MANAGING CHANGE

“Change has become the norm in most organizations”…

Forces to change in organizations:

·         Experiences common to American companies: plant closings - business failures - mergers and acquisition - downsizing.

·         Characteristics needed to succeed: Adaptiveness – Flexibility – Responsiveness.

Organizational Change:

“Organizational change involves moving from known to unknown” (Duck, 1993).

Planned Change	Unplanned Change
Change resulting from a deliberate decision to alter the organization.	Change that is imposed on the organization and is often unforeseen.

Scope of Change:

·         Incremental change: Change of a relatively small scope, such as making small improvements.

·         Strategic change: Change of a larger scale, such as organizational restructuring.

·         Transformational change: Change in which the organization moves to a radically different, and sometimes unknown, future state.

 Change Agent?

Individual or group who undertakes the task of introducing and managing a change in an organization. It might be internal change agent or external change agent.

Role of Change agent:

Affects basic aspects of an organization…

-          Strategy

-          Technology

-          Structure

Threatens the status quo by creating…

• New peoblems
• New Situations
• Ambiguity
• Uncertainty

CONSEQUENCES OF CONFLICT….
Positive Consequences	Negative Consequences
Leads to new ideas Stimulates creativity Motivates change Promotes organizational vitality Helps individuals and groups Establish identities Serves as a safety valve to Indicate problem	Diverts energy from work Threatens psychological wellbeing Wastes resources Creates a negative climate Breaks down group cohesion Can increase hostility and aggressive behaviors

THOMAS-KILMANN CONFLICT MANAGEMENT MODES:

MANAGING CHANGE IN AN AGE OF STABILITY (1950-1970)

Force Field Analysis (Lewin)

Unfreezing implies creating a level of dissatisfaction with the status quo to create conditions which allow taking place, the it comes the Change or Moving stage which requires organizing and mobilizing the resources required to bring about the change, until finally the refreezing stage appears which is Embedding the new ways of working into the organization.

MANAGING CHANGE AFTER THE 1970´S CRISIS

The 1970s crisis brings instability and requires a new model.  Deal and Kennedy (1982) argued that

Culture was the single most important factor accounting for success or failure in organizations.

Model of Beer (1970s Post-crisis)

Focuses on enforcing changed ways of thinking, attitudes and behaving.  In this way employees' roles,responsibilities and relationships are seen as key to bring about new situations.

MANAGING CHANGE IN THE AGE OF GLOBALIZATION

Change as Contemporary Norm

o   Overarching source: competition

o   Geographic boundaries evaporating

o   Traditional oligarchies are collapsing

o   Regulatory changes and privatization spawning new industries

o   Customers learning to expect more

o   Government policy changes

Paths to Managing Change & Learning

-          Environmental Path:  Organization for an Evolving World

-          Psycho-Philosophical Path: Individual Challenge and Learning & Growth

-          Organizational Path: Systemic Congruency

Search for Competitive Advantage (Nadler, 1998)

• Intellectual Capital: organization’s collective knowledge

• Organizational Capabilities: abilities of people to collectively accomplish established goals

• Organizational Architecture: structures, systems, processes, and distribution of power

• Organizational Culture: collective values, attitudes, beliefs, assumptions, patterns of authority

Globalization…

“Globalization means global interconnectedness constituted by numerous flows and processes,

and not just the economic” (Hopper, 2006).

“Ubuntu” (Mangaliso, 2003) brings the idea of paying attention to local cultures.

What is Ubuntu??

Engage with local cultures. Understand cultural codes. Use these codes to engage people in their own terms/codes

QUESTION:

Is it possible to change corporate culture? If so, how?

The corporate culture is determined on some specific characteristic of the company but also some other external variables that affect the way how the company works and its corporate culture. The presence of some demand as a consequence of a specific situation in the external environment related to the company is the engine to implement a new corporate culture and adapt the changes to the new and expected or not situation. With this, it is clear that the corporate culture can be modified, and the company has to be prepared to do it. The best way of achieving this variation is establish the new goal that company want to achieve in this sense, according to the realistic conditions of the company and the workers that composed it. Then it is important to get all the company in a process of simply changes that would lead it to the big transformation.

REFERENCES

      Deal T. and Kennedy, A. (1982). A Corporate Cultures. Adison-Wesley.

      Duck, J.D. (1993). Managing change: The Art of Balancing. Harvard Business Review.

      Hopper, P. (2006) Living with Globalization. Oxford: Berg.

      Mangaliso, M (2003) Building competitive advantage from Ubuntu. In Thomas, David Clinton, ed. Readings and cases in International Management: A cross-cultural perspective.

      Nadler, D. and Nadler, M (1998) Champions of Change: How CEOs and Their Companies are mastering the Skills of Radical Change. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

      Nelson, D and Quick, J.C. (2009) Managing Change. In Organizational Behavior: Science, the real world and you.

      Nicholson, N (1995) (ed.), Blackwell Encyclopedic Dictionary of Organizational Behavior. Oxford, England: Blackwell.

      Singh, K (2009) Organizational Behavior: Text and Cases. Pearson Education India, p.21.