Chapter 15 - Organizational Change Flashcards
What is Lewin’s force field analysis?
Kurt Lewin’s model of a system-wide change that helps change agents diagnose the forces that drive and restrain proposed organizational change
How do driving forces drive change?
Driving forces are any forces that promote change within the organization, in opposition to them you have restraining forces.
What is unfreezing?
Unfreezing is the first part of the organizational change process, in which the change agent produces disequilibrium between the driving and restraining forces
What is refreezing?
The latter part of the change process, in which systems and structures are introduced that reinforce and maintain the desired behaviours
What are the most commonly cited reasons that employees resist change?
- Negative valence of change (remember outcome valences from previous chapters)
- Fear of the unknown
- Not-invented-here syndrome
- Breaking routines
- Incongruent team dynamics
- Incongruent organizational systems and structures
What is the importance of creating urgency for change?
Organizational change is more likely to succeed when employees develop a sufficiently strong urgency for change
Does exposing employees to external forces strengthen the urgency for change?
They can however management should already have a path of change in mind
What are some methods for reducing the restraining forces?
- Communication
- Learning
- Employee Involvement
- Stress management
- Negotiation
- Coercion
Why do leaders need to refreeze?
Since people are creatures of habit its easy for them to slip back into older habits.
Refreezing by realigning organizational systems and team dynamics with the desired changes is great for maintaining the desired change that occurred
What are pilot projects?
Introducing change to one work unit or section of the organization to gather information about the change process and outcome
What are some strategies for diffusing change from a pilot project?
- Motivation
- Ability
- Role perceptions
- Situational factors
What are the 4 leading approaches for organizational change?
- Action research
- Appreciative inquiry
- Large group interventions
- Parallel learning structures
Define the action research organizational change approach
A problem-focused change process that combines action orientation (changing attitude and behaviour) and research orientation (testing theory through data collection and analysis)
What are the main phases of the action research approach?
- Form a client-consultant relationship
- Diagnose the need for change
- Introduce intervention
- Evaluate and stabilize change
Define the appreciative inquiry approach
An organizational change strategy that directs the group’s attention away from its own problems and focuses participants on the group’s potential and positive elements
