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OD as change

6 important questions on OD as change

What does effective change management need?

Effective change management needs
- Understanding of current state
- Clear vision of future state
- Guiding organisation carefully through transition period

How is structure a vehicle for change?

• Structure as starting point for change
- A new culture requires new conditions
- Individual change is unlikely to change structural conditions that
have shaped previous behaviour
• Maintain vision of ideal design as goal for future but be pragmatic
in the implementation
• Ensure that there is at least one central person that supports the
reorganisation internally and has a mandate to pursue it

What is burton's approach for project-based change management?

Their approach: plan it properly
- What: define steps and activities, work out the details
- Who: assign responsibilities- When: define milestones and follow up process

What problems are inherent in change?

Change triggers political activity by those who expect a
major shift in power or see their values threatened
• Uncertainty can lead to anxiety: What does this mean for
me? Can become irrational and destructive
• More difficult to maintain management control in times of
change

What does Lewin & Schein's model of mechanisms for change entail?

• Psychological explanation why people find it difficult to change
behaviour or attitudes
• Change “tends to be emotionally resisted because possibility of
change implies that previous behaviour was somehow wrong”
• Step 1 Unfreezing: making something fluid, creating
awareness for the need for change
- Disconfirmation: we thought we made good product but the
competition is overtaking us
- Creating psychological safety: if people are already
motivated to change, show them that it is possible
• Step 2 transition
• Step 3 re-freezing, stabilizing the new state

What does King & Anderson: illusion of manageability

• Illusion of linearity:
assumption that change would come in neat stages,
always in order
• Illusion of predictability:
assumption that there is linear order, template for action
• Illusion of control:
assumption that managers are in control, uncontrollable
events are an exception, failure is due to politicalresistance