Contents

• Introduction 2
• Forces behind organizational change 3
• Technological Forces 3
• Employee Needs and Values 3
• Social Forces 3
• Business and Economic Forces 3
• Organizational Forces 3
• TYPES OF CHANGE 4
• Reactive Versus Proactive Change 4
• Structural 4
• People Related 4
• Technical-Structural and Social-Technical 5
• Change Failure Agents 5
• Value Benefits 5
• Understanding Change 5
• Faith in Management 5
• Personal Perceptions 5
• Cases – Organizational Change Failure 6
• Handling the Change Process 7
• Identification 7
• Planning 7
• Implementation 7
• Evaluation 8
• Kurt Lewin’s Model 8
• Bringing measured changes 8
• Education/Communication 9
• Partnership 9
• Task and Emotional Support 9
• Incentives and Job Enrichment 9
• Forcing 10
• Conclusion 10
• References 10

Description

Organizational change can be defined as a transition from the current situation to a different and more efficient situation. This requires that there are forces which push these changes against the resistance of status quo. Organizational change happens because of multiple reasons such as advent of new technology for increased efficiency; new regulations, competition etc. These changes can be driven through internal driving force such as strategic product diversification or an external one such an advent of technological development. This brings challenges to an organization since with change there are accompanied issues in an organization. An organization needs to keep tab on the causes of organizational change, the types of changes, and employee reactions to change amongst many. It needs to formulate a strategy for developing support for change; techniques for structuring change; and a model for planning and managing the change process. This is all the more relevant today considering tremendous challenges organizations face due to the current business environment caused by the global financial crisis. Heads have fallen across various industries where changes have been slow e.g. the US automotive segments. The cost of bailout by the US government has seen the old top management being pushed out. Many organizations have gone ahead and towards various options such as cost cutting, outsourcing, closing of idle plants, layoffs etc. but all this sometimes lead to resentment and drop in morale of workforce.
Hence, with such change comes uncertainty which can cripple and falter an organization. As Gehmawat (1991) has described that uncertainty leads to inaccurate prediction of circumstances that are critical for future activities of an organization and leads towards wrong investments. Anderson and Tushman (2001) also collaborate that uncertainty leads to demand variability that can cause organizations to fail.