a social support network
 Organizational Approaches
– Selection and placement
– Training
– Goal-setting
– Redesigning jobs
– Employee involvement
– Organizational communication
– Employee sabbaticals
– Wellness programs

Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall 18-22