Case 3
Learning goals (to be prepared before study team meeting 3)
1. What is:
a. Organizational change
Managing organizational change: A philosophies of change approach
Organizational change refers to the transition of the organization from one state to another.
Change → Change is a structured (planned) approach to shift organizations and people from a
current (undesired) state to a desired fate.
The underlying assumption of this classical approach, ever popular among change consultants, is that
organizational change involves a series of predictable, reducible steps that can be planned and
managed.
Change process:
1) Linear
- Change is above all rational processes
➔ Unfreeze, change, refreeze (Lewin)
➔ IST situation, planning, SOLL situation
➔ Planned approach from current to desired state
- Change is orderly – focusses on establishing new structures, procedures and new orders
- Change is top-down and should be controlled
➔ With formulaic step-wise approaches and tools
➔ By a strong, task-oriented leader
- Change leads to specific and measurable end goals
2) Ongoing/iterative
- Change is a fuzzy, deeply ambiguous, messy, complex uncertain process
- Change occurs for different reasons
- Leaders are people-oriented
- Change does not stop and is always ongoing
- Change as a co-evolutionary outcome of strategic intentionally and environmental
imperatives
3) Change cycle
- Basic cycle
➔ Diagnose
➔ Change strategy
➔ Intervention plan
➔ Intervention
- Meta cycle
➔ Assess progress
➔ Consider adjustments
➔ Re-plan
, i. What types of change are there?
Types of changes
- Evolutionary – incremental, small steps
- Revolutionary – drastic, rapid steps
- Entrepreneurial – new start-ups
Why
There are logical why’s for change.
1) the environment is changing (different needs, different competition, new regulations) which has
implications for your organizations which means you need to adjust on this environment.
2) you have a new way which you want to bring to practice: bring about flux in eco-system. E.g.
Facebook. It is important to be able to understand and explain WHY an organization needs to
changes!
What
You need to emphasize about what kind of changes we are talking. There are two types of change:
- Improving: the core principles are kept the same but you try to do it in a better way
- Renewal: when the core principles are the limitation, change the principles and work from on this
new principles
You can also define the what from the starting point of change:
1. A problem in the current state
2. A desired future state: maybe something is not yet a problem now, but there might be chance that
it will become on in the future so why not already anticipate on this. Here you’re putting yourself in a
future perspective.
How
There are three ways of changing. When an issue is urgent, e.g. the titanic is sinking, you will do a
revolutionary change. So, the context of the change is very important to decide the way of changing.
1. Incremental: making small steps
2. Revolutionary: drastic, rapid
3. Entrepreneurism: start-up of something new. E.g. creating a new organization.
,Change process → This looks like a linear process but it isn’t! You can go back and forth from steps.
And within the main steps, you doing all the steps as well. E.g. each step will also be done when
diagnosing. Diagnosing is already the first intervention.
1. Diagnose: finding causes before designing and implementing solutions
- What is the problem/desire? And why (check history; how did we end up in the current state)?
- What are the characteristics and the history of the organization?
- How to gather insight? Gather reliable, valid information. Problem with diagnosing:
1) make sure you have different views when diagnosing to prevent the case of the blind men and the
elephant. E.g. different ages, positions. If you are not diagnosing correcting, you will go to the wrong
direction.
2) when there is a problem, first try to find the causes of the problem before finding a solution.
2. Change strategy: which strategy will make sure you can go from the current state to a desired
state = the required leverage of change (see colors)
- The outcome: what has to change?
- The diagnosis: what is the present state?
- How large is the difference between desired and present change? (change gap)
- What is the level of motivation or resistance?
- What do the change agents want and are capable of?
- Is the change feasible? i.e. realizable.
, 3. Intervention plan
A well-chosen change strategy is one thing, bringing it to life is quite another.
- Criteria: Integral: coherent whole
Consistent: steps/interventions should not conflict
Feasible: executable and absorbable
Relevant: contributes to desired outcome
Design of plan: Which interventions are required? In which order? What needs to be done during
the intervention step? i.e. outcomes, phases, actors, communication.
4. interventions
Dimensions of organizational change
There are four dimensions relevant to organizational change: (1) the content of change, which relates
to differences in the content of a State A organization along the dimensions noted to the content
associated with a State B firm and (2) the process of change, which focuses on how change occurs,
including the speed of change, the necessary sequence of activities, supporting internal changes, and
obstacles confronted. In addition, they defined (3) the context of change as the forces or conditions
existing in an organization’s internal and external environments that influence change and (4) the
outcomes of change as the criteria used to assess the success of change.
b. Change capabilities
i. When can we consider an organization capable of (or ready for) change?
‘organizations that hold dynamic capabilities’
Organizational capacity for change
◼ Adapting old capabilities to new circumstances
◼ Creating new organizational capabilities
◼ At a collective level
◼ Four polarities
- Leader/follower
- Innovation/accountability
- Unitary leadership/distributed leadership
• Readiness for change
Learning goals (to be prepared before study team meeting 3)
1. What is:
a. Organizational change
Managing organizational change: A philosophies of change approach
Organizational change refers to the transition of the organization from one state to another.
Change → Change is a structured (planned) approach to shift organizations and people from a
current (undesired) state to a desired fate.
The underlying assumption of this classical approach, ever popular among change consultants, is that
organizational change involves a series of predictable, reducible steps that can be planned and
managed.
Change process:
1) Linear
- Change is above all rational processes
➔ Unfreeze, change, refreeze (Lewin)
➔ IST situation, planning, SOLL situation
➔ Planned approach from current to desired state
- Change is orderly – focusses on establishing new structures, procedures and new orders
- Change is top-down and should be controlled
➔ With formulaic step-wise approaches and tools
➔ By a strong, task-oriented leader
- Change leads to specific and measurable end goals
2) Ongoing/iterative
- Change is a fuzzy, deeply ambiguous, messy, complex uncertain process
- Change occurs for different reasons
- Leaders are people-oriented
- Change does not stop and is always ongoing
- Change as a co-evolutionary outcome of strategic intentionally and environmental
imperatives
3) Change cycle
- Basic cycle
➔ Diagnose
➔ Change strategy
➔ Intervention plan
➔ Intervention
- Meta cycle
➔ Assess progress
➔ Consider adjustments
➔ Re-plan
, i. What types of change are there?
Types of changes
- Evolutionary – incremental, small steps
- Revolutionary – drastic, rapid steps
- Entrepreneurial – new start-ups
Why
There are logical why’s for change.
1) the environment is changing (different needs, different competition, new regulations) which has
implications for your organizations which means you need to adjust on this environment.
2) you have a new way which you want to bring to practice: bring about flux in eco-system. E.g.
Facebook. It is important to be able to understand and explain WHY an organization needs to
changes!
What
You need to emphasize about what kind of changes we are talking. There are two types of change:
- Improving: the core principles are kept the same but you try to do it in a better way
- Renewal: when the core principles are the limitation, change the principles and work from on this
new principles
You can also define the what from the starting point of change:
1. A problem in the current state
2. A desired future state: maybe something is not yet a problem now, but there might be chance that
it will become on in the future so why not already anticipate on this. Here you’re putting yourself in a
future perspective.
How
There are three ways of changing. When an issue is urgent, e.g. the titanic is sinking, you will do a
revolutionary change. So, the context of the change is very important to decide the way of changing.
1. Incremental: making small steps
2. Revolutionary: drastic, rapid
3. Entrepreneurism: start-up of something new. E.g. creating a new organization.
,Change process → This looks like a linear process but it isn’t! You can go back and forth from steps.
And within the main steps, you doing all the steps as well. E.g. each step will also be done when
diagnosing. Diagnosing is already the first intervention.
1. Diagnose: finding causes before designing and implementing solutions
- What is the problem/desire? And why (check history; how did we end up in the current state)?
- What are the characteristics and the history of the organization?
- How to gather insight? Gather reliable, valid information. Problem with diagnosing:
1) make sure you have different views when diagnosing to prevent the case of the blind men and the
elephant. E.g. different ages, positions. If you are not diagnosing correcting, you will go to the wrong
direction.
2) when there is a problem, first try to find the causes of the problem before finding a solution.
2. Change strategy: which strategy will make sure you can go from the current state to a desired
state = the required leverage of change (see colors)
- The outcome: what has to change?
- The diagnosis: what is the present state?
- How large is the difference between desired and present change? (change gap)
- What is the level of motivation or resistance?
- What do the change agents want and are capable of?
- Is the change feasible? i.e. realizable.
, 3. Intervention plan
A well-chosen change strategy is one thing, bringing it to life is quite another.
- Criteria: Integral: coherent whole
Consistent: steps/interventions should not conflict
Feasible: executable and absorbable
Relevant: contributes to desired outcome
Design of plan: Which interventions are required? In which order? What needs to be done during
the intervention step? i.e. outcomes, phases, actors, communication.
4. interventions
Dimensions of organizational change
There are four dimensions relevant to organizational change: (1) the content of change, which relates
to differences in the content of a State A organization along the dimensions noted to the content
associated with a State B firm and (2) the process of change, which focuses on how change occurs,
including the speed of change, the necessary sequence of activities, supporting internal changes, and
obstacles confronted. In addition, they defined (3) the context of change as the forces or conditions
existing in an organization’s internal and external environments that influence change and (4) the
outcomes of change as the criteria used to assess the success of change.
b. Change capabilities
i. When can we consider an organization capable of (or ready for) change?
‘organizations that hold dynamic capabilities’
Organizational capacity for change
◼ Adapting old capabilities to new circumstances
◼ Creating new organizational capabilities
◼ At a collective level
◼ Four polarities
- Leader/follower
- Innovation/accountability
- Unitary leadership/distributed leadership
• Readiness for change
