Organizational Change - Chapter 9.pdf

Chapter 9: Future directions and challenges Current and future business environments The changing psychological contract The psychological contract aCracted aCen$on as it o:ered a way of analysing the percep$ons of, and feelings and reac$ons of the vic$ms of mergers, takeovers, redundancies, downsiz...

Chapter 9: Future directions and challenges Current and future business environments The changing psychological contract The psychological contract aCracted aCen$on as it o:ered a way of analysing the percep$ons of, and feelings and reac$ons of the vic$ms of mergers, takeovers, redundancies, downsizing and some$me aggressive employer behaviour witnessed at the $me. These corporate changes o>en led to new terms and condi$ons of employment. Changes currently a:ec$ng the workplace include: - Increasing number of employees on part-$me, 8exible and ‘zero-hours’ work; Organiza$ons downsizing and delayering, meaning remaining employees have to do more; Markets, technology, and product constantly changing; Organiza$onal structures becoming more 8uid and geographically dispersed. Innovaon and creavity Aubke (2014) says that although crea$vity is a necessary component of innova$on, it is no suJcient in itself. She maintains that in order to be a crea$ve person requires some crea$ve thinking skills, a sound =eld-speci=c exper$se and some intrinsic mo$va$on. Only then that crea$vity may transform into an idea, product or process. Disrupve innovaon theory The theme of crea$ng value, for poten$al customers in par$cular, is addressed by Anthony and Christensen (2005) with their concepts of ‘disrup$ve change’ and ‘disrup$ve innova$on theory’. This theory holds that: exis$ng companies have a high probability of bea$ng entrant aCackers when the contest is about innova$ons with radical or incremental improvements that target demanding customers at the high end of the market who are willing to pay premium prices for beCer products. Established companies tend to lose to aCackers with disrup$ve innova$ons, cheaper, simpler, more convenient products or services that start by mee$ng the less-demanding customers. How can anyone spot poten$ally transforming innova$ons? One answer is to recognise three di:erent customer types: - - Undershot customers are customer for whom exis$ng products are not good enough. A signal of undershot customers include customers eagerly snatching up new products. Overshot customers are customers for whom exis$ng products are too good. Signal of overshot customers include customer reluctance to purchase new products and declining prices. Non-consumers are customers that lack the skills, wealth or ability to buy many products or processes for themselves. Leading innovaons Amabile and Khaire (2008) maintain that the =rst priority of leadership is to engage people who can undertake crea$ve work. This implies people who can not do the everyday tasks alloCed to them, but who can also contribute imagina$on. They o:er the following advice to managers: - Remember you are not the sole found of ideas; Enable collabora$on; Enhance diversity; 68 - Map the stages of crea$vity and tend to their di:erent needs Accept the inevitability and u$lity of failure; Mo$vate with intellectual challenge. Appreciate inquiry Apprecia$ve inquiry (AI) is an organiza$onal change methodology that takes a di:erent view from tradi$onal approaches, being a more holis$c and humanis$c method that forces on the ‘posi$ve psychology’ generated by asking posi$ve ques$ons rather than concentra$ng on nega$ve ques$ons and solving problems. The idea is that posi$ve ques$ons create a posi$ve atmosphere that is more likely to generate fresh ideas and employee engagement towards solu$ons. Eight principles explain how AI should be implemented (Dunlap 2008): 1. The construc$onist principle: this maintains that reality is constructed through social interac$ons. 2. Simultaneity: the idea that inquiry and change occur together. 3. The poe$c principle: organiza$ons are narra$ves, being co-authored by people. 4. An$cipa$on: the images of the future that people create to begin to shape their construc$ons and discourses about the future. 5. Being posi$ve: posi$ve climate create beCer condi$ons for change. 6. Wholeness: all groups and stakeholders connected to a change should be involved to maximize the capacity for crea$ve outcomes. 7. Enactment: individuals and groups must enact changes that they want to see. 8. Free choice: people should not be constrained in terms of how they contribute to an inquiry. Capacity for change The capacity for change refers to the ability of an organiza$on to undertake large-scale changes without compromising daily opera$ons or subsequent change processes. Meyer and Stensaker (2006) give the following prescrip$ons to expand the change capacity of an organiza$on: - Framing communica$ons of the reasons for change. Par$cipa$on of employees in the design and implementa$on of change. Pacing and sequencing related to the tempo and $ming of change. Change fa$gue is passive resigna$on. It is not the acceptance or rejec$on of change but a general sense of apathy towards organiza$onal change(s). Rou$nizing calls for the use of exis$ng or new structures and processes to introduce change because these are the things that connect people, and o:er support and understanding. Recrui$ng people speci=cally to help implement changes. Change capacity is conceptualised as comprising three correlated dimensions: learning, change process, and organiza$onal context. These dimensions are thought to mutually reinforce each other. 69 Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)