Lecture 1 – Introduction
Strategic or transformational change = organizational shift in the context o environmental
developments. Hard aspects involves changes in patterns of resource allocation, organization
structure and processes. Soft aspects involves changes in central believes that members of an
organization hold about the organization, the nature of its environment and the competition and
how it competes (culture). If a goal changes over time, or the structure / processes, or the believes
have to change in order to accomplish this goal. These two are closely related to each other.
Terminology:
- Change content: the why and what of change; an outline of the required future state of the
organization and its relationship to the current state
- Change process (transition): how is the change implemented?
- Outer context: external (competitive) environment, more about the boarder between the
organization and the context, when you cross this boarder you get to the outer context.
- Inner context: internal organizational context (e.g. control systems, power, and politics of
the organization).
The change process is embedded in the inner context and this inner context is subsequently
embedded in the outer context. When we talk about the change content that is the relationship
between the organization and the outer context. Change process talks about the relationship
between the inner context and the change process.
There are two ways of using the inner context. The first (not advisable) one is where the agent’s
preferences are hammered through the process. He or she has experience with one approach, which
is used for every change, without any reflection or something. He or she does not look at the change
context. Better would be to again start with the change content, what do you want to achieve. Then,
the change agent again has to make a decision, but here it is based on judgement about the change
context.
,Context specific change: managerial capabilities for change agents (change process / transition)
1. Analytical skills: to create a holistic picture of the organization (inner context)
2. Judgmental skills: to recognize what is critical in a particular change context, and design a
change process that addresses it.
3. Translation skills: moving between and vocabularies associated with the formulation of
strategy and vocabularies of change implementation.
4. Implementation skills: to take action and decide on which intervention to make and in what
order to apply them.
Article Van de Ven & Poole, Change processes: a broader picture
- Change processes: a progression of change events that unfold during an entity’s existence.
- Process theory: explanation on how and why an organizational entity changes and develops.
Four different main motors of change that underly a lot of different change processes
1. Life cycle theory; The key metaphor is ‘organic growth’. Events progress overtime in a linear
fashion and changes are irreversible. So there is a sequence of prescribed stages. The
generating force for this change is a prefigured program (steps are fixed, the steps cannot be
switched), or a rule, put down by nature, a logic, or institution. An example Is human life.
2. Teleological theory; The key metaphor is ‘purposeful cooperation’. They progress through
events by means of setting goals, implementing these goals and evaluate them, where the
modification of goals is based on learnings. The generating force is goal enactment (where
people come together and decide on goals), and consensus on means and cooperation, it is
necessary to get progress in this process that people are working together and have
consensus about the goals. Otherwise people are not going to implement them. Examples
are strategy formulation and implementation. It is much more open than the life cycle
theory.
3. Dialectical theory; The key metaphor is ‘opposition/conflict’. Event progression is based on a
thesis and a synthesis, where the generating force is conflict. Happens when for instance two
groups between the organization have different opinions about something and they are
confronted with each other, and based on this confrontation a synthesis has arrived (an
integration of the two perspectives, the thesis and the anti-thesis). What comes out of this is
the change that takes place.
4. Evolutionary theory; The key metaphor is ‘competitive survival’, so there are different
entities involved to get this process going. Event progression is recurrent sequences of
events, and you can not escape from that, of variation, selection, and retention. The
generating force is scarcity, competition and commensalism (the polar fox is dependent on
the polar bear, but the polar bear is not affected by this dependence, the polar bear first eats
his food and the fox gets the left overs). An example is the survival of the dominant design.
, There are of course also combinations of these ‘motors’ to explain the reality. Back to the
flowchart, this is largely inspired by a teleological motor. But, be aware of the potential
combinations of motors in reality.
Lecture 2: Design choices
Design choices are the plan on the transition process. It is important that it has to be assessed in
relationship to the inner context of the organization. It contains six categories: change path, start-
point, style, target, levers, and roles. So, how are you going to put this change into practice, you are
identifying the change approach.
The first design choice that is most elaborated on says something about the types of change. It
contextualizes the change process. The first dimension is related to the end result of change, with a
distinction made between transformation (the inner core, identity, of the organization are up for
change) and realignment (can be a major change, but is not affecting the inner core of the
organization). It does not say anything about the magnitude of the change, but about the difference
in nature of change). The other dimension is the nature of change, which can be incremental (only
says that the change is taking place in incremental steps) and big bang (change in one shot). The
boundary between incremental and big bang change is about 18 months.
Strategic or transformational change = organizational shift in the context o environmental
developments. Hard aspects involves changes in patterns of resource allocation, organization
structure and processes. Soft aspects involves changes in central believes that members of an
organization hold about the organization, the nature of its environment and the competition and
how it competes (culture). If a goal changes over time, or the structure / processes, or the believes
have to change in order to accomplish this goal. These two are closely related to each other.
Terminology:
- Change content: the why and what of change; an outline of the required future state of the
organization and its relationship to the current state
- Change process (transition): how is the change implemented?
- Outer context: external (competitive) environment, more about the boarder between the
organization and the context, when you cross this boarder you get to the outer context.
- Inner context: internal organizational context (e.g. control systems, power, and politics of
the organization).
The change process is embedded in the inner context and this inner context is subsequently
embedded in the outer context. When we talk about the change content that is the relationship
between the organization and the outer context. Change process talks about the relationship
between the inner context and the change process.
There are two ways of using the inner context. The first (not advisable) one is where the agent’s
preferences are hammered through the process. He or she has experience with one approach, which
is used for every change, without any reflection or something. He or she does not look at the change
context. Better would be to again start with the change content, what do you want to achieve. Then,
the change agent again has to make a decision, but here it is based on judgement about the change
context.
,Context specific change: managerial capabilities for change agents (change process / transition)
1. Analytical skills: to create a holistic picture of the organization (inner context)
2. Judgmental skills: to recognize what is critical in a particular change context, and design a
change process that addresses it.
3. Translation skills: moving between and vocabularies associated with the formulation of
strategy and vocabularies of change implementation.
4. Implementation skills: to take action and decide on which intervention to make and in what
order to apply them.
Article Van de Ven & Poole, Change processes: a broader picture
- Change processes: a progression of change events that unfold during an entity’s existence.
- Process theory: explanation on how and why an organizational entity changes and develops.
Four different main motors of change that underly a lot of different change processes
1. Life cycle theory; The key metaphor is ‘organic growth’. Events progress overtime in a linear
fashion and changes are irreversible. So there is a sequence of prescribed stages. The
generating force for this change is a prefigured program (steps are fixed, the steps cannot be
switched), or a rule, put down by nature, a logic, or institution. An example Is human life.
2. Teleological theory; The key metaphor is ‘purposeful cooperation’. They progress through
events by means of setting goals, implementing these goals and evaluate them, where the
modification of goals is based on learnings. The generating force is goal enactment (where
people come together and decide on goals), and consensus on means and cooperation, it is
necessary to get progress in this process that people are working together and have
consensus about the goals. Otherwise people are not going to implement them. Examples
are strategy formulation and implementation. It is much more open than the life cycle
theory.
3. Dialectical theory; The key metaphor is ‘opposition/conflict’. Event progression is based on a
thesis and a synthesis, where the generating force is conflict. Happens when for instance two
groups between the organization have different opinions about something and they are
confronted with each other, and based on this confrontation a synthesis has arrived (an
integration of the two perspectives, the thesis and the anti-thesis). What comes out of this is
the change that takes place.
4. Evolutionary theory; The key metaphor is ‘competitive survival’, so there are different
entities involved to get this process going. Event progression is recurrent sequences of
events, and you can not escape from that, of variation, selection, and retention. The
generating force is scarcity, competition and commensalism (the polar fox is dependent on
the polar bear, but the polar bear is not affected by this dependence, the polar bear first eats
his food and the fox gets the left overs). An example is the survival of the dominant design.
, There are of course also combinations of these ‘motors’ to explain the reality. Back to the
flowchart, this is largely inspired by a teleological motor. But, be aware of the potential
combinations of motors in reality.
Lecture 2: Design choices
Design choices are the plan on the transition process. It is important that it has to be assessed in
relationship to the inner context of the organization. It contains six categories: change path, start-
point, style, target, levers, and roles. So, how are you going to put this change into practice, you are
identifying the change approach.
The first design choice that is most elaborated on says something about the types of change. It
contextualizes the change process. The first dimension is related to the end result of change, with a
distinction made between transformation (the inner core, identity, of the organization are up for
change) and realignment (can be a major change, but is not affecting the inner core of the
organization). It does not say anything about the magnitude of the change, but about the difference
in nature of change). The other dimension is the nature of change, which can be incremental (only
says that the change is taking place in incremental steps) and big bang (change in one shot). The
boundary between incremental and big bang change is about 18 months.
