THE CHANGE KALEIDOSCOPE

Hope Hailey & Balogun (2002)

The change kaleidoscope is a diagnostic framework. It can

be particularly useful in a context sensitive change process.

The kaleidoscope contains an outer ring concerned with the

organizational strategic context. There is a middle ring that
has the features of the change context. Finally there is an
inner ring which contains the design choices that can be
made.

The change contextual features are aspects of the

organization’s culture, competencies and current situation.
These are all issues that need consideration before selecting
the change approach.

 TIME
How much time does the organization have to achieve this change? Is it in a short term crisis or is it
concerned with long-term strategic development? Are stakeholders expecting short term results from the
change?

 SCOPE
Is the required outcome a realignment or a transformation? Does the change affect the whole organization,
or is it only concerned with a particular division or department?

 PRESERVATION
To what extent is it essential to maintain continuity in certain practices or preserve specific assets? Do these
practices and/or assets constitute invaluable resources, or do they contribute towards a valued stability or
identity within an organization?

 DIVERSITY
Is the staff group concerned diverse or relatively homogeneous in terms of its values, norms and attitudes?
Are there many subcultures or national cultures within the group? Are there different departments or
divisions or is it one particular staff group? With whom or what in the organization do different staff groups
identify – their team, job, department, division or the whole organization? Are there professionals who
identify more with their profession than their organization?

 CAPABILITY
How capable or competent is the organization at managing change and how widespread throughout the
organization is this capability? How much change has the organization and its individual staff experienced in
the past? Is there an expertise at an individual level for handling change?

 CAPACITY
How much cash or spare human resource is there to divert towards the change?

 READINESS FOR CHANGE

Are staff aware of the need for change? If they are, how willing and motivated are they towards the change?
How much support generally is there for the change? How much understanding is there for the scope
needed?

 POWER
Where is power vested within the organization? For this change to be successful, who are the major
stakeholders within and outside the organization whose support must be canvassed? Is the unit needing to
change part of a larger group or is it relatively autonomous?

The kaleidoscope does not give predictable configurations that lead to more formulaic change recipes. The
eight contextual features remain the same but they are constantly reconfigured to produce different pictures
for each organisational change situation. Certain features lead to certain design choices, but the potential
permutations are endless.

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CHANGE DESIGN
 CHANGE PATH – The types of changes can be categorized into 4 types of change based on nature and
result of change:
 Evolutionary - Total transformation in an incremental way
 Revolutionary - Total transformation but ‘big bang’ approach
 Adaptation - Realignment in an incremental way
 Reconstruction - Realignment but ‘big bang’ approach

 CHANGE START POINT – Change start point indicate where the change is initiated which can be divided
as following:
 Top-down change – Change is initiated from top management
 Bottom-up change – Change is initiated from bottom line
 Pilot sites – Change is initially implementing in only one individual part of organization
 Pockets of good practice – Change is initiated by taking advantage of good practicing in
individual part of organization as model for remaining parts.

 CHANGE STYLE – The way to manage process of change can be divided into 5 styles as following:
 Education and Delegation – Small group briefing and discussing of change applied to gain
change support from employee
 Collaboration – High employee involvement on decision of what and how to change
 Participation – Limited employee involvement on decision of how to delivery desired change
 Direction – Directing and controlling of change from a change leader
 Coercion – Imposing of change with authority

 CHANGE TARGET – There are 3 types of change targets which are outputs, behaviors, and values.

 CHANGE LEVERS – The level of levers and intervention needed for organization change. The cultural
web can be applied to identify organization culture and current change barrier. From below of culture web,
intervention into all components of culture web which are symbols, power structures, organizational
structures, control systems, routines and rituals, and stories, is inevitable to develop change successfully.

 CHANGE ROLES – The roles that are important to the change at hand.