Change Management in BOH4M

Change Management

• Change management is a chapter in BOH4M.
• Do you like change? (select yes/no, and explain why or why not).

Nature of Organizational Change

• Change leader - someone who actively guides others through changes in behaviour or group/organizational operations.
• Change leadership - forward looking, proactive (deals with problems before they happen), embraces new ideas.
• Change leaders versus status quo managers: Change leaders are confident, willing to take risks, seize opportunities, expect surprise and make things happen. They promote creativity and actively support innovation. Status quo managers are threatened by change, bothered by uncertainty, prefer predictability, support the status quo, and wait for things to happen.

Brainstorming

• Individually, think of a person who fits each description:
  • A change leader
  • Forward-looking, proactive, and embraces new ideas
• Justify both answers.

Directions of Change

• Three directions of change:
  • Top-down change
  • Bottom-up change
  • Integrated change

Top-Down Change

• Planned and wide-ranging. Starts at highest levels of an organization.
• Purpose: significantly improve entire organization and its ability to perform better.
• Driven by top leadership.
• Success depends on support of middle and lower-level workers.
• Example: corporate merger where leaders from acquiring company dictate new policies that must be followed.

Bottom-Up Change

• Initiatives for change come from all parts of an organization, not just top management.
• Crucial for organizational innovation.
• Employees are more empowered, involved and their commitment increases.
• Example: employee suggestion programs.

Integrated Change

• Successful and enduring change combines advantages of top-down and bottom-up approaches.
• Example: organizational restructuring where management and employees collaborate to redesign roles and workflows.

Extent of Change

• Transformational change: major and comprehensive redirection, e.g., new line of products, new philosophy, new geographic focus.
• Incremental change: adjusting existing systems and practices, e.g., new office design, new forms, new schedules.

How to Lead Transformational Change

• Establish a sense of urgency for change.
• Form a powerful coalition to lead the change.
• Create and communicate a change vision.
• Empower others to move change forward.
• Celebrate short-term wins and recognize helpers.
• Build on success; align people and systems with new ways.
• Stay with it; keep the message consistent; champion the vision.

Which Direction of Change is Most Effective?

• Top-down
• Bottom-up
• Integrated

What Causes Change?

• External forces: globalization, market competition, local economic conditions, government laws and regulations, technological developments, market trends, social forces, values.
• Internal forces: arise when change in one part of a system creates the need for change in another part. May be in response to one or more external forces.

Planning of Changes

• Unplanned change: response to unanticipated events, good leaders act on opportunities for reactive change.
• Planned change: aligning the organization with anticipated future challenges, activated by proactive leaders who are sensitive to performance gaps.

Phases of Planned Change

• Unfreezing: preparing for change, developing needs for change.
• Changing: new things happen in the system, change is implemented.
• Refreezing: stabilizing the change and creating conditions for long-term continuity.

Lewin's Three Phases of Planned Organizational Change

• Phase 1 (Unfreezing): creating a felt need for change. Establish relationships, helping others realize present behaviors are not effective, minimizing expressed resistance.
• Phase 2 (Changing): Implementing change. Identifying more effective ways, choosing changes in tasks, people, culture, technology, structures, taking action to put changes in place.
• Phase 3 (Refreezing): Stabilizing change. Creating acceptance, providing necessary support, using performance rewards.

Three Strategies of Change

• Force-coercion: direct forcing and political manoeuvring, uses power bases of legitimacy, rewards, punishments to induce change, limited and temporary results, most useful in the unfreezing phase.
• Rational persuasion: bringing about change through persuasion backed by special knowledge, empirical data, and rational argument, relies on expert power, belief that reason guides decisions, useful in unfreezing and refreezing phases, produces longer-lasting, internalized change.
• Shared power: engages people in identifying values, assumptions, and goals, time-consuming but high commitment. Involves examining sociocultural factors, relies on interpersonal skills in team situations, belief that people respond to sociocultural norms, expectations.

Discussing Strategies to Use

• Research indicates your organization should change its name
• You discover a high amount of employee theft at your retail store.
• Employees unhappy with vacation scheduling policy.

Reasons for Resisting Change

• Fear of the unknown
• Disrupted habits
• Loss of confidence
• Loss of control
• Poor timing
• Work overload
• Loss of face
• Lack of purpose

Methods for Dealing with Resistance

• Education and communication
• Participation and involvement
• Facilitation and support
• Manipulation & agreement
• Explicit and implicit coercion