02 - Organisational Behaviour - IAAIO

## Approaches to Managing Change

Economic strategies

Focus on the drive for economic value through though, top-down, results driven action.

They involve the imposition of technical solutions to problems that undermine organisational effectiveness.

Involve solutions such as:

Restructuring
Reengineering
Drives for efficiencies
Layoffs

Often through large number of consultants.

May not guarantee long term success

Organisational development

Focus on creating capabilities required to sustain competitive advantage and high performance

They include:

Coordination and team work
Commitment and trust
Competencies (technical and leadership)
Open communications
The capacity for constructive conflict
Learning

Beer's third way

A drive and development approach

Change strategies that are capable of delivering sustained high performance require:

Development of a vision that offers a compelling and balanced business and OD direction
The management of key stakeholders to buy time to develop organisational capabilities
The adoption of a socio-technical approach that involves the development of down the line managers

Top managers are often reluctant to adopt a combined strategy.

They often have a mind-set that favours a top-down drive for results. The three key aspects of this mind-set are:

Shareholder interests
The assumption that the organisation's technical (rather than social) systems determine performance
Assumption that there is little to be gained from dialogue with employees

Shaping implementation strategies

Successful change strategies need to be internally consistent. They need to be compatible with key situational variables such as:

Stability of external environment:
Urgency and stakes involved
Level of support
- If support for change is low, those advocating for change need to develop strategies to deal with that
Degree to which stakeholders trust those leading the change
Extent to which change managers have access to all the information they need
Alignment of values
Variations over time

Contingency model for shaping change strategies

3 vars:

Type of change:
- Incremental
- Transformational
Time of change
- Time
- No time: greater the urgency, the more there is a feel for top-down change
Level of support
- Low - Top-down strategy may be required
- High

Short vs long term strategy

In short term, there might be the need to force a change.

Implementing change

Implementation shifts the focus from planning to action

Sometimes, it's a one-off stand-alone step in the change process.

Usually implementation unfolds as an ongoing iterative process. The change has to unfold as a tentative way as a series of incremental steps.

In different circumstances, those leaeding a change may envision an end state, but encounter resistance from others who block the planned implementation and force a change of direction.

If the attempt to implement a plan, fails to deliver anticipated outcomes, this failure can provide those leading the change with new insights: implementation becomes diagnosis.

These insights inform new plans that are then impelemented.

Quality of diagnosis

Range and complexity of issues
Fragmentation of data colelction
Access to info
Mindset of those leading the diagnosis
Pressure to complete the diagnosis quickly

Clarity of planning

Often is a 2 step process:

Develop high level plan
Formulate detailed task-specific plans that can be implemented on a project by project basis

Managing communications to minimise ambiguity

Ambiguity leads to confusion and untrust. But sometimes clear communication is absent when there is fear that conditions change and what was said becomes false. Also, commercially sensitive info may be leaked.

Managing stakeholders

Those implementing change need to be aware of the political dynamics in the situation.

Those leading the implementation need to communicate in a way that promotes a shared sense of direction and aligns people so that they can work in a coordinated way to implement the new vision.

When a change is complex, the resulting fragmentation may make it difficult to coordinate progeress. this can cause confusion and waste.

Trust and procedural justice

If people feel have been treated fairly there is less opposition.

Adopt respectul managing practices. Pressure to deliver quick wins, may cause leaders to adopt a directive push management style. A heavy handed approach may not be effective, especially when managing those who feel vulnerable.

Reviewing progress

those implementing the change need to be aware that even if the plan is being implemented as expected, the outcomes may not be htere.

This is due to:

lack of commitment and motivation
reward system that penalise new behaviour
inflexible organisational structures
lack of support from those who are able to sabotage the project
insufficient resources

Seeking feedback

It can signal a need to change how the plan is being implemented.

Sometimes, we realise unwanted outcomes too late

Monitoring change

Monitoring helps:

To adapt the plan

Plans are developed based on broadly defined goals. After each step, review is necessary.

Reviewing blue print change

Sometimes, those managing the process, give insufficient attention to monitoring and review.

They take the validity of the plan for granted. They may not review the assumption of what is changing, but only on how is changing.

Cause and effect hypothesis

ex: employee satisfaction --> commitment --> customer satisfaction --> customer loyalty --> Revenue growth and profitability

Transform this into a strategy: employee satisfaction is an operational goal that can be measured.

If the change is intended to increase profitability, maybe, the change is to increase employee satisfaction. Possible interventions to achieve this:

Redesign jobs to provide employees with greater autonomy, challenge and sense of achievement
Encouraging supervisors to help employees voice their views about opportunities and threats

Monitor whether the selected interventions are being implemented as intended
Monitor whether the interventions are having the desired effect on employee satisfaction and commitment
Monitor whether improvements in employee satisfaction and commitment are having a positive effect on customer revenue growth. Is the change plan still valid?

Tools for Change Management

[[#Force Field Analysis]]
[[#Gap Analysis]]
[[#Stakeholder Grid]]
[[#Responsibility Charting]]

Force Field Analysis

Identify forces for and against change.

In stable condisitons, the forces are balanced. To bring change, we need to create imbalance:

Adding new driving forces
Strengthening driving forces
Weakening restraining forces
Converting restraining forces into driving forces

Gap Analysis

Identify the gap between current state to the desired one.

Pinpoint gap
Focus energy and resources
Includes hard (structure) and soft (values, attitudes) elements
Be specific and dig for root causes

Stakeholder Grid

3 steps:

Identify the stakeholders: all that can be affected
Assess how much power each group has
Assess stakeholder attitude towards change

Responsibility Charting

all stakeholders are listed and rated as:

Responsible
- Who does the work to complete the task
Accountable
- Delegates the task and make sure people complete work in time
Consulted
- Provide input and feedback on the project
Informed
- They are not decision makers but need to know what's going on

Example:

Developing a Change (Action) Plan

The hardest part during change is control.

Going from A to B, through intermediate step C.

Plans need to attend to 9 key points:

appoint a transition manager
specify change objectives
identify what needs to be done
shaping the implementation plan to maximise stakeholder engagement
identify multiple and consistent leverage points
schedule activities
provide needed resources
reward system
develop feedback mechanism

1. Appoint a transition manager

Might be:

Senior manager
Project manager or external (temporary)
Person in charge now
Person in charge after transition

The best person depends on the type of change.

They need

Sufficient power to allocate resources.
Respect of existing leadership
Ability to win support and commitment rather than provoke resistance and compliance