Lecture 8

Barriers to change
 Part 1
Internal barriers
 1. The manager
 People manage change, and well-managed people
manage change more effectively.
 ‘Lateral leadership’ creates processes to stimulate trust,
understanding and power shifts, to disrupt rigid patterns of
thought and stimulate change.
 Managing change is a multi-disciplinary activity.
=> There may be a danger that managers, amidst all this
activity, lose track of their key responsibility and reason for
being there in the first place
 2. The human resource

• Employees must be on ‘top form’ and this can be achieved

by considering their well being, stress levels, motivation and
organizational loyalty.
 3. Culture ?

 Organizational culture is the set of shared values, beliefs,

and norms that influences the way employees think, feel,
and behave toward each other and toward people
outside the organization.

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 3. What is culture ?
 VALUES: General criteria, standards, or guiding principles that
people use to determine which types of behaviors, events,
situations, and outcomes are desirable or undesirable.
 TERMINAL VALUES A desired end state or outcome that
people seek to achieve.
 INSTRUMENTAL VALUE A desired mode or type of behavior that
people seek to follow.

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 3. What is culture ?
 Organizational norms are standards or styles of behavior
considered acceptable or typical for a group of people
who perform a certain task or job.
 In essence, norms are informal rules of conduct that
emerge over time to encourage employees to cultivate
the work attitudes and behaviors important to an
organization.
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 Aspects of culture

Basic underlying
assumptions Overt beliefs Visible artefacts
Guide the behavior of Saying, slogans, mottos, Styles, dress rules,
individuals and groups in etc. trophies
organization

Rituals, rites, ceremonies

Rules, norms, ethical
and celebrations
Symbols codes, values
Sets of actions repeated
Clothing, décor, etc. Symbols, stories,
in specific
attitudes, etc.
circumstances

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 Importance of culture

Motivation and Adaptability of the

Image of the organization
satisfaction of employees organization

Encouraging
Using guiding values
innovation, risk Cultural attributes
instead of rules
taking

Embrace new
Satisfying team Potential employees
methods,
relationships and customers
technologies

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 Schein’s model

“A pattern of basic assumptions invented, discovered or developed by

a given group as it learns to cope with its problems of external
adaptation and internal integration that has worked well enough to be
considered valid and therefore is taught to new members as the correct
ways to perceive, think and feel in relation to these problems”
(Schein, 1990)
 Schein’s model

Artefacts

Values

Basic
underlying
assumptions

Slide 11
Schein, 1990
 Six fundamental questions to understand culture

1. Who are we?

2. How do we relate to the world?
3. What do we do?
4. How do we relate to each other?
5. How do we think about time?
6. How do we think about space?

Slide 12
 Cultural attributes of change

• A clear and communicated strategic vision

• Visible senior management involvement
• People based competitive edge
• Marketing ethos
• Consensus driven management
• Awareness and reflection of social responsibility
 4. Gender perspective

• Gender balance and equality is an increasingly concerned issue

in organizations.
• Given the increasingly influential role women play within
organizations, it is surely worth asking the question: Do men and
women approach and manage change scenarios differently?
And if so, do we have to modify the way in which we manage
change?
• Different gender with specific management styles may influence
the way in which the sexes approach and manage change.
 4. Gender perspective

• Typical attributes of management styles:

Communal
Transformational

Argentic
Transactional
 4. Gender perspective

• Mental models:

Perceptions are created

from interpretation or
Images, assumptions and Knowledge and
stories in heads experience. impression based on the
understanding
 5. Organizational politics

• Politics may be defined as the use of power through

influencing techniques and tactics (sanctioned or
unsanctioned) aimed at accomplishing personal and/or
organizational goals.
• The wider the distribution of power in organizations the
greater the opportunity for politics.
 5. Organizational politics
Why organizations engage in politics?
 5. Organizational politics

Is politics ethical or not?

 Managers believe that organizational politics can help
accomplish organizational goals.
 5. Organizational politics

- Politicking can be justified where the

action results in the greatest good for
the greatest number. Politicking for self-promotion could be
- Commitment to career progression considered the act of an unvirtuous
and conscientiousness could be in person.
keeping with both the political actor
and one expressing positive virtues.
 5. Organizational politics
Is politics ethical or not?
 Managers believe that organizational politics can help
accomplish organizational goals.
 Politicking can be justified where the action results in the greatest
good for the greatest number. Commitment to career progression
and conscientiousness could be in keeping with both the political
actor and one expressing positive virtues.
 Politicking for self-promotion could be considered the act of an
unvirtuous person.
 5. Organizational politics
Is politics ethical or not?
 It also depends on the culture
“In the West, ethical behavior is an absolute that applies
universally, while in the East, “face” and ethical behavior
depend on the situation.”
 6. Learning organization

 The learning organization concept has been suggested as

way of moving an organization towards improved
performance on the understanding that improvement
depends on learning something new, on seeing things with a
different perspective and that to continuously improve
requires a commitment to learning.
 The risk of not learning is that old practices will be repeated
and any changes will be merely cosmetic.
 6. Learning organization

Discussion:

Relation between a learning organization

and change management ?
 Part 2
External barriers
 Discussion:

External barriers from PESTEL