Organizational Change

The study of organizational change is interdisciplinary in nature and draws from the fields of psychology, sociology, political science, economics, and management. You will not find a grand, unified theory of organizational change. Instead, you will find distinct theories that have not really been integrated to date. In this lesson, we’ll focus on the Carnegie School of thought on organizational change.

Concept

Organizational change may be defined as “the adoption of a new idea or behavior by the organization.” Even more, the clear and simple definition is “Organization change is any alteration of people, structure, or technology.” Organizational change is thus a way of modifying an existing organization. It is a process of moving from a present state through a transitional state to a future state.

The study is interdisciplinary in nature and draws from the fields of psychology, sociology, political science, economics, and management. You will not find a grand, unified theory of organizational change. Instead, you will find distinct theories that have not really been integrated to date.

Most managers, at one point or another, will have to make changes in some aspects of their organization. They have to coordinate the process of planning and implementing change in their organizations in such a way as to minimize employee resistance and cost to the organization. The purpose is also to maximize the effectiveness of the change effort.

When organizational change is well planned and implemented, it helps assure the organization’s continued survival. It can produce many tangible benefits, including improved competitiveness, better financial performance, and higher levels of customer and employee satisfaction. It is a process of moving from a present state through a transitional state to a future state.

Managers and organizations no longer have a choice. They must change and learn to compete, earn a profit, and survive.

Organizational change:

There is nothing permanent except change. We live in a age of transition. In fact, ‘change or die’ is the present day reality. Everything in today’s world is dynamic always changing.

Organizational development:

Organizational Development (OD) is the process of improving organizational efficiency through planned change. It is a long-run plan to change the behavioral attitude and performance of the organization. Its main motive is to improve the overall operating efficiency of the organization. The OD paradigm values human and organizational growth, collaboration, and participation processes.

Forces or need for change:

They are:

External forces
Internal forces

External forces are forces which are beyond the control of the organization. They are as follows:

Economic,
Political,
Legal,
Socio-cultural or customers,
Competitors,
Suppliers, and
Labor unions, etc.

Internal forces are within the control of management of the organization. They are as follows:

Changes in organizational goals
Philosophy,
Policies,
Strategy,
Structure,
Work technology, etc.

Resistance to change:

Almost all organizational change efforts face one or more forms of resistance to change. The resistance may be overt as well as covert (exposed or hidden). It may further be:

individual sources (e.g. habit, economic, security factors, fear of unknown, selective information processing, etc.), and
organizational sources (e.g. structural inertia, limited focus of change, group inertia, threat to expertise, threat to established power relationship, and resource allocation, etc.)

Overcoming resistance to change:

To make the change programs effective managers need to overcome resistance to change successful. Therefore, few ways to overcome them are as follows:

education and communication,
participation or involvement
facilitation and support,
negotiation and manipulation and cooption, etc.

Organizational Change || Organizational Change and Development || Bcis Notes