CHANGES IN NATURE

AND SOCIETY

Prof.dr.dr.dr.h.c. Constantin Bratianu

Faculty of Business Administration
Academy of Economic Studies
Bucharest

It is not the strongest of the species that

survives, not the most intelligent, but the one
most responsive to change

(Charles Darwin)

There is nothing more difficult to take in hand,

more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in
its success, than to take the lead in the
introduction of a new order of things
(Niccolo Machiavelli)

Evidence overwhelmingly suggests that the

most fundamental problem in all of the stages
is changing the behavior of people

(John Kotter)

External environment

Internal environment

Internal field of
forces Fi

External field of
forces Fe
Dynamic equilibrium: Fi = Fe

CHANGE DYNAMICS

Initial state

Final state
Catalysts

Inertial forces

Driving forces

(Resistances)

(Promoters)

Change
Change = a natural or societal process of
alteration the initial state of a given entity,
produced in a spontaneous or controlled way.

Any entity will continue to operate in the same

functional and structural state until a driving
force will change some of its core characteristics.
An organizational change is an alteration of an
organizations environment, structure,
technology, or people
Any change is developing as a dynamic process
under driving and inertial forces.

Types of change - Time

Evolutionary/ Continuous changes
- continuous process of change in time, without
discontinuities
- usually, they involve small change
- usually, they involve a dynamic equilibrium
(if there are perturbations, they do not change the basic state
of the system)
Examples:
- in nature: growing trees, ageing people, weather
warming, snow melting
- in society: business development, team work, education
in schools and universities

Types of change - Time

Revolutionary/discontinuous/disruptive changes
- discontinuous process of change in time
- usually, they involve a big change
- usually, they involve a conflicting situation
Examples:
- in nature: earthquakes, floods, tornadoes
- in society: a revolution, a strike, starting up a new
company, taking-over of a company, an invention, a
discovery

Types of change - Quantity

Small changes
- continuous improvement, TQM, innovations
- temperature variation during a day

Big changes
- reengineering a company, changing the Constitution of a
country
- temperature variation between day and night in desert
- changing seasons

Types of changes

Nature

Spontaneous/
Emergent

Planned/
Controlled

Any change produced

without human
intervention

Any change produced by

human intervention
(canals, lakes, clouds
breaking, artificial snow)

Diets (at individual level)

Accidents (auto, airplane)

Society

Technology failures,
catastrophes (i.e. nuclear)

Epidemics

Social, economical,
political reforms
Organizational change to
adapt to the business
environmental needs

Conflict management and politics

of change
Conflicts may appear in any organization, with
respect to change
Conflicts are generated between the driving
forces of change and the inertial forces
Conflicts may appear at any level within
organization
Change can be performed:
- top-down
- bottom-up
- across organization

Critical views of managing

change
Can change be managed?
Planned change can be managed
Spontaneous/Emergent change cannot be
managed 100%, but great leaders know how to
enter the change process and to direct it (i.e. like
in martial arts)

If, YES, should change be managed?

Much better than do not manage it
What should be the relation between manageable
change and non-manageable change?
It should be a relation of integration

Cultural change
Cultural change means change in organizational
culture
That means changes of beliefs, values, symbols,
rituals, traditions etc.
Changing cultural values is very difficult and it takes
time
Changing cultural values is very important for
transnational companies. Many mergers failed due to
difficulties in changing organizational cultures
Conflicts may appear when top management comes
from a different culture than most of employees (see
Craiova)

Change agents roles and

relationships
Changes within an organization need a catalyst.
People who act as catalysts and assume the
responsibility for managing the change process
are called change agents.
Any manager can be a change agent. Also, any
other person from inside or outside the
organization (i.e. a consultant).
Change agents play the role of the driving forces
for the change process

CHANGE METAPHORS
Calm waters metaphor:
The organization is envisioned as a large ship
crossing a calm sea, to a well known destination.
The trip is predictable without problems.
White-water rapids metaphor:
The organization is envisioned as a small raft
navigating a raging river with uninterrupted
white-water rapids.

Organizational dynamics
complexity and change
Within any organization there is a field of forces
representing people, processes and technologies
These forces are interrelated and any change
induced by any of them will be propagated
throughout organization
Complexity makes change more difficult, such
that complexity will slow down the propagation of
any change
Large companies are more complex than small
ones. Thus, in large companies managing change
is much more difficult than in small companies

Chip Heath & Dan Heath

Switch. How to change things

when change is hard