The process refers to the different stages that can be recognized or identified when organizations are undergoing a transition The goal is to establish growth or an improvement in critical organizational processes - Necessity to change can be found in internal and external forces - Defined as; To transform or convert into... To pass gradually into... ^ Relate to two different types of 'organizational change' that can be recognized - Episodic change/radical change; stability is rule, change is the exception Characteristics - Infrequent, discontinuous and intentional - Focused and time-urgent - Can be very stressing and upsetting for employees - Initiated by management - Tends to occur in distinct periods - Often the change is dramatic Lewin's model; 3 stages in the process of change 1. Unfreezing; involves preparing the organization to accept that change is necessary 2. Changing; people begin to resolve their uncertainty and look for new ways to do things, people start to believe and act in ways that support the new direction 3. Refreezing; making sure changes are used all the time, they are incorporated into everyday business When; - Maturity part of sigmoid curve Example; - Business Process Reengineering (BPR) Involves radical redesign of business processes to achieve dramatic improvements in performance, productivity, cycle times and speed 7 steps; 1. Initiate; a new process reengineering project and prepare a business case 2. Negotiate; with senior management to get approval to start the process reengineering project 3. Select; the key processes that need to be reengineered 4. Plan; the process reengineering activities 5. Investigate; processes to analyze the problem areas 6. Redesign; selected processes to improve the performance 7. Ensure; successful implementation of redesigned processes through proper monitoring and evaluation Important recommendations - Break with traditions - Not incremental, but radical improvements - Focus on the process - Make creative use of information technology - Continuous change/incremental change; change is the rule, stability in the exception Progressive process, unfolding over time, cumulative Not planned or intended Barely noticable, pattern of endless modifications Driven by organizational instabilities Adapted change model; - Refreezing; momentarily stop all changes - Rebalancing; reframing and evaluate what happened - Unfreezing; with new insight, getting back to continuous change Resistance to change - Organisational resistance; few or none, risk due to nonchalance and late reactions (boiled frog) - Individual resistance; few or none, risk due to nonchalance and late reactions (boiled frog) - Resistance to change Requires people to sacrifice time, money, responsibilities, control, status, comfort or relationships Change fatigue; organizational culture that has low energy for change, due to history of problematic changes Status quo bias (SQB); - Emotional bias - Preference for current state of affairs - Current baseline is taken as a reference point, change from it is percieved as a loss Organizational resistance; structural and work group inertia, threats to power balance, expertise, resource allocations Individual resistance; ingrained habits, fear for losing one's job, fear for other tasks, colleagues and social relations Coping with resistance to change; - Education and communication - Participation - Facilitating and supporting - Negotiations - Manipulation and co-optation - Coercion
Politics and organizational change
- Change processes; politically charged events in an organization - Managers and employees try to benefit from the situation - Political games can slow down the organizational change process significantly or even let it fail
Organizational development (OD)
- Refers to tool-box of various methods for affecting organizational chagne - Collective term for a series of planned interevention techniques that do not only aim to improve efficiency and effectivity but also well-being of employees - Methods for work groups; Team building; Types of activities used to enhance social relations and define roles within teams - Goal setting and prioritizing - Development of interpersonal relations - Analyzing everyone's role and responsibilities - Analyzing the team process Intergroup development - Organization-wide methods Management by Objectives (MBO) Total Quality Management (TQM) Six Sigma Systems; - Quality management method, developed by motorola - Provides training in strategic analysis, project management and problem solution methods - In order to reduce production errors Lean Production (LP) - Emphasizes reduction of waste in every form; Just-in-time (JIT) production Detailed following of materials and production Involving both suppliers and clients in the process Often requires radical redesign of HRM-system in order to be successful