Summary of the course Organisational Transitions
Weekly chapters, articles:
Week 1: 1, 2, 5, 6, 11.
Week 2: 2, 4, 7, 8, 10.
Week 3: 6, 15, 17, article Armenakis, Georgalis.
Week 4: 14, article Den Hartog.
Week 5: 15, 17, article Higgs, Article van der voet.
Week 6: x
,Inhoudsopgave
Weekly chapters, articles:............................................................................................... 1
Chapter 1: Sources for Understanding Organization Change..........................................2
Chapter 2: Rethinking Organization Change...................................................................3
Chapter 4: Theoretical Foundations of Organizations and Organization change (70-86) 4
Chapter 5: The Nature of Organization Change..............................................................6
Chapter 6: Levels of Organization Change: individual, Group, and Larger System.........8
Chapter 7: Organization Change: Research and Theory...............................................11
Chapter 8: Conceptual Models for Understanding Organization Change.......................14
Chapter 10: The Burke-Litwin Causal Model og Organization Performance and Change
..................................................................................................................................... 17
Chapter 11: Organizational Culture Change..................................................................20
Chapter 14:Transformational Leadership......................................................................23
Chapter 15: Leading Organization Change...................................................................27
Chapter 17: Organization Change: Moving Forward With Evidence..............................30
Article Armenakis & Harris............................................................................................ 32
Article Georgalis et al. Change process characteristics and resistance to organisational
change: The role of employee perceptions of justice....................................................33
Article Den Hartog........................................................................................................ 35
Article Higgs et al.......................................................................................................... 36
Article van der Voet...................................................................................................... 40
Chapter 1: Sources for Understanding Organization Change
The book mainly focusses on the theme of:
- Planned versus Unplanned change; and
, - Revolutionary versus Evolutionary change.
Unlike a few decades ago, the external environment now chages muh more rapidly than
organizations do -> so organizations are playing catch-up, and will do so even more in the
future.
Principles regarding the organization change:
- External environment
- Expressing the need:
a) creating a sense of urgency.
b) providing a vision fort he future).
- Consequences: there can be fustration and anger because of unintended consequences.
- Resistance
- Change leader role: The change leader needs to be transparent, nondefensive,
persistent yet patient.
Chapter 2: Rethinking Organization Change
To survive, especially for the long term, organizations must change and adapt to their
environments, but typical changes consist of fine- tuning: installing a new system for sales
management; initiating a program to improve the quality of products or services; or changing
the structure to improve decision-making without first changing the organizational strategy,
which is, after all, the basis for decision-making.
Change is not linear. the implementation process is messy.
Foster and Kaplan, with their data from more than 1,000 corporations in 15 industries over
a 36-year period, argue that we now are clearly in the “age of discontinuity,” as Drucker
(1969) earlier predicted. (p.33).
How can it be that so many companies do not survive, and that those that do survive,
with few exceptions, perform below average?:
1. Pace-of-change phenomenon: back in 1917 the pace of change was much slower
than it is today. During that time and continuing on into the 20’s/30’s the turnover rate
of companies in the S&P rankings averaged 1.5% a year, the company making the list
then could expect to remain fora bout 65 years. But in 1998, “the turnover rate in the
S&P 500 was close to 10%, implying an average lifetime on the list of ten years, not
sixty-five.
2. one of the most powerful factors or forces for business, especially those that are
publicly owned, is the capital market. Capital markets are informal aggregations, not
highly organized and structured as are corporations. Capital markets consist of buyers,
sellers, and others who interact for the purpose of economic exchange. Capital markets
change far more rapidly than do corporations; are based on an assumption of
discontinuity, not continuity; weed out poor performers; reward creativity and
innovation; and encourage new business entries into the marketplace.
The most important part is the external environment. The pace-of-change and the capital
markets are part of the external environment. Additionally the customer is also very crucial.
The customer determines the fate of any business. The primary point made by Foster and
, Kaplan (2001), then, is that capital markets outpace corporations, the rate of change is
considerably different, and the basic assumptions of the two for long-term survival are
opposites: discontinuity for the capital markets and continuity for corporations. For corporate
survival and success, Foster and Kaplan argue that companies must abandon the assumption
of continuity; corporations must understand and mitigate, as they call it.
Organizations in government, higher education, and the nonprofit sector must continually
adjust to changing external pressures—political expectations, public demands, funding shifts,
technological developments, and competition. When they focus too much on internal issues or
traditions, they risk becoming inefficient, outdated, or unable to meet the needs of the people
they serve. To remain effective, they must stay outward-looking, responsive, and willing to
reorganize or rethink their structures and priorities.
Chapter 4: Theoretical Foundations of Organizations and Organization
change (70-86)
Study of organisations
1. Open-System theory
2. A theoretical synthesis of recent thinking on shifts from physics to the life sciences as the
preedominant explanatory discipline.
To consider organization change, it is important to take a total-system perspective. Although
one rarely tackles the entire system at once, one works diligently to keep the total in mind as
one goes about changing parts because the change of one part will affect other parts, perhaps
all parts eventually.
Characteristics of open systems
There are 10 characteristics that distinguish open systems:
1. Importation of Energy: Organizations cannot survive on their own and must draw
resources, money, materials, and labor from the external environment.
2. Throughput: Employees transform these external inputs into products or services
through internal work processes.
3. Output: The organization delivers its product or service to clients and receives
payment or other returns that allow it to continue operating.
4. Systems are Cycles of Events: Organizations are defined by recurring patterns of
activities, like contracting, producing, and billing, that continuously repeat and sustain
the system.
5. Negative Entropy: Because all systems naturally move toward disorder, organizations
must continually bring in more resources and effort than they expend to survive. They
must proclaim the trust with others.
6. Information input, negative feedback, and the coding process: Organizations rely
on feedback, especially negative feedback, to correct mistakes and adjust their
processes to better meet environmental demands.
7. Steady-state and Dynamic Homeostasis: A surviving organization appears stable
overall even though it is constantly adjusting its internal processes to maintain balance
amidst ongoing change.
8. Differentation: As organizations grow, they develop specialized roles and divisions of
labor to handle increasing complexity.
Weekly chapters, articles:
Week 1: 1, 2, 5, 6, 11.
Week 2: 2, 4, 7, 8, 10.
Week 3: 6, 15, 17, article Armenakis, Georgalis.
Week 4: 14, article Den Hartog.
Week 5: 15, 17, article Higgs, Article van der voet.
Week 6: x
,Inhoudsopgave
Weekly chapters, articles:............................................................................................... 1
Chapter 1: Sources for Understanding Organization Change..........................................2
Chapter 2: Rethinking Organization Change...................................................................3
Chapter 4: Theoretical Foundations of Organizations and Organization change (70-86) 4
Chapter 5: The Nature of Organization Change..............................................................6
Chapter 6: Levels of Organization Change: individual, Group, and Larger System.........8
Chapter 7: Organization Change: Research and Theory...............................................11
Chapter 8: Conceptual Models for Understanding Organization Change.......................14
Chapter 10: The Burke-Litwin Causal Model og Organization Performance and Change
..................................................................................................................................... 17
Chapter 11: Organizational Culture Change..................................................................20
Chapter 14:Transformational Leadership......................................................................23
Chapter 15: Leading Organization Change...................................................................27
Chapter 17: Organization Change: Moving Forward With Evidence..............................30
Article Armenakis & Harris............................................................................................ 32
Article Georgalis et al. Change process characteristics and resistance to organisational
change: The role of employee perceptions of justice....................................................33
Article Den Hartog........................................................................................................ 35
Article Higgs et al.......................................................................................................... 36
Article van der Voet...................................................................................................... 40
Chapter 1: Sources for Understanding Organization Change
The book mainly focusses on the theme of:
- Planned versus Unplanned change; and
, - Revolutionary versus Evolutionary change.
Unlike a few decades ago, the external environment now chages muh more rapidly than
organizations do -> so organizations are playing catch-up, and will do so even more in the
future.
Principles regarding the organization change:
- External environment
- Expressing the need:
a) creating a sense of urgency.
b) providing a vision fort he future).
- Consequences: there can be fustration and anger because of unintended consequences.
- Resistance
- Change leader role: The change leader needs to be transparent, nondefensive,
persistent yet patient.
Chapter 2: Rethinking Organization Change
To survive, especially for the long term, organizations must change and adapt to their
environments, but typical changes consist of fine- tuning: installing a new system for sales
management; initiating a program to improve the quality of products or services; or changing
the structure to improve decision-making without first changing the organizational strategy,
which is, after all, the basis for decision-making.
Change is not linear. the implementation process is messy.
Foster and Kaplan, with their data from more than 1,000 corporations in 15 industries over
a 36-year period, argue that we now are clearly in the “age of discontinuity,” as Drucker
(1969) earlier predicted. (p.33).
How can it be that so many companies do not survive, and that those that do survive,
with few exceptions, perform below average?:
1. Pace-of-change phenomenon: back in 1917 the pace of change was much slower
than it is today. During that time and continuing on into the 20’s/30’s the turnover rate
of companies in the S&P rankings averaged 1.5% a year, the company making the list
then could expect to remain fora bout 65 years. But in 1998, “the turnover rate in the
S&P 500 was close to 10%, implying an average lifetime on the list of ten years, not
sixty-five.
2. one of the most powerful factors or forces for business, especially those that are
publicly owned, is the capital market. Capital markets are informal aggregations, not
highly organized and structured as are corporations. Capital markets consist of buyers,
sellers, and others who interact for the purpose of economic exchange. Capital markets
change far more rapidly than do corporations; are based on an assumption of
discontinuity, not continuity; weed out poor performers; reward creativity and
innovation; and encourage new business entries into the marketplace.
The most important part is the external environment. The pace-of-change and the capital
markets are part of the external environment. Additionally the customer is also very crucial.
The customer determines the fate of any business. The primary point made by Foster and
, Kaplan (2001), then, is that capital markets outpace corporations, the rate of change is
considerably different, and the basic assumptions of the two for long-term survival are
opposites: discontinuity for the capital markets and continuity for corporations. For corporate
survival and success, Foster and Kaplan argue that companies must abandon the assumption
of continuity; corporations must understand and mitigate, as they call it.
Organizations in government, higher education, and the nonprofit sector must continually
adjust to changing external pressures—political expectations, public demands, funding shifts,
technological developments, and competition. When they focus too much on internal issues or
traditions, they risk becoming inefficient, outdated, or unable to meet the needs of the people
they serve. To remain effective, they must stay outward-looking, responsive, and willing to
reorganize or rethink their structures and priorities.
Chapter 4: Theoretical Foundations of Organizations and Organization
change (70-86)
Study of organisations
1. Open-System theory
2. A theoretical synthesis of recent thinking on shifts from physics to the life sciences as the
preedominant explanatory discipline.
To consider organization change, it is important to take a total-system perspective. Although
one rarely tackles the entire system at once, one works diligently to keep the total in mind as
one goes about changing parts because the change of one part will affect other parts, perhaps
all parts eventually.
Characteristics of open systems
There are 10 characteristics that distinguish open systems:
1. Importation of Energy: Organizations cannot survive on their own and must draw
resources, money, materials, and labor from the external environment.
2. Throughput: Employees transform these external inputs into products or services
through internal work processes.
3. Output: The organization delivers its product or service to clients and receives
payment or other returns that allow it to continue operating.
4. Systems are Cycles of Events: Organizations are defined by recurring patterns of
activities, like contracting, producing, and billing, that continuously repeat and sustain
the system.
5. Negative Entropy: Because all systems naturally move toward disorder, organizations
must continually bring in more resources and effort than they expend to survive. They
must proclaim the trust with others.
6. Information input, negative feedback, and the coding process: Organizations rely
on feedback, especially negative feedback, to correct mistakes and adjust their
processes to better meet environmental demands.
7. Steady-state and Dynamic Homeostasis: A surviving organization appears stable
overall even though it is constantly adjusting its internal processes to maintain balance
amidst ongoing change.
8. Differentation: As organizations grow, they develop specialized roles and divisions of
labor to handle increasing complexity.
