CHANGE AGENTS

Lecture Outline

1.0 Introduction
1.1 Internal change agents
1.2 Concerns unique to internal change agents
1.3 Advantages and disadvantages of internal change agents
1.4 External change agents
1.5 Advantages and disadvantages of external change agents
1.6 External-internal change practitioner
1.7 The power bases of change agents
1.8 Change agent styles
1.9 Change management strategies for planned change

Lecture objectives
At the end of this lecture you should be able to:
 Understand the meaning of a change agent

 Identify and differentiate the two types of change agents

 Understand the advantages and disadvantages of internal and

external change agents

 Outline different change agent styles available

 Identify the change management strategies that change agents can

use

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1.0 Introduction

- Effective change does not happen spontaneously. It requires a change

programmes that is coordinated by a change agent (or change team)
that is responsible for planning and sustaining the change effort.

- A change agent is a person who has the willingness to help others to

perceive, understand and act upon the meaning of events that occur
in the environment.

- A change agent can either be an internal change agent, such as

managers or employees who are appointed to oversee the change
process or an external change agent, who are most likely to be
consultants brought in to invoke change.

- NB: Although such an agent might come from within the organisation
or be external to it, a change agent does not have to be formally
charged with the responsibility of effecting change. Any person can act
as a change agent without knowing that they are actually doing so.

1.1 Internal Change agents

- Internal change agent is “an individual of the organization who knows

the organization intimately and is attempting to create change”.

- These might be members of the board, the Chief Executive Officer, a

senior executive, managers, supervisors or general employees
possessing the necessary skills, competencies and knowledge to
implement change.

- It is also beneficial if internal agents have sufficient managerial

authority to enable them to make decisions on the change process
when working with people who might be somewhat ambivalent about
certain proposed changes.

Identification of change agent

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Luecke (2003) provides guiding principles on how an internal change
agent should be selected.

 Organizations have to identify those employees who others listen to.

These may be not employees with formal authority and positioning
power.

 Furthermore organizations have to seek for employees who think

differently.

 In addition to that organizations have to focus on new employees

because they might possess a different mind-set and offer new ideas
and approaches.

 Related to the selection of new employees as change agents. New

employees often become too late involved into the change process.
Fears, uncertainties and anxieties are unmanageable at this point

 Finally the organizations have to seek for employees with unusual

training or experience.

1.2 Concerns Unique to Internal Change Agents:

- The decision to assume the role of a change agent within an

organisation is an exciting challenge, but also one fraught with risks -
better one should be clear about these risks, potential complications
and problems.

 Confidentiality: In the role of internal CA, one obtains information

to which otherwise would not have access.

 Conflict of Interests: When an internal CA is caught between

serving oneself and serving the organisation, this is a conflict of
interests. How will you avoid these, or if involved, how will you
reconcile these?

 Dual role: This occurs when one is in dual or multiple roles that
conflict or are incongruent (dissimilar), and therefore potentially
compromise the integrity of the role. What are the effects of

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 having CA power over your supervisor, best friends, worst
enemies, or over the nature of your own position?

 Stress: There can be extreme stress and pressure from all

stockholders for you to promote a particular point of view-
especially from old alliances. In addition, you may be doing your
regular job as well as the CA role, dealing with petty jealousies over
your status, or struggling with difficult decisions.

 Status: There is much status derived from serving as an “expert”.

Can you sacrifice the power and prestige in order to empower
others rather than yourself?

 Problem Focus: There can be a temptation to focus efforts on the

biggest problem of your “pet” problem, rather than to more
strategically focus on the most workable problem.

 Replaceable models: Don’t become too attached to your

conceptual model for understanding the organization. It is not the
only one-perhaps not even the best one. Be prepared to change
when another first better or is more understandable to the client
system.

1.3 Advantages and disadvantages of internal change agents

Advantages of using internal consultants

 Intimate knowledge of the organisation, its dynamics, culture

and informal practises.

 They have access to a variety of information sources, including

rumours, company reports and direct observations.

 They are likely to be readily available: they are there, ready and
able to take on the job whenever evaluation is wanted

 May have trust and respect of others

 Develops and keeps expertise and resources internal

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  Creates and maintains norm of organization renewal from
within

 Provides higher security and confidentiality

 Has strong personal investment in success

Disadvantages of internal consultants

 They may lose objectivity because of their strong ties to the

organisation.

 They may lack certain skills and experience in facilitating

organisational change.

 May be biased; has already taken sides, or may be disliked or

mistrusted by some stockholders

 Previous relationships may contribute to sub-grouping or

fragmentation

 Takes CA away from other duties

 May be “part of the problem” or does not see it

 Is subject to organisational sanctions and pressures as an

employee - Compromised independence of the agent

1.4 External change agents

- External change agents are temporarily hired or employed in the

organization to remain engaged only for the duration of the change
process and because they are specialists in effecting change they are
commonly known as the consultants.

- A decision on which consultants to hire is usually based on the type of

of specialised technical knowledge or expertise that is required to
define an issue, change a particular system, provide a review, and
conduct an audit etc.

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 - For major organizations-wide changes, companies frequently will hire
external change agents because they are from outside and not bound
by the firm’s culture and politics or traditions.

Identification of External change agents

Cawsey et al. (2012) provides guiding principles on how an external

consultant should be selected.

 First the organization has to have a clear understanding of the

tasks the change agent has to fulfil.

 Furthermore the organization has to talk to multiple consultants.

 Organizations have to focus on common working styles and the

right chemistry.

 Once a suitable candidate has been found the organization should

ask for a request for proposal.

 At the end of the selection process the organization should make a

decision and communicate the expectations to all the relevant
parties

1.5 Advantages and disadvantages of external change agents

Advantages of external consultants

 They can provide particular expertise that is unavailable

internally.

 Can also bring a fresh insights from a less subjective

perspective.

 They are also afforded some deference and power because of

their perceived expertise and objectivity, and they can use this
influence to mobilise resources for change.

 Outsider is less constrained by organizational politics and

conditioning

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  With broader experience, the external agent can provide
benchmarking and best practices as well as insights into
potential pitfalls learned from other clients.

 Provides fresh ideas, concepts and objective perspective with

less resistance

 They have the ability to probe difficult issues and to question

the status quo and organisational culture.

 They are neutral and have no stake in the institution

 Freedom from distraction from day to day operating

responsibilities

Disadvantages of external consultants

 Organisational members may be wary of outsiders and may not

trust them enough to give them pertinent information as they
are seen as having relatively little invested in the organisation.

 Might lack a good understanding about organisation’s culture,

values and beliefs

 External consultants are not the one affected by the change and
they may attempt to promote a tough, radical change on
organisation.

 They do not have anything do with the repercussion after the

change is implemented

 May or may not be available when needed by the organization

 High expense – fees can be costly

 If problems arise, the external consultants can simply walk

away with little negative consequence.

1.6 The external –internal practitioner team exclusive

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 - The implementation of a large scale – change program is almost
impossible without the involvement of all levels and elements in the
organisation.

- One approach to creating a climate of change uses a team formed of

an external agent and internal agent to initiate and facilitate change
programs (known as the external-internal practitioner team).

- The agents bring complementary resources to the team; each had

advantages and strengths that offset the disadvantages and
weaknesses of the other.

- The external practitioner brings expertise, objectivity and new insights

to organisation problems.

- The internal agent on the other hand brings detailed knowledge of the
organisational issues and norms. T

- The collaborative relationship between internal and external agents

provides an integration of abilities, skills and resources.

- The team approach makes it possible to divide the change program’s

workload.

- The external-internal team is less likely to accept watered-down or

compromised change programs.

- Another reason for using an external-internal agent team is to achieve

greater continuity over the entire change program.

- The external-internal combination may provide the stimulation and

motivation needed to keep the change program moving during the
periods of resistance.

1.7 THE POWER BASES OF CHANGE AGENTS

- French and Raven(1959, Raven (1965) proposed six bases of power

namely reward, coercion, legitimacy, expertise, reference and

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 information and Munduate and Gravenhorst (2003), stated that
change agents have these powers and that each will elicit different
reactions by organisational members.

- The possible reactions that can be exhibited towards the change

include; public compliance, private acceptance or identification and
internalisation.

 Reward and coercive power rely on others believing the agent

can provide them with the desired rewards or can punish them
respectively.

- Using either bases will induce superficial change in the target.

- Only public compliance is obtained, the continuation of which

depends on successful surveillance of the target by the agent.

 An individual possess legitimate power when others believe

that he or she has a legitimate right to exert influence over
them, and they are obliged to accept his influence.

- It leads to private acceptance that comes from within the target

and as such it is initially is socially dependent on the
influencing agent but it does not require surveillance by the
agent in order to be successful.

 Referent power refers to the target identification with the

agent. It again leads to private acceptance by the target by
enabling him or her to maintain a satisfactory relationship with
the agent and see himself or herself as similar to the agent on
certain relevant dimensions.

 With Expert power, depends on the individual’s perception of

having expertise or knowledge in a specific domain.

- If the target perceives an agent as an expert this will result in

private acceptance on the part of the target.

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  Finally, informational power leads to internalised and lasting
changes in the target’s beliefs, attitudes or values.

- Compared to other bases of power, the changed behaviour

resulting from information is maintained without continued
social dependence on the influencing agent and is instead based
on the perceived relevance and validity of the information.

- Only informational power leads to cognitive change in the

change in the target,

This model of bases of power of change agents proposed by Munduate et al

offers an approach for understanding the impact of leadership style on
organisational members during the change process.

1.8 Change agent styles

- Change agents be they internal or external have a variety of styles or
approaches they use in any change program.

- One way to view the styles is based on the degree of emphasis the
agent places upon two interrelated goals or dimensions of the change
process

- One of the goals is effectiveness, the degree of emphasis upon goal

accomplishment.

- The other goal is morale, the degree of emphasis upon relationships

and participant satisfaction.

- Based upon the two dimensions of accomplishing goals and member

satisfaction, five different types of styles can be identified:

 The stabilizer style

 The cheerleader style

 The analyzer style

 The persuader style

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 The pathfinder style

HIGH
CHEERLEADER PATHFINDER

MORALE PERSUADER

LOW
STABILIZER ANALYZER
LOW EFFECTIVENESS HIGH

 The stabilizer style

- The goal of the stabilizer is neither effectiveness nor participant
satisfaction.

- Rather the agent is trying to keep from rocking the boat and to
maintain a low profile.

- The underlying motivation is often survival, or merely following the

directives of top management

- This style is usually forced upon the agent by the organisational

pressures, so the practitioner has to learn to conform and to suppress
any other motivations.

 The cheerleader style

- The cheerleader style places emphasis on the satisfaction of

organisational members and is chiefly concerned with employee
motivation and morale.

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- The agent seeks warm working relationships and in general is more
comfortable in non-confrontational situations.

- Effectiveness per se is not emphasized, the assumption being that if

member satisfaction is high effectiveness will also be high.

- The cheerleader style strongly minimizes differences and maintains

harmony.

 The analyzer style

- Places emphasis on effectiveness and gives little emphasis to member

satisfaction.

- Agents of this type may be quite confrontational, usually relying on

authority to resolve conflicts and rational problem solving process.

- The analyzer style has a background of specialized expertise,

knowledge and experience applicable to the solution of specific
problems.

- The style is based on the belief that the client does not need to know
or cannot learn the skills to solve its problems.

 The persuader style

- It focuses on dimensions, effectiveness and morale yet optimizes

neither.

- Such a style provides a relatively low risk strategy yet avoids direct
confrontation with other forces.

- This approach may be used when the agent has little power or
leverage relative to other participants.

- It is motivated primarily by a desire to satisfy something that is good

enough.

- A great deal of effort is applied in attempting to satisfy the different

forces thus gaining a majority bloc of support for prepared changes.

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  The pathfinder style

- It seeks both high degree of effectiveness and high degree of member

satisfaction, believing that greater effectiveness is possible when all
members are involved and problem solving done through team work.

- There is an awareness that confrontation and conflict are often means

to a more effective organisation and to more satisfied individual
members.

In summary these five agent styles are not mutually exclusive. All styles can
be effective and they are interrelated. An agent may transition from one style
to another to meet changing client system needs and deal with diverse
situations. Often a combination of the styles may be used

Contingencies that influence the choice of a CA

• Trade-offs between the internal/external advantages/ disadvantages.

• Time and availability

• Duration of consultations required.

• Cost

• Seriousness of the problem and level of expertise required

• Receptiveness of the organizational members and legitimacy of

internal and external CA’s

• Philosophy (beliefs, ideas) and style of a CA and compatibility with

organisational culture and values (But it may that a person with very
different culture and values is exactly what is needed to help
transition the organisational).

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CHANGE MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES FOR PLANNED CHANGE

There are some basic strategies which are quite frequently used by business
organisations for the effective introduction of change in the organisation, as
propounded by Bennis, Benne, and Chin (1969) and Nickols (2010). They
are as follows.

 Empirical –rational

 Normative – re-educative

 Power-coercive

 Environmental-adaptive

 Empirical-rational strategy

- Chin and Benne’s first strategy is founded on the belief that most
people are sensible, and will adopt an innovation once they
understand it is in their best interest.

- The implication is that, once presented with information that

demonstrates that a particular change is in their self-interests, they
will accept the change as a means of achieving that interest.

- Therefore, an organizational member adopts a proposed change if the

following two conditions are met: The proposed change is rationally
justified, and the change agent demonstrates the benefits of the
change to the change target.

Common assumptions of a empirical rational approach to change

 People are rational and driven primarily by self-interest.

 If the right information is put forward in an engaging and convincing

manner, people will see the wisdom of the change and act in support
of the proposal

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  Information should be gathered by “expert” professionals, to ensure
that it is accurate and reflects modern methodological protocols.

 Transfer of information once gathered, is primarily a one-way process.

Senior representatives of the system (or their expert representatives)
communicate “the facts” and help the recipients understand.

 Dialogue is in service of “understanding”, not redefining or changing

the facts as discovered and promoted by the experts

 Normative- re-educative

- Normative-Re-educative approaches do not deny that people can be

rational, but they highlight the point that sociocultural norms are
strong inhibitors to changes in attitudes or established practices.

- People modify their beliefs and behavior only after developing a

commitment to new norms.

- This requires “changes in values, skills and significant relationships,

not just changes in knowledge, information or intellectual rationales
for action and practice (

- Change is motivated, according to this approach, when the individuals

identify some level of dissatisfaction with the status quo based on
fundamental value clashes.

- People are social beings and will adhere to cultural norms and values.
Successful change is based on redefining and reinterpreting existing
norms and values and developing commitments to new ones.

Common assumptions of Normative Re-educative approach to change

 Involvement of the members of the change system in working out of

change under their own direction.

 Definition of the change problem includes the probality that shifts in

attitudes, values and norms; and relationships between players in the

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 system and between the system and its external environment may be
required.

 Relationships of management and the members of the system is one of

mutual collaborators in the development of the final strategy and not
one of power and dominance by one segment of the system.

 Intelligence is “social” rather than rational.

 POWER-COERCIVE STRATEGY

- This approach focuses on change efforts in which a more powerful

person imposes his or her will on a less powerful person.

- The change agent ostensibly exercises coercion that ranges from

subtle manipulation to the direct use of physical force.

- The main advantage of this approach is that it delivers effective

results rapidly. However, these benefits come at the expense of
damaging relationships, destroying trust, and forfeiting voluntary
commitment

Common assumptions of Power-coercive approach to change

 Power is legitimate and carries rights with it- should listen to those
who hold power.

 Those with power have the responsibility to give direction to others in

the system. It is not significant that others do not accept the direction
that they are receiving as appropriate or correct.

 Those who hold power have the right to punish those who do not
follow their directions.

 The best interests of the organisation are served naturally by following

the directions of those who are more senior in the hierarchy – they
naturally, or through their experience, know what is best.

 ENVIRONMENTAL- ADAPTIVE

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 - People oppose lose and disruption but they adapt readily to new
circumstances.

- This strategy seeks to shift the burden of change from management

and the organisation to the people.

- It exploits their natural adaptive nature and avoids many

complications associated with trying to change people or their culture.

 Best suited for radical, transformative change. For gradual or

incremental change this is not the strategy of choice.

CHANGE STRATEGY SELECTION FACTORS

Generally speaking, there is no single change strategy but for any given
initiative, you are best served by some mix of strategies. Which of the
preceding strategies to use in your mix of strategies is a decision affected by
a number of factors. Some of the more important ones follow

 Scope and Scale.

This can vary from the minor change within a unit to the complete
transformation of the entire organization. The larger the scope and scale, the
more likely a broad mix of strategies will be required with Power-Coercive
playing a central role. (environmental-adaptive and power-coercive)

 Degree of Resistance.

Strong resistance argues for a coupling of Power-Coercive and

Environmental-Adaptive strategies. Weak resistance or concurrence argues
for a combination of Empirical-Rational and Normative- Reeducative
strategies.

 Target Population

Large populations argue for a mix of all four strategies, something for
everyone so to speak.

 The Stakes.

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High stakes argue for a mix of all four strategies. When the stake are high,
nothing can be left to chance.

The Time Frame.

Short time frames argue for a Power-Coercive strategy. Longer time frames
argue for a mix of Empirical-Rational, Normative-Reeducative, and
Environmental-Adaptive strategies.

Expertise.

Having available adequate expertise at making change argues for some mix
of the strategies outlined above. Not having it available argues for reliance
on the power-coercive strategy.

Dependency.

This is a classic double-edged sword. If the organization is dependent on its

people, management's ability to command or demand is limited. Conversely,
if people are dependent upon the organization, their ability to oppose or
resist is limited. (Mutual dependency almost always signals a requirement
for some level of negotiation.)

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