Case 3
Learning goals:
1. What is organizatonal change?
2. What are diferent aradigms (theories on organisatonal change)?
3. How to describe diferent ty es of change?
4. What is the rocess behind change?
5. What are–hidden-mechanisms in organisatons? ((echanisms that surface during change
rocesses.)
6. Related to the basic confict between managers and rofessionals (like the confict
mentoned in the case descri ton): how would you deal with this confict from a change
ers ective?
7. How would you as a change agent deal with resistance to change?
8. What is your referred change hiloso hy?
1. What is organisatonal change?
Caluwé
Change as an outcome or change as a rocess
Change can be regarded as the realizaton or facilitaton of (intended) outcomes. At the start of the
rocess, initators haive some idea of what these outcomes should be.
The word change also refers to rocess ( lan of a roach, working method, route, activites
Lecture
Pragmatc defniton of a change: a structured ( lanned) a roach to shif organizatons and eo le
from a current (undesired) state to a desired future state.
2. What are diferent aradigms (theories on organizatonal change)?
Basic: ratonal
Alternatives: Philoso hies (artcle) and theories are irratonal
Diferent colors
Caluwé cha ter 4
Three main strategies how you can deal with change. They can be linked to the colors im ortant.
They are ratonal and irratonal.
Power-coercive strategies; Change is forced through a legitmate ositon of ower. Here, the
change is generally enforced from the to down, and it is assumed that the resence of ower and
the threat of sanctons are necessary in order to assure the desired behaivior.
Empirical-rational strategies; Change is based on the assum tons that em loyees are ratonal
human beings and are guided by ratonal consideratons and insights. Thus, change is ofen based on
ex ert analysis, ratonal lanning and factual communicaton.
Normative-Reeducative strategies; These aim at su ortng and stmulatng eo le to generate
changes themselives. This is more a botom-u a roach. The belief is that eo le are intrinsically
active and willing to learn.
Barter: Peo le do their own cost-beneft analysis, work out how changes might hurt or serive them,
and base their actons on that. When enough incentives are ut into lace, change will ha en.
,Caluwé cha ter 4
There will be used diferent strategies together, but one will be dominant. Change agents
haive ersonal references (ex eriences, background etc.) for certain ways of thinking.
Some way of thinking ft some contexts (ty e of organizaton, roblems, solutons, and
interiventons) etc.
Which color(s) also de ends on: organizatonal context, roject sco e, roject hase, content
and last but not least the change agent.
Fiive ways of thinking about change
Yellow-print thinking (process); is based on socio- olitcal conce ts about organizatons in which
interests, conficts and ower lay im ortant roles.
- Assumes that eo le change their stand oints only if their own interests are taken into
account, or if you can com el them to acce t certain ideas.
- Change is seen as a power game or negotaton exercise aimed at feasible solutons.
- This wat of thinking fts smoothly into change rocesses where com lex goals or efects must
be achieives and in which many eo le or artes are inivolived in mutually interde endent
ways.
- The foremost consideraton is: always bear in mind the conglomeraton of interests, artes
and layers
Blue-print thinking (content); is based on the ratonal design and im lementaton of change.
- Project-oriented working is a striking exam le of this.
- Assumes that eo le or things will change if a clearly s ecifed result is laid down
beforehand.
- All ste s are lanned down to the last detail
- It is faivored a roach in change rocesses where the result and the ath can be well defned
and redicted
- It is im ortant to stmulate eo le and to ins ire them, to seduce them into actng as desired
- The foremost consideraton: lan and organize frst; use all ossible ex ertse and don’t let
eo le’ indiividual ideas and references interfere; and neiver lose sight of the intended result
Red-print thinking (process); Assumes that eo le change their behaivior if they are rewarded
(salary, romoton, bonus) or enalized ( oor eivaluaton, demoton)
- Intenton to change the sof as ects of an organizaton, such as management style,
com etencies and coo eraton
- Peo le and organizatons will change if the right HR( tools are em loyed and used correctly
- Referred to the color of human blood. The humans must be infuences, tem ted, seduced,
and stmulated
- The foremost consideraton: the human factor lats an im ortant role. Peo le make changes
ha en if you guide them in the right directon and reward them for changing
Green-print thinking (process); Assumes that eo le change it they learn.
- Aim is to strengthen the learning abilites of the indiividual and the learning within the
organizaton. So they are setng u learning situatons.
- If eo le learn collectively, the organizaton learns and as a result change takes lace
- Therefore, the outcome is difcult to redict in this way of thinking because it de ends, to a
large degree, on the extent and the nature of what eo le learn, and this, in turn, de ends
on both their learning ability and the efectiveness of the learning enivironment itself.
- The foremost consideraton: motivate eo le to learn with each other and from each other
to establish contnuous learning in collective setngs.
, White-print thinking (process); is nourished by chaos thinking, network theory, and com lexity
theory. Assumes that eiverything is changing autonomously.
- When there is energy, things change
- No one can sto change from ha ening; it can only be aided or hindered.
- The foremost consideraton: obserive what is making things ha en and change; su ly
meanings and ers ectives, remoive obstacles, get initatives and ex loratons going, and
em ower eo le while giiving them sufcient free rein.
Source: Graetz & Smith
Philoso hies of change a roach irratonal theories, exce t the ratonal hiloso hy
- The ratonal hiloso hy
o The ratonal hiloso hy (also referred to as strategic) concerns the alignment between
an organizaton’s com ositon, com etencies and state oiver tme, and its enivironmental
context.
o Sometmes also known as teleological theories (because the fnal destnaton of the
organizaton is its guiding logic) or lanned change, the ratonal hiloso hy assumes that
organizatons are ur oseful and ada tive
o As highlighted in an earlier discussion of the ratonal ers ective, change occurs sim ly
because senior managers and other change agents deem it necessary. The rocess for
change is ratonal and linear, like in eivolutonary and life cycle a roaches, but with
managers as the iivotal instgators of change
o when change goes well it is because leaders and managers were insightul and rescient,
but when change goes badly it is because something ha ened that could neiver haive
been foreseen
o The ratonal hiloso hy assumes that change can be brought about at any ace and on
any scale deemed suitable. Similarly, change is internally directed, controlled and certain.
A roaches consistent with the ratonal hiloso hy giive recedence to strategic
Learning goals:
1. What is organizatonal change?
2. What are diferent aradigms (theories on organisatonal change)?
3. How to describe diferent ty es of change?
4. What is the rocess behind change?
5. What are–hidden-mechanisms in organisatons? ((echanisms that surface during change
rocesses.)
6. Related to the basic confict between managers and rofessionals (like the confict
mentoned in the case descri ton): how would you deal with this confict from a change
ers ective?
7. How would you as a change agent deal with resistance to change?
8. What is your referred change hiloso hy?
1. What is organisatonal change?
Caluwé
Change as an outcome or change as a rocess
Change can be regarded as the realizaton or facilitaton of (intended) outcomes. At the start of the
rocess, initators haive some idea of what these outcomes should be.
The word change also refers to rocess ( lan of a roach, working method, route, activites
Lecture
Pragmatc defniton of a change: a structured ( lanned) a roach to shif organizatons and eo le
from a current (undesired) state to a desired future state.
2. What are diferent aradigms (theories on organizatonal change)?
Basic: ratonal
Alternatives: Philoso hies (artcle) and theories are irratonal
Diferent colors
Caluwé cha ter 4
Three main strategies how you can deal with change. They can be linked to the colors im ortant.
They are ratonal and irratonal.
Power-coercive strategies; Change is forced through a legitmate ositon of ower. Here, the
change is generally enforced from the to down, and it is assumed that the resence of ower and
the threat of sanctons are necessary in order to assure the desired behaivior.
Empirical-rational strategies; Change is based on the assum tons that em loyees are ratonal
human beings and are guided by ratonal consideratons and insights. Thus, change is ofen based on
ex ert analysis, ratonal lanning and factual communicaton.
Normative-Reeducative strategies; These aim at su ortng and stmulatng eo le to generate
changes themselives. This is more a botom-u a roach. The belief is that eo le are intrinsically
active and willing to learn.
Barter: Peo le do their own cost-beneft analysis, work out how changes might hurt or serive them,
and base their actons on that. When enough incentives are ut into lace, change will ha en.
,Caluwé cha ter 4
There will be used diferent strategies together, but one will be dominant. Change agents
haive ersonal references (ex eriences, background etc.) for certain ways of thinking.
Some way of thinking ft some contexts (ty e of organizaton, roblems, solutons, and
interiventons) etc.
Which color(s) also de ends on: organizatonal context, roject sco e, roject hase, content
and last but not least the change agent.
Fiive ways of thinking about change
Yellow-print thinking (process); is based on socio- olitcal conce ts about organizatons in which
interests, conficts and ower lay im ortant roles.
- Assumes that eo le change their stand oints only if their own interests are taken into
account, or if you can com el them to acce t certain ideas.
- Change is seen as a power game or negotaton exercise aimed at feasible solutons.
- This wat of thinking fts smoothly into change rocesses where com lex goals or efects must
be achieives and in which many eo le or artes are inivolived in mutually interde endent
ways.
- The foremost consideraton is: always bear in mind the conglomeraton of interests, artes
and layers
Blue-print thinking (content); is based on the ratonal design and im lementaton of change.
- Project-oriented working is a striking exam le of this.
- Assumes that eo le or things will change if a clearly s ecifed result is laid down
beforehand.
- All ste s are lanned down to the last detail
- It is faivored a roach in change rocesses where the result and the ath can be well defned
and redicted
- It is im ortant to stmulate eo le and to ins ire them, to seduce them into actng as desired
- The foremost consideraton: lan and organize frst; use all ossible ex ertse and don’t let
eo le’ indiividual ideas and references interfere; and neiver lose sight of the intended result
Red-print thinking (process); Assumes that eo le change their behaivior if they are rewarded
(salary, romoton, bonus) or enalized ( oor eivaluaton, demoton)
- Intenton to change the sof as ects of an organizaton, such as management style,
com etencies and coo eraton
- Peo le and organizatons will change if the right HR( tools are em loyed and used correctly
- Referred to the color of human blood. The humans must be infuences, tem ted, seduced,
and stmulated
- The foremost consideraton: the human factor lats an im ortant role. Peo le make changes
ha en if you guide them in the right directon and reward them for changing
Green-print thinking (process); Assumes that eo le change it they learn.
- Aim is to strengthen the learning abilites of the indiividual and the learning within the
organizaton. So they are setng u learning situatons.
- If eo le learn collectively, the organizaton learns and as a result change takes lace
- Therefore, the outcome is difcult to redict in this way of thinking because it de ends, to a
large degree, on the extent and the nature of what eo le learn, and this, in turn, de ends
on both their learning ability and the efectiveness of the learning enivironment itself.
- The foremost consideraton: motivate eo le to learn with each other and from each other
to establish contnuous learning in collective setngs.
, White-print thinking (process); is nourished by chaos thinking, network theory, and com lexity
theory. Assumes that eiverything is changing autonomously.
- When there is energy, things change
- No one can sto change from ha ening; it can only be aided or hindered.
- The foremost consideraton: obserive what is making things ha en and change; su ly
meanings and ers ectives, remoive obstacles, get initatives and ex loratons going, and
em ower eo le while giiving them sufcient free rein.
Source: Graetz & Smith
Philoso hies of change a roach irratonal theories, exce t the ratonal hiloso hy
- The ratonal hiloso hy
o The ratonal hiloso hy (also referred to as strategic) concerns the alignment between
an organizaton’s com ositon, com etencies and state oiver tme, and its enivironmental
context.
o Sometmes also known as teleological theories (because the fnal destnaton of the
organizaton is its guiding logic) or lanned change, the ratonal hiloso hy assumes that
organizatons are ur oseful and ada tive
o As highlighted in an earlier discussion of the ratonal ers ective, change occurs sim ly
because senior managers and other change agents deem it necessary. The rocess for
change is ratonal and linear, like in eivolutonary and life cycle a roaches, but with
managers as the iivotal instgators of change
o when change goes well it is because leaders and managers were insightul and rescient,
but when change goes badly it is because something ha ened that could neiver haive
been foreseen
o The ratonal hiloso hy assumes that change can be brought about at any ace and on
any scale deemed suitable. Similarly, change is internally directed, controlled and certain.
A roaches consistent with the ratonal hiloso hy giive recedence to strategic
