Organizational change

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Implementing Organizational Change: Theory into Practice

Bert Spector

Chapter 2

Theories of Effective Change Implementation

Learning Objectives  Present the three phases of the planned change

theory of Kurt Lewin.  Delineate the key insights to effective

implementation offered by the field of Organizational Development.

 Differentiate between content-driven and process- driven change.

 Explain an approach to change management that emphasizes task requirements and performance results.

 Offer a framework for change implementation that encompasses multiple theories.

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Building a Vocabulary  Norms: shared expectations of how group

members ought to behave

“Telling employees why they need to change will not build motivation to change; it is necessary to do, but not sufficient.”

“Don’t assume that poor organizational performance will create an urgent need to change within the company.”

“To break the ‘social habits’ that support existing patterns of behaviors, start with creating dissatisfaction,

disequilibrium, and discomfort.”

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Building a Vocabulary Elements of Kurt Lewin’s Change Model:

Unfreezing: the first stage in Lewin’s change model in which group members become dissatisfied with the status quo

Moving: the second stage in Lewin’s change model in which group members alter their patterns of behavior

Refreezing: the final stage in Lewin’s change model in which group members institutionalize the new patterns of behavior into a new status quo

Lewin’s Change Model Organizational Performance

Old Norms maintain status quo

New Norms support outstanding performance

Lewin’s Change Model Text in this colorStage 1: Unfreezing Stage 2: Moving Stage 3: Refreezing

Create dissatisfaction

(with the status quo)

Benchmark operations

Diagnose internal barriers to

performance

Redesign organizational roles, responsibilities, and

relationships

Train for newly required skills

Promote supporters/remove

resisters

Align pay/reward systems

Reengineer measurement/ control systems

Create new organization

structure

Building a Vocabulary  Organizational development

(OD): an approach to organizational effectiveness that calls on the fields of behavioral and social sciences to provide guidance to planned change efforts

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“Performance problems often reside in the hand-offs between employees, between tasks, between functions, and between

units; these are the problems that be targeted first for change.”

10 Defining Perspectives of Organizational Development (1–5)

Perspective Underlying Assumptions

Systems perspective

Outstanding performance depends on interactions between and among the multiple elements of organization; among the

people, processes, structure, and values of the organization; and between the organization and its external environment.

Alignment perceptive

The effectiveness of organizations will be determined by a state of congruence among people, process, structure, values, and

environment.

Participation perspective

People will become more committed to implementing solutions if they have been involved in the problem-

solving process.

Social capital perspective

To achieve outstanding performance, organizational leaders seek to create a network of interdependent relationships that provides the basis for trust, cooperation, and collective action.

Teamwork perspective

Accepting shared purpose and responsibility for interdependent tasks enhances coordination, commitment, and creativity and supports

outstanding performance.

Perspective Underlying Assumptions

Multiple stakeholder perspective

Outstanding performance requires that organizational leaders balance the expectations of multiple

stakeholders: shareholders, employees, customers, suppliers, host community, labor unions, trade associations,

governments, and so on.

Problem- solving

perspective

Conflicts over task issues can increase the quality of decisions if they occur in an environment of collaboration

and trust.

Open communications

perspective

Open and candid communication, especially upward in the hierarchy, creates the opportunity for learning and development while building trust and collaboration.

Evolution/revolution perspective

Organizations must develop competencies to engage in both incremental (evolutionary) and fundamental

(revolutionary) change.

Process-facilitation perspective

Individuals who reside outside of the organizational hierarchy can become both facilitators and teachers of effective implementation processes in partnership with

organizational members.

10 Defining Perspectives of Organizational Development (6–10)

A Congruence Model of Effectiveness

Internal Context  Organizational purpose  Strategy  Business model  Organizational design

External Environment  Customer, employee, and

investor expectations  Social/cultural forces  Technological changes  Labor market shifts  Government regulation  World events

Patterns of Employee Behavior  Enactment of roles and responsibilities  Process of interaction among employees

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Organizational Effectiveness

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Building a Vocabulary  Open system: an organism or entity that

exists in a constant interactive state with its external environment

 Alignment: the degree of congruence or compatibility between and among various elements of a system

 Stakeholders: individuals or groups who lay legitimate claim to the performance of the organization

Building a Vocabulary  Content-drive change: programmatic change in which specific programs, customer relationship management, balanced scorecard and lean enterprise, for example are used as the driver and centerpiece of implementation.

 Process-driven change: an approach to change implementation that emphasizes the methods of conceiving, introducing, and institutionalizing new behaviors and uses content as a reinforcer rather than a driver of new behaviors

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“Content-driven change often fails because of inadequate attention to the process of change.”

Building a Vocabulary

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Task alignment: an approach to behavioral change that starts with the identification of the key strategic tasks of an organization or unit and then asks employees to redefine their roles, responsibilities, and relationships in order to perform those tasks

“Task alignment combines the insights of organizational development with a bottom-line focus on performance.”

“A task aligned approach to change implementation can help create motivation to adopt new behaviors by focusing on real, immediate

business problems and producing tangible results.”

Key Theoretical Approaches to Change Implementation

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Theoretical Approach

Main Theoretical Contribution

Help Explain How to Implement Change

Lewin’s Field Theory

Begin behavioral change by focusing on context and unfreezing existing

social habits

 Build a sense of pervasive dissatisfaction with the status quo on the part of employees

 Offer operational models for new behavioral patterns  Reinforce new behaviors with alterations to systems and structures

Organizational Development

Organizations are dynamic, open systems

 Target entire organizational system for change  Create a climate of open discussion and upward feedback on efficacy of change implementation

 Call on process consultants to facilitate interventions

Process-Driven Change

Focus on organically developed and implemented

efforts to improve organizational performance

 Do not use externally developed program as driver of change

 Focus on the unique requirements for each organization and unit

 Build support for change implementing it

Task Alignment

Link desired new behaviors to requirements of

performing key tasks

 Analyze and identify key performance indicators and behavioral implications for outstanding performance

 Attach requirements for new behavior to new strategy objectives of the organization

 Build line-management support for change effort

Building a Vocabulary

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Shared diagnosis: a process that creates widespread agreement about the requirements for change Redesign: an alteration in employee roles, responsibilities, and relationships Talent management: the movement of employees into, through, and out of the organization Mutual engagement: the process of building a participatory dialogue among employees at all organizational levels to the requirements of and process for achieving change

“Kicking off change implementation with shared diagnosis builds both dissatisfaction with the status quo and a commitment to enact new behaviors.”

“Asking employees to enact new behaviors, roles, responsibilities, and relationships can be supported by organizational help in learning new skills.”

“Altering formal organization systems and structures can come at the end of a change implementation in order to refreeze new patterns of behavior.”

“Mutual engagement at every stage of the implementation process helps assure learning and build commitment.”

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A Sequential Model for Effective Change Implementation

Step 1 Designing New

Strategically Aligned Behavior

• Roles • Responsibilities • Relationships

Step 2 Help

• Training • Mentoring • Coaching

Step 4 Systems & Structures • Reporting Relationships • Compensation • Information • Measurement & Control

Step 3 People Alignment

• Assessment • Promotion • Replacement • Recruitment

Implementation Traps: Applying the Right Tools at the Wrong Time in the Process

Trap For Example Why is it a trap?

Starting with Systems and Structures (Step 4)

Imposing new system or structure (e.g., global

matrix, balanced scorecard measurement system)

Will be experienced as “change from above”; likely to be poorly understood and resisted.

Starting with Help (Step 2)

Driving change with training program

Because employees work in an unchanged organizational context, their learning is likely to be short-lived and will fade out.

Starting with People Alignment (Step 3)

Recruiting new employees, removing and replacing

individuals seen to be resisters to change

Lack of understanding concerning what is required

can be viewed by employees as arbitrary, thus diminishing trust

and commitment.

Starting implementation with shared diagnosis

Redesigning work (e.g., creating cross-functional

teams).

New designs will be seen as unconnected to strategic reality

which can lead to resistance

Ignoring mutual engagement

Driving change through top management

Leadership may be out of touch with realities of organization while employees may not understand

strategic imperatives

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