Transformation process of Organizations Resistance or Innovative Change
1) Introduction "Holding back change . ... Obviously, change is irresistible, not only when taking into account the evolution of the human being or the industrial revolution, but also in the fast shifting business world of today. Especially in the last 100 years, developments in technology, politics and culture forced organizations to change. There are internal and external forces to change coming from inside and outside the organization, respectively. ... These forces lead to organizational change, which contains not only smaller changes like hiring new personnel or changing a program or process. The concept of organizational change refers to organizational-wide change and might include a change in the company’s mission, restructuring operations or mergers and reengineering. ... The systems model of change (Kinicki, 2003) offers managers a framework to understand the broad complexities of organizational change. The three main components of this model are inputs, target elements of change and outputs whose major task is trying to solve the challenge of today’s solutions, which are tomorrow’s problems. Showing how every part of the organization is connected with each other, it will as well help managers to implement the supposed change. The main focus will lie on the inquiry: Why do people resist the movement of change? This paper begins with answering the question: Are there different views on change? The first chapter explains the details about the general views on change, including a discussion on the subject of continuous versus episodic change. ... The middle chapter will deal with the question: What choices do managers have when implementing change? Assuming that implementing change is a quite complex process, this leads to its problems or specifics, especially addressing resistance to change. Next, an argument about resistance to change and an evaluation of its advantages and disadvantages will ensue. Followed by this, obviously there must be possibilities to overcome resistance to change, which will be discussed in the following part. Finally, I will give my opinion about dealing with resistance to change. 2) General Views on Change Different situations necessitate diverse perspectives. The two contrasting visions on change are episodic and continuous, where the former refers to change at the macro and the latter to the micro level. Episodic organizational change is infrequent, discontinuous and intentionally. Organizations, which are affected by discrepancy, move “away from their equilibrium conditions” (Weick and Quinn, 1999, p. ... Social practices and work processes are steadily updated and lesser significant adjustments are continually made, which create substantial change (Weick and Quinn, 1999) over time. ... Apparently, a company operating in a stable environment, where routine and inertia are the most conspicuous characteristics except for the short periods of revolutionary change, inclines to be episodic. Despite the short periods of revolutionary change, episodic transformation is said to be “slower because of its wider scope” (Weick and Quinn, 1999, p. ... The episodic view on change can be associated with planned change, for example the three-step model of Lewin, which includes unfreezing, transition and refreezing. ... In contrast, with regard to the faster changing environment today, a lot of organizational change has to be continuous because of the need to adapt as prompt as possible to ongoing changes. ... Although these alterations are only on a small scale, they nevertheless are able to change structures and strategies. ... But when taking into account that every industry has a different degree of stabilization and that there is not only the theory of change, but also involvement of people, the question remains open. ... Additionally, it is pointed out, that there is no absolute process or structure in an organization. ... The fit of the different views guides to the implementation of approaches to change. ... 3) Different Approaches to Change Organizations’ basic intention of change is the performance of their business and the necessity to manage “a new and challenging market environment” (Kotter, 1995, p. ... The latter are directing the process of change and therefore they are essential not only for successful change but also for decreasing the uncertainty generated by change. Since the “primary stimulus for change remains those factors in the external environment, the primary motivator” for implementation are the employees who have to deal with the new situation (Benjamin and Mabey, 1993, p. ... Thus, the environment is one of the most decisive aspects when appointing which approach of change can be used at all. ... Lewin who had the opinion that change can only happen if restraining forces like rules and norms are unfrozen developed it. ... From today’s perspective, Lewins model is coinciding with the episodic view on change and apparently most appropriate for stable, planned-in-advance surroundings. It helps managers to initiate, manage and stabilize the change process. Although this model is still the best-developed and supported approach to change (Burnes, 2000), it is unfortunately fallibly and not without disadvantages. ... Still assuming, that the episodic view of change and the planned approach are built on each other, opposing views of Weick & Quinn and Burnes attract attention.