Change Management & Improvement Processes Flashcards
How can change management be defined and what does the change process perspective focus on?
Definition of CM
The process of continually renewing an orgs. direction, structure and capabilities to serve the changing needs of internal and external customers.
Change process perspective
Focuses on the way change occurs and attends to:
- pace of change an sequence of activities
- the way decisions are made and communicated
- How people respond to the actions of others
Change management can be categorized in 4 different levels, define them
Level 1: Fine tuning
- Adresses and improves the fit between the strategy and the organization, people, processes and structure.
- E.g: policy and process changes, continous improvement teams
Level 2: Incremental adjustment
- Relatively modest changes around the organization in light of external drivers for change.
- Typically change involves: strategy, structure and management processes
- E.g: shifting scale and scope of operation, adressing production inefficiencies
Level 3: Modular transformation
- Major restucturing and realignment, focusing on specific parts of the org.
- E.g: decentralizing the HR department intro business units
Level 4: Corporate transformation
- Fundamental shift in organizational business strategy involving new:
- mission
- vision and values
- Radical changes to:
- structure
- systems
- processes for the whole org.
- E.g: what’s happening to Volvo right now
There are four different approaches/phenomenon to change which can be drawn in a diagram. Explain them
1) Uniform approach: Top down
2) Disseminated approach: Bottom up
3) Predictable phenomenon > Planned change approaches
- Planned change views organizational change as a process that moves from one fixed state to another through pre-planned steps
4) More complex phenomenon > Emergent change approaches
- A continous, open-ended process of adaptation to change
- Emergent approach tends to see change driven bottom up
- Unpredictable nature of change and viewed as a learning process
Explain Lewins concept of change and action research (planned approach)
Explain Schein’s model of transformative change which is build on Lewin’s model (planned approach)
In essence
Focuses on reducing learning anxiety through formal traning, coaches, feedback etc
3 step process
1) Unfreezing: Creating motivation to change and unlearning certain things
- Creating of survival anxiety (learn or die)
- Creation of psychological safety to overcome learning anxiety
2) Learning new concepts and new meanings of old concepts
- Imitation and identification of new roles
- Scanning for solutions and trial-and-error learning
3) Re-freezing: Internalizing new concepts and meanings
- Incorporation into self-concept and identity
- Incorporation into ongoing relationships
What are some critisisms that have been directed towards the planned approach?
- Emphasis is on small-scale and incremental change, less applicable to situations that require rapid and transformational change
- Based on the assumptions that organizations operate under constant conditions and that they can move in a pre-planned manner from one stable state to another.
- the approach ignores situations where more directive approaches are required. E.g.: a situation of crisis, which requires major and rapid change
- Presumes that all stakeholders in a change project are willing and interested in implementing the change, and that a common agreement can be reached. Thereby ignoring organizational politics.
What is Kotter’s eight steps to change (emergent approach)? What are some pros and cons to this model?
Eight steps
- Establish sense of urgency
- Form powerful guiding coalition
- Develop a vision and strategy
- Communicate the vision
- Remove obstacles and empower action
- Plan and create short-term wins
- Consolidate gains
- Anchor in the culture
Pros and Cons
Pros:
- Focus on buy-in of employees for success
- Clear guidance steps for process
- Fits with classical hierarchies cultures
Cons:
- Top-down model > little room for co-creation/other forms of participation
- Can lead to frustration among employees if individual needs aren’t concidered.
Tools for learning include PDCA and PDSA, when are they used and what are their differences?
PDCA
Used to achieve continous improvement
- PLAN: Plan ahead for change, analyze and predict results
- DO: Execute plan, take small steps in a controlled enviroment
- CHECK: Study the results
- ACT: Take action to standardize/improve the process
PDSA
- Study instead of Check > more process oriented
- Goes more in-depth to understand whether the process is improved and in what ways it has improved
- Stronger focus on learning
What are some drivers for change, what forces can hinder change and how can they be remedied?
Examples of drivers of change
External/internal forces such as:
- Technological evolution
- Changes in market/consumer habits
- Regulations and policies
- Organizaional restructuring
Forces hindering change
External forces:
- Economic
- Socio-ecnomic
- Legislative
- Influence from different stakeholders
Internal forces:
- Power issues:*
- Organizations consist of political systems with different actors having different interests
- Remedy:*
- Shape political dynamics associated with change
- Gain support of key power groups/players
- Control issues:*
- Change often undermines existing systems of management control
- Remedy:*
- Systematically manage transition stage
- Use transition devices (e.g: transition manager/plan)
- People issues:*
- Moving from the known to unknown may result in passive or active resistance.
- Remedy:*
- motivate constructive behaviour towards change/ reward desired behaviour
- Provide time and opportunity to deal with “unfreezing” stage
2 ways are presented to recognize the need for change, Organizational diagnostics and Congruence model. Explain these
Organizational diagnostics
- Involves reviewing where the organisation is today and where it may be tomorrow in order to define direction
- Process: review presnt state > identify future state (a vision)
- Different models can be used such as: PESTLE, SWOT, affinity workshop
Congruence model
- Looks at factors influencing the success of change processes
- Helps to understand the dynamics of what happens in an organisation when change is preformed
- Model analyzes transformation and gives input on what needs to happen in a specific organizational context
- Divides the organisation into 4 components:
- The work
- The people
- The informal organisation
- The formal organisation
What function do middle managers have in change and why are they important?
Middle managers
- Liaise between senior management and the rest of the organisation
- Usually have to restructure and interpret the change directions from the senior management.
- Can see the effects of change immediately and adopts/influence change to some extent.
There are four theories of change process. Explain them, their process cycle, typical breakdown and remedies
- Theological (planned): Assumes that organisations are purposeful and adaptive, change is presented as an unfolding cycle of goal formulation, implementation, evaluation and learning.
- Dialectical (conflictive): Focus on conflicting goals of different interest groups.
- Life cycle (regulated): Change is seen as a process progressing through sequences of stages that are cumulative.
- Evolutionary (competetive): Change is seen as a continous cycle of variation, selection and retention
