Chapter 12 Organizational Change

change is hard

Why change?

change is demanded by clientele citizens and customers technology is moving so quickly that today's work practices may become outdated almost overnight change is difficult for most people

Either in our personal or in our work lives

Psychological Impacts of Change

that which is well-known and comfortable will be seen as giving way to something that is less clear

this can be scary

people can experience personal and psychological loss

Lessening the Stress of Change

change agents need to clarify and communicate problems in the current situation financial crises or crises in public confidence make the problems understandable managers should involve people throughout the organization in the change process

Lessening the Stress of Change

those who are part of the change process usually feel more comfortable with the process change often leads to feelings of stress and insecurity these problems must be addressed before the organization can move on

Types of Change

change can be incremental or discontinuous incremental change results from tinkering or fine-tuning ongoing operations discontinuous change is a complete break with the past and a major reconstruction of the organizations work discontinuous change is far more difficult and can shock the system

people have to unlearn old approaches

Types of Change

strategic change refers to those choices made by executives, managers, consultants, and others who may be involved in planning activities leading to changes that are both broad range and long-term strategic changes are often developed in the course of the strategic planning process that considers the mission, vision, and values of the organization and those forces acting upon the organization

Types of Change

grass-roots changes on the other hand are those take place at the local street level and involve middle level and supervisory level managers as well as workers in the front line of the organization to be truly effective organizational change must be both strategic and grass-roots based

Classic approaches

social psychologist Kurt Lewin group life is never without change, there is merely differences in the amount of type of change that exists in any given field of human endeavor, there are both forces trying to bring about change in forces trying to resist change

the football analogy driving and restraining forces

force field analysis

list in one column the driving forces at play list in another the restraining forces at play

for change to occur there must be a shift in the balance of forces at play in any given organizational field forces providing change must be increased or those forces restricting change must be lessened

often is easier to reduce the restricting forces

force field analysis

the first step is unfreezing the existing situation

disrupting the current condition of equilibrium

the second step is to introduce the change the third step is to refreeze the situation

refreezing the situation includes institutionalizing the change and developing a new reward system

Organizational Culture

culture is generally taken to embrace the norms, policies, and values expressed by members of a particular culture and manifested in their typical behaviors and artifacts they produce

there are artifacts and creations of the culture physical layout technological preferences language operating routines

values of the organization

ideas about the way in which organization ought to be ideal culture and real culture espoused beliefs and real beliefs basic underlying assumptions

values of the organization

Ott 1989 elements of organizational culture related to societal culture

made up of values, beliefs, assumptions, perceptions, behavioral norms, artifacts, and patterns of behavior

socially constructed, unseen, and unobservable force behind organizational activities

values of the organization

functions as an organizational control mechanism, informally approving or prohibiting behaviors

Organizational Culture

the societal culture influences public organizations and the development of their organizational culture cultures of public organizations are likely to be affected by the founding legislation political sentiment concerning the work public interpretation in the imprint of early in important leaders

Organizational Socialization

Socialization is achieved and transmitted overtly to members to the process of:

hiring orientation performance appraisal promotion informal processes mentoring

Cultural Norms

the culture of the organization will shape the values in attitudes and actions of organization members changing the culture may be a key step in changing the behavior of the organizations employees

developing a culture of innovation?

Cultural Norms

altering and organizations culture is far from simple and they are disagreements in the literature on change about how to be successful

cultural norms are deep-seated and may be quite resistant to change

successful changes and organizations culture typically occur over a long period -- -- 5 to 15 years manipulating the norms and values of organizations may be unethical

Organizational learning

Peter Senge's the fifth discipline

personal mastery mental models shared vision team learning systems thinking

Organizational learning

for public organizations undertaking change there is consensus that managers need:

a commitment to values serving the public empowerment shared leadership pragmatic incrementalism dedication to public service

Approaches to bring about change

change by management action or reorganization

historically most organizational changes have been brought about by fairly unilateral action on the part of managers

organizational systems have been similar to the military in their hierarchical structure

managers are assumed to have the prerogative to basically tell others what to do

Approaches to bring about change

commands are expected to flow downward through the hierarchy and the expectation is that they will be obeyed many managers continue to use this approach especially in situations where tasks are somewhat routine, highly structured, and easily programmed

Early Thinking

early writers and public administration were preoccupied with questions organizational design such as:
steps to forming a new public office the job to be carried out selecting the director determining the nature number of units required establishing a structure of authority so that the coordinator can control the activities of the unit (1937)

Contemporary Thinking

Mechanistic and organic organizations many organizations are becoming flatter

they have fewer levels from top to bottom

there's an effort to break down the silos that are represented by parallel agencies

organizational development

this approach is based on the behavioral sciences

is aimed at system wide improvements in the functioning of the organization is conducted primarily the focus on personal capabilities especially process skills it focuses on how things are done as opposed to what is being done a consultant may be hired to provide expertise to the organization

organizational development

The consultant tells a manager what should be done in a doctor-patient like relationship or there may be a process consultation

the interventionist role in organizational development

valid and useful information

identifying real problems in the client systems decision-making stays within the client systems high degree of ownership among the clients

free choice

internal commitment

Organizational Development

organizational development represents a particular philosophy at odds with traditional topdown tendencies -- it is:

mutually accessible and open values experimentation collaborative concept of authority creation of the mutual helping relationship authenticity in interpersonal relationships biased clearly towards Democratic tendencies as opposed authoritarian

Organizational Development Techniques

T-groups process consultation third party interventions survey feedback quality of work life team building

the management of change

many people are hired specifically to fix existing agencies

new legislative mandates public crisis of confidence dramatic changes in the environment a feeling that things can be working better

the steps in organizational transformations

assess the organizations environments need for change plan for change both strategically and grassroots build support implement specific changes institutionalized changes diagnosis clarification coalition building action consolidation and refinement sustainability

the steps in organizational transformations

managers often overestimate their own influence in organizations and underestimate how difficult it is to get people to change without a sense of urgency people won't give extra effort that is often essential some suggestradicallyto allow things to blow up instead of being corrected to create a sense of urgency The most important and pressing problems come across agencies and jurisdictional boundaries

Change is needed to tackle them to fashion effective agencies change is necessary

the steps in organizational transformations

nearly every move that managers make has political implications

all barriers to effective agency performance started out as reforms political history is important to consider

any change-oriented public manager needs to consider how proposed changes will be viewed by officials, citizens, and others creativity is a key in creating organizational change

norms about experimentation and innovation they place high value on not rocking about

organizations -- like people -- are risk-averse

Ways of Acting

consider carefully the emotional and psychological component of resistance to change

both your own and of others

try to clarify and communicate throughout the organization the problems associated with the current way of operating

what benefits might accrue from trying something else?

try to incorporate people throughout the organization in change process think about the forces are driving change and those that are resisting change