Organisational change

Question 1

What is change?

Answer 1

• downsizing
• cultural change
• change to job tasks

Question 2

What percentage of Australian employees agreed or strongly agreed that change was not handled effectively in their organisation?

Answer 2

47%
- failure is a seldom solely attributed to technical issues, result of the personnel and human characteristics

Question 3

Why are we interested in change

Answer 3

• health and well being
• huge implications for job satisfaction, productivity and turnover

Question 4

What are the targets of change?

Answer 4

• Structure
• objectives and goals
• strategy
• culture
• people
• technology

Question 5

What are the reasons for change?

Answer 5

• competition, social trends, culture change, economic shocks, politics, technology

Question 6

What is the scale of change?

Answer 6

• Fine tuning (change to details within targets)
• incremental adjustment (environmental adaptations, small effects on targets)
• modular (large scale, effecting many targets)
• transformation (large scale, affecting all targets)

Question 7

Define incremental change

Answer 7

• comprises frequent purposeful adjustments that are small but ongoing

Question 8

define transformational change

Answer 8

• resulted in modifications to the core systems of an organisation including traditional ways of working.

Question 9

Who are the agents driving change?

Answer 9

• Top down - CEO senior managers
• Stakeholders
• Governments

Question 10

What are the abilities of the agents?

Answer 10

• Communication - clear about what’s happening and why
• flexibility - being prepared to adapt and compromise

Question 11

What are the processes of change?

Answer 11

• Kurt Lewin’s forcefield approach (unfreezing, changing, refreezing)

Question 12

What is Kotter’s 8 step model of change?

Answer 12

• Establish a sense of urgency
• Form a coalition
• Create a vision
• Communicate the vision
• Remove obstacles
• Create small wins
• Don’t quit prematurely
• Anchor changes in a corporate culture.

Question 13

Why do people resist change?

Answer 13

• Habit
• Inertia (norms support existing ways of working)
• Security
• Economic threat
• Social threat

Question 14

What are the tips for managing change?

Answer 14

• Question whether change is really needed
• consider driving and restraining forces
• expect resistance
• listen
• involve stakeholders, communication

Question 15

what do social psychological approaches do?

Answer 15

• change conformity
• reinforce existing norms
• changing minds (persuasion)
• changing values (value self-confrontation method)