CHAPTER 15: Organizational Change, Development, And Innovation Flashcards
Why Organizations Must Change - External Sources
Global competition, deregulation, and technological advancements increase market pressure.
How do companies become leaner?
by reducing middle management layers.
Example: Mergers, acquisitions, and new relationships with unions/suppliers.
Why Organizations Must Change - Internal Sources
Low productivity, strikes, high absenteeism, and turnover
Employee feedback
Perceived threats can either motivate change or cause organizational paralysis.
Organizations can fail at change due to lack of investment, poor planning, or rigid behavior
What Organizations Can Change
- Goals and Strategies
- Technology
- Job Design
- Structure
- Processes
- Culture
- Branding
- People
Kurt Lewin’s Three-Stage Model of Change
- Unfreezing
- Change
- Refreezing
Unfreezing
Recognizing that the current situation is unsatisfactory.
o Crises (e.g., lawsuits, declining sales) can force organizations to change.
o Leaders use symbolic actions to highlight change necessity (e.g., Samsung’s CEO burning 150,000 phones to emphasize quality).
o A clear vision is essential to guide change.
Change
Implementing a plan or program to improve the organization.
o People must have the capability, opportunity, and motivation to change.
o Example: To foster innovation, companies might introduce creativity training, idea fairs, and reward systems.
Refreezing
Making new behaviors and processes permanent.
o New routines and policies must support the change.
o Some industries require constant adaptation rather than static refreezing (e.g., technology, automotive, and consumer electronics).
The Learning Organization
- An organization that has systems and processes for creating, acquiring, retaining, and transferring knowledge to modify and change its activities to reflect new knowledge and insights.
- Organizations must learn to survive (e.g., COVID-19 forced businesses to adapt to remote work, ecommerce, and delivery services).
Two Methods of Organizational Learning
- Knowledge Acquisition – Learning from external sources (e.g., competitors, market trends).
- Knowledge Development – Generating new knowledge internally (e.g., R&D, feedback loops).
Key Features of Learning Organizations
- Vision/Support – Leaders emphasize learning as key to success.
- Culture – A culture that encourages experimentation, risk-taking, and information-sharing.
- Learning Systems/Dynamics – Employees engage in problem-solving, mentoring, and job rotation.
- Knowledge Management – Processes to capture, store, and distribute information (e.g., knowledge portals).
Issues in the Change Process
- Diagnosis
- Resistance to Change
- Dealing with Resistance
Diagnosis
Systematic information collection to determine what changes are needed.
o Using customer surveys, employee feedback, and external benchmarking.
o Change agents (internal or external consultants) diagnose issues and implement solutions
Resistance to Change
o Overt or covert failure by organizational members to support a change effort.
Common Causes:
Politics & Self-Interest – Fear of losing power or status.
Low Tolerance for Change
Lack of Trust
Different Assessments
Strong Emotions (stress, anxiety, or resistance)
Strong Organizational Identity
Multiple Incompatible Changes
Dealing with Resistance
- Co-opting influential individuals to support the change.
- Clear communication to increase transparency and trust.
Transformational leadership
Encouraging dissent and debate.
Learning from outside perspectives.
Avoiding complacency through benchmarking against competitors.
Key questions for evaluating change
o Reactions – Do employees support the change?
o Learning – Has new knowledge been acquired?
o Behavior – Are employees behaving differently?
o Outcomes – Has productivity improved?
