Cloud Provider Evaluation

3/5/22, 12:31 PM IT Change Management

https://leocontent.umgc.edu/content/scor/uncurated/cca/2218-cca610/learning-topic-list/it-change-management.html?ou=622270 1/13

Learning Topic

IT Change Management Organizational change is the movement of an organization from one state of affairs to

another. A change in the environment often necessitates change within organizations

operating within that environment. Change in almost any aspect of a company's operation

can be met with resistance, and different cultures can have different reactions both to the

change and to the way change is promoted.

Several steps can be taken to lower the anxiety of employees and ease the transformation

process. Often, the simple act of including employees in the change process can

drastically reduce opposition to new methods. In some organizations, this level of

inclusion is not possible, and instead organizations can recruit a small number of opinion

leaders to promote the benefits of coming changes.

Organizational change can take many forms. It may involve a change in a company's

structure, strategy, policies, procedures, technology, or culture. The change may be

planned years in advance or may be forced on an organization because of a shift in the

environment. Organizational change can be radical and swiftly alter the way an

organization operates, or it may be incremental and slow. In any case, regardless of the

type, change involves letting go of the old ways in which work is done and adjusting to

new ways. Therefore, fundamentally, it is a process that involves effective people

management.

Managers carrying out any of the P-O-L-C functions (planning, organizing, leading, and

controlling) often find themselves faced with the need to manage organizational change

effectively. Often, the planning process reveals the need for a new or improved strategy,

which is then reflected in changes to tactical and operational plans. Creating a new

organizational design (the organizing function) or altering the existing design entails

changes that may affect from a single employee up to the entire organization, depending

on the scope of the changes.

Effective decision making—a leadership task—takes into account the change-management

implications of decisions, planning for the need to manage the implementation of

decisions. Finally, any updates to controlling systems and processes will potentially

3/5/22, 12:31 PM IT Change Management

https://leocontent.umgc.edu/content/scor/uncurated/cca/2218-cca610/learning-topic-list/it-change-management.html?ou=622270 2/13

involve changes to employees' assigned tasks and performance assessments, which will

require astute change management skills to implement. In short, change management is an

important leadership skill that spans the entire range of P-O-L-C functions.

Workplace Demographics

Organizational change is often a response to changes to the environment. For example,

agencies that monitor workplace demographics such as the US Department of Labor and

the international Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development have

reported that the average age of the US workforce will increase as the Baby Boom

generation nears retirement age and the numbers of younger workers are insufficient to

fill the gap (Lerman & Schmidt, 2006). What does this mean for companies? Organizations

may realize that as the workforce gets older, the types of benefits workers prefer may

change. Work arrangements such as flexible work hours and job sharing may become

more popular as employees remain in the workforce even after retirement. It is also

possible that employees who are unhappy with their current work situation will choose to

retire, resulting in a sudden loss of valuable knowledge and expertise in organizations.

Therefore, organizations will have to devise strategies to retain these employees and plan

for their retirement. Finally, a critical issue is finding ways of dealing with age-related

stereotypes which act as barriers in the retention of these employees.

Technology

Sometimes change is motivated by rapid developments in technology. Moore's law (a

prediction by Gordon Moore, cofounder of Intel) dictates that the overall complexity of

computers will double every 18 months with no increase in cost (Anonymous, 2008), as

depicted in the following figure.

3/5/22, 12:31 PM IT Change Management

https://leocontent.umgc.edu/content/scor/uncurated/cca/2218-cca610/learning-topic-list/it-change-management.html?ou=622270 3/13

Such change is motivating corporations to change their technology rapidly. Sometimes

technology produces such profound developments that companies struggle to adapt. A

fairly recent example comes from the music industry. When compact discs (CDs) were

introduced in the 1980s, they were substantially more appealing than the traditional vinyl

records. Record companies were easily able to double the prices, even though producing

CDs cost a fraction of what it cost to produce vinyl records. For decades, record-

producing companies benefited from this status quo. But when peer-to-peer file sharing

through software such as Napster and Kazaa threatened the core of their business,

companies in the music industry found themselves unprepared for such disruptive

technological changes. Their first response was to sue the users of file-sharing software,

sometimes even underage kids. They also kept looking for a technology that would make

it impossible to copy a CD or DVD. Until Apple's iTunes came up with a new way to sell

music online, it was doubtful that consumers would ever be willing to pay for music that

was otherwise available for free (even if illegally so).

Globalization

3/5/22, 12:31 PM IT Change Management

https://leocontent.umgc.edu/content/scor/uncurated/cca/2218-cca610/learning-topic-list/it-change-management.html?ou=622270 4/13

Globalization is another threat and opportunity for organizations, depending on their

ability to adapt to it. Because of differences in national economies and standards of living

from one country to another, organizations in developed countries are finding that it is

often cheaper to produce goods and deliver services in less developed countries. This has

led many companies to outsource (or "offshore") their manufacturing operations to

countries such as China and Mexico.

In the 1990s, knowledge work was thought to be safe from outsourcing, but in the

twenty-first century, we are also seeing many service operations moved to places with

cheaper wages. For example, many companies have outsourced software development to

India, with Indian companies such as Wipro and Infosys emerging as global giants. Given

these changes, understanding how to manage a global workforce is a necessity. Many

companies realize that outsourcing forces them to operate in an institutional environment

that is radically different from what they are used to at home. Dealing with employee

stress resulting from jobs being moved overseas, retraining the workforce, and learning to

compete with a global workforce on a global scale are changes companies are trying to

come to grips with.

Changes in the Market Conditions

Market changes may also create internal changes as companies struggle to adjust. For

example, the airline industry in the United States has undergone serious changes during

the past decade or so. Demand for air travel fell after the September 11 terrorist attacks.

At the same time, the widespread use of the internet to book flights made it possible to

compare airline prices much more efficiently and easily, encouraging airlines to compete

primarily based on cost. This strategy seems to have backfired when it intersected with

dramatic increases in the cost of fuel beginning in 2004. As a result, by mid-2008, airlines

were cutting back on amenities that had been taken for granted for decades, such as the

price of a ticket including meals, beverages, and checked luggage. Some airlines merged to

stay in business.

How does a change in the environment create change within an organization?

Environmental change does not automatically change how business is done. Whether the

organization changes in response to environmental challenges and threats depends on the

decision makers' reactions to what is happening in the environment.

3/5/22, 12:31 PM IT Change Management

https://leocontent.umgc.edu/content/scor/uncurated/cca/2218-cca610/learning-topic-list/it-change-management.html?ou=622270 5/13

Growth

It is natural for once-small start-up companies to grow if they are successful. An example

of this growth is the evolution of the Widmer Brothers Brewing Company, which started

as two brothers brewing beer in their garage. This growth happened over time as the

popularity of their key product—Hefeweizen—grew in popularity and the company had to

expand to meet demand. In 2007, Widmer Brothers merged with Redhook Ale Brewery,

growing from the two founders to one of the largest breweries the United States by 2008.

So, while 50 percent of all new small businesses fail in their first year (Get ready, 2008),

those that succeed often evolve over time into large, complex organizations.

Poor Performance

Change can also occur if the company is performing poorly and if there is a perceived

threat from the environment. In fact, poorly performing companies often find it easier to

change compared with successful companies. Why? High performance actually leads to

overconfidence and inertia. As a result, successful companies often keep doing what made

them successful in the first place.

When it comes to the relationship between company performance and organizational

change, the saying "nothing fails like success" may be fitting. For example, Polaroid was

the number one producer of instant films and cameras in 1994. Less than a decade later,

the company filed for bankruptcy, unable to adapt to the rapid advances in one-hour

photo development and digital photography technologies that were sweeping the market.

Successful companies that manage to change have special practices in place to keep the

organization open to changes. For example, Finnish cell phone maker Nokia finds it

important to periodically change the perspective of key decision makers. For this purpose,

they rotate heads of businesses to different posts to give them a fresh perspective.

3/5/22, 12:31 PM IT Change Management

https://leocontent.umgc.edu/content/scor/uncurated/cca/2218-cca610/learning-topic-list/it-change-management.html?ou=622270 6/13

In addition to the success of a business, change in a company's upper-level management is

a motivator for change at the organization level. Research shows that long-tenured CEOs

are unlikely to change their formula for success. Instead, new CEOs and new top

management teams create change in a company's culture and structure (Barnett & Carroll,

1995; Boeker, 1997; Deutschman, 2005).

Resistance to Change

Changing an organization is often essential for a company to remain competitive. Failure

to change may influence the ability of a company to survive. Yet employees do not always

welcome changes in methods. According to a 2007 survey conducted by the Society for

Human Resource Management, employee resistance to change is one of the top reasons

change efforts fail. In fact, reactions to organizational change may range from resistance

to compliance to enthusiastic support of the change, with the latter being the exception

rather than the norm (Anonymous, 2007; Huy, 1999).

Reactions to change may take many forms.

Active resistance is the most negative reaction to a proposed change attempt. Those who

engage in active resistance may sabotage the change effort and be outspoken objectors to

the new procedures. In contrast, passive resistance involves being disturbed by changes

without necessarily voicing these opinions. Instead, passive resisters may dislike the

change quietly, feel stressed and unhappy, and even look for a new job without

necessarily bringing their concerns to the attention of decision makers. Compliance is

practiced by those who go along with proposed changes but show little enthusiasm.

Finally, those who show enthusiastic support are defenders of the new way and actually

encourage others around them to give support to the change effort as well.

To be successful, any change attempt will need to overcome resistance on the part of

employees. Otherwise, the result will be loss of time and energy, as well as an inability on

the part of the organization to adapt to the changes in the environment and make its

operations more efficient. Resistance to change also has negative consequences for the

3/5/22, 12:31 PM IT Change Management

https://leocontent.umgc.edu/content/scor/uncurated/cca/2218-cca610/learning-topic-list/it-change-management.html?ou=622270 7/13

people in question. Research shows that when people react negatively to organizational

change, they experience negative emotions, use sick time more often, and are more likely

to voluntarily leave the company (Fugate, Kinicki, & Prussia, 2008). These negative effects

can be present even when the proposed change clearly offers benefits and advantages

over the status quo.

The following is a dramatic example of how resistance to change may prevent improving

the status quo. Have you ever wondered why the keyboards we use are arranged the way

they are? The QWERTY keyboard, named after the first six letters in the top row, was

actually engineered to slow us down. When the typewriter was first invented in the

nineteenth century, early prototypes of the keyboard would jam if one key were pressed

too soon after an adjacent key. Therefore, it was important for manufacturers to slow

typists down. They achieved this by putting the most commonly used letters to the left-

hand side and scattering the most frequently used letters all over the keyboard.

Later, the problem of letters being stuck was resolved. In fact, an alternative to the

QWERTY developed in the 1930s by educational psychologist August Dvorak provides a

much more efficient design and allows individuals to double traditional typing speeds. Yet

the Dvorak keyboard never gained wide acceptance because too many people resisted the

change. The reasons? Teachers and typists resisted because they would lose their

specialized knowledge. Manufacturers resisted due to costs inherent in making the switch

and the initial inefficiencies in the learning curve (Diamond, 2005). In short, the best idea

does not necessarily win, and changing people requires understanding why they resist.

Why Do People Resist Change?

Disrupted Habits

People often resist change for the simple reason that change disrupts our habits. When

you hop into your car for your morning commute, do you think about how you are

driving? Most of the time probably not, because after a while, driving generally becomes

an automated activity. You may sometimes even realize you have reached your

destination without noticing the roads you used or having consciously thought about any

of your body movements.

Now imagine you drive for a living, and even though you are used to driving an automatic

car, you are forced to use a stick shift. You can most likely figure out how to drive a stick,

but it will take time, and until you figure it out, you cannot drive on automatic pilot. You

will have to reconfigure your body movements and practice shifting until you become

good at it. This loss of a familiar habit can make you feel clumsy; you may even feel that

3/5/22, 12:31 PM IT Change Management

https://leocontent.umgc.edu/content/scor/uncurated/cca/2218-cca610/learning-topic-list/it-change-management.html?ou=622270 8/13

your competence as a driver is threatened. For this simple reason, people can be

surprisingly outspoken when confronted with simple changes such as updating to a newer

version of a particular software or a change in their voice mail system.

Personality

Some people are more resistant to change than others. One of the "Big Five" personality

traits is Openness to Experience; obviously, people who rank high on this trait will tend to

accept change readily. Research also shows that people who have a positive self-concept

are better at coping with change, probably because those who have high self-esteem may

feel that whatever the changes are, they are likely to adjust to it and be successful in the

new system. People with a more positive self-concept and those who are more optimistic

may also view change as an opportunity to shine as opposed to a threat that is

overwhelming. Finally, risk tolerance is another predictor of how resistant someone will be

to stress. For people who are risk avoidant, the possibility of a change in technology or

structure may be more threatening (Judge et al., 1999; Wanberg & Banas, 2000).

Feelings of Uncertainty

Change inevitably brings feelings of uncertainty. You have just heard that your company is

merging with another. What would be your reaction? Such change is often turbulent, and

it is often unclear what is going to happen to each individual. Some positions may be

eliminated. Some people may see a change in their job duties. Things may get better—or

they may get worse. The feeling that the future is unclear is enough to create stress for

people because it leads to a sense of lost control (Ashford, Lee, & Bobko, 1989; Fugate,

Kinicki, & Prussia, 2008).

Fear of Failure

One reason employees resist change is the fear of failure. People also resist change when

they feel that their performance may be affected under the new system. Those who are

experts in their jobs may be less than welcoming of change because they may be unsure

whether their success will last under the new system. Studies show that people who feel

that they can perform well under the new system are more likely to be committed to the

proposed change, while those who have lower confidence in their ability to perform after

changes are less committed (Herold, Fedor, & Caldwell, 2007).

Personal Impact of Change

3/5/22, 12:31 PM IT Change Management

https://leocontent.umgc.edu/content/scor/uncurated/cca/2218-cca610/learning-topic-list/it-change-management.html?ou=622270 9/13

It would be too simplistic to argue that people resist all change, regardless of its form. In

fact, people tend to be more welcoming of change that is favorable to them on a personal

level (such as giving them more power over others or change that improves quality of life,

such as a bigger or nicer office). Research also shows that commitment to change is

highest when proposed changes affect the work unit with a low impact on how individual

jobs are performed (Fedor, Caldwell, & Herold, 2006).

Prevalence of Change

Any change effort should be considered within the context of all the other changes that

are introduced in a company. Does the company have a history of making short-lived

changes? If the company structure went from functional to product-based to geographic

to matrix within the past five years and the top management is in the process of going

back to a functional structure again, a certain level of resistance is to be expected because

employees are likely to be fatigued as a result of the constant changes. Moreover, the lack

of a history of successful changes may cause people to feel skeptical toward the newly

planned changes. Therefore, considering the history of changes in the company is

important to understanding why people resist.

Another factor is how major the planned change is. If the company is considering a simple

switch to a new computer program, such as introducing new database software, the

change may not be as extensive or stressful compared with a switch to an enterprise

resource planning (ERP) system such as SAP or PeopleSoft, which require a significant

time commitment and can fundamentally affect how business is conducted (Labianca,

Gray, & Brass, 2000; Rafferty & Griffin, 2006).

Perceived Loss of Power

Another reason people may resist change is that change may affect their power and

influence in the organization. Imagine that your company moved to a more team-based

structure, turning supervisors into team leaders. In the old structure, supervisors were in

charge of hiring and firing all those reporting to them. Under the new system, this power

is given to the team. Instead of monitoring the progress the team is making toward goals,

the job of a team leader is to provide support and mentoring to the team in general and

ensure that the team has access to all resources to be effective. Given the loss in prestige

and status in the new structure, some supervisors may resist the proposed changes even

if it is better for the organization to operate around teams.

In summary, there are many reasons individuals resist change, which may prevent an

organization from making important changes.

3/5/22, 12:31 PM IT Change Management

https://leocontent.umgc.edu/content/scor/uncurated/cca/2218-cca610/learning-topic-list/it-change-management.html?ou=622270 10/13

Is All Resistance Bad?

Resistance to change may be a positive force in some instances. In fact, resistance to

change is a valuable feedback tool that should not be ignored. Why are people resisting

the proposed changes? Do they believe that the new system will not work? If so, why not?

By listening to people and incorporating their suggestions into the change effort, it is

possible to make a more effective change. Some of a company's most committed

employees may be the most vocal opponents of a change effort. They may fear that the

organization they feel such a strong attachment to is being threatened by the planned

change effort and the change will ultimately hurt the company. In contrast, people who

have less loyalty to the organization may comply with the proposed changes simply

because they do not care enough about the fate of the company to oppose the changes.

As a result, when dealing with those who resist change, it is important to avoid blaming

them for a lack of loyalty (Ford, Ford, & D'Amelio, 2008).

Change Management in Software Development Projects

In addition to change management issues in organizational changes on a large scale,

software development teams need to deal with managing of physical changes in project

deliverables and products. It involves maintaining repositories of code, requirement

specifications, and error reporting, fixing, and testing records, which can be accessed and

modified by many team members at a time.

To help with these technical issues, software packages and repositories exist which track

content changes and allow for versioning, merging concurrent contributions, and

backtracking. These are often used in modern Development and Operations (DevOps)

environments available in many cloud offerings.

References

Anonymous. (December 2007). Change management: The HR strategic imperative as a

business partner. HR Magazine, 52(12).

Anonymous. Moore's Law. Retrieved from http://www.answers.com/topic/moore-s-law

Ashford, S. J., Lee, C. L., & Bobko, P. (1989). Content, causes, and consequences of job

insecurity: A theory-based measure and substantive test. Academy of

Management Journal, 32, 803–829.

3/5/22, 12:31 PM IT Change Management

https://leocontent.umgc.edu/content/scor/uncurated/cca/2218-cca610/learning-topic-list/it-change-management.html?ou=622270 11/13

Barnett, W. P., & Carroll, G. R. (1995). Modeling internal organizational change. Annual

Review of Sociology, 21, 217–236.

Boeker, W. (1997). Strategic change: The influence of managerial characteristics and

organizational growth. Academy of Management Journal, 40, 152–170.

Deutschman, A. (2005, March). Building a better skunk works. Fast Company, 92, 68–73.

Diamond, J. (2005). Guns, germs, and steel: The fates of human societies. New York: W.

W. Norton.

Fedor, D. M., Caldwell, S., & Herold, D. M. (2006). The effects of organizational changes

on employee commitment: A multilevel investigation. Personnel Psychology, 59,

1–29.

Ford, J. D., Ford, L. W., & D'Amelio, A. (2008). Resistance to change: The rest of the

story. Academy of Management Review, 33, 362–377.

Fugate, M., Kinicki, A. J., & Prussia, G. E. (2008). Employee coping with organizational

change: An examination of alternative theoretical perspectives and

models. Personnel Psychology, 61, 1–36.

Get ready. United States Small Business Association. Retrieved November 21, 2008, from

http://www.sba.gov/smallbusinessplanner/plan/getready/SERV_SBPLANNER_ISE

NTFORU.html

Herold, D. M., Fedor, D. B., & Caldwell, S. (2007). Beyond change management: A

multilevel investigation of contextual and personal influences on employees'

commitment to change. Journal of Applied Psychology, 92, 942–951.

Huy, Q. N. (1999). Emotional capability, emotional intelligence, and radical

change. Academy of Management Review, 24, 325–345.

Judge, T. A., Thoresen, C. J., Pucik, V., & Welbourne, T. M. (1999). Managerial coping with

organizational change. Journal of Applied Psychology, 84, 107–122.

Labianca, G., Gray, B., & Brass D. J. (2000). A grounded model of organizational schema

change during empowerment. Organization Science, 11, 235–257

Lerman, R. I., & Schmidt, S. R. (2006). Trends and challenges for work in the 21st century.

Retrieved from US Department of Labor Web site,

http://www.dol.gov/oasam/programs/history/herman/reports/futurework/confer

3/5/22, 12:31 PM IT Change Management

https://leocontent.umgc.edu/content/scor/uncurated/cca/2218-cca610/learning-topic-list/it-change-management.html?ou=622270 12/13

ence/trends/trendsI.htm

Rafferty, A. E., & Griffin. M. A. (2006). Perceptions of organizational change: A stress and

coping perspective. Journal of Applied Psychology, 91, 1154–1162.

Wanberg, C. R., & Banas, J. T. (2000). Predictors and outcomes of openness to changes in

a reorganizing workplace. Journal of Applied Psychology, 85, 132–142.

Launched in spring 2013, LEO (Learning Experience Online) is not only

our online classroom, but includes technologies and approaches that

expand teaching and learning modalities.

Leadership Styles in Relation to Employees' Trust and

Organizational Change Capacity: Evidence from Nonprofit

Organizations

(https://leocontent.umgc.edu/content/scor/uncurated/cca/2218-

cca610/learning-resource-list/leadership-styles-in-relation-to-

employees--trust-and-organizati.html?ou=622270)

Organizational Change? Organizational Development?

Organizational Transformation? Why Do We Care What We Call It?

(https://leocontent.umgc.edu/content/scor/uncurated/cca/2218-

cca610/learning-resource-list/organizational-change--

organizational-development--organizationa.html?ou=622270)

Licenses and Attributions

7.5 Organizational Change from Principles of Management

(https://open.lib.umn.edu/principlesmanagement/chapter/7-5-organizational-

change/https:/open.lib.umn.edu/principlesmanagement/chapter/7-5-organizational-

change/) from Principles of Management by the University of Minnesota Libraries

Publishing is an adaptation of a work whose original author and publisher request

anonymity and is available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-

ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/)

license. © 2015. UMGC has modified this work and it is available under the original

license.

Resources

3/5/22, 12:31 PM IT Change Management

https://leocontent.umgc.edu/content/scor/uncurated/cca/2218-cca610/learning-topic-list/it-change-management.html?ou=622270 13/13

Moore's Law, The Fifth Paradigm

(https://lti.umgc.edu/contentadaptor/page/ChangeManagement_Introduction_Category:M

oore's_law) by Ray Kurzweil and Kurzweil Technologies Inc. is available under

a Creative Commons Attribution 1.0 Generic

(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/1.0/deed.en) license. UMGC has modified

this work and it is available under the original license.

Widmer Brewing Company Headquarters

(https://lti.umgc.edu/contentadaptor/page/ITChangeManagement_Introduction_File:Wid

mer_Brewing_Company_headquarters_-_Portland,_Oregon.JPG) by M. O. Stevens is

available under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported

(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en) license. UMGC has modified

this work and it is available under the original license.

© 2022 University of Maryland Global Campus

All links to external sites were verified at the time of publication. UMGC is not responsible for the validity or integrity

of information located at external sites.