Differences Between Organization

Change & Development

As they grow and evolve, organizations undergo a series of changes
throughout their life cycle. These changes create the need for a well planned
development process. To understand the differences between organizational
change and development, it is important to know the meaning of each term
and to conceptualize the relationship between the two.

Organizational Change

Factors such as improvements in technology, the need for business

diversification and expansion are all examples of driving forces of change in
organizations. These factors contribute to the onset of organizational
development by pushing business leaders and managers to take certain
actions which will lead to the desired outcome. There are several types of
organizational change. Some changes are planned and driven by innovative
thinking, while others are unplanned. Sometimes change in an organization
can affect the whole entity, and at other times it can have a direct impact on
only one segment of the business structure.
When an organization experiences change, it re-invents its overall strategy
for success, and adds or removes certain components in its current style of
operations.

Organizational Development

Business development is defined as "a planned organization-wide

effort to increase an organization's effectiveness and viability," according to
Noetic Outcomes Consulting. One of the most widely known means of
implementing organization development is enterprise master planning. This
process allows an organization to choose the best business solution out of a
multitude of alternatives or options. Enterprise master planning involves a
thorough analysis of existing business processes and a good understanding
of opportunities available for improving those processes. Documentations

and resources are used to determine the most appropriate business options,
and to qualify and justify the master plan.
The methods used for organizational development will vary, and the steps
taken to implement organizational change is contingent on the scale of the
project and the sort of results being sought. The timeline for the plan
development and integration will therefore depend on the complexity of the
enterprise and its starting point in the development stage.

Impact of Change and Development

Organizational change is the agent that pushes development forward.

In this context, change becomes a major catalyst for growth and
improvements in business processes. Development therefore depends
largely on those active forces that propel organizations to greater heights
when the right business decisions are taken and effectively executed by
highly skilled managers and leaders.

Part - 1 The supervisor of Emily is the biggest source of resistance to change.

He is adamant and not willing to get Emily cross trained, neither he is
allowing any other employee learns Emily's work. Cross training could open
the new ways of standardization and simplification but forcing one employee
to do the same work since long would definitely hamper the production and
the final output. There are some basic reasons of resistance - Fear of
unknown: Change is one of the unknown factors for employees .The fear is
about not being good enough and unacceptable changes.
Not being consulted: Managers generally do not involve their subordinates to
be the part of change, this creates resistance. Jim was also following the
same pattern and was taking decisions on his team's behalf without
consulting them.
Lack of communication : No communication or miscommunication; both
creates resistance. Transparency should be maintained during the change
process.
Trust Factor: If the manager has not been able to gain trust of his team,
change becomes difficult. Jim,in the case, was adamant and never bothered
of the team's feedback or issue. This was going against him during the
change process.

Part - 2 The resistance by Emily is totally justified as if anyone could have to

work for the same process without being heard about the modifications there
would definitely be resistance, however overcoming such resistance is very
much possible

II.

III.

Question 1- Identify The Sources Of Resistance To Change In This Case.

The roots of resistance can be seen in:
I.
The type of production and related plant layout.: Furniture making is the main
business, high variety customised and low volume of production, plant lay out not
defined but can be assumed process type. Process layout offers more flexibility but
low production rate.
Manufacturing; Uses traditional management concepts, production on mass production
based and economics of scale. Concepts like batch production, cellular manufacturing, GT
Plant layout and Lean philosophy can help improve its scenario.
Human Resource .Flexibility plays a pivotal role in furniture manufacturing. Organizational,
human and production flexibility is a must to have more profit. The concepts adopted under
(1) and (2) build inherent resistance to change, less flexible or more rigid. Human resource
mind set is another significant cause of resistance. Cross -training is proposed. Cross
training means multi-tasking skill development. But it can hardly work successfully in the
present manufacturing system. Emily's case is a different story, probably not a representative
of HR.. Emily appears to be indispensable and management has failed to try the experiment
on the machine Emily operates
Question 2- Discuss Whether This Resistance Is Justified Or Could Be Overcome
The resistance offered by the existing manufcaturing organization can certainly be overcome
by using such tools as Lean Manufacturing, GT Layout, etc., that can offer more fexibility. HR
resistance, if it exists, is not significant.
Question 3- Recommend Ways To Minimize Resistance To Change In This Incident.
Answers to Questions (1) and (2) indicate the ways or tools to minimize resistane to change.
Holistic/integrated approach like CIM or Digital Manufacturing or e-fabrication will be of
immense use. It may be noted that we often consider Human as the main cause of resistance
to change but at the same time we forget about the hidden resistance generated due to such
factors as plant layout, manufacturing system,organizational network, communication
network,physical network, non-innovating approach, lack of disruptive innovation,
etc. Maintaining high flexibility, (less resistance), productivity, effectiveness, efficiency and
economics is the ensured high way to success!