Organizational change Essay

governanceal flip-flop is an on-going execute with important implications for organisational soundness. An system of rules and its members moldiness be constantly on the alert for castrates from inwardly the presidential end point and from the outside purlieu, and they mustiness(prenominal) learn how to adjust to channelise quickly and effectively. organisational shift is the movement of an formation away from its introduce press out and toward some future state to advancer its effectiveness.Forces for organisational transfer every(prenominal)ow competitive forces economic, political, and global forces demographic and simulateionate forces and ethical forces. Organizations ar a good turn reluctant to multifariousness beca phthisis electric freeze offance to change at the organization, set off, and private levels has condition stand up to organizational inertia. Sources of organization-level foe to change overwhelm part and conflict, difference s in ladderal druthers, mechanical social system, and organizational culture. Sources of throng-level resistance to change intromit conference norms, gathering cohesiveness, and groupthink and escalation of commitment.Sources of individual-level resistance to change include uncertainty and insecurity, selective detection and retention, and habit. According to Lewins force-field scheme of change, organizations ar equaliserd between forces pushing for change and forces resistant to change. To get an organization to change, copers must find a way to increase the forces for change, turn out resistance to change, or do both(prenominal) simultaneously. Types of change f wholly into two broad categories evolutionary and revolutionary.The main instruments of evolutionary change are socio practiced systems theory, total spirit misrepresentment, and the organic evolution of tensile live oners and crap teams. The main instruments of revolutionary change are reengineering , restructuring, and innovation. Often, the revolutionary types of change that go forth from restructuring and reengineering are necessary only be convey an organization and its managers ignored or were unsuspecting of changes in the environment and did non make incremental changes as wishinged. movement inquiry is a outline that managers cigarette engagement to plan the change process.The main stairs in natural process interrogation are (a) diagnosing and analysis of the organization, (b) determining the desired future state, (c) implementing action, (d) evaluating the action, and (e) institutionalizing action research. organizational development (OD) is a series of proficiencys and methods to increase the conformability of organizations. OD techniques tramp be utilise to overcome resistance to change and to attention the organization to change itself. OD techniques for dealing with resistance to change include education and communication, participation and empowerm ent, facilitation, negotiate and negotiation, manipulation, and coercion.OD techniques for promoting change include, at the individual level, counseling, sensitivity procreation, and process book of facts at the group level, team building and intergroup training and at the organizational level, organizational confrontation meetings. CHAPTER OUTLINE 10. 1 What Is Organizational counterchange? Organizational change is the process by which organizations move from their current or shew state to some desired future state to increase their effectiveness. An organization in decline may need to restructure its competences and resources to emend its fulfil with a ever- changing environment.Even thriving, high- realizeing organizations such as Google, Apple, and Facebook need to infinitely change the way they operate over time to meet ongoing ch exclusivelyenges. Targets of variegate Organizational change includes changes in four areas 1. Human resources are an organizations most im portant asset. Beca implement these skills and abilities give an organization a competitive profit, organizations must continu eachy monitor their structures to find the most effective way of motivating and organizing human resources to acquire and use their skills.Changes made in human resources include investment in training, socializing employees, changing norms to remind a diverse exertionforce, monitoring promotion and reward systems, and changing turn over management. 2. separately organizational function needs to develop procedures that cater it to manage the particular environment it faces. Crucial functions grow in importance eon those whose usefulness is declining shrink. Thus, key functions grow in importance. Organizations can change structure, culture, and engineering to improve the value created by functions. 3Organizational change often involves changing the relationships between people and functions to increase their ability to create value. 10. 2 Forces for and metro to Organizational Change Forces for Change If managers are slow to do to the forces of change, the organization exit lag behind its competitors and its effectiveness will be compromised. (Refer to Figure 10. 1) Competitive forces spur change, because unless an organization matches or surpasses its competitors it will non survive. Managing change is crucial when competing for customers.To admit on the dimensions of efficiency or pure tone, an organization must constantly adopt the latest applied science as it becomes available. To lead on the dimension of innovation and obtain a technological advantage over competitors, a company must possess skills in managing the process of innovation. Economic, political, and global forces, such as the North American Free alternate Agreement (NAFTA) or other economic unions, are significant forces of change. The European Union (EU) includes over 27 members eager to take advantage of a large protected market.Global challenges fa cing organizations include the need to change an organizational structure to allow expansion into foreign markets, the need to line up to a variety of national cultures, and the need to help expatriate managers adapt to the economic, political, and cultural values of the countries in which they are located. Demographic and social forces include an change magnitudely diverse workforce. Changes in the demographic characteristics of the workforce require managers to change their styles of managing all employees and to learn how to look, supervise, and motivate diverse members effectively.Many workers want to balance work and leisure. Managers need to abandon stereotypes and accept the importance of equity in the recruitment and promotion of new hires. Ethical forces such as increasing government, political, and social demands for more liable and honest corporate behavior are compelling organizations to come on ethical behavior. Many companies progress to created the position of morality officer. If organizations operate in countries that pay little attention to human rights or to the well-being of organizational members, they acquit to learn how to change these standards and to protect their oversea employees.Resistances to Change Resistance to change lowers an organizations effectiveness and reduces its chances of survival. Resistances or impediments to change that cause inertia are found at the organization, group, and individual levels. (Refer to Figure 10. 1) Organization-Level Resistance to Change Power and conflict When change causes power struggles and organizational conflict, an organization is likely to resist it. If change benefits one function at the expense of another, conflict impedes the change process.In the old IBM, for example, managers of its central processor computer division fought off attempts to redirect IBMs resources to produce the PCs that customers valued in order to preserve their experience power. Differences in running(a) orientation This means that different functions and divisions often see the source of a bother differently because they see an issue or problem primarily from their own viewpoint. This tunnel vision increases organizational inertia. Mechanistic structure Mechanistic structures are more resistant to change.People who work within a mechanistic structure are expected to act in certain shipway and do not develop the capacity to adjust their behavior to changing conditions. A mechanistic structure typically develops as an organization grows and is a principal source of inertia, especially in large organizations. The extensive use of mutual adjustment and decentralized authority in an organic structure makes it less resistant to change. Organizational culture Organizational culture, values, and norms cause resistance to change.If organizational change disrupts taken-for-granted values and norms and forces people to change what they do and how they do it, an organizations culture will cause resistance to change. Group-Level Resistance to Change Many groups develop strong informal norms that specify entrance and inappropriate behaviors and govern the interactions between group members. Often, change alters task and reference relationships in a group when it does, it disrupts group norms and the informal expectations that group members impart of one another.As a result, members of a group may resist change because a new set of norms must be real to meet the needs of the new situation. Group cohesiveness, the attractiveness of a group to its members, in addition affects group performance. A super cohesive group may resist attempts by management to change what it does or even who is a member of the group. Groupthink and escalation of commitment also make changing a groups behavior very difficult. Individual-Level Resistance to Change People flow to resist change because they feel uncertain and insecure closely what its solution will be.Selective perception a nd retention suggest that people encompass information consistent with their views. If change doesnt benefit them, they do not endorse it. Peoples preference for familiar actions and events is a but impediment to change. Lewins Force-Field Theory of Change Force-field theory is a theory of organizational change that argues that two sets of opposing forces within an organization mold how change will take place. When the forces are evenly balanced, the organization is in a state of inertia and does not change.To get an organization to change, managers must find a way to increase the forces for change, reduce resistance to change, or do both simultaneously. Any of these strategies will overcome inertia and cause an organization to change. (Refer to Figure 10. 2) Managerial Implications Managers must perpetually monitor the environment to identify the forces for change. They must analyze how the change will affect the organization and typeset which type of change to pursue. 10. 3 e volutionary and ultra Change in Organizations Evolutionary change refers to change that is gradual, incremental, and specifically focused.It adds small adjustments to strategy and structure to handle environmental changes. Sociotechnical systems theory, total quality management, and the creation of empowered, flexible work groups are three instruments of evolutionary change that organizations use in their attempt to make incremental improvements in the way work gets done. Revolutionary change refers to change that is sudden, drastic, and organization-wide. It has repercussions at all levels in the organizationcorporate, divisional, functional, group, and individual. leash ways to implement revolutionary change are reengineering, restructuring, and innovation. Developments in Evolutionary Change Sociotechnical Systems Theory Sociotechnical systems theory is a theory that proposes the importance of changing federal agency and task or technical relationships to increase organizationa l effectiveness. It emerged from a study of changing work practices in the British coal-mining industry. The socio-technical systems theory argues that managers need to fit or jointly optimize the workings of the technical and social systems.A poor fit between an organizations technology and social system leads to failure, but a close fit leads to success. When managers change task and role relationships, they must recognize the need to adjust the technical and social systems gradually so group norms and cohesiveness are not disrupted. By taking this gradual approach, an organization can avoid the group-level resistance to change. researchers suggest that a team-oriented system promotes values that enhance efficiency and ingathering quality. core quality management uses sociotechnical systems theory. Total Quality ManagementTotal quality management (TQM) is a technique developed by W. Edwards Deming to continuously improve the effectiveness of flexible work teams. It was embraced by Japanese companies by and by World War II. Changes frequently inspired by TQM include repair the design or type of machines used to assemble products and reorganizing the sequence of activities both within or between functionsnecessary to provide a aid to a customer. Changing cross-functional relationships to help improve quality is important in TQM. The changes associated with TQM are changes in task, role, and group relationships.Implementing a TQM program is not forever and a day easy because it requires workers and managers to adopt new ways of viewing their roles in an organization. Managers must be willing to decentralize control of decision making, empower workers, and sweep up the role of facilitator kind of than supervisor. The command and control model gives way to an nominate and support model. limber Workers and Flexible Work squads In implementing socio-technical systems theory and TQM, galore(postnominal) organizations are finding it easier to achieve thei r terminals by using flexible workers and teams.Flexible workers can be channelisered between departments and functions as demand changes. The advantages of flexible workers include quick response to environmental changes cut down boredom and increased incentives for quality better understanding by learning one anothers tasks and combining tasks to increase efficiency and reduce costs. A flexible work team is a group of workers who assume responsibility for performing all the operations necessary for completing a specified stage in the manufacturing process. A flexible work team is self-managed members jointly assign tasks and transfer from one task to another.In a flexible work team, separate teams assemble different components and turn those components over to the final-product work team, which assembles the final product. Each teams activities are driven by demands that have their origins in customer demands for the final product. (Refer to Figure 10. 3) Developments in Revolu tionary Change Reengineering The term reengineering has been used to refer to the process by which managers redesign how tasks are bundled into roles and functions to improve organizational effectiveness. It involves rethinking billet processes, activities that cross functional boundaries.Instead of focusing on an organizations functions in isolation from one another, managers make business processes the focus of attention. A business process is an activity that cuts across functional boundaries and is vital to the quick delivery of goods and function or that promotes high quality or low costs. Because reengineering focuses on business processes and not functions, an organization must rethink the way it approaches organizing its activities. A good example of how to use reengineering to increase functional integration comes from attempts to redesign the materials management function to improve its effectiveness.In the traditional functional design the three main components of mater ials managementpurchasing, exertion control, and distributionwere typically in separate functions and had little to do with one another. Thus coordinating their activities is difficult. Each function has its own power structure, and there are problems in both vertical and horizontal communication. Today, most organizations put all three of the functional activities involved in the materials management process at bottom one function. Three guidelines for performing reengineering successfully are as follows grind away around outcomes, not tasks. 2. Have those who use the output of the process perform the process. 3. Decentralize decision making to the point where the decision is made. Reengineering and TQM are highly interrelated and complementary. E-Engineering This is a term used to refer to companies attempts to use all kinds of information systems to improve performance. The importance of e-engineering is increasing as it changes the way a company organizes its value-creation fu nctions and links them to improve its performance. RestructuringRestructuring is a process by which managers change task and authority relationships and redesign organizational structure and culture to improve organizational effectiveness. Downsizing is the process by which managers streamline the organizational hierarchy and lay off managers and workers to reduce bureaucratic costs. The drive to decrease bureaucratic costs results from competitive pressures. Mergers and acquisitions in many industries, such as banking, have led to downsizing because fewer managers are needful. Other companies have reduced staff to match competitors.The negative effects of downsizing include overworked managers and scattered opportunities. Companies that fail to control growth must downsize to remain competitive. The terms anorexigenic or hollow are used to refer to organizations that downsized too a great deal and have too few managers to help them grow when conditions change. Restructuring, li ke other change strategies, generates resistance to change. Often, the decision to downsize requires the establishment of new task and role relationships. Because this change may jeopardize the byplays of some workers, they resist the changes taking place. mental hospital Innovation refers to the process by which organizations use their skills and resources to develop new goods and services or to develop new production and operating systems so they can better respond to the needs of their customers. 10. 4 Managing Change Action Research In Lewins view, implementing change is a three-step process (1) unfreezing the organization from its present state, (2) making the change, and (3) refreezing the organization in the new, desired state so its members do not revert to their previous work attitudes and role behavior.Action research is a strategy for generating and acquiring knowledge that managers can use to square up an organizations desired future state and to plan a change program that allows the organization to gain ground that state. Figure 10. 6 highlights the steps in action research. Diagnosis of the Organization The first step in action research requires managers to recognize the existence of a problem that needs to be solved and acknowledge that some type of change is needed to solve it.In general, recognition of the need for change arises because somebody in the organization perceives a gap between desired performance and real(a) performance. Determining the Desired Future State This step also involves a difficult planning process as managers work out versatile alternative courses of action that could move the organization to where they would like it to be and determine what type of change to implement. Implementing Action 1. First, managers identify possible impediments to change at all levels.The second step is deciding who will be responsible for actually making the changes and controlling the change process. The choices are to employ both ext ernal change agents or internal change agents or use some combination of both. 3. The third step is deciding which specific change strategy will most effectively unfreeze, change, and refreeze the organization. The types of change that these techniques give rise to fall into two categories Top-down change is apply by managers at a high level in the organization, knowing that the change will reverberate at all organizational levels.Bottom-up change is implemented by employees at low levels in the organization that gradually rises until it is matte throughout the organization. Evaluating the Action The fourth step in action research is evaluating the action that has been taken and assessing the degree to which the changes have accomplished the desired objectives. The shell way to evaluate the change process is to develop measures or criteria that allow managers to assess whether the organization has reached its desired objectives. Institutionalizing Action ResearchOrganizations nee d to level action researchthat is, make it a required habit or a norm adopted by every member of an organization. The institutionalization of action research is as necessary at the top of the organization as it is on the shop floor. Managerial Implications Managers must develop criteria to evaluate whether a change is necessary, and carefully design a plan that minimizes resistance. 10. 5 Organizational Development Organizational development (OD) is a series of techniques and methods that managers can use in their action research program to increase the adaptability of their organization.The oddment of OD is to improve organizational effectiveness and to help people in organizations reach their potential and realize their goals and objectives. OD Techniques to Deal with Resistance to Change upbringing and Communication One impediment to change is that participants are uncertain about what is going to happen. Through education and communication, internal and external agents of cha nge can provide organizational members with information about the change and how it will affect them.Participation and Empowerment Inviting workers to participate in the change process is a popular method of reducing resistance to change. Participation complements empowerment, increases workers involvement in decision making, and gives them greater autonomy to change work procedures to improve organizational performance. These are key elements of most TQM programs. People that are involved in the change and decision-making process are more likely to embrace rather than resist. Facilitation Both managers and workers find change stressful.There are several ways in which organizations can help their members to manage stress providing them with training to help them learn how to perform new tasks, providing them with time off from work to heal from the stressful effects of change, or even giving senior members sabbaticals. negotiate and Negotiation Bargaining and negotiation are impor tant tools that help managers manage conflict. Because change causes conflict, bargaining is an important tool in overcoming resistance to change. treatment Sometimes senior managers need to intervene, as politics shows that powerful managers have considerable ability to resist change.Coercion The ultimate way to fade resistance to change is to coerce the key players into accepting change and threaten dire consequences if they choose to resist. The disadvantage is that it can leave people violent and disenchanted and can make the refreezing process difficult. OD Techniques to Promote Change Counseling, Sensitivity Training, and Process Consultation Recognizing that each individual is different also requires them to be treated or managed differently. Sometimes, counseling will help individuals understand that their own perceptions of a situation may be incorrect.Sensitivity training is an OD technique that consists of intense counseling in which group members, back up by a facili tator, learn how others perceive them and may learn how to deal more sensitively with others. Process consultation is an OD technique in which a facilitator works closely with a manager on the job to help the manager improve his or her interactions with other group members. Team building is an OD technique in which a facilitator first observes the interactions of group members and then helps them become aware of ways to improve their work interactions.The goal of team building is to improve group processes to achieve process gains and reduce process losses that are occurring because of shirking and freeriding. Intergroup training is an OD technique that uses team building to improve the work interactions of different functions or divisions. Its goal is to improve organizational performance by focusing on a functions or divisions joint activities and output. Organizational mirroring is an OD technique in which a facilitator helps two interdependent groups look for their perceptions and relations in order to improve their work interactions.This technique is designed to get both interdependent groups to see the perspective of the other side. Appreciating others perspectives allows the groups to work together more effectively. Total Organizational Interventions A variety of OD techniques can be used at the organization level to promote organization-wide change. Organizational confrontation meeting is an OD technique that brings together all of the managers of an organization at a meeting to confront the issue of whether the organization is meeting its goals effectively.