Change management deals with how people are being affected by an organisational change of any kind, and what interventions have to be undertaken to make the change effort a success for all stakeholders, i.e., the owners, the employees, and the customers. Change interventions insinuate a set of planned change activities performed by internal or external people,intended to help an organisation increase its effectiveness. Three features characterize Change interventions (Box ).
Box : Features of Change Interventions
Change interventions
• are based on valid information about the organisation’s functioning;
• provide organisational members with opportunities to make free and informed choices; and
• gain members’ internal commitment to these choices.
In the change management literature a large number of approaches are available. These approaches to change management can be classified into six categories: Psychology of the Individual, Social Psychological, Cultural, Innovation, Global Change and Practitioners Approaches (Table). The rows in the table represent interventions and the columns represent the domains of intervention, namely, individual, group, organisation and environment. The black blocks in Table indicate the potential impact of the respective interventions on the domains (individual, group, organisation and environment).
Box : Features of Change Interventions
Change interventions
• are based on valid information about the organisation’s functioning;
• provide organisational members with opportunities to make free and informed choices; and
• gain members’ internal commitment to these choices.
In the change management literature a large number of approaches are available. These approaches to change management can be classified into six categories: Psychology of the Individual, Social Psychological, Cultural, Innovation, Global Change and Practitioners Approaches (Table). The rows in the table represent interventions and the columns represent the domains of intervention, namely, individual, group, organisation and environment. The black blocks in Table indicate the potential impact of the respective interventions on the domains (individual, group, organisation and environment).
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| Major Change Management Approaches |
• Psychology of the Individual Change Approaches: This approach focuses on the individual. But it is ironical that most consultants focus on organisational change and do not pay enough attention to the impact that the change has on the individual worker. It would be desirable to intervene at the level of the individuals affected by change.
• Social Psychological Change Approaches: These are based on the concept that an individual is more shaped by his/her social environment (groups) than by his/her genes.
• Cultural Change Approaches: These look at change from the perspective of the culture of an organisation. Culture of an organisation or group of people can be defined as:“A pattern of shared basic assumptions that the group learned as it solved problems of external adoption and internal integration, that hasworked well enough to be considered valid and, therefore, to be taught to new members as the correct way to perceive, think, and feel in relation to those problems”.
This definition of culture identifies three levels of cultural phenomena:basic assumptions, values, and artifacts.
− Basic assumptions are the circumstances taken for granted in an organisation as the "correct" way of doing things. They constitute the core of culture and are the hardest to change.
− Values refer to a sense of what "ought" to be and they lie at the next higher level of culture.
− At the most superficial level,
− Artifacts are the overt behaviours and other physical manifestations of culture. These can usually be observed directly and are easier to change than assumptions and values. Among other things, artifacts include procedures followed, technology used, and ways of
communicating. Unfortunately, changing the artifacts generally does not lead to change of culture. To do that, one has to ultimately change the values and basic assumptions.
Culture is mostly unconscious to the members of the organisation and is able to control the behaviours of organisational change, even when the project plan calls for new behaviours. This is one of the reasons, why new leaders introducing change in an organisation sometimes replace key positions with new people, external to the organisation. Do you have similar experiences in your organisation?
• Innovation approaches look at change from the perspective of diffusion of new ideas or practices. In this process, an innovation is communicated through various channels over time among the members of a social system. Resistance to process innovation can be defined as late or no adoption by members of an organisation.
• Global Change approaches look at organisational change from a very broad standpoint. These contemplate on global transformations, based on life-threatening changes dictated by rapid changes taking place in an organisation’s environment.
• Practitioner Approaches to Change are those in which the practitioners /consultants and managers by and large take a diverse approach to organisational change. They blend various aspects of the available theoretical approaches they are familiar with, as well as add practical experiences with real change processes. Practitioner Approaches typically meddle at all levels. The untraditional approach to business reengineering requires a new leadership style for managers leading the change. To quote John Kotter, Konosuke Matsushita Professor of Leadership at Harvard University.
“Success in managerial jobs increasingly requires leadership, not just good management. Even at lower levels in firms, the inability to lead is hurting both corporate performance and individual careers. Organisations that stifle leadership from employees are no longer winning.”
• Social Psychological Change Approaches: These are based on the concept that an individual is more shaped by his/her social environment (groups) than by his/her genes.
• Cultural Change Approaches: These look at change from the perspective of the culture of an organisation. Culture of an organisation or group of people can be defined as:“A pattern of shared basic assumptions that the group learned as it solved problems of external adoption and internal integration, that hasworked well enough to be considered valid and, therefore, to be taught to new members as the correct way to perceive, think, and feel in relation to those problems”.
This definition of culture identifies three levels of cultural phenomena:basic assumptions, values, and artifacts.
− Basic assumptions are the circumstances taken for granted in an organisation as the "correct" way of doing things. They constitute the core of culture and are the hardest to change.
− Values refer to a sense of what "ought" to be and they lie at the next higher level of culture.
− At the most superficial level,
− Artifacts are the overt behaviours and other physical manifestations of culture. These can usually be observed directly and are easier to change than assumptions and values. Among other things, artifacts include procedures followed, technology used, and ways of
communicating. Unfortunately, changing the artifacts generally does not lead to change of culture. To do that, one has to ultimately change the values and basic assumptions.
Culture is mostly unconscious to the members of the organisation and is able to control the behaviours of organisational change, even when the project plan calls for new behaviours. This is one of the reasons, why new leaders introducing change in an organisation sometimes replace key positions with new people, external to the organisation. Do you have similar experiences in your organisation?
• Innovation approaches look at change from the perspective of diffusion of new ideas or practices. In this process, an innovation is communicated through various channels over time among the members of a social system. Resistance to process innovation can be defined as late or no adoption by members of an organisation.
• Global Change approaches look at organisational change from a very broad standpoint. These contemplate on global transformations, based on life-threatening changes dictated by rapid changes taking place in an organisation’s environment.
• Practitioner Approaches to Change are those in which the practitioners /consultants and managers by and large take a diverse approach to organisational change. They blend various aspects of the available theoretical approaches they are familiar with, as well as add practical experiences with real change processes. Practitioner Approaches typically meddle at all levels. The untraditional approach to business reengineering requires a new leadership style for managers leading the change. To quote John Kotter, Konosuke Matsushita Professor of Leadership at Harvard University.
“Success in managerial jobs increasingly requires leadership, not just good management. Even at lower levels in firms, the inability to lead is hurting both corporate performance and individual careers. Organisations that stifle leadership from employees are no longer winning.”
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