Lecture 1 LIO
Evaluating Organizational Change
Today’s topics
1. What is organizational change?
2. (How) are organizational change and learning related?
3. How can we evaluate learning? (1)
4. How can we evaluate learning? (2)
What is organizational change?
The process by which an organization moves from A to B, create a bigger profit, create more
advancement, pupils are also output (as a product should be given a certain amount of
knowledge and skills).
Quantify: profits, but not intelligence, personal value
What are the ends and what are the means?
Change in organizations should always obtain a certain goal/aim.
Goals are parts of the things people value and the purpose of the organizations which they
serve.
Literature topics as lenses to understand and malleable the organizations at hand. Make up
your own mind which concepts you want to use.
Planned Change (PC) – Organizational Development (OD) – Continuous Change (CC): What are the
goal and the means of the change?
PC regardless of the problem you
are dealing with one best way
to fix the problem
PC initiated by management/top-
down
Moving pieces to create a new
equilibrium so the organization
can function again and better
OD the employees come up with
the best ideas and create the
solution by working on it (captain
and its sailors).
CC people continuously change (no time to get used to the changes), make small changes in weeks.
CC changes already happen. How do we align all the changes so everyone can work on the same goal
(management as caretakers).
3 ways to think about people and their capabilities (motivated, altruistic, lazy?)
Theories E, O and C: what role do employees play in an OD?
Theories E, O and C approach the same questions from a different angle by focusing on the
purpose of the organization and the function of its employees
E: employees as instruments, a tool for the management, to be employed, do what you have
to do, your getting paid and no opinion is needed.
O: employees as purposeful beings, it acknowledges that people have ideas, people can
think for themselves.
, C: employees as sensemakers, actively understand the world around it (making sense),
making categories in our minds of situations to be able to view the world. When something
different happens which you did not expect, you need to change your mental models.
1st, 2nd and 3rd order Learning: for what reason is learning taking place?
The acquisition / development of new knowledge and skills (broadly speaking)
Different types of learning, different levels (single loop, double loop, individual, team and so
on) => organizational learning is to take place if the organization is to survive and thrive
When there should be a change, you need to understand how you are going to do that
(knowledge, skills, motivation, vision, etc.)
1. First-order: acquisition of stock knowledge for solving problems (improvement)
2. Second-order: approach the problem in a different way, development of a new knowledge
for solving problems (breakdown).
3. Third-order: questioning what constitutes a problem (re-invention), why not just learn
children to Google everything?
How are organizational change and learning related? (Boonstra, 2004)
PC – TE – 1st O
OD – TO – 2nd O
CC – TC – 3rd O
These three ways are three distinct entities. Developed for a specific reasons. Although they share
and differ from certain aspects.
What does this all amount to/what does it mean?
Different kinds of change and types of learning require different approaches for realizing
them
Change is not straightforward, multi-faceted, opaque at times => there is no ’one best way’
of implementing it
It is about making choices, explicating your own assumptions, beliefs, convictions and ideas
o When you choose for a certain paradigm, than you also have to apply this view,
make certain choices congruent to this approach.
o What is my view on the role of people? A value judgement.
How can we evaluate learning?
To understand what you have to learn, you need to know how it is evaluated and/or graded.
Evaluating change (1)
Organizations change to improve or survive. Certain growth should be measured.
Questions: how do you define a market, because numbers can be manipulated, making
choices in this has an effect on the outcomes.
How do you measure running potential of employees?
o Amount readied articles, hours on internet, hours in the building?
Evaluating Organizational Change
Today’s topics
1. What is organizational change?
2. (How) are organizational change and learning related?
3. How can we evaluate learning? (1)
4. How can we evaluate learning? (2)
What is organizational change?
The process by which an organization moves from A to B, create a bigger profit, create more
advancement, pupils are also output (as a product should be given a certain amount of
knowledge and skills).
Quantify: profits, but not intelligence, personal value
What are the ends and what are the means?
Change in organizations should always obtain a certain goal/aim.
Goals are parts of the things people value and the purpose of the organizations which they
serve.
Literature topics as lenses to understand and malleable the organizations at hand. Make up
your own mind which concepts you want to use.
Planned Change (PC) – Organizational Development (OD) – Continuous Change (CC): What are the
goal and the means of the change?
PC regardless of the problem you
are dealing with one best way
to fix the problem
PC initiated by management/top-
down
Moving pieces to create a new
equilibrium so the organization
can function again and better
OD the employees come up with
the best ideas and create the
solution by working on it (captain
and its sailors).
CC people continuously change (no time to get used to the changes), make small changes in weeks.
CC changes already happen. How do we align all the changes so everyone can work on the same goal
(management as caretakers).
3 ways to think about people and their capabilities (motivated, altruistic, lazy?)
Theories E, O and C: what role do employees play in an OD?
Theories E, O and C approach the same questions from a different angle by focusing on the
purpose of the organization and the function of its employees
E: employees as instruments, a tool for the management, to be employed, do what you have
to do, your getting paid and no opinion is needed.
O: employees as purposeful beings, it acknowledges that people have ideas, people can
think for themselves.
, C: employees as sensemakers, actively understand the world around it (making sense),
making categories in our minds of situations to be able to view the world. When something
different happens which you did not expect, you need to change your mental models.
1st, 2nd and 3rd order Learning: for what reason is learning taking place?
The acquisition / development of new knowledge and skills (broadly speaking)
Different types of learning, different levels (single loop, double loop, individual, team and so
on) => organizational learning is to take place if the organization is to survive and thrive
When there should be a change, you need to understand how you are going to do that
(knowledge, skills, motivation, vision, etc.)
1. First-order: acquisition of stock knowledge for solving problems (improvement)
2. Second-order: approach the problem in a different way, development of a new knowledge
for solving problems (breakdown).
3. Third-order: questioning what constitutes a problem (re-invention), why not just learn
children to Google everything?
How are organizational change and learning related? (Boonstra, 2004)
PC – TE – 1st O
OD – TO – 2nd O
CC – TC – 3rd O
These three ways are three distinct entities. Developed for a specific reasons. Although they share
and differ from certain aspects.
What does this all amount to/what does it mean?
Different kinds of change and types of learning require different approaches for realizing
them
Change is not straightforward, multi-faceted, opaque at times => there is no ’one best way’
of implementing it
It is about making choices, explicating your own assumptions, beliefs, convictions and ideas
o When you choose for a certain paradigm, than you also have to apply this view,
make certain choices congruent to this approach.
o What is my view on the role of people? A value judgement.
How can we evaluate learning?
To understand what you have to learn, you need to know how it is evaluated and/or graded.
Evaluating change (1)
Organizations change to improve or survive. Certain growth should be measured.
Questions: how do you define a market, because numbers can be manipulated, making
choices in this has an effect on the outcomes.
How do you measure running potential of employees?
o Amount readied articles, hours on internet, hours in the building?
