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Change Management
Table of Contents

Title Page

Introduction. 3

Definition and Scope of Change 3

Identify the Need of Change 4

Find the Right Leader 4

Organisation Diagnostic 6

Change Management Model Selection 6

Change Resistance 8

Conclusion 8

References 8

Appendix-A: Turn-it-in Report 12

Appendix-B: Peer Assessment Report 13

Appendix-C: List of Major Change from Peer Assessment 14

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Introduction

Change management (CM) is complex and messy (Palmer et al, 2009 ; Graetz and Smith, 2010).
Farjoun (2000) mention that the theories are insufficient to explain and control an organisation in
reality. Higgs and Rowland (2011) agree that one of the successful keys of CM is realisation of its
complexity. Palmer and Dunford (2002) are also aware that some changes can not be managed
because of its nature of a business which needs to rethink about the managerial perspectives. By the
way, successful CM can lead employees and companies to have a better future which demonstrated
in the example cases of HP and IBM (Palmer et al, 2009). However, there is no evidence support of
the best way for managing a successful change (Hughes, 2011) even though some scholars tried to
propose a recipe of success (Jarrett, 2008). This essay will elaborate the writer’s understanding and
criticize the theories from different perspectives of change, reflection of the personal perspectives
and experience, and the implication of present knowledge on the future implementation.

Definition and Scope of Change

Organisational change must be a large-scale impact deeply to its fundamental which focused on a
character change and a performance change. This perspective is newer than both of Organisation
Development (OD) which is too micro and Organisation Theory (OT) which is too macro (Ledford et
al, 1990). On contrary, a smaller scale (or sub-system) change is doubted whether it is in the scope
of CM. Consequently, some researchers studied the question by using the open-system theory which
interacts well between a sub-system and its surrounding environment to investigate the change
behaviour (Rosen, 1970). In a smaller group of people, change mechanism is similar to the larger
system which also has unfreezing, moving, and refreezing from Lewin’s Change Model. For instance,
new assigned works from a plant manager created sense of urgency for change and disequilibrium
of the system. Continuous feedback mechanism drove and moved a sub-system closer to the new
equilibrium stage. According to the research of Rosen (1970), there is an issue of a small-scale
change in the final stage of refreezing. The new equilibrium would be shaped intentionally by a
hierarchical power, especially in long term. The point is the CM would be failed and not sustainable,
if it was changed partially in an organisation.

For other perspectives of change, Graetz and Smith (2010) elaborate that traditional change
philosophy, which change can be stabilized and control, has a limitation. They proposed a new
perspective that it has a complexity and a live-long activity. Brown and Humphreys (2003) explain
that change happens when people experience, make sense, and interpret it via narratives of the
change circumstances. Notion of change is an intuition rather than a reason and it is also a magic
rather than logic (Benyamin, 1997). The article compares the change theories between a processing
logic and a chaotic logic. It is chaos because of a mixture of predictability and unpredictability.
Therefore, self-referenced change (the sense of value and experience in the system) is a key
success. He uses a concept of Jung’s “sole and shadow” which “sole” means relationship and

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passion of people but “shadow” is a pessimistic phenomenon and it underpins of resistances.

Patricia (1997) shares his consulting experience of OD and organizational transformation that
focusing on “shadow” is a key success.

According to the group assignment feedback from the lecturer, the bias of the philosophy was a
major issue. Previously, the perspective of change as a controllable process was dominant at the
essay but I have learnt and done more researches for the other perspective which change as a
dynamic phenomenon and a leader might just have abilities to understand, interpret, and shape it.

Identify the Need of Change

Some people might see change as an imperative of competitiveness but someone else believes that
stability is a fastest way to be successful without wasting resources for coping uncertainty (Leana
and Barry, 2000). However, if there was an issue from either internal or external factors which forced
a firm to do something, change might be one of strategies must be considered. According to Ledford
et al (1990), the large-scale organisational change focuses on performance approach and character
approach. There are two perspectives of change i.e. performance change and character change.
Performance change happens when organisations is in a trouble which could be caused by internal
or external factors. For example, lack of competitiveness, liquidity, productivity, and so on. Some
situations, a company might have to face “change or perish” such as Kodak which a digital
technology forced it (Palmer et al, 2009 ; Harvard Business School Press, 2005). On contrary, a
challenging of status quo must affect to a culture, according to Jallet (2008). Furthermore,
paradoxically, change can be unintended which may be happened by few people who are powerful
enough to unpremeditatedly persuade others e.g. Apply Sci’s a technician group set a weekly
meeting for sharing information among the members which eventually useful for the entire firm
(Zemke, 2000 ; Lichtenstein, 2000).

Find the Right Leader

Seeking the right person for the right job is one of the vital tasks for the business (Weinstein, 2012)
and it is more significant than well-written strategies (Collins, 2005). According to John Kotter and
Jay Conger – the experts in leadership and corporate governance, respectively, leadership is not
only a key ingredient of change success (Harvard Business School Press, 2005) but also a major
cause of failures (Higgs and Rowland, 2005). A leader, which might have a certain image of a
change manager, affects how he or she diagnoses and interpret an organisational phenomenon
(Palmer et al, 2009). For example, a narcissism leader might love seeing change is controllable and
well-structured. He or she might affect the decision making for CM tools selection (Hughes, 2007)
and even influence a change development to turn back to an initial stage (Rosen, 1970). A business
owner must also consider carefully what a business nature is. Soliman (2013) describes that there
are two major type of business i.e BE (Business Excellence – manage things right) and BI (Business
Innovation – do the right things). Gattorna (2010) mentions that many companies, which own brands
of products or services, need both of management concepts from BE and BI. Different hierarchical

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role also classifies a managerial expectation i.e. a mid-level position must need to have strong
managing skills than leadership skills but a top management level must need a strong leadership
which has a capability to lead a complex change (Brookmire, 2014). In summary, BE needs a
transactional leadership style but a transformational leadership style must be dominant for BI (Kotter,
2001 ; Evans and Lindsay, 2011). In reality, especially in BI notion, a firm needs both images of
controlling and shaping. Some of great leaders such as Steve Jobs managed very well for both
perspectives (Chamorro-Premuzic, 2014). He might play a situational leadership style which has
higher adaptability for each circumstance. Gattorna (2010) and Farjoun (2000) also support this view
e.g. i.e. a shaping image at a front stage (e.g. a character of business) but a controller image at a
back stage of supply chains (e.g. a performance controller). However, Palmer et al (2009) mention
some drawbacks of the contingency approaches which might backfire on a change leader. Those
issues are ambiguity, complexity, and untrustworthiness. Furthermore, Palmer and Dunford (2002)
divide a managing image to two perspectives i.e. controlling and shaping. The controlling image
might be suitable for BE which top-down change approach might suit to traditional change
philosophy (Graetz and Smith, 2010). On contrary, the shaping image would be good for BI which
change is a capability to adapt its strategies depending on nonlinear surrounding impacts (Graetz
and Smith, 2010).

In term of an uncontrollable change philosophy, change is nonlinear, dynamic, and complex (Graetz
and Smith, 2010). According to Higgs and Rowland (2005), successful change needs contribution
from a leader which has three board categories i.e. shaping, framing change, and create capacity.
The role of the leader is to cope with the phenomenon rather than to define a right solution.
Persuasive conversation might be an image of leadership which interacts individually rather than
hierarchical communication as a top-down approach (Groysberg and Slind, 2012).

In personal, I believe that a top manager should recruit a leader that can play many different roles of
change images because there is no a certain situation in a reality and an organisation is dynamic
and chaos (Benyamin, 1997 ; McShane et al, 2010). At least, he or she should be able to perform an
interpreter image for understanding, interpreting, and communicating a sense making to each
individual in different situation (Palmer et al, 2009). According to my work experience, I noticed that
even a change leader had unsuitable image of change for a particular type of business, he or she
could find the way to work and complete tasks somehow even may not achieve the best outcome.
Therefore, there are many factors play roles together for fostering a change leader e.g. authority,
resources, a supportive top management (Hopkins, 2013), and so on. For example of an authority, a
leader would not receive trust from team members, if his or her decisions were always blamed by the
top management. On the other hand, if the top management provided positive feedback, the leader
would gain trust and belief from the team members. Asch's conformity experiment may demonstrate
the effectiveness of manipulating people’ belief (APPsychVids 2009).

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Organisation Diagnostic

Einstein once said “If I had one hour to save the world, I’d spend 59 minutes defining the problem
and one minute finding the solution” (WikiQuote, n.d.). Organisational diagnostic is a problematic
identification which is an early vital step of a change planning because it affects the readiness of
change for an organisation (McFillen, 2013). Each diagnostic tool has advantages and
disadvantages which were presented in the class by the classmate. Some tools might suitable for
explaining what happened in an organisation but others might good for a future planning.
Fortunately, Palmer et al (2009) mention that a change manager can choose the suitable diagnostic
tool for his or her image of leader but it might be bias by choosing an improper tool from individual
belief (Hughes, 2007). Moreover, employee should realize the importance of a business point of
view. Therefore, good diagnostic tool should consider both of economic value and organisational
capability or O-E theory (Beer and Nohria, 2000). Moreover, gathering and measuring of problem
and performance might be evidence-based approach (McFillen, 2013).

In the class, VDO of sense making (Berti, 2014) for internal change was assigned to watch. The
lecture emphasized the importance of sense marking which needed to understand how team
members make sense of things before starting a change. A sense maker is also challenged by
shaping and influencing how people make sense of organisational events.

In past experience, I focused on an organisation only. In my future work, I might try to use these
factors – e.g. the nature of business, economic perspective, colleagues, culture and even politics in
an organisation – to be elements for organisational analysis and development.

Change Management Model Selection

According to Kazmi and Naarananoja (2013), change is the process of moving from point A to B
which driving force has to beat stability force (Leana and Barry, 2000). Farjoun (2000) elaborate that
stability and change enables and interferes each other. Kazmi and Naarananoja (2013) mention to
Lewin’s Change Model (i.e. Unfreezing, Moving, and Refreezing) that was a fundamental notion for
almost CM models even it was too simple for an complex issue and unrealistic for a real environment
(Higgs and Rowland, 2005). Moreover, an organisation is also similar to a living organism (McShane
et al, 2010) which is hard to define the best model for compatibility of all scenarios (Kazmi and
Naarananoja, 2013). According to the in-class discussion, the unfreezing-refreezing notion might not
work for people because people’s belief, attitude, and behaviour cannot be frozen. However, Lewin’s
model could be possible which depends on how a leader applies it (Kazmi and Naarananoja, 2013).
For example, firstly, the unfreezing stage, which rational behaviours are explainable, is created by
sense of urgency. According to Beer and Nohria (2000), O theory might focus on changing people’s
belief by training and an individual conversation, for example. E theory might focus on problematic
gaps of vision pursuance which block profitability and stakeholders’ satisfaction, for example.
Secondly, the moving stage could use the concept of plan-do-check-action, powering change, and
dealing with resistance to implement and monitor the change. Finally, the refreezing stage, O theory

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might need to create rational behaviours once again by using a positive feedback or reward, for
example. E theory might apply the concept of standardization or new commitment to guarantee the
consistence of profitability. Moreover, a change leader should create platform of continuous
improvement to allow an organisation develops a minor change as a bottom-up approach (Harvard
Business School Press, 2005) as similar as Cisco created the Cisco’s lifecycle-based model (Cisco,
2014). This platform lead an organisation has a long-term performance and sustainability (Klamer
and Raisch 2013).

For the perspective of an uncontrollable change, there are some scholars tried to organize and
elaborate the models among a complexity of change. Palmer and Dunford (2002) divide images of
change between controlling and shaping. Ironically, a nurturer could not control an outcome of
change but offers self-organisation. Brown and Humphreys (2003) introduce four stages i.e.
anticipation, confirmation, culmination, and aftermath. Jaworski and Scharmer also provided the key
steps of success for this perspective i.e. observing, sensing, envisioning, and executing (Higgs and
Rowland, 2005). Politics in an organisation is also a factor of complexity and dynamics which could
interrupt the development of change. One of researches showed that focusing on how the middle-
managing level makes sense of change is a part of understanding the politics. They do sensegiving
to overwhelm their colleagues by delivering narratives to the surrounding people and playing politics
to gain the power in an organisation – e.g. ability of controlled resources (Hope, 2010). There are
also some notions from consultant perspectives such as Patricia (1997), his model focuse on a
preparation for spontaneous feedback of change, understanding a culture and politics, and
alignment of those interactions to create a sustainable change which everyone share value to it.

In the lecture, each group was assigned to invent CM models independently. Paradoxically, there
were many elements in common such as leadership, vision, sense of urgency, and reward. In
personal, I think the best model, which the class created, is the model that combines all idea from
each group because I could use or abandon some topics which might not relate to a situation. This
notion must be a reason why I have to know both perspectives of change which is a factor to choose
the model.

According to my past experience, I always used Gap analysis, PDCA, and Six Sigma for solving the
engineering and sub-systematic problems. I have never known the notion of some famous scholars
such as Lewin or Prosci. This might be useful for my future application.

Some techniques could be used for my future work such as Prosci’s ADKAR model which has been
used successfully by some scholars and practitioners (Kazmi and Naarananoja, 2013 ; Harvey,
2009). It is interesting because they used an individual participation via interviewing and survey.
Moreover, those data were measured and analyzed appropriately.

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Change Resistance

According to (Harvard Business School Press, 2005), change is daunting from a goal, a time frame,
politics, job security and so forth. Moreover, if a firm is challenging a status quo which everyday work
seem to be forced to change more frequently to be something that an employee might do not even
know what would it be. Consequently, it causes discomfort zones i.e. situational and dispositional
patterns (Bareil et al, 2007). According to the research, people are fear about situation change more
than disposition of themselves. Those fears might cause resistances which it happens everywhere
both of operational and executive level.

There are some techniques of decreasing the resistances. Firstly, a creative recombination is used
for empowering and fostering the engagement level by integrating and synchronizing all resources in
a firm. Secondly, a top-down change approach might cause tiredness to employees. Therefore, a
bottom-up approach might give a chance and a readiness for employees to challenge themselves
about change. Thirdly, change is a conversation which is a main role of a change leader (Ford and
Ford, 1995 ; Groysberg and Slind, 2012). Asking questions about impact and expectation of change
might gain each individual perspective for planning the change. This tool must be useful for dealing
with individual behaviour as well (How to handle difficult people, 1992). Moreover, conversation can
decrease politics in term of a tug of war for a power possession (McClellan, 2011). In-class’s case
study about the anatomy of cultural change, the technique which used for convincing change to
people is to find your potential allies, who agree with the idea, and invite them to promote the change
for you. This tip is easier than convincing with who has an opposite perspective. Fourthly, balancing
of theory O and E is a balance between people and economic perspectives which might be effective
for a rational employee. Another technique is a change audit which uses historical change
information to plan an upcoming change for understanding the previous change responsiveness to
decrease potential resistances. The last technique is a creative destruction which a leader rewrites
the organisational rules and allows everyone plays in a fair field.

Conclusion

According to my learning experience from this subject, my perspective was changed. Change is not
only a task approach but also people contribution. It might be able or unable to control depending on
many factors but it is certainly complex. A change leader must have a capability to diagnose a
business nature, and select a change management tool which suits a particular circumstance. Not
only a well written change strategy but also continuous implementation is an only way to overcome
obstacles and sustain the change.

By Uttaporn K.
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By Uttaporn K.