Roadmap

 The context
 What is organizational change?
 Processes for managing change
 People and change
 Organizational Development
 Conflict resolution
 Fostering innovation
Introduction
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 people’s
attitudes, assumptions and behaviors
Brings both organizational design and human resources
lessons to bear
Ghoshal and Bartlett provide a high-level model for
change, let’s look at some of the details and lessons
learned at a more granular level
What is Organizational Change?
An alteration of an organization’s 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
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?
External Forces Internal Forces
Competition Strategy modifications

Laws and regulations New equipment

New technologies New processes

Labor market shifts Workforce composition
Business cycles Job restructuring
Social change Compensation and
benefits
Labor surpluses and
shortages
Employee attitude
Organizational Culture
Source: Adapted from Larry Short, “Planned Organizational Change,” MSU Business Topics, Autumn 1973, FIGURE 8–1
pp. 53–61 ed. Theodore Herbert, Organizational Behavior: Readings and Cases (New York: McMillan, 1976), p. 351. 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
Change in “Calm Waters”
Kurt Lewin’s Three-Step Process
Unfreezing
Thedriving 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
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
 A Nine-step Process For Leading
Organizational Change
1. Create a Sense of Urgency 6. Generate Short-Term
2. Decide What to Change Wins
3. Create a Guiding 7. Consolidate Gains and
Coalition and Mobilize Produce More Change
Commitment
8. Anchor the New Ways of
4. Develop and
Doing Things in the
Communicate a Shared
Vision Company Culture
5. Empower Employees to 9. Monitor Progress and
Make the Change Adjust the Vision as
Required
G.Dessler, 2003
Source: Robert Kegan and Lisa Lahey, “The Real Reason People FIGURE 8–3
Won’t Change,” Harvard Business Review, November 2001, p. 89. G.Dessler, 2003
G.Dessler, 2003
Organizational Development
Organizational Development (OD)
An approach to organizational change in which the
employees themselves formulate the change that’s
required and implement it,
usually with the
aid of a trained
consultant.

G.Dessler, 2003
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
OD Interventions (cont’d)
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
G.Dessler, 2003
Techno-structural 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
Strategic Applications of OD
Strategic Intervention
An OD application aimed at effecting a suitable fit
among a firm’s strategy, structure, culture, and external
environments.
Integrated Strategic Management
An OD program to create or change a company’s
strategy by:
 Analyzing the current strategy
 Choosing a desired strategy
 Designing a strategic change plan
 Implementing the new plan.

G.Dessler, 2003
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
Source: Source: Kenneth W. Thomas, “Organizational Conflict,” ed., Steven Kerr, Organizational Behavior (Columbus, OH: FIGURE 8–7
Grid Publishing, 1979), in Andrew DuBrin, Applying Psychology (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2000), p. 223. G.Dessler, 2003
G.Dessler, 2003
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
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