12 Robbins Fom5ce Stu ch12

Chapter 12
Managing Change
Chapter 12, Stephen P. Robbins, Mary Coulter, and Nancy Langton, Fundamentals of Management, Fifth Canadian Edition 12-1
Copyright © 2008 Pearson Education Canada
LEARNING OUTLINE
Follow this Learning Outline as you read and study this chapter
• Forces for Change

– Define organizational change
– Discuss the external and internal forces for change
– Contrast internal and external change agents
LEARNING OUTLINE (cont’d)
• Two Views of the Change Process

– Contrast the calm waters and white-water rapids
metaphors of change
– Explain Lewin’s three-step model of the change
process
– Discuss the environment that managers face today
• Managing Change
– Explain how managers might change structure,
technology, and people
– Discuss what it takes to make change happen
successfully
– Explain why people resist change and how resistance
might be managed
• Current Issues in Managing Change

– Explain why changing organizational culture is so
difficult and how managers can do it
– Describe employee stress and how managers can help
employees deal with it
What Is Change?
• Organizational Change
– Any alterations in the people, structure, or technology of
an organization
• Characteristics of Change
– Is constant yet varies in degree and direction
– Produces uncertainty yet is not completely unpredictable
– Creates both threats and opportunities
• Managing change is an integral part
of every manager’s job
Forces for Change
• External forces • Internal Forces

– Marketplace – Changes in
– Governmental laws and organizational strategy
regulations – Workforce changes
– Technology – New equipment
– Labour markets – Employee attitudes
– Economic changes
The Manager as Change Agent
• Change Agents
– People who act as catalysts and assume the
responsibility for changing process
• Types of Change Agents
– Managers: internal entrepreneurs
– Nonmanagers: change specialists
– Outside consultants: change implementation
experts
Change Process Viewpoints
• The Calm Waters Metaphor

– Lewin: a break in the organization’s equilibrium state
• Unfreezing the status quo
• Changing to a new state
• Refreezing to make the change permanent
• White-water Rapids Metaphor
– The lack of environmental stability and predictability
requires that managers and organizations continually
adapt (manage change actively) to survive
Exhibit 12.1 The Change Process
Unfreezing Changing Refreezing
Exhibit 12.2 Three Categories of
Change
Work specialization, departmentalization,
Structure chain of command, span of control,
centralization, formalization,
job redesign, or actual structural design
T echnology Work processes, methods,

and equipment
Attitudes, expectations, perceptions,

People and behaviour
Types of Change
• Structural • People
– Changing the – Changing attitudes,
organization’s structure or expectations, perceptions,
its structural components
and behaviours of the
• Technological workforce.
– Adopting new equipment
or operating methods that
displace old skills and
require new ones
• Automation: replacing
certain tasks done by
people with machines
• Computerization
Exhibit 12.3 Organizational
Development Techniques
A method of changing behaviour
through unstructured group interaction.
A technique for assessing attitudes

and perceptions, identifying Sensitivity
discrepancies in these, and resolving Training Activities that help team
the differences by using survey members learn how each
information in feedback groups. member thinks and works.
Survey Team
Feedback MORE Building
EFFECTIVE
INTERPERSONAL
WORK
RELATIONSHIPS
Process Intergroup
Consultation Development
An outside consultant helps the Changing the attitudes,

manager understand how interpersonal stereotypes, and perceptions that
processes are affecting the way work work groups have about each other.
is being done.
Introducing Change
• Making Change Happen Successfully

– Embrace change
– Explain why change is necessary
– Communicate constantly and honestly
– Encourage employee participation
– Encourage employee flexibility
– Remove those who resist and cannot be changed
Exhibit 12.4 Mistakes Managers
Make When Leading Change
Exhibit 12.5 Characteristics of
Change-Capable Organizations
• Link the present and the • Ensure diverse teams
future • Encourage mavericks
• Make learning a way of • Shelter breakthroughs
life • Integrate technology
• Actively support and
• Build and deepen trust
encourage day-to-day
improvements and
changes Source: Based on P.A. McLagan, “The Change Capable Organization,” Training &
Development, January 2003, pp. 50-58.
Managing Resistance to Change
• Why People Resist Change

– The ambiguity and uncertainty that change
introduces
– The comfort of old habits
– A concern over personal loss of status, money,
authority, friendships, and personal convenience
– The perception that change is incompatible with
the goals and interests of the organization
Exhibit 12.6 Helping Employees
Accept Change
Unfreezing Changing Refreezing
• Give reasons. • Explain the benefits. • Show top

• Be empathetic. • Identify a champion. management’s support.
• Communicate clearly. • Get input from • Publicize successes.
employees. • Make midcourse
• Watch timing. corrections.
• Maintain job security. • Help employees deal
• Provide training. with stress. Source: G. J. Iskat,
“What to Do When
Employees Resist
• Proceed at a Change,” Supervision
manageable pace. 57, no. 8 (August 1996),
pp. 3-5.
Issues in Managing Change
• Changing Organizational Cultures

– Cultures are naturally resistant to change
– Conditions that help cultural change:
• Dramatic crisis
• Change of leadership
• Young, flexible, and small organization
• Weak organizational culture
Tips for Managers:
Strategies for Managing Cultural
Change
• Set the tone through management behaviour. Managers,
particularly top management, need to be positive role
models.
• Create new stories, symbols, and rituals to replace those
currently in vogue.
• Select, promote, and support employees who adopt the
new values that are sought.
• Redesign socialization processes to align with the new
values.
Tips for Managers:
Strategies for Managing Cultural
Change (cont’d)
• Change the reward system to encourage acceptance of a
new set of values.
• Replace unwritten norms with formal rules and
regulations that are tightly enforced.
• Shake up current subcultures through transfers, job
rotation, and/or terminations.
• Work to get peer-group consensus through employee
participation and creation of a climate with a high level of
trust.
Issues in Managing Change (cont’d)
• Handling Employee Stress

– Stress
• The physical and psychological tension an individual
feels when confronted with extraordinary demands,
constraints, or opportunities and their associated
importance and uncertainties
• Functional Stress
– Stress that has a positive effect on performance
Exhibit 12.7 Causes of Stress
Personal
Personal Job-Related
Job-Related
Factors STRESS
STRESS
Factors Factors
Factors
Exhibit 12.8 Symptoms of Stress
PHYSICAL
PSYCHOLOGICAL
Changes in metabolism, SYMPTOMS

increased heart and OF Job-related dissatisfaction,
breathing rates, raised STRESS tension, anxiety, irritability,
blood pressure, headaches, boredom, and
and potential of heart procrastination
attacks
BEHAVIOURAL
Changes in productivity, absenteeism, job

turnover, changes in eating habits, increased
smoking or consumption of alcohol, rapid
speech, fidgeting, sleep disorders
Issues in Managing Change (cont’d)
• Reducing Stress
– Engage in proper employee selection
– Match employees’ abilities to job requirements
– Use realistic job previews to reduce ambiguity
– Improve organizational communications
– Develop a performance planning program
– Use job redesign
– Provide a counselling program
– Offer time planning management assistance
– Sponsor wellness programs

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Chapter 12

• Forces for Change

• Two Views of the Change Process

• Current Issues in Managing Change

• External forces • Internal Forces

• The Calm Waters Metaphor

Unfreezing Changing Refreezing

T echnology Work processes, methods,

Attitudes, expectations, perceptions,

A technique for assessing attitudes

An outside consultant helps the Changing the attitudes,

• Making Change Happen Successfully

• Why People Resist Change

• Give reasons. • Explain the benefits. • Show top

• Changing Organizational Cultures

• Handling Employee Stress

Changes in metabolism, SYMPTOMS

Changes in productivity, absenteeism, job

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