CHANGE PROCESS

CHAPTER 11

@ZURAIDAH MOHAMED ISA/UiTM KEDAH/2008

What Is Change?
Change
An alteration of an organizations environment,
structure, technology, or people
A constant force
An organizational reality
An opportunity or a threat

Change agent
A person who initiates and assumes the
responsibility for managing a change in an
organization

Introduction
There are two forms of change in org:
Planned change: change resulting from a deliberate
decision to alter the org
Unplanned change: change that imposed on org and
is often unforeseen

Change is targeted on individual (performance &

attitude), groups (innovation & interdependent)
and org as a whole
Thus, mgrs roles are to:
Be prepared to face any changes that affect org due
to the external & internal influences
Initiates the changes as they bring success to org

In change process, there are

several terms involve:
Change: making things different
Change intervention: a planned action to make
things different
Change agent: person (s) who acts a catalyst &
takes responsibilities for managing change
Orgl Development (OD): a systematic approach
to orgl development that applied behavioral
science theory & research to increase individual
& orgl well-being & effectiveness

Organizational Development
The definition applies several criteria:
Systematic approach: a structural sysle of diagnosing
orgl problems & opporunitites & then apply expertise
on them
Research and theory: involve application of
knowledge of behavioral science on the challenges
that faced by org
Mutual relationship: in order for org to change,
individual must change
Goal oriented: seek to improve both individual & orgl
well-being & effectiveness

The behavioral science or also known as

humanistic-democratic values include:

Respect for people

Trust & Support
Power Equalization
Confrontation
Participation

Steps involve in OD
Establish
client/
consultant
relationship

Diagnose for
Change

Introduce
intervention

Gather data,
analyze data
& decide
intervention
objective

Implement
desired
incremental
or quantum
change

Evaluate &
Stabilize
Change
Determine
effectiveness
of change &
refreeze new
condition

EXTERNAL FORCES OF CHANGE

Workforce diversification
Workforce in terms of gender (more female
employment), cultural diversification (more nonMalaysia work in Malaysia nowadays) or aging (few
young workers and more middle-aged workers).

Technology
Rapid technological innovation & those org that fail to
keep pace might fall behind, especially small
businesses
This change also lead to changes in work relationship
& orgl structure which becoming more flatter,
decentralized decision making and more open
communication.

CONTINUED
Globalization competition
Powerful players in global market are multinational &
transactional orgs
It allows orgs to explore geographic areas to expand
the markets

Social trends
Evolution in marital status, eating habits, health
concern (smoking prohibited) or popularity in sport
vehicles (e.g. F1 or X-game)

Economic shocks
Unexpected pattern of global economic that affected
the orgs international transaction. E.g. most countries
depend on stability of US$

CONTINUED
World politics
Constant changes in government that rules
the country or major policies that have great
impact on orgs
E.g. black rule in Africa, US president or the
collapse of Saddams government

INTERNAL FORCES OF CHANGE

Declining in effectiveness
Employees crisis, strikes or walkouts or
accidents
Employees expectation that constantly change
towards the management (job satisfaction)
Working climate (unhealthy) could cause the org
to change
Many more factors that occur inside the org that
mgmt has control

LEWIN CHANGE MODEL

Kurt Lewins change model emphasizes that
effective change occurs by:
Unfreezing the current situation
Changing towards the desired situation
Refreezing the changed situation so that it remains in
this desired state

This model also stresses on two forces during

the change process that are:
Driving forces: forces that push orgs towards the new
status that include adapting new technology
Restraining forces: forces that occur to maintain the
status quo (the normal state), which this represent the
status of change resistance by the employees.

LEWIN CHANGE MODEL

It is the first step in which involve encouraging
individual to discard (abandon/remove) old
behavior by shaking up the equilibrium of
maintaining the status quo
To discard the old behavior, either by:
Making driving forces stronger
Weakening/removing restraining forces or
Combining both forces

However, it is preferred if increase driving forces

AND remove restraining forces:
Increase driving forces = create urgency
Reduce/remove restraining forces = minimize
resistance

LEWIN CHANGE MODEL

Create urgency for change
Represent the push factors to get out of the
comforting zone in order to be energetic to face risks
that change brings
Driving forces must be real such as the threat that
faced by PepsiCo workers from Coca-Cola
If driving forces are unknown/ambiguous to
employees, they tend to doubt the agents integrity
One of driving forces that could be used is customer
driven as if affected orgl survival & success

Reducing restraining forces

To minimize change resistance, change agent could
apply 6 approaches

LEWIN CHANGE MODEL

Changing
It is the second step in which new attitude,
values & behaviors are substituted for old
ones
Orgs accomplish change by initiating new
options & explaining the rationale to have the
changes & providing training to help
employees developing new skills they need
Changes could take in many different forms

Refreezing
It is the final step in which involve the
establishment of new attitude, values &
behaviors as the new status quo
In other words, refreeze the behavior so that
employees do not slip back into their old work
practices
Numerous systems & structures can refreeze
the desired patterns of behavior:
Orgl structures anchor new role & behavior patterns
Orgl rewards are powerful system as it motivate &
reinforce efficient behavior
Info system is the complementary role in change
process as feedback will help employees learn on
how well they are moving towards the desired
changes

COSTS & BENEFITS OF CHANGE

Psychic Cost & Health
It affect the mental & psychological well-being of
employee & eventually the physical (related to stress)

Psychic Costs & Promotion & Transfer

Promotion & transfer is a change for a better
performance but employee need for time adjustment
to new skill, lifestyle & workplace

Psychic Costs & Employees Relocation

Relocation leads to time for adjusting for new
environment at higher cost

Thus, if cost more than benefit, change agent

need to modify, delay or stop the change
process

CHANGE RESISTANCE
Change resistance is the symptoms of
restraining forces
In general, people give three types of reasons
regards to change:
Logical
Reasons based on rational & scientific evaluation
E.g. time taken, more effort to learn new things

Psychological
Reasons based on emotion sentiments & attitudes in human
E.g. afraid of unable to understand new things, mistrust of
others & insecurity

Sociological
Reasons based on interest of group & group values
E.g. political coalition, contradiction of group values & need
to maintain friendship among existing members

CHANGE RESISTANCE
Direct costs
Individual afraid of losing self-privilege or their selfinterest. E.g. change towards self-directed team
mean losing power in group

Saving face
Political strategy to prove the change decision in
wrong

Fear of unknown
Worried that they cannot adopt the new behavior as it
increases risk of personal loss

CHANGE RESISTANCE
Breaking routines
When employees need to abandon behavioral routines (that
initially make them feel safe as life can easily predicted), they
tend to rebel, especially the change require time investment &
energy to learn the new behavior

Incongruent orgl systems

Some systems that support to maintain employees stability may
discourage/stop employees to learn new things to change

Incongruent team dynamics

Current group norms may stop & discourage employees from
accepting orgl changes especially the norms conflicted with
change objectives

CAHNGE RESISTANCE
Fear of failure
Employees fear their own failure which involve selfdoubt about their abilities

Disruption of interpersonal relationship

Employees resist change that threaten their limitation
to work interpersonal relationship

Personality conflict
When change agents personality creates/produces
negative reactions, employees may resist the change.
E.g. change agent is insensitive to employee's feeling
& concern

APPROACHES TO CHANGE
RESISTANCE
Education & communication
Face-to-face discussion & use mass presentation &
make them see the logic

Participation & involvement

Let workers participate in designing & implementing
the change by encourage them to contribute more
idea, so they will be more committed

Facilitation & support

Mgmt should be supportive, tolerance & good listener
to workers complaints by providing assistant &
training

APPROACHES TO CHANGE
RESISTANCE
Negotiation & Agreement
Discuss actual & potential resistors regarding extra
incentives & some assurance if the proposed change
are not blocked

Manipulation & Cooptation

Mgmt could influence the selected resistors by
providing info & organize events to get max support
for the proposed change

Explicit & Implicit Coercion

Last option where mgmt could use force to get people
accept change either through explicit & implicit threat
to resistors