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Third Edition
Implementing
Organizational Change
THEORY INTO PRACTICE
Bert Spector
Northeastern University
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countries. Screen shots and icons reprinted with permission from the Microsoft Corporation. This book is not
sponsored or endorsed by or affiliated with the Microsoft Corporation.
Copyright © 2013, 2010, 2007 by Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Prentice Hall All rights reserved.
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have been printed in initial caps or all caps.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Spector, Bert.
Implementing organizational change : theory into practice / Bert Spector. — 3rd ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-13-272984-0
1. Organizational change. 2. Organizational behavior. 3. Personnel management. I. Title.
HD58.8.S667 2013
658.4'06 — dc23
2011043785
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
ISBN 10: 0-13-272984-9

ISBN 13: 978-0-13-272984-0
CONTENTS
Preface v
Chapter 1 Organizational Change 1
Introductory Case: Organizational Change at Nokia 2
Strategic Responsiveness 3
The Three Faces of Change 5
Transformational Change 7
Employee Participation and Resistance to Change 10
Trigger Events and Change 14
Going Global and the Requirement for Organizational Change 14
Conclusion 15 • Discussion Questions 16 • Case Discussion: The
ASDA Way of Working 16 • Endnotes 21
Chapter 2 Theories of Effective Change Implementation 24

Introductory Case: Turnaround and Transformation at Duke University
Children’s Hospital 25
Theories of Change Implementation 26
Organization Development and Change Implementation 30
Putting It All Together: Building a Theory of Change Implementation 40
Conclusion 46 • Discussion Questions 46 • Case Discussion: Blue
Cloud Gets Agile 47 • Endnotes 49
Chapter 3 Mutual Engagement and Shared Diagnosis 51

Introductory Case: “A Deer Caught in the Headlights” at HP 51
Diagnosing the Organization 52
Starting with Mutual Engagement 56
The Consultant Role 60
Getting Started with Organizational Diagnosis 61
Conclusion 69 • Discussion Questions 70 • Case Discussion:
Managing Transformation at National Computer Operations 70 •
Endnotes 73
Chapter 4 Organizational Redesign 75

Introductory Case: Dr. Gayle Brings Collaboration to CARE 76
Organizational Redesign 76
Understanding Design Challenges 80
Building Commitment 87
Building Collaboration 91
iv Contents

Transferring Innovation Across National Boundaries 96 •
Endnotes 97
Chapter 5 People Alignment 99

Introductory Case: Expanding the Market for Best Buy 100
People Alignment and Change 101
Help 102
People Change 108
Getting the Sequence Right: Fair Process 117
“Employee First, Customer Second”: Vineet Nayar Transforms HCL
Technologies 119 • Endnotes 122
Chapter 6 Reinforcing New Behaviors 125

Introductory Case: Localizing a Retail Giant Chain 126
Selecting the Appropriate Organizational Focus 127
Using Incentives to Support New Behaviors 138
Technology and Behavior Change 145
Making the Problem Worse 147 • Endnotes 149
Chapter 7 Leading Change 151

Introductory Case: Collaboration and Leadership at Cisco Systems 151
Understanding Leadership 152
The Tasks of Leadership 154
Beyond Individual Leadership 161
Leading Change—Carlos Ghosn at Renault and Nissan 164 •
Endnotes 173
Chapter 8 Going Green 175

Introductory Case: Nike Just Does It 176
Moving Toward the Sustainable Corporation 178
The Process of Changing to Green 182
Shaping a Green Culture 190
Going Green at an Oil Company (?) 193 • Endnotes 195
Index 199
PREFACE
NEW TO THE THIRD EDITION

Welcome to the third edition of Implementing Organizational Change–Theory into Practice. This
edition is significantly enhanced based on recommendations for reviewers and users, as well
as on new research:
• Chapter 8—“Going Green”—is completely new, covering in detail a topic that had not
been included in the previous editions.
• Chapter 7—“Organizational Culture and Change”—has been eliminated as a separate
chapter. Key concepts from the chapter have been integrated throughout the text.
• Five new opening cases have been included. These are all cases written exclusively for
the third edition.
• Four new closing cases have been included. These are all cases written exclusively for
the third edition.
• The “Theory into Practice” sections have been expanded throughout the text. At the same
time, many of them have been rewritten to make even clearer the application of change
implementation theory.
• New examples have been added throughout the text.
• A new framework for organizational diagnosis has been added in Chapter 3.
• A case on a not‐for‐profit organization—CARE—has been added to Chapter 4.
• A section on change in multinational organizations has been added to Chapter 4.
• Greater emphasis on the process of building collaboration has been added to Chapter 4.
• A case on workforce diversity has been added to Chapter 5.
Talking about what has changed in a book on change management is inevitable and im-
portant. However, I also want to make clear what has not changed. From the outset, I intended
to write a text that would allow the reader to bring change management theory to implementa-
tion and practice. A COO recently told me that this was a book that he kept on his desk rather
than his bookcase so he could refer to it regularly. I’m proud of that complement. I’m equally
proud when students tell me that I have helped “make sense” of theory. Thanks to all of you
for your input, and I hope that you are pleased with the revisions in this third edition.
UNDERSTANDING ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE

Organizational change comes in an almost endless variety of types and approaches. Just con-
sider these examples:
• To open new growth and revenue opportunities for the Internet‐based social network
company, Facebook, the CEO announces a new business model.
• To respond to shifting demands of multinational customers, the CEO of IBM attempts to
achieve seamless global responsiveness in an organization long noted for its highly de-
centralized multinational operations.
• To encourage ongoing innovation, the cofounders of Internet search engine Google
move to create greater tolerance for mistakes.
vi Preface
• To respond to criticism of its global labor practices, Nike commits itself to sustainable
business and innovation.
• To overcome its image as a cookie cutter chain and help to recover from a recession,
Macy’s pushes decision making down into its regional operations.
• To improve the efficiency of software development, a small company adopts Agile, a
new approach based on multiple releases in short time frames.
From multinational colossuses to small businesses, employees at all levels seek to respond
to the competitive dynamics that impact their organization’s performance.
Volatile swings in national and international economies, new competitive environments,
shifting customer expectations, increasing pressure from financial markets, emerging govern-
mental regulation and deregulation, not to mention dramatic and unexpected geopolitical dy-
namics, all demand responsiveness from today’s organizations. Renewed strategies, designed
to achieve and maintain a strong competitive position, demand that organizations abandon
the status quo. Instead of being an occasional event, organizational change is now a way of life.
Implementing organizational change has, as a result, emerged as a core competency for
corporate executives. In fact, any leader today will discover just how vital leading change is.
If you’re not leading change, as the saying goes, you’re not leading.
Knowing that change is vital, however, and successfully navigating an organization
through a change effort are quite different matters. Despite good intentions, enthusiastic sup-
port, and the availability of resources, change efforts often fall short of the expectations and
promises of their champions. Frequently, the flaw can be found in the misconceptualization of
the implementation process. How change is conceived and how it is implemented—that is
where the barriers usually reside.
THEORETICAL ORIENTATION
The purpose of Implementing Organizational Change—Theory into Practice is to understand
and analyze effective change implementation. In order to achieve that objective, Implementing
Organizational Change focuses on change that can be understood as strategically aligned altera-
tions in patterns of employee behavior. While recognizing the multiplicity of change efforts that
span the corporate landscape, the two core concepts of that definition allow us to pay special
attention to change that is strategic and behavioral. That definition shapes the core perspec-
tives of the book, which examines change that is strategic, purposeful, and behavioral. Let’s look
briefly at each one:
1. Strategic—the goal of change management is to help an organization support strategic
renewal in order to achieve and maintain outstanding performance in the face of a dy-
namic environment. A strategic perspective focuses on aligning behaviors with renewed
strategy and the requirements of outstanding performance.
2. Purposeful—change can occur to an organization or by an organization, most often some
combination of the two. A purposeful perspective focuses on explicit interventions into
the organization that are designed to respond to a dynamic competitive environment.
3. Behavioral—although change can occur in many forms, it is the alteration in employee
behaviors—how employees conduct themselves at work—that allows organizations to
implement their new strategies and achieve outstanding performance. A behavioral per-
spective focuses on the process of motivating employees at all levels of the organization
to alter their patterns of behavior in ways that are sustainable, adaptive to shifts in the
external environment, and will contribute to outstanding performance.
Preface vii
Wanting to achieve strategic behavioral change is relatively easy—implementing change

is difficult. For that reason, the thread of effective implementation runs through the entire text.
This is a book not just about what to change, but also how to change.
Implementing Organizational Change is informed primarily by the research and practice
offered by the field of Organizational Development (OD). Leading writers have combined
rigorous social science research with action learning to create an awareness of organizations
as systems, suggesting that change efforts must be aware of the need to achieve and sustain a
state of “fit” between various organization divisions and components. In terms of change pro-
cesses, OD suggests that when individuals are involved in defining problems and solutions,
they will be more motivated to achieve the desired outcomes.
Although richly informed by that field, Implementing Organizational Change is not in-
tended to be an OD text. Instead, the book offers a view that integrates key OD insights with
major perspectives from three additional fields:
1. Strategic renewal—This field recognizes that highly dynamic environments require
more than occasional incremental improvements in the firm’s operations; new strategic
directions and approaches require new ways of thinking and acting.
2. Strategic human resource management—This field recognizes the requirement to align
human capabilities with an organization’s strategy for achieving and maintaining out-
standing performance.
3. Leadership—This field recognizes the role of leaders at all levels of the organization
working both individually and collaboratively to mobilize adaptive behavior on the part
of employees in order to drive change.
Those contributions, summarized in Exhibit P‐1, will be supplemented by additional
insights from fields such as organizational learning, managerial accounting, conflict manage-
ment, ethics, communications, information systems, supply chain management, and organi-
zational innovation.
Organizational development (OD) Views organizations as open systems; sees alignment and
responsiveness as necessary components of outstanding performance;
emphasizes potential for collaborative effort, individual contribution,
and growth.
Strategic renewal Dynamic competitive environments often require new directions
supported by new systems, structures, and processes.
Strategic human resource Emphasizes the requirement to align human resource policies and
management (SHRM) practices—both individually and systemically—with the strategic goals
of the organization and the requirements of outstanding performance.
Leadership Focuses on the behavior of leaders at all levels of the organization who
mobilize adaptive behavior among employees and orchestrate effective
change interventions.
Others Sustainability, organizational learning, conflict management, ethics,
communications, information systems, supply chain management, and
organizational innovation.
EXHIBIT P-1 Academic Underpinnings of Implementing Organizational Change—Theory into Practice.

viii Preface
BOOK ORGANIZATION
In order to present theories and practice of change, Implementing Organizational Change is
divided into three sections:
• Section 1—“Theories of Effective Change Implementation” (Chapters 1 and 2) analyzes
the forces leading to strategic renewal and organizational change, as well as the theories
that form the basis for effective implementation. The section concludes with a theory of
effective change implementation that combines the insights of previous works.
• Section 2—“Implementing Change” (Chapters 3–6) guides the reader through the theory
and practice of specific methods and approaches to implementing organizational
change.
• Section 3—“A Broader View” (Chapters 7 and 8) steps back from the specifics of change
implementation to examine two larger organizational issues: the role of leadership and
the change involved in “going green.”
TEXT FEATURES
Because Implementing Organizational Change is intended for both practitioners and stu-
dents of change management, the text includes a multiplicity of learning features.
• All chapters open with a bulleted list of key learning objectives. In addition, “Theory
into Practice” highlights the applied, practical applications of the theories being pre-
sented.
• A short opening case study illustrates the core concepts and challenges analyzed in the
chapter. These real‐world examples of change implementation are referred to through-
out the chapter to emphasize learning points.
• Key vocabulary items are highlighted in the text in order to help the reader develop a
vocabulary of change.
• Each chapter includes a conclusion summarizing key points of the chapter and intro-
duces key theme of the following chapter.
• Discussion questions guide readers back through key points of the chapter.
• Finally, a longer concluding case (written by the author exclusively for the text) can be
used to apply and debate key points of each chapter.
The goal of each chapter is to integrate the various learning features with a presentation
and analysis of influential and important theories, as well as examples of organizational
change efforts. Organizations ranging from large multinationals such as Hewlett‐Packard,
Nissan Motors, Nike, and Cisco to nontraditional organizations such as the Rolling Stones
and the nongovernmental organization CARE will help the reader apply change theories to
real‐world experiences.
CHAPTER
1 Organizational Change
W hen we talk about organizational change, we mean many different things. Calling on
new technologies to improve services requires organizational change. So does offering
new products in new markets. When a bank seeks greater control over employees who are
making investment decisions, an athletic shoe company seeks to “go green,” or a hospital
decides to improve quality while simultaneously cutting costs, these, too, are examples of
businesses that will need to engage in organizational change.
In order to understand and analyze the dynamics of change, and particularly the
requirements of effective change implementation, it is important to sort out and distinguish
the various approaches an organization can take. This chapter will explore multiple paths to
change. In particular, this chapter will:
• Identify the role of strategic renewal in propelling change
• Focus on the behavioral aspect of organizational change
• Analyze the dynamics of motivating employees to alter their behaviors
• Differentiate the three faces of change: turnaround, tools and techniques, and
transformation
• Understand the source of both employee resistance to and support for change
• Appreciate the importance of trigger events in initiating change efforts
• Examine the role that “going global” plays in triggering organizational change
We will start by looking at an attempt by a newly appointed chief executive officer (CEO)
to revitalize the fortunes of a global leader in cell phones. As you read this introductory case,
ask yourself:
• Why was Nokia eliminating jobs even though it was performing well?
• What triggered Nokia’s decision to hire an outsider—an American—as CEO in 2010?
• What organizational changes will Stephen Elop need to make in order to revitalize Nokia
in the United States?
1
2 Chapter 1
ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE AT NOKIA

As 2010 drew to a close, Finland‐based Nokia, the world’s leading producer of
cell phones, announced the elimination of 1,800 jobs.1 Surprisingly, the 3 percent
reduction—which came a little more than one year after a previous 3 percent
workforce reduction—accompanied an announcement of a strong third‐quarter
result. As the impact of the recent global recession slowly receded, Nokia pro-
duced strong sales and profit numbers. So, why the cutbacks?
Nokia’s rise from a 19th‐century paper mill headquartered in Espoo,
Finland to the world’s largest cell phone maker and leading employer in its
native country is the stuff of business legend. In particular, its ability to overtake
the previous market leader Motorola was based in large part on its early aware-
ness of a global market for cell phones. With core competencies in production,
distribution, and research and development, Nokia produced mobile phones
that dominated not just Europe but also the emerging world markets.
As late as 2002, Nokia led the market in the United States as well. However,
by 2009 its U.S. market share had slipped to 7 percent (from a high of 35 percent).
It had been surpassed not only by its old rival Motorola but also by LG and
Samsung, both based in Korea, and Research in Motion, the Canadian‐based
producer of the Blackberry. And then, of course, there was the hottest—or per-
haps more accurately the coolest—smartphone of all, the iPhone.
In some ways, it might be said that Nokia’s weakness in the U.S. market
was the result of conscious strategic decisions made by the company. Nokia
built its phones on the European standard GSM format rather than the U.S. stan-
dard CDMA format. This decision allowed Nokia phones ease of access to world
markets.2 By mass production of phones for a global market, Nokia lowered
production costs. However, the decision limited its access to the U.S. market,
where over half the phones operated with CDMA. Then too, Nokia failed to
forge close ties with wireless providers, instead offering open phones that would
then need to be adapted to a particular provider. Nokia’s approach worked well
globally. In the United States, however, wireless providers—Verizon, Sprint
Nextel, AT&T, which together controlled 96 percent of the U.S. market—wanted
to offer phones themselves that could be cobranded and bundled with long‐
term service contracts.
Perhaps most damaging, however, was Nokia’s lack of responsiveness to
the shifting tastes and expectations of the U.S. customers. Mark Louison, head of
the North American unit, conceded, “In the past, we had a one‐size‐fits‐all men-
tality that worked well on a global basis but did not help us in this market.”
Recognizing its growing weakness in the United States, Nokia placed an
American on its management board in 2007, hired another American to be its
chief development officer and moved its chief financial officer (CFO) to an office
in the States.
Smartphones—phones with both Internet and e‐mail functionality—
represented the fastest growing and most profitable segment of the cell phone
industry. As the Blackberry became a standard business tool, and the iPhone’s
popularity exploded in both the United States and globally, Nokia’s share of
Organizational Change 3
the smartphone market fell dramatically. And its stock price tumbled, even
after stock markets began to recover from the recession.
Many observers, both inside the company and outside, said that Nokia had
become a victim of its own success, complacent and reluctant to rock the boat. In
2010, the Nokia board recruited Stephen Elop from Microsoft to transform the
global giant.
Elop publicly admitted that Nokia had grown complacent and removed
from customers. “It was management by committee,” said one executive describ-
ing the company’s approach to innovation. “Ideas fell victim to fighting among
managers with competing agendas, or were rejected as too costly, risky, or insig-
nificant for a global market leader.” Elop vowed to focus on the internal barriers
that existed to new product development. “Nokia has been characterized as an
organization where it’s too hard to get things done,” he admitted. “But the board
has vested in me the mandate to lead Nokia through this change.” In particular,
Elop said his first priority was to stem the loss of U.S. market share.
Not all news was bad. Nokia still remained the global leader in the basic
phone market. In one of his first moves as new CEO, Elop announced job cuts.
“The cuts were intended,” he said to streamline software development for
Nokia’s smartphones by improving “agility and responsiveness” in the software
development and Web services units.
STRATEGIC RESPONSIVENESS
Building a
Stephen Elop was just one of many business leaders facing the challenge of orga- Vocabulary of
nizational change. Recognizing the need to change is important, of course. But Change
it’s just a first step. Next comes change implementation—the actions taken by Change
organizational leaders in order to support strategic renewal and achieve out- implementation
standing performance. Successful implementation is required to translate that actions taken by
organizational
recognition into an effective strategic response. Poor implementation can under- leaders in order to
mine the best intentions of organizational leaders. support strategic
We live in a period of rapid and dramatic change: significant alterations in renewal and
customer expectations and demands, new technologies, competitors with inno- maintain outstanding
vative business models, shifts in workforce demographics and values, and new performance in a
dynamic
societal demands and constraints. Even the most successful organizations cannot environment.
stand still. They need to respond to external dynamics in order to create and
maintain outstanding performance.
Building a
Vocabulary of
THEORY INTO PRACTICE Change
Strategic renewal a
Successful organizations cannot remain static if they hope to continue that change in an
organization’s
success; they must change in order to keep up with a changing world. strategy involving
some combination of
new products/
In response to those dynamics, organizational leaders often decide to services, new
engage in a process of strategic renewal. Strategic renewal involves some combi- markets, and a new
nation of a new product or service, a new market, and a new business model for business model.
4 Chapter 1
an organization. Some companies have proved to be more nimble at adopting

their strategy to shifting competitive realities:
• Amazon quickly and effectively moved from selling books online to offer-
ing eBooks on its own reader, the Kindle, while Borders lagged behind and
failed to introduce an eReader.
• Netflix adapted to the world of DVDs offered through mail and video‐
on‐demand, while Blockbuster lagged behind.
• Pandora, a Web‐based music radio provider, repeatedly altered its business
model in response to regulatory and technological changes, while less
nimble competitors lagged behind.
Failure to adapt, of course, has serious consequences: both Borders and
Blockbuster declared bankruptcy. As we saw in the opening case, Nokia found
itself falling behind the more nimble Apple.
It is the ongoing demand for strategic renewal created by an ever-shifting
competitive environment that creates the requirement for organizational change
(see Exhibit 1‐1).
To implement a renewed strategy, organizational leaders need to engage in a

change process.
For strategic renewal to be effective, organizations need to do more than

announce a new strategy. Announcements such as Elop’s determination to revi-
Building a talize Nokia’s lagging mobile phone business in the United States come regularly.
Vocabulary Announcements such as these are useful: they alert employees, customers,
of Change suppliers, and investors to new directions the company plans to take. They are
Organizational not, however, sufficient.
capabilities the
collective talents and
Leaders need to align internal processes, structures, and systems with the
skills of a firm’s demands of that new strategy. New organizational capabilities—talents and
employees. skills possessed by employees—need to be built. Underlying all those shifts is
EXHIBIT 1-1
Strategic
Responsiveness in Company Altered Strategy
Sample Companies. IBM Move from product to service/consulting company
Netflix Move from providing DVDs through the mail to providing streaming,
in‐demand entertainment
Renault Move from French‐based to internationally focused automobile company
Pandora Move from selling through third‐parties to selling directly to end users
Facebook Move from restricted, college campus‐only social network to become a
“universal utility” open to everyone
the requirement to engage in discontinuous change: large‐scale, long‐term reori- Building a

entation of most or all of the central aspects of organizational life.3 The goal is to Vocabulary of
Change
create lasting alterations in patterns of employee behavior in order to support Discontinuous change
strategic renewal. large‐scale, long‐
term reorientation of
most or all of the
THE THREE FACES OF CHANGE central aspects of
organizational life.
We noted at the beginning of the chapter that there are different approaches to
change. Although there are many diverse methods, they can be placed within
one of three broad categories:
1. Turnaround
2. Tools and techniques
3. Transformation
Let’s examine each, and also take note of the overlaps that exist among them.
Not all change is behavioral.
To understand turnaround, look at MySpace. There was a time—the peak

of which was 2005—when MySpace stood at the top of the social networking
heap. Facebook had just emerged from the confines of college campuses, while
major communications conglomerates entered a bidding war for the company
started by Tom Anderson and Chris DeWolfe. However, soon after Rupert
Murdoch’s News Corporation paid $580 million for My Space, Mark Zuckerberg’s
Facebook emerged as its main competitor. By 2009, it was Facebook and not
MySpace that had emerged as the preeminent social networking site. Perhaps it
was complacency or the lack of managerial skills or the clash of cultures between
MySpace and the News Corporation. Whatever the reason, MySpace began a
steep decline. “MySpace was like a big party,” said one media consultant, “and
then the party moved on.”4
MySpace management made attempts to respond redesigns, shifts in focus,
new management, and so forth. Finally, it came time to cut costs. In January 2011,
the company announced the layoff of 500 employees, over 40 percent of its total
workforce. Analysts speculated that the News Corporation might be preparing
Building a
to sell its once prized possession. Vocabulary of
MySpace’s most recent approach to change can be characterized as Change
turnaround. Rather than focusing on new behaviors, turnaround looks at a Turnaround an
company’s assets and seeks to manage them in a new way in order to stabi- attempt to improve
the immediate
lize cash flow, shore up the balance sheet, and maximize shareholder wealth.
financial position of
Turnaround can involve adding assets as well as cutting. During the reces- an organization by
sion, when many companies in the entertainment industry were cutting back, focusing on the
Disney grabbed the opportunity to expand. The company invested $1 billion in income statement
updating its California Adventure Park, purchased Marvel Entertainment for and the balance
sheet.
$4.3 billion and Playdom, a Facebook‐oriented game maker, for $563 million.
6 Chapter 1
This was turnaround by adding rather than subtracting. Disney saw these invest-
ments in assets as a way of ensuring continued performance of the company.
Turnaround may be necessary, but it is not sufficient to ensure long‐term

effective change.
Building a Another nonbehavioral face of change focuses on techniques and tools.5

Vocabulary of Exhibit 1‐2 summarizes a number of change management tools and tech-
Change niques that have been popular in recent years. Attending to techniques and tools
Techniques and tools
without paying at least equal attention to the behavior of employees can be a path
organizational
processes, not just to disappointment but also to dysfunction. When employees participate
mechanics, and other in the design and implementation of new technology, they are more likely to alter
interactions intended their behaviors in ways that will help ensure effectiveness.
to produce a product
or service.
Effective strategic renewal efforts combine aspects of turnaround, tools and

techniques, and transformational behavioral change.
EXHIBIT 1-2
Popular Change
Tools and
Tool Key Points Company Examples
Techniques. Total quality Align operational processes with the Globe Metallurgical, Inc.
management requirement for customer‐defined quality Motorola
and continuous improvement. Westinghouse
Agile A process for product development, mainly GKN Aerospace
development software, based on collaborative cross‐ PNC Financial
functional team effort. Acxiom
Balanced Use of a measurement system that balances VW of Brazil
scorecard financial objectives alongside internal Ricoh
business process, customer satisfaction, and Weichert Relocation
employee learning and growth.
Value‐chain Capture value by linking and coordinating ComputerWorld
integration the primary activities—inbound logistics, IBM Electronics
production, outbound logistics, marketing, Microsoft
and sales—of the organization.
Lean Eliminate activities that do not add value Sealy
from the perspective of the customer. Toyota
Conmed
Considered Ecological impact is considered at Nike
design beginning of new product design process Hewlett‐Packard
rather than as an afterthought Ford
EXHIBIT 1-3
Three Faces
Type Target Rationale of Change.
Turnaround Assets Improve short‐term bottom‐line performance
Tools and techniques Processes Increase internal efficiencies
Transformation Behaviors Enhance human capabilities
The third face of change involves transformation, a change intervention Building a

that directly targets the patterns of employee actions and interactions: how will Vocabulary of
Change
employees work to meet the company’s strategy and to achieve and sustain
Transformation an
outstanding performance. Transformation, which focuses on behaviors, will be intervention
addressed at greater length in the next section and will, in fact, be the main focus designed to alter
for the remainder of the text. patterns of employee
All three faces offer options available to leaders in search of strategic behavior.
renewal (summarized in Exhibit 1‐3). Although leaders may opt to approach
each of these “faces” as separate and independent options, effective change
efforts combine the three. We can now turn our attention to transformation.
TRANSFORMATIONAL CHANGE
If change interventions are to achieve significant and sustainable impact on

performance, they must focus on altering patterns of employee behavior.
It’s easy to think of examples of how organizations might wish to alter the
behaviors of employees:
• Employees accustomed to following orders issued by supervisors might

now have to make decisions on their own.
• Employees used to working as individuals might now have to work as a team.
• Employees, who have been focused purely on technology, might need to
understand the needs and requirements of customers.
• Employees accustomed to working entirely within their own functional
area might have to work collaboratively with people from other functions
and backgrounds.
Behaviors involve how employees conduct themselves at work: what they
do and how they do it, how much effort they bring to their roles, and how com-
mitted they are to achieving desired outcomes.
Behavior also involves how employees work with others: co‐workers, cus-
tomers, suppliers, the host community, and so forth. It is this enactment of roles,
responsibilities, and relationships that constitutes employee behavior in
organizations. The collective enactment of those roles, responsibilities, and rela-
tionships—that is, the patterns of employee behavior within organizations—
constitutes the target of transformational change efforts.
8 Chapter 1
Transformational change seeks more than a short‐term alteration in

behavior. In order to support strategic renewal and outstanding performance,
new behaviors need to be sustainable and adaptive to shifts in the external
environment.
The reason sustainability of new behaviors matters can be stated simply:
the ways in which employees conduct themselves significantly impacts the orga-
nization’s bottom‐line performance.6
Transformational organizational change seeks to create long‐term, sustain-

able alterations in employee behaviors.
Just how does that happen? How is it that of the way employees conduct
themselves at work impacts a company’s bottom‐line performance? The key to
Building a
Vocabulary of
understanding the relationship of behaviors and performance can be found in
Change the idea of motivation.
Motivation the Motivation refers to the degree to which employees are committed to the
degree to which achievement of outstanding performance both for themselves and for their com-
employees are pany. Employee motivation pays off in bottom‐line performance. High motiva-
committed to the
achievement of
tion creates in employees the capability and willingness to work together to
outstanding solve problems. Quality improves, customer responsiveness increases, and
performance both adaptation to shifts in the competitive environment occurs.
for themselves and
for their company. THEORY INTO PRACTICE
Employee motivation pays off in bottom‐line performance.
Chapter 4 will examine in detail the efforts to redesign organizations to

enhance employee motivation. For now, we can suggest that behaviors matter.
The competitive advantage delivered by the conduct of employees can be long
term and sustainable. The manner in which work is organized, information is
shared, decisions are made, coordination occurs, and problems are solved are all
performance differentiators.7 Highly motivated employees can deliver a perfor-
mance edge is sustainable for decades, leading to significant and often stagger-
ing competitive advantage.8
The way employees conduct themselves at work impacts the bottom‐line

performance of the company.
Sources of Behavior
Effective change implementation needs to start with an appreciation of the
sources of an individual employee’s behavior. If the goal of organizational
change is to alter employee behaviors, after all, it is useful to understand why an
employee behaves as he or she does.
Part of that answer resides in the individual psychology of the employee.

Understanding who the individual is, what values he or she brings to the work-
place, even how that individual thinks and learns can help provide insight into
the question of why. But let’s face it, individual psychology can be difficult to
assess and slow to change.
Transformational change demands more than one‐person‐at‐a‐time change.
A leader seeking leverage over the behaviors of many employees can start by
focusing not on individual psychology but on the organizational context in
which employees work.
Behavior comes from both the individual and the organizational context in
which the individual works. Building a
Vocabulary of
Change
Organizational context—the setting and circumstances in which employees Organizational context
work—exerts a powerful impact on behavior. Companies as diverse as the setting and
Apple, General Electric, and Google endeavor to promote an organizational con- circumstances in
which employees
text that shapes individual behavior. They call upon organizational culture and work.
values, the behaviors of leaders, as well as rules and procedures to define a con-
text that shapes employee conduct.
It’s worth remembering that organizational context can produce negative as
well as positive results. It was a context of huge rewards for risk‐taking and win‐
at‐all‐costs that led to the collapse of the financial services industry that triggered
the global recession in 2008. We need to appreciate the power of organizational con-
text to shape behaviors by examining a specific example of an employee mistake.
Sheryl Sandberg, an advertising manager at Google, made a mistake that
cost the company millions of dollars. “Bad decision,” she admitted, “moved too
quickly, no controls in place, wasted some money.”9 Sandberg quickly informed
Google cofounder Larry Page.
Employees make mistakes, even occasionally big ones such as Sandberg’s.
Leaders have an important opportunity to shape organizational context by the
manner in which they respond to those errors. Quick and harsh repercussions—
firing, for example, or demotion—will have one kind of impact on the organiza-
tional context in which employees work. That response may be justified and
reasonable, but it may also work to stifle future risk‐taking behaviors. Or perhaps
employees will be less willing to admit mistakes, slowing down an organization’s
response time.
The boss may also respond in a less harsh and punishing manner. Listen to
the reaction of Google cofounder Larry Page, to Sandberg’s admission:
I’m so glad you made this mistake, because I want to run a company
where we are moving too quickly and doing too much, not being too
cautious and doing too little. If we don’t have any of these mistakes,
we’re not taking enough risk.
The point is not that Page’s response is the only “correct” or reasonable
response to the admission of a mistake. Leaders have to determine what type of
10 Chapter 1
organizational context they seek to create. That context will need to be aligned
with the company’s strategy and purpose.
Page and Google cofounder Sergey Brin believed that mistakes could pro-
vide fuel for improvements, even innovation. “We’re willing to tolerate ambigu-
ity and chaos,” said senior vice president Shona Brown, “because that’s where
the room is for innovation.” Google’s leaders wanted a context that tolerated risk
in order to generate innovation.
EMPLOYEE PARTICIPATION AND RESISTANCE TO CHANGE

Building a
Vocabulary of
Not all employees greet change with equal enthusiasm. It is useful, therefore, to
Change examine the sources of employee resistance to change and the ways in which
Resistance efforts managers can overcome resistance. Resistance refers to action, overt or covert,
exerted by exerted on behalf of maintaining the status quo.10
employees either
overtly or covertly to
maintain the status
Why Employees Resist Change
quo. You’re either for this change or you’re against it. That refrain may be familiar; it is
not, however, accurate. Employee response to change is not either/or, not “for”
or “against.” Instead, it runs across a broad spectrum, ranging from “commit-
ment” at one end to “aggressive resistance” on the other (see Exhibit 1‐4). Each of
these reactions to change helps shape the behavior of individuals and, ultimately,
the success of a change effort.
Employees do not naturally resist change, but they often resist change because
of the way change is implemented.
EXHIBIT 1-4
Continuum of
Individual Response Commitment Involves a strong emotional attachment to the goals of
to Change. the organization and the aims of the change effort
Involvement Involves a willingness to participate in the behaviors, being
called for by the change effort
Based on Leon Support Involves speaking on behalf of the change effort without
Coetsee, “From taking any other explicit actions to promote the effort
Resistance to Apathy Represents a neutral zone in which individuals know
Commitment”; about the change effort and engage in no behavior either
Public Affairs to support or oppose it
Quarterly (Summer Passive resistance A mild form of opposition that involves a willingness to
1999), pp. 204–222. voice reservation or even threatening to resign if the
change goes through
Active resistance Involves behaviors that block or impede change, usually
by behaving in ways that contradict the goals of the
change effort
Aggressive resistance Involves purposeful sabotage and subversion of the
change effort
Managers can try to understand the reasons behind employee resistance to

change.
Most attention to employee resistance has focused on how to avoid or, failing
that, overcome it; which is to say, how to get employees “on board” change efforts.
Managers can see employee resistance in negative terms: it is a “bad thing” that
represents an irrational response to a dynamic competitive environment. In this
way, employee resistance can be dismissed as invalid or disobedient.11 Resistance
to change, in this view, is a force to be overcome.
There is another way of thinking about resistance to change, however; one
that may actually improve the effectiveness of implementation.
Employee resistance is not just a negative force to be overcome; it also presents

an opportunity to learn.
How Managers Can Inadvertently Fuel Resistance During

Implementation
It is tempting to believe that a certain type of individual is likely to resist change.
Perhaps you’ve heard, or even thought, ideas such as:
• Older workers are more likely to resist change than are younger workers.
• Middle managers are more likely to resist change than lower‐level workers or
higher‐level executives.
• Men are more likely to resist change than women.
Don’t believe these explanations.
Study after study of employee resistance to change in organizations refutes
these and other contentions that certain types of individuals are more likely to
resist change than others. Individual differences may account for some vari-
ance in employee acceptance of or resistance to change. But the overwhelming
determinant of employee reaction to change comes from how the process is
managed and the degree to which employees are allowed to participate in the
process.12
Resistance or acceptance of change depends mainly on how the change is

implemented.
Managers do not set out to create resistance, of course, but do just the opp-
osite. They believe that the proposed changes are being made for the good of the
company and that employees will accept the need for change. Still, the manner in
12 Chapter 1
which change is implemented can have that effect. Here’s a checklist of employee
resistance and possible sources of that resistance:13
• Employees resist because they remain satisfied with the status quo. Perhaps
management has not included employees in the diagnosis and learning
process.
• Employees resist because they view change as a personal threat. Perhaps
management has not offered employees the opportunity to acquire the new
skills that will be required in the renewed organization.
• Employees resist because they see the cost of change outweighing the ben-
efits. Perhaps management has not articulated the goals of the change
adequately to allow a true assessment of the costs and benefits.
• Employees resist because they believe that management is mishandling
the process. Perhaps employees have not been given a voice in the process
itself.
• Employees resist because they believe that the change effort is not likely to
succeed. Perhaps management needs to articulate why this change pro-
cess is more likely to be effective than past efforts.
By looking at that checklist, we can see how often employee resistance can
be understood in part as a natural and expected outcome of implementation.
Participation in the change process is the best way to build support and over-
come resistance to change; but remember—it is no guarantee.
In treating employee resistance as a negative force to be overcome, manag-

ers risk shutting down the possibility that they can learn from resistance. When
employee voice has been excluded from the change process, there is likely to be
valuable data missing from the diagnostic and action planning phases of the
effort. Employees may ask whether management really understands what cus-
tomers expect from their products or services or what barriers the organization
has erected to outstanding performance.
Even when employees question whether management has selected an
appropriate strategic response, it is important for managers to learn about
employee hesitations and concerns. Instead of treating resistance as a force to be
overcome, managers may decide to treat resistance as an opportunity to learn
from employees and improve the change process.
Employee resistance can offer leaders the opportunity to learn.
Not all resistance to change offers an equal opportunity to learn, of course.

Eventually, resistance will have to be addressed and overcome. But when? At what
point does resistance to change stop presenting an opportunity to learn and start
being a barrier to overcome? We will address that question in Chapter 2. For now,
let us understand employee resistance as a form of expression that is not always a
bad thing and that needs to be considered and understood by change leaders.
There comes a point in the change process where employee resistance will
need to be addressed and overcome.
Employee Participation Builds Support for Change

Change imposed from “above”—top executives telling employees that they must
alter their behaviors in order to implement a new strategy or perform better under
the old strategy—is likely to engender resistance. Employees often feel that they are
being excluded from discussions of how best to respond to competitive pressures.
Building a
Just as there are ways in which a change implementation process may inad- Vocabulary of
vertently fuel resistance to change, there are also techniques for building support. Change
Participation in the process of defining problems and designing solutions will Participation the
help build commitment to the new directions that result from that process.14 By process of allowing
employees a voice in
diagnosing problems, understanding their importance, and being part of the
work‐related
process of formulating solutions, people develop a psychological sense of “own- decisions.
ership” over the outcome. That ownership now creates in employees the height-
ened motivation to implement change in order to achieve desired goals.15
The difficult challenge for managers, then, becomes how and when to engage
employees in the process of diagnosis, problem solving, and planning for change.
People don’t resist change, they resist being changed.
Imposed change encourages resistance. Individuals can feel manipulated,

coerced, or even ignored. When people participate in designing change, on the
other hand, they are more likely to feel they are making an informed choice
about altering their behaviors. Individuals can develop commitment to the
choice as well as feeling responsibility for implementing that choice. When peo-
ple participate in the design of change (in the diagnosis, action planning, and
implementation stages), they will be more motivated to alter their behaviors.
And, to emphasize a point made earlier, employee motivation matters.
New behaviors will not be sustainable if they have been prompted by manipula-
tion or coercion. Effective change does not seek to fool employees into setting
aside their better judgment. Rather, it seeks to encourage employees to find con-
tinually new and improved ways of applying their better judgment. How can
internal processes be improved? What are customers telling employees about
our products and services? How might we eliminate waste and improve quality?
To support behaviors that can sustain outstanding performance, effective change
14 Chapter 1
efforts avoid manipulation and coercion, aiming instead to enhance employee

willingness and ability to contribute their own judgment.
Transformational change seeks to motivate employees to change their behaviors;

not to force, coerce, or trick them into changing.
Because motivation is internal to each employee, the manager’s challenge is

complex. The task involves shaping the organizational context in such a way as to
encourage and support an internal desire on a large number of employees to alter
their behaviors in ways consistent with the shifting demands of the new strategy.
Building a
Vocabulary of TRIGGER EVENTS AND CHANGE
Change
Trigger event a shift Organizational change is typically initiated in response to a trigger event—a shift
in the environment in the environment that creates a need for altered strategies and new patterns of
that precipitates a
employee behavior. For Nokia, the trigger event was the launch and overwhelm-
need for
organizational ing public enthusiasm for the iPhone. Often, the arrival of a new CEO—Anne
change. Mulcahy at Xerox, Patricia Woertz at Archer Daniels Midland, and Carlos Ghosn
at Nisan, for example—triggers a demand for change. The world‐wide recession
of 2008–2009 triggered a requirement in a wide range of companies—financial,
manufacturing, service providers among them—to reconsider their strategies.
Trigger events, says Lynn Isabella, “are so named because their magnitude
and potential for organizational as well as personal impact set into motion a
series of mental shifts as individuals strive to understand and redefine a situa-
tion. By their very nature, they unbalance established routines and evoke con-
scious thought on the part of organizational members. They stir up feelings and
emotions that come to affect people’s reactions to the change. In short, trigger
events bring people’s mindsets into the arena of change.”16
Trigger events, either external or internal to an organization, precipitate the

need to alter behavioral patterns of employees.
GOING GLOBAL AND THE REQUIREMENT FOR ORGANIZATIONAL

CHANGE
When organizations “go global,” they may mean one or more of several changes:
• They may seek to outsource certain activities that had previously been per-
formed in the home country. For example, a company moves its customer
Help Desk operation from the United States to India.
• They may seek to enter new, nondomestic markets. For example, a
U.K.‐based grocery store chain seeks to open outlets in the United States.
• They may seek nondomestic suppliers for needed raw materials. For exam-
ple, a food processor in Russia seeks wheat supplies in the United States.
• They may seek strategic alliances with related companies in other coun-
tries. For example, a French‐based car manufacturer enters into an alliance
with a large Japanese company.
• They may seek to locate research and development activities in multiple
nations as a way of better understanding the needs of nondomestic custom-
ers. For example, a Brazilian‐based jet manufacturer opens a market
research office in the United States.
These are among the numerous variations on what it might mean for an
organization to “go global.” As varied as the opportunities are, what they all
have in common is this: going global will require organizational change.
”Going global” takes many forms, and they all require organizational change. Building a
Vocabulary of
Change
Psychic distance
Anytime an organization embraces multiple national cultures, it adds a differences in
degree of sociocultural diversity and uncertainty. This complexity is the result of culture, language,
what is known as psychic distance.17 Differences exist not only in culture, but and the political–
also in language, and the political–economic–legal infrastructure of countries. In economic–legal
later chapters, we will discuss the specific implications for organizational change infrastructure of
countries that add to
when multiple countries are involved. The point now is that organizations will the complexity of
need to develop new structures, new ways of thinking, and new ways of behav- managing across
ing if they are going to be successful operating in a global arena. national borders.
Conclusion
Strategic responsiveness to a dynamic environ- change leaders. By allowing employees to
ment requires organizational change. Change, participate in the formulation of change plans,
however, is not a singular concept. The three however, leaders will increase employee owner-
faces of change suggest that change leaders face ship over and support for those efforts.
options. Turnaround addresses the need to Trigger events—either discontinuities in
improve the balance sheet. Tools and techniques a firm’s competitive environment, new leader-
focus on improved processes. By themselves, ship, or a combination of the two—precipitate
however, neither will achieve the full, intended the requirement for strategic renewal and
impact of strategic renewal. Effective change organizational change. One of the most common
will also require attention to employee behav- trigger events is when organizations go global,
iors—patterns of action and interaction—no less dealing with people and organizations in multi-
than financial and technological effectiveness. ple cultures.
Not all employees will greet change efforts Recognizing the requirement for change
with equal enthusiasm. Employee resistance and being able to manage change effectively are,
arises from a number of sources, some internal of course, two different matters. Chapter 2 will
to individual employees and others externally examine the theoretical underpinnings of effec-
located in the implementation processes of tive change implementation.
16 Chapter 1
Discussion Questions
1. Review Exhibit 1‐1. Select one of the companies. 4. Identify the main external forces triggering the
Based on the brief statement of its renewed strat- requirement for organizational change. Pick any
egy (or research the company for further details), three and discuss how they might necessitate
think about how patterns of employee behavior behavioral change on the part of organizational
will have to change. employees.
2. Explore the challenges facing Stephen Elop at 5. Why is motivation important to behavioral
Nokia. What can he do to revitalize the company change? How might leaders approach change dif-
in the U.S. smartphone market? ferently if they are trying to motivate employees
3. What are the three approaches to organizational to change rather than forcing employees to
change? In what ways are they different, and in change?
what ways do they overlap?
Case Discussion
Read “The ASDA Way of Working” and prepare answers to the following questions:
1. What are the types of changes that Archie Norman needs to undertake at ASDA?
2. Referring to Exhibit 1‐3, what faces of change does ASDA need to engage?
3. What actions can Norman and his top management team take to build employee motivation to engage in
change?
THE ASDA WAY OF WORKING

ASDA, the grocery store chain that Archie Norman had just been hired to lead,
teetered on the edge on bankruptcy.18 While ASDA had enjoyed a long run of
success in the United Kingdom, upscale competitors and down‐market deep
discounters had sharply eroded its customer base. Norman, an outsider to ASDA
who had never run any retailing operation, believed that ASDA could not afford
the luxury of piecemeal or incremental improvement. Everything about the
organization—from the way they purchased and displayed products to the way
store managers interacted with shop floor employees—would have to change.
Everything.
Company Background
With 65,000 employees in 205 ASDA stores and another 2,000 at corporate head-
quarters, ASDA was the fourth largest grocery store chain in the United
Kingdom. ASDA enjoyed annual sales of $6 billion† and claimed 8 percent of the
supermarket business, ranking fourth in market share.
Starting in the late 1960s, ASDA pioneered the concept of large super-
markets located outside of downtown areas with expansive parking lots and
low prices. Flourishing particularly in working‐class areas, ASDA became
†
All figures are given in equivalent U.S. dollars.
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national endeavour. England was calling her men into battle, her
women to the bedsides of the wounded and dying, and between
these two chivalrous, surging forces she, Stephen, might well be
crushed out of existence—of less use to her country, she was, than
Brockett. She stared at her bony masculine hands, they had never
been skilful when it came to illness; strong they might be, but rather
inept; not hands wherewith to succour the wounded. No, assuredly
her job, if job she could find, would not lie at the bedsides of the
wounded. And yet, good God, one must do something!
Going to the door she called in the servants: ‘I’m leaving for
England in a few days,’ she told them, ‘and while I’m away you’ll take
care of this house. I have absolute confidence in you.’
Pierre said: ‘All things shall be done as you would wish,
Mademoiselle.’ And she knew that it would be so.
That evening she told Puddle of her decision, and Puddle’s face
brightened: ‘I’m so glad, my dear, when war comes one ought to
stand by one’s country.’
‘I’m afraid they won’t want my sort . . .’ Stephen muttered.
Puddle put a firm little hand over hers: ‘I wouldn’t be too sure of
that, this war may give your sort of woman her chance. I think you
may find that they’ll need you, Stephen.’
There were no farewells to be said in Paris except those to Buisson

and Mademoiselle Duphot.
Mademoiselle Duphot shed a few tears: ‘I find you only to lose
you, Stévenne. Ah, but how many friends will be parted, perhaps for
ever, by this terrible war—and yet what else could we do? We are
blameless!’
In Berlin people were also saying: ‘What else could we do? We
are blameless!’
Julie’s hand lingered on Stephen’s arm: ‘You feel so strong,’ she
said, sighing a little, ‘it is good to be strong and courageous these
days, and to have one’s eyes—alas, I am quite useless.’
‘No one is useless who can pray, my sister,’ reproved
Mademoiselle almost sternly.
And indeed there were many who thought as she did, the
churches were crowded all over France. A great wave of piety swept
through Paris, filling the dark confessional boxes, so that the priests
had now some ado to cope with such shoals of penitent people—the
more so as every priest fit to fight had been summoned to join the
army. Up at Montmartre the church of the Sacré Cœur echoed and
re-echoed with the prayers of the faithful, while those prayers that
were whispered with tears in secret, hung like invisible clouds round
its altars.
‘Save us, most Sacred Heart of Jesus. Have pity upon us, have
pity upon France. Save us, oh, Heart of Jesus!’
So all day long must the priests sit and hear the time-honoured
sins of body and spirit; a monotonous hearing because of its
sameness, since nothing is really new under the sun, least of all our
manner of sinning. Men who had not been to Mass for years, now
began to remember their first Communion; thus it was that many a
hardy blasphemer, grown suddenly tongue-tied and rather sheepish,
clumped up to the altar in his new army boots, having made an
embarrassed confession.
Young clericals changed into uniform and marched side by side
with the roughest Poilus, to share in their hardships, their hopes,
their terrors, their deeds of supremest valour. Old men bowed their
heads and gave of the strength which no longer animated their
bodies, gave of that strength through the bodies of their sons who
would charge into battle shouting and singing. Women of all ages
knelt down and prayed, since prayer has long been the refuge of
women. ‘No one is useless who can pray, my sister.’ The women of
France had spoken through the lips of the humble Mademoiselle
Duphot.
Stephen and Puddle said good-bye to the sisters, then went on to
Buisson’s Academy of Fencing, where they found him engaged upon
greasing his foils.
He looked up, ‘Ah, it’s you. I must go on greasing. God knows
when I shall use these again, to-morrow I join my regiment.’ But he
wiped his hands on a stained overall and sat down, after clearing a
chair for Puddle. ‘An ungentlemanly war it will be,’ he grumbled. ‘Will
I lead my men with a sword? Ah, but no! I will lead my men with a
dirty revolver in my hand. Parbleu! Such is modern warfare! A
machine could do the whole cursèd thing better—we shall all be
nothing but machines in this war. However, I pray that we may kill
many Germans.’
Stephen lit a cigarette while the master glared, he was evidently
in a very vile temper: ‘Go on, go on, smoke your heart to the devil,
then come here and ask me to teach you fencing! You smoke in
lighting one from the other, you remind me of your horrible
Birmingham chimneys—but of course a woman exaggerates
always,’ he concluded, with an evident wish to annoy her.
Then he made a few really enlightening remarks about Germans
in general, their appearance, their morals, above all their personal
habits—which remarks were more seemly in French than they would
be in English. For, like Valérie Seymour, this man was filled with a
loathing for the ugliness of his epoch, an ugliness to which he felt the
Germans were just now doing their best to contribute. Buisson’s
heart was not buried in Mitylene, but rather in the glories of a bygone
Paris, where a gentleman lived by the skill of his rapier and the
graceful courage that lay behind it.
‘In the old days we killed very beautifully,’ sighed Buisson, ‘now
we merely slaughter or else do not kill at all, no matter how gross the
insult.’
However, when they got up to go, he relented: ‘War is surely a
very necessary evil, it thins down the imbecile populations who have
murdered their most efficacious microbes. People will not die, very
well, here comes war to mow them down in their tens of thousands.
At least for those of us who survive, there will be more breathing
space, thanks to the Germans—perhaps they too are a necessary
evil.’
Arrived at the door Stephen turned to look back. Buisson was
once more greasing his foils, and his fingers moved slowly yet with
great precision—he might almost have been a beauty doctor
engaged upon massaging ladies’ faces.
Preparations for departure did not take very long, and in less than
a week’s time Stephen and Puddle had shaken hands with their
Breton servants, and were driving at top speed en route for Havre,
from whence they would cross to England.
Puddle’s prophecy proved to have been correct, work was very

soon forthcoming for Stephen. She joined The London Ambulance
Column, which was well under way by that autumn; and presently
Puddle herself got a job in one of the Government departments. She
and Stephen had taken a small service flat in Victoria, and here they
would meet when released from their hours of duty. But Stephen was
obsessed by her one idea, which was, willy-nilly, to get out to the
front, and many and varied were the plans and discussions that were
listened to by the sympathetic Puddle. An ambulance had managed
to slip over to Belgium for a while and had done some very fine
service. Stephen had hit on a similar idea, but in her case the
influence required had been lacking. In vain did she offer to form a
Unit at her own expense; the reply was polite but always the same, a
monotonous reply: England did not send women to the front line
trenches. She disliked the idea of joining the throng who tormented
the patient passport officials with demands to be sent out to France
at once, on no matter how insufficient a pretext. What was the use of
her going to France unless she could find there the work that she
wanted? She preferred to stick to her job in England.
And now quite often while she waited at the stations for the
wounded, she would see unmistakable figures—unmistakable to her
they would be at first sight, she would single them out of the crowd
as by instinct. For as though gaining courage from the terror that is
war, many a one who was even as Stephen, had crept out of her
hole and come into the daylight, come into the daylight and faced her
country: ‘Well, here I am, will you take me or leave me?’ And
England had taken her, asking no questions—she was strong and
efficient, she could fill a man’s place, she could organize too, given
scope for her talent. England had said: ‘Thank you very much.
You’re just what we happen to want . . . at the moment.’
So, side by side with more fortunate women, worked Miss Smith
who had been breeding dogs in the country; or Miss Oliphant who
had been breeding nothing since birth but a litter of hefty complexes;
or Miss Tring who had lived with a very dear friend in the humbler
purlieus of Chelsea. One great weakness they all had, it must be
admitted, and this was for uniforms—yet why not? The good
workman is worthy of his Sam Browne belt. And then too, their
nerves were not at all weak, their pulses beat placidly through the
worst air raids, for bombs do not trouble the nerves of the invert, but
rather that terrible silent bombardment from the batteries of God’s
good people.
Yet now even really nice women with hairpins often found their
less orthodox sisters quite useful. It would be: ‘Miss Smith, do just
start up my motor—the engine’s so cold I can’t get the thing going;’
or: ‘Miss Oliphant, do glance through these accounts, I’ve got such a
rotten bad head for figures;’ or: ‘Miss Tring, may I borrow your British
Warm? The office is simply arctic this morning!’
Not that those purely feminine women were less worthy of praise,
perhaps they were more so, giving as they did of their best without
stint—for they had no stigma to live down in the war, no need to
defend their right to respect. They rallied to the call of their country
superbly, and may it not be forgotten by England. But the others—
since they too gave of their best, may they also not be forgotten.
They might look a bit odd, indeed some of them did, and yet in the
streets they were seldom stared at, though they strode a little,
perhaps from shyness, or perhaps from a slightly self-conscious
desire to show off, which is often the same thing as shyness. They
were part of the universal convulsion and were being accepted as
such, on their merits. And although their Sam Browne belts remained
swordless, their hats and their caps without regimental badges, a
battalion was formed in those terrible years that would never again
be completely disbanded. War and death had given them a right to
life, and life tasted sweet, very sweet to their palates. Later on would
come bitterness, disillusion, but never again would such women
submit to being driven back to their holes and corners. They had
found themselves—thus the whirligig of war brings in its abrupt
revenges.
Time passed; the first year of hostilities became the second while
Stephen still hoped, though no nearer to her ambition. Try as she
might she could not get to the front; no work at the actual front
seemed to be forthcoming for women.
Brockett wrote wonderfully cheerful letters. In every letter was a
neat little list telling Stephen what he wished her to send him; but the
sweets he loved were getting quite scarce, they were no longer
always so easy to come by. And now he was asking for Houbigant
soap to be included in his tuck-box.
‘Don’t let it get near the coffee fondants or it may make them
taste like it smells,’ he cautioned, ‘and do try to send me two bottles
of hair-wash, “Eau Athénienne,” I used to buy it at Truefitt’s.’ He was
on a perfectly damnable front, they had sent him to Mesopotamia.
Violet Peacock, who was now a V.A.D. with a very imposing Red
Cross on her apron, occasionally managed to catch Stephen at
home, and then would come reams of tiresome gossip. Sometimes
she would bring her over-fed children along, she was stuffing them
up like capons. By fair means or foul Violet always managed to
obtain illicit cream for her nursery—she was one of those mothers
who reacted to the war by wishing to kill off the useless aged.
‘What’s the good of them? Eating up the food of the nation!’ she
would say, ‘I’m going all out on the young, they’ll be needed to breed
from.’ She was very extreme, her perspective had been upset by the
air raids.
Raids frightened her as did the thought of starvation, and when
frightened she was apt to grow rather sadistic, so that now she
would want to rush off and inspect every ruin left by the German
marauders. She had also been the first to applaud the dreadful
descent of a burning Zeppelin.
She bored Stephen intensely with her ceaseless prattle about
Alec, who was one of London’s defenders, about Roger, who had got
the Military Cross and was just on the eve of becoming a major,
about the wounded whose faces she sponged every morning, and
who seemed so pathetically grateful.
From Morton came occasional letters for Puddle; they were more
in the nature of reports now these letters. Anna had such and such a
number of cases; the gardeners had been replaced by young
women; Mr. Percival was proving very devoted, he and Anna were
holding the estate well together; Williams had been seriously ill with
pneumonia. Then a long list of humble names from the farms, from
among Anna’s staff or from cottage homesteads, together with those
from such houses as Morton—for the rich and the poor were in death
united. Stephen would read that long list of names, so many of which
she had known since her childhood, and would realize that the stark
arm of war had struck deep at the quiet heart of the Midlands.
BOOK FOUR
CHAPTER 35
A stump of candle in the neck of a bottle flickered once or twice

and threatened to go out. Getting up, Stephen found a fresh
candle and lit it, then she returned to her packing-case upon which
had been placed the remnants of a chair minus its legs and arms.
The room had once been the much prized salon of a large and
prosperous villa in Compiègne, but now the glass was gone from its
windows; there remained only battered and splintered shutters which
creaked eerily in the bitter wind of a March night in 1918. The walls
of the salon had fared little better than its windows, their brocade
was detached and hanging, while a recent rainstorm had lashed
through the roof making ugly splotches on the delicate fabric—a dark
stain on the ceiling was perpetually dripping. The remnants of what
had once been a home, little broken tables, an old photograph in a
tarnished frame, a child’s wooden horse, added to the infinite
desolation of this villa that now housed the Breakspeare Unit—a Unit
composed of Englishwomen, that had been serving in France just
over six months, attached to the French Army Ambulance Corps.
The place seemed full of grotesquely large shadows cast by
figures that sat or sprawled on the floor. Miss Peel in her Jaeger
sleeping-bag snored loudly, then choked because of her cold. Miss
Delmé-Howard was gravely engaged upon making the best of a
difficult toilet—she was brushing out her magnificent hair which
gleamed in the light of the candle. Miss Bless was sewing a button
on her tunic; Miss Thurloe was peering at a half-finished letter; but
most of the women who were herded together in this, the safest
place in the villa and none too safe at that be it said, were apparently
sleeping quite soundly. An uncanny stillness had descended on the
town; after many hours of intensive bombardment, the Germans
were having a breathing space before training their batteries once
more upon Compiègne.
Stephen stared down at the girl who lay curled up at her feet in
an army blanket. The girl slept the sleep of complete exhaustion,
breathing heavily with her head on her arm; her pale and rather
triangular face was that of some one who was still very young, not
much more than nineteen or twenty. The pallor of her skin was
accentuated by the short black lashes which curled back abruptly, by
the black arched eyebrows and dark brown hair—sleek hair which
grew to a peak on the forehead, and had recently been bobbed for
the sake of convenience. For the rest her nose was slightly tip-tilted,
and her mouth resolute considering her youth; the lips were well-
modelled and fine in texture, having deeply indented corners. For
more than a minute Stephen considered the immature figure of Mary
Llewellyn. This latest recruit to the Breakspeare Unit had joined it
only five weeks ago, replacing a member who was suffering from
shell-shock. Mrs. Breakspeare had shaken her head over Mary, but
in these harassed days of the German offensive she could not afford
to remain short-handed, so in spite of many misgivings she had kept
her.
Still shaking her head she had said to Stephen: ‘Needs must
when the Bodies get busy, Miss Gordon! Have an eye to her, will
you? She may stick it all right, but between you and me I very much
doubt it. You might try her out as your second driver.’ And so far
Mary Llewellyn had stuck it.
Stephen looked away again, closing her eyes, and after a while
forgot about Mary. The events that had preceded her own coming to
France, began to pass through her brain in procession. Her chief in
The London Ambulance Column, through whom she had first met
Mrs. Claude Breakspeare—a good sort, the chief, she had been a
staunch friend. The great news that she, Stephen, had been
accepted and would go to the front as an ambulance driver. Then
Puddle’s grave face: ‘I must write to your mother, this means that
you will be in real danger.’ Her mother’s brief letter: ‘Before you leave
I should very much like you to come and see me,’ the rest of the
letter mere polite empty phrases. The impulse to resist, the longing
to go, culminating in that hurried visit to Morton. Morton so changed
and yet so changeless. Changed because of those blue-clad figures,
the lame, the halt and the partially blinded who had sought its peace
and its kindly protection. Changeless because that protection and
peace belonged to the very spirit of Morton. Mrs. Williams a widow;
her niece melancholic ever since the groom Jim had been wounded
and missing—they had married while he had been home on leave,
and quite soon the poor soul was expecting a baby. Williams now
dead of his third and last stroke, after having survived pneumonia.
The swan called Peter no longer gliding across the lake on his white
reflection, and in his stead an unmannerly offspring who struck out
with his wings and tried to bite Stephen. The family vault where her
father lay buried—the vault was in urgent need of repair—‘No men
left, Miss Stephen, we’re that short of stonemasons; her ladyship’s
bin complainin’ already, but it don’t be no use complainin’ these
times.’ Raftery’s grave—a slab of rough granite: ‘In memory of a
gentle and courageous friend, whose name was Raftery, after the
poet.’ Moss on the granite half effacing the words; the thick hedge
growing wild for the want of clipping. And her mother—a woman with
snow-white hair and a face that was worn almost down to the spirit; a
woman of quiet but uncertain movements, with a new trick of twisting
the rings on her fingers. ‘It was good of you to come.’ ‘You sent for
me, Mother.’ Long silences filled with the realization that all they
dared hope for was peace between them—too late to go back—they
could not retrace their steps even though there was now peace
between them. Then those last poignant moments in the study
together—memory, the old room was haunted by it—a man dying
with love in his eyes that was deathless—a woman holding him in
her arms, speaking words such as lovers will speak to each other.
Memory—they’re the one perfect thing about me. ‘Stephen, promise
to write when you’re out in France, I shall want to hear from you.’ ‘I
promise, Mother.’ The return to London; Puddle’s anxious voice:
‘Well, how was she?’ ‘Very frail, you must go to Morton.’ Puddle’s
sudden and almost fierce rebellion: ‘I would rather not go, I’ve made
my choice, Stephen.’ ‘But I ask this for my sake, I’m worried about
her—even if I weren’t going away, I couldn’t go back now and live at
Morton—our living together would make us remember.’ ‘I remember
too, Stephen, and what I remember is hard to forgive. It’s hard to
forgive an injury done to some one one loves. . . .’ Puddle’s face,
very white, very stern—strange to hear such words as these on the
kind lips of Puddle. ‘I know, I know, but she’s terribly alone, and I
can’t forget that my father loved her.’ A long silence, and then: ‘I’ve
never yet failed you—and you’re right—I must go to Morton.’
Stephen’s thoughts stopped abruptly. Some one had come in and
was stumping down the room in squeaky trench boots. It was
Blakeney holding the time-sheet in her hand—funny old
monosyllabic Blakeney, with her curly white hair cropped as close as
an Uhlan’s, and her face that suggested a sensitive monkey.
‘Service, Gordon; wake the kid! Howard—Thurloe—ready?’
They got up and hustled into their trench coats, found their gas
masks and finally put on their helmets.
Then Stephen shook Mary Llewellyn very gently: ‘It’s time.’
Mary opened her clear, grey eyes: ‘Who? What?’ she
stammered.
‘It’s time. Get up, Mary.’
The girl staggered to her feet, still stupid with fatigue. Through
the cracks in the shutters the dawn showed faintly.
The grey of a bitter, starved-looking morning. The town like a

mortally wounded creature, torn by shells, gashed open by bombs.
Dead streets—streets of death—death in streets and their houses;
yet people still able to sleep and still sleeping.
‘Stephen.’
‘Yes, Mary?’
‘How far is the Poste?’
‘I think about thirty kilometres; why?’
‘Oh, nothing—I only wondered.’
The long stretch of an open country road. On either side of the
road wire netting hung with pieces of crudely painted rag—a
camouflage this to represent leaves. A road bordered by rag leaves
on tall wire hedges. Every few yards or so a deep shell-hole.
‘Are they following, Mary? Is Howard all right?’
The girl glanced back: ‘Yes, it’s all right, she’s coming.’
They drove on in silence for a couple of miles. The morning was
terribly cold; Mary shivered. ‘What’s that?’ It was rather a foolish
question for she knew what it was, knew only too well!
‘They’re at it again,’ Stephen muttered.
A shell burst in a paddock, uprooting some trees. ‘All right,
Mary?’
‘Yes—look out! We’re coming to a crater!’ They skimmed it by
less than an inch and dashed on, Mary suddenly moving nearer to
Stephen.
‘Don’t joggle my arm, for the Lord’s sake, child!’
‘Did I? I’m sorry.’
‘Yes—don’t do it again,’ and once more they drove forward in
silence.
Farther down the road they were blocked by a farm cart:
‘Militaires! Militaires! Militaires!’ Stephen shouted.
Rather languidly the farmer got down and went to the heads of
his thin, stumbling horses. ‘Il faut vivre,’ he explained, as he pointed
to the cart, which appeared to be full of potatoes.
In a field on the right worked three very old women; they were
hoeing with a diligent and fatalistic patience. At any moment a stray
shell might burst and then, presto! little left of the very old women.
But what will you? There is war—there has been war so long—one
must eat, even under the noses of the Germans; the bon Dieu knows
this, He alone can protect—so meanwhile one just goes on diligently
hoeing. A blackbird was singing to himself in a tree, the tree was
horribly maimed and blasted; all the same he had known it the
previous spring and so now, in spite of its wounds, he had found it.
Came a sudden lull when they heard him distinctly.
And Mary saw him: ‘Look,’ she said, ‘there’s a blackbird!’ Just for
a moment she forgot about war.
Yet Stephen could now very seldom forget, and this was because
of the girl at her side. A queer, tight feeling would come round her
heart, she would know the fear that can go hand in hand with
personal courage, the fear for another.
But now she looked down for a moment and smiled: ‘Bless that
blackbird for letting you see him, Mary.’ She knew that Mary loved
little, wild birds, that indeed she loved all the humbler creatures.
They turned into a lane and were comparatively safe, but the roar
of the guns had grown much more insistent. They must be nearing
the Poste de Secours, so they spoke very little because of those
guns, and after a while because of the wounded.
The Poste de Secours was a ruined auberge at the cross-roads,

about fifty yards behind the trenches. From what had once been its
spacious cellar, they were hurriedly carrying up the wounded,
maimed and mangled creatures who, a few hours ago, had been
young and vigorous men. None too gently the stretchers were
lowered to the ground beside the two waiting ambulances—none too
gently because there were so many of them, and because there
must come a time in all wars when custom stales even compassion.
The wounded were patient and fatalistic, like the very old women
back in the field. The only difference between them being that the
men had themselves become as a field laid bare to a ruthless and
bloody hoeing. Some of them had not even a blanket to protect them
from the biting cold of the wind. A Poilu with a mighty wound in the
belly, must lie with the blood congealing on the bandage. Next to him
lay a man with his face half blown away, who, God alone knew why,
remained conscious. The abdominal case was the first to be
handled, Stephen herself helped to lift his stretcher. He was probably
dying, but he did not complain except inasmuch as he wanted his
mother. The voice that emerged from his coarse, bearded throat was
the voice of a child demanding its mother. The man with the terrible
face tried to speak, but when he did so the sound was not human.
His bandage had slipped a little to one side, so that Stephen must
step between him and Mary, and hastily readjust the bandage.
‘Get back to the ambulance! I shall want you to drive.’
In silence Mary obeyed her.
And now began the first of those endless journeys from the Poste
de Secours to the Field Hospital. For twenty-four hours they would
ply back and forth with their light Ford ambulances. Driving quickly
because the lives of the wounded might depend on their speed, yet
with every nerve taut to avoid, as far as might be, the jarring of the
hazardous roads full of ruts and shell-holes.
The man with the shattered face started again, they could hear
him above the throb of the motor. For a moment they stopped while
Stephen listened, but his lips were not there . . . an intolerable
sound.
‘Faster, drive faster, Mary!’
Pale, but with firmly set, resolute mouth, Mary Llewellyn drove
faster.
When at last they reached the Field Hospital, the bearded Poilu
with the wound in his belly was lying very placidly on his stretcher;
his hairy chin pointing slightly upward. He had ceased to speak as a
little child—perhaps, after all, he had found his mother.
The day went on and the sun shone out brightly, dazzling the
tired eyes of the drivers. Dusk fell, and the roads grew treacherous
and vague. Night came—they dared not risk having lights, so that
they must just stare and stare into the darkness. In the distance the
sky turned ominously red, some stray shells might well have set fire
to a village, that tall column of flame was probably the church; and
the Boches were punishing Compiègne again, to judge from the
heavy sounds of bombardment. Yet by now there was nothing real in
the world but that thick and almost impenetrable darkness, and the
ache of the eyes that must stare and stare, and the dreadful, patient
pain of the wounded—there had never been anything else in the
world but black night shot through with the pain of the wounded.
On the following morning the two ambulances crept back to their

base at the villa in Compiègne. It had been a tough job, long hours of
strain, and to make matters worse the reliefs had been late, one of
them having had a breakdown. Moving stiffly, and with red rimmed
and watering eyes, the four women swallowed large cups of coffee;
then just as they were they lay down on the floor, wrapped in their
trench coats and army blankets. In less than a quarter of an hour
they slept, though the villa shook and rocked with the bombardment.
CHAPTER 36
T here is something that mankind can never destroy in spite of an

unreasoning will to destruction, and this is its own idealism, that
integral part of its very being. The ageing and the cynical may make
wars, but the young and the idealistic must fight them, and thus there
are bound to come quick reactions, blind impulses not always
comprehended. Men will curse as they kill, yet accomplish deeds of
self-sacrifice, giving their lives for others; poets will write with their
pens dipped in blood, yet will write not of death but of life eternal;
strong and courteous friendships will be born, to endure in the face
of enmity and destruction. And so persistent is this urge to the ideal,
above all in the presence of great disaster, that mankind, the wilful
destroyer of beauty, must immediately strive to create new beauties,
lest it perish from a sense of its own desolation; and this urge
touched the Celtic soul of Mary.
For the Celtic soul is the stronghold of dreams, of longings come
down the dim paths of the ages; and within it there dwells a vague
discontent, so that it must for ever go questing. And now as though
drawn by some hidden attraction, as though stirred by some
irresistible impulse, quite beyond the realms of her own
understanding, Mary turned in all faith and all innocence to Stephen.
Who can pretend to interpret fate, either his own fate or that of
another? Why should this girl have crossed Stephen’s path, or
indeed Stephen hers, if it came to that matter? Was not the world
large enough for them both? Perhaps not—or perhaps the event of
their meeting had already been written upon tablets of stone by
some wise if relentless recording finger.
An orphan from the days of her earliest childhood, Mary had lived
with a married cousin in the wilds of Wales; an unwanted member of
a none too prosperous household. She had little education beyond
that obtained from a small private school in a neighbouring village.
She knew nothing of life or of men and women; and even less did
she know of herself, of her ardent, courageous, impulsive nature.
Thanks to the fact that her cousin was a doctor, forced to motor over
a widely spread practice, she had learnt to drive and look after his
car by filling the post of an unpaid chauffeur—she was, in her small
way, a good mechanic. But the war had made her much less
contented with her narrow life, and although at its outbreak Mary had
been not quite eighteen, she had felt a great longing to be
independent, in which she had met with no opposition. However, a
Welsh village is no field for endeavour, and thus nothing had
happened until by a fluke she had suddenly heard of the
Breakspeare Unit via the local parson, an old friend of its founder—
he himself had written to recommend Mary. And so, straight from the
quiet seclusion of Wales, this girl had managed the complicated
journey that had finally got her over to France, then across a war-
ravaged, dislocated country. Mary was neither so frail nor so timid as
Mrs. Breakspeare had thought her.
Stephen had felt rather bored just at first at the prospect of
teaching the new member her duties, but after a while it came to
pass that she missed the girl when she was not with her. And after a
while she would find herself observing the way Mary’s hair grew, low
on the forehead, the wide setting of her slightly oblique grey eyes,
the abrupt sweep back of their heavy lashes; and these things would
move Stephen, so that she must touch the girl’s hair for a moment
with her fingers. Fate was throwing them continually together, in
moments of rest as in moments of danger; they could not have
escaped this even had they wished to, and indeed they did not wish
to escape it. They were pawns in the ruthless and complicated game
of existence, moved hither and thither on the board by an unseen
hand, yet moved side by side, so that they grew to expect each
other.
‘Mary, are you there?’
A superfluous question—the reply would be always the same.
‘I’m here, Stephen.’
Sometimes Mary would talk of her plans for the future while
Stephen listened, smiling as she did so.
‘I’ll go into an office, I want to be free.’
‘You’re so little, you’d get mislaid in an office.’
‘I’m five foot five!’
‘Are you really, Mary? You feel little, somehow.’
‘That’s because you’re so tall. I do wish I could grow a bit!’
‘No, don’t wish that, you’re all right as you are—it’s you, Mary.’
Mary would want to be told about Morton, she was never tired of
hearing about Morton. She would make Stephen get out the
photographs of her father, of her mother whom Mary thought lovely,
of Puddle, and above all of Raftery. Then Stephen must tell her of
the life in London, and afterwards of the new house in Paris; must
talk of her own career and ambitions, though Mary had not read
either of her novels—there had never been a library subscription.
But at moments Stephen’s face would grow clouded because of
the things that she could not tell her; because of the little untruths
and evasions that must fill up the gaps in her strange life-history.
Looking down into Mary’s clear, grey eyes, she would suddenly flush
through her tan, and feel guilty; and that feeling would reach the girl
and disturb her, so that she must hold Stephen’s hand for a moment.
One day she said suddenly: ‘Are you unhappy?’
‘Why on earth should I be unhappy?’ smiled Stephen.
All the same there were nights now when Stephen lay awake
even after her arduous hours of service, hearing the guns that were
coming nearer, yet not thinking of them, but always of Mary. A great
gentleness would gradually engulf her like a soft sea mist, veiling
reef and headland. She would seem to be drifting quietly, serenely
towards some blessèd and peaceful harbour. Stretching out a hand
she would stroke the girl’s shoulder where she lay, but carefully in
case she should wake her. Then the mist would lift: ‘Good God!
What am I doing?’ She would sit up abruptly, disturbing the sleeper.
‘Is that you, Stephen?’
‘Yes, my dear, go to sleep.’
Then a cross, aggrieved voice: ‘Do shut up, you two. It’s rotten of
you, I was just getting off! Why must you always persist in talking!’
Stephen would lie down again and would think: ‘I’m a fool, I go
out of my way to find trouble. Of course I’ve grown fond of the child,
she’s so plucky, almost anyone would grow fond of Mary. Why
shouldn’t I have affection and friendship? Why shouldn’t I have a real
human interest? I can help her to find her feet after the war if we
both come through—I might buy her a business.’ That gentle mist,
hiding both reef and headland; it would gather again blurring all
perception, robbing the past of its crude, ugly outlines. ‘After all, what
harm can it do the child to be fond of me?’ It was so good a thing to
have won the affection of this young creature.
The Germans got perilously near to Compiègne, and the

Breakspeare Unit was ordered to retire. Its base was now at a ruined
château on the outskirts of an insignificant village, yet not so very
insignificant either—it was stuffed to the neck with ammunition.
Nearly all the hours that were spent off duty must be passed in the
gloomy, damp-smelling dug-outs which consisted of cellars, partly
destroyed but protected by sandbags on heavy timbers. Like foxes
creeping out of their holes, the members of the Unit would creep into
the daylight, their uniforms covered with mould and rubble, their eyes
blinking, their hands cold and numb from the dampness—so cold
and so numb that the starting up of motors would often present a
real problem.
At this time there occurred one or two small mishaps; Bless broke
her wrist while cranking her engine; Blakeney and three others at a
Poste de Secours, were met by a truly terrific bombardment and took
cover in what had once been a brick-field, crawling into the disused
furnace. There they squatted for something over eight hours, while
the German gunners played hit as hit can with the tall and
conspicuous chimney. When at last they emerged, half stifled by
brick-dust, Blakeney had got something into her eye, which she
rubbed; the result was acute inflammation.
Howard had begun to be irritating, with her passion for tending
her beautiful hair. She would sit in the corner of her dug-out as
calmly as though she were sitting at a Bond Street hairdresser’s; and
having completed the ritual brushing, she would gaze at herself in a
pocket mirror. With a bandage over her unfortunate eye, Blakeney
looked more like a monkey than ever, a sick monkey, and her strictly
curtailed conversation was not calculated to enliven the Unit. She
seemed almost entirely bereft of speech these days, as though
reverting to species. Her one comment on life was: ‘Oh, I dunno . . .’
always said with a jaunty, rising inflexion. It meant everything or
nothing as you chose to take it, and had long been her panacea for
the ills of what she considered a stupid Creation. ‘Oh, I dunno. . . .’
And indeed she did not; poor, old, sensitive, monosyllabic Blakeney.
The Poilu who served out the Unit’s rations—cold meat, sardines,
bread and sour red Pinard—was discovered by Stephen in the very
act of attempting to unload an aerial bomb. He explained with a
smile that the Germans were sly in their methods of loading: ‘I
cannot discover just how it is done.’ Then he showed his left hand—
it was minus one of the fingers: ‘That,’ he told her, still smiling, ‘was
caused by a shell, a quite little shell, which I was also unloading.’
And when she remonstrated none too gently, he sulked: ‘But I wish
to give this one to Maman!’
Every one had begun to feel the nerve strain, except perhaps
Blakeney, who had done with all feeling. Shorthanded by two, the
remaining members of the Unit must now work like veritable niggers
—on one occasion Stephen and Mary worked for seventy hours with
scarcely a respite. Strained nerves are invariably followed by
strained tempers, and sudden, hot quarrels would break out over
nothing. Bless and Howard loathed each other for two days, then
palled up again, because of a grievance that had recently been
evolved against Stephen. For every one knew that Stephen and

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(eBook PDF) Implementing

Organizational Change 3rd Edition

(eBook PDF) Managing Organizational Change: A Multiple

Managing Organizational Change: A Multiple Perspectives

Organizational Theory, Design, and Change 7th Edition

(eBook PDF) Managing and Leading People Through

(eBook PDF) Organization Development: The Process of

Organization Development: The Process of Leading

(eBook PDF) Making Sense of Change Management: A

(eBook PDF) Making Sense of Change Management: A

Boston Columbus Indianapolis New York San Francisco

Editorial Director: Sally Yagan Creative Art Director: Jayne Conte

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

ISBN 10: 0-13-272984-9

Chapter 2 Theories of Effective Change Implementation 24

Chapter 3 Mutual Engagement and Shared Diagnosis 51

Chapter 4 Organizational Redesign 75

Conclusion 95 • Discussion Questions 95 • Case Discussion:

Chapter 5 People Alignment 99

Chapter 6 Reinforcing New Behaviors 125

Chapter 7 Leading Change 151

Chapter 8 Going Green 175

NEW TO THE THIRD EDITION

UNDERSTANDING ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE

Wanting to achieve strategic behavioral change is relatively easy—implementing change

EXHIBIT P-1 Academic Underpinnings of Implementing Organizational Change—Theory into Practice.

ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE AT NOKIA

an organization. Some companies have proved to be more nimble at adopting

THEORY INTO PRACTICE

To implement a renewed strategy, organizational leaders need to engage in a

For strategic renewal to be effective, organizations need to do more than

the requirement to engage in discontinuous change: large‐scale, long‐term reori- Building a

THEORY INTO PRACTICE

Not all change is behavioral.

To understand turnaround, look at MySpace. There was a time—the peak

THEORY INTO PRACTICE

Turnaround may be necessary, but it is not sufficient to ensure long‐term

Building a Another nonbehavioral face of change focuses on techniques and tools.5

Effective strategic renewal efforts combine aspects of turnaround, tools and

The third face of change involves transformation, a change intervention Building a

If change interventions are to achieve significant and sustainable impact on

• Employees accustomed to following orders issued by supervisors might

Transformational change seeks more than a short‐term alteration in

THEORY INTO PRACTICE

Transformational organizational change seeks to create long‐term, sustain-

Employee motivation pays off in bottom‐line performance.

Chapter 4 will examine in detail the efforts to redesign organizations to

THEORY INTO PRACTICE

The way employees conduct themselves at work impacts the bottom‐line

Part of that answer resides in the individual psychology of the employee.

THEORY INTO PRACTICE

EMPLOYEE PARTICIPATION AND RESISTANCE TO CHANGE

THEORY INTO PRACTICE

THEORY INTO PRACTICE

Managers can try to understand the reasons behind employee resistance to

THEORY INTO PRACTICE

Employee resistance is not just a negative force to be overcome; it also presents

How Managers Can Inadvertently Fuel Resistance During