Organization Change Summary including Articles for the Exam!
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Course
Organizational Change (PSB3EIO07)
Institution
Rijksuniversiteit Groningen (RuG)
Book
Organization Change
Helped me and friends score an 8 and higher in the open question exam. The summary includes all chapters that are relevant for the exam as well as summaries of the following articles:
- The scary truth about corporate survival
- The CEO of Levi Strauss on leading an iconic brand back to growth...
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Bachelor Psychology
Organizational Change (PSB3EIO07)
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Chapter 1: Sources for Understanding Organization Change
Introduction and Overview
Two distinctions: planned vs. unplanned change, revolutionary vs. evolutionary change; book
focuses on planned and revolutionary
External environment nowadays changes much more rapidly than organizations do
Organizations are created and developed on an assumption of continuity (i.e., continue surviving
and to last); but external environment is not continuous
Sources for the book: organizational psychology, organization and management theory,
organizational behavior, but also life sciences, chaos theory, nonlinear complex systems theory
A Short Story of Launching Organization Change
Two important things:
1. change leader has to be as clear as possible about the future and what it takes to get there,
without coming across as defensive, and by responding to questions as factually as possible, and being
patient;
2. change leaders must acknowledge that in the short run there will be frustration, even anger
and resentment (in short: short-term pain, long-term gain)
Chapter 2: Rethinking Organization Change
Most organization change is not significant or successful; reasons:
1. Deep organization change, especially attempting to change the culture of an organization, is
very difficult
2. It is often hard to make a case for change, particularly when the organization appears to be
doing well
→ paradox: the peak of success is the time to worry and to plan for and bring about significant
change!
3. Knowledge for how to plan and implement organization change is limited
Accepted knowledge is to plan the change according to steps or phases (i.e., linear), but actual
change itself does NOT occur according to steps
The Paradox of Planned Organization Change
The implementation process is messy: things don’t proceed exactly as planned and unanticipated
consequences occur
Provided the change goals are clear and change leaders are willing to stay the course, over time,
the process may end up somewhat linear or at least a pattern will emerge; however, during the
implementation process itself, there won’t be any linearity
→ i.e., it is possible that there is a nonlinear process, that at the same time shows the possibility of
an emergent pattern; “loop backs” = times when a problem had to be fixed
Nonlinear with loops, but there is still a pattern; we must plan
change yet understand that things never turn out quite as we
planned
Making the Case for Organization Change
Changing Corporations:
Many corporations do not survive and those that so survive,
with few exceptions, perform below average → pace-of-change phenomenon
1
, It is the age of discontinuity for corporations, not continuity
One of the most powerful factors/forces for businesses, especially those that are publicly owned, is
the capital market; decides about whether a business is worthy of investment and determines in
part the long-term survival and success of a company; capital markets change far more rapidly
than do corporations
o Capital market = informal aggregations, not highly organized and structured; consist of
buyers, sellers, and others who interact for the purpose of economic exchange
Consumer also determines the fate of any business; capital markets pay attention to the consumer
The basic assumptions of the two for long-term survival are opposites: discontinuity for the capital
markets and continuity for corporations
Changing Government Agencies:
They also have to deal with changes in their external environments; e.g., NASA has to deal with
the public, the U.S. Congress, the president, etc.
Changing Higher Education Institutions and Nonprofit Organizations:
Higher education institutions are no longer exclusively nonprofit
Here as well, the external environment is changing, e.g. implementation of technology, such as
distance learning
In short: organization change starts and ends with the external environment!
Metaphor of choice
organizations as organisms
o emphasis on interactions between an organization and its external environment, an
organization is not a closed system, but an open and flexible entity
o emphasizes survival (certain needs must be satisfied)
this view contrasts with the classical focus on specific organizational goals: survival is a process,
goals are targets/end points; having survival as primary orientation, it is more likely that
organizations will survive and less likely that goals become ends themselves
limitations of this metaphor:
1. organism is concrete (can be seen and touched), but organizations are socially constructed and
depends on the actions of humans for their survival
2. organizations interact with external environment, are not just passively influenced
3. organisms have highly interdependent parts, organizations rarely operate this way (e.g.,
creativity often stems from conflict and debate)
4. might suggest that organizations should be harmonious to be successful; not necessarily true
Theories of Choice
Open-system theory (was derived from biology); life sciences are more important in understanding
organization change than physical sciences
Types of Organization Change
Evolutionary (i.e., also known as transactional; gradual continuous process) vs. revolutionary (i.e.,
also known as transformational; sudden event)
They are not necessarily mutually exclusive, but require different tools and techniques to be successful
(e.g., evolutionary change requires attention of only a few people in an organization, revolutionary
change requires the attention of everyone)
Levels of Organization Change
2
,Individual, group or work unit, total system; in some organizations there is also the business unit
(consists of multiple work units and is a primary subsystem of the larger organization)
The way organization change affects the individual differs from the way groups are affected and from
the way the total system is affected
Major focus for change differs as a function of level; individual: recruitment, replacement,
displacement, training and development, coaching and counselling; groups: team building and self-
directed work units; total system level: mission, strategy, structure, culture (i.e., components of the
organization that will be affected sooner or later by the initial activity)
How Organization Change Occurs
often, it is necessary to change the culture; you do not do that by trying to directly change the culture
(which is a set of deeply held beliefs by people in the organization), but by focusing on the behavior,
which will, if changed, affect and change the attitudes and therefore the culture; in short: do it step by
step and you gotta be patient
The Content and Process of Organization Change
Content is the what of organization change (vision and overall direction) and process is the how
(implementation and adoption)
Kinds of behaviors required for each differ (e.g., composing the story is content and telling the story is
process; however, it is not that clear cut)
Organizational Models
Must simplify yet represent reality
The Organizational Model of Choice
Burke-Litwin model of organizational performance and change: grounded in the open-system way of
thinking, components of the model come from original work on organizational climate and
experiences at British Airways; is both descriptive and prescriptive; more normative than contingent
(whatever that means...), transformational change as well as transactional change are addressed
Organization Change Should Be Data-Based and Measured
Measures taken over time help track progress, establish priorities for next steps, determine what to
celebrate when milestones are reached
Planned Organization Change Requires Leadership
There can be leaders anywhere in the organization but if organization change is large in scale and
transformational in nature, then leadership must come from the top
Planned Organization Change Is Complex
Organization change is too complex to rely solely on traditional literature; life sciences also very
important
Chapter 3: A brief History of Organisation Change
3
, The first organisational change recorded in the Old Testaments, when Moses was
advised to create a pyramidal organisation, with leaders and subordinates under a
hierarchical order
The study of organisation change is relatively new, as it focuses on what
systematically facilitates effective change (effective = accomplishment of planned
change goals) and also looks at the failures of different organizations on change.
Forerunners of the modern study of organisation change:
Scientific Management
Hawthorne Studies
Industrial Psychology
Survey Feedback
Sensitivity Training
Sociotechnical Systems
Organisation development
Managerial Grid
Coercion and Confrontation
Management Consulting
Frederick Taylor - father of scientific management; thought to be the first industrial
engineering consultant. Provided the basis for modern concepts such as reingeneering,
business process engineering, quality management
A. Scientific Management
Emerged in the late 1800-early 1900 -> “The principles of Scientific Managament”
The historical factors such as the industrial revolution, manufacturing as the
predominant type of organisaion experience and the need for more research in
economics and engineering played a role in the model of scientific management.
Advocates for the idea that an organisation is like a machine, and should be studied
under cause-effect contingencies
Principles of Scientific Management (Taylor)
1. Data gathering – gather data using time and motion methods and apply them to
organizational context - I.e. talk to people, observe their work, tabulate it, and reduce it to
mathematical equations.
2. Work selection and development - develop a good fit between the worker’s skills
and the position he is assigned to. Advocated for training of workers and helping the
worker perform his best.
4. Integration of science and the trained worker – make worker and science come
together. The best work gets done not only by having good workers but also by
applying new methods of work. Proposed incentive pay.
5. Redivision of work of the business – proposes the division of work in two large
parts. The worker (executes tasks) and the manager (plan & monitor). The role of the
management is to collect data and plan the next step of the organization. They also
need to provide the resources for the workers to be performant.
4
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