Introduction to Change Management

BENEFITS AND SIGNIFICANCE OF CHANGE MANAGEMENT >>

Change Management MGMT625

LESSON #1

COURSE ORIENTATION

Norms Setting

Most of the time first or earlier sessions are meant to build norms which entail course expectations,

scope and objectives of the course and host of consideration for understanding and learning this course

appropriately.

Course Expectations

What is considered essential for the student of advanced courses on Management like this one is to have

good grasp over pre-requisite or fundamental courses of management such as "Principles of

Management", "Human Resources Management" and "Organization Behavior". Therefore unless you

are well versed with the basic management concepts better understanding and comprehension of this

course will be difficult.

As this is an advanced course on management so in case of difficulty or to seek clarification - you have

to be in an interactive mode (and to give us feed back very regularly).

Course objectives

1. To develop significant level of understanding of change-management literature: conceptual

framework, theories, typologies, strategies and techniques.

2. To understand change-management phenomenon especially how managers successfully manage

change in organization.

3. Over this entire course is designed to help students in building and developing their analytical and

applied management skills in context of business organizations.

Learning the Subject's Vocabulary

Every subject or discipline has its own vocabulary and terminology. For examples doctors, engineers &

Accountants express themselves in the language of their profession not only when they are on job but

also in social domain as well. Why? Because the professional training and approach they learn and

develop also influences their socio-psychological thinking and life style and facilitates for resolving

problems in ordinary day life. The subject we are concerned with is more related with social behavior

than that of medicine, engineering and accounting etc. Therefore imperative for us is not only to learn

and understand but one has to develop ability to express ordinary day life phenomena in the subject's

vocabulary.

Reading material

Books: Understanding Organization by Charles Handy, published in 1976

Gods of Management by Charles Handy in 1995

Organization Culture and Leadership by Edgar Schein

Change Management: A Guide to Effective Implementation, by Robert Paton & Mc Calman

Articles: I particularly emphasize students to develop a practice to follow and rely on research articles

more than books. Nonetheless one thing is important to know that not all published and available

articles especially on internet have authenticity and credibility. I recommend only those published in the

leading and international research journal such as available on HEC data base, or now the Google

Scholar is an important source of getting access to the scholars of repute. Therefore students must have

the skills to differentiate good reading material from that of academically junk substance. Here is one

such criterion to identify and hunt for good article. First is to know the author, his qualification, repute

and belongingness (to any school, institution or university). Second is through the quality of publication

(where it gets published?). Normally journals have reputation and ranking in terms of prestige and

impact. For instance related to management (and change management) such journals are ranked as of

higher order quality like Academy of Management Review, Administrative Science Quarterly,

Change Management MGMT625

Organization Studies, Journal of Management Studies, Journal of Organization Behavior and Human

Relations to name few. Finally, articles are considered of better worth for their citation in references or

the article is written by using quality and authentic references. Journal of Change management is also

suggested in particular for students to follow throughout the course.

A good starting point would be to consult Managing change through manager and organization

development (Chapter-1 of Harold Koontz's text book on management) Management: A Global

Perspective 10th edition.

Organization Change and Stress Management (Ch -17 of Stephen P. Robbins text book on

Organizational Behaviour)

Similarly Frederick Luthan's book on organization is also generally relevant where he talked about

managing diversity, learning, creating and designing organisation culture

Other leading authors on the subject which a student must consult are Chris Argyris, Edgar Schein, D.

Schon, Peter Senge, Karl Weick, Peter Drucker, Hannan & Freeman, Quinn, James March, Herbert

Simon, Michael Beer, Nohria

The HEC's digital library provides access to these leading scholars and journals through data bases like

J-store; Springer link etc

Examination & Assessment Perspective (Knowledge, Analysis, Evaluation & Application)

Students are required to possess, develop and demonstrate the following set of skills from examination

point of view. First is to have knowledge and understanding of terms, definition of the specific content

and subject. Moreover, they should be able to analyze the problems and issues by differentiating and

distinguishing concepts, implications of theories and making valid generalization and inferences. Third

is evaluation. Different scholars use different concepts for similar observed phenomenon and come forth

with the same term or concept but with different meanings and explanations. Therefore academics are

concerned with coining terms and giving meaning which often compete with each other. The job of a

student is to comprehend, evaluate and synthesize such differing and competing ideas, models and

explanations. Final is the application of generalizations and theories in particular context of organization

and nations. For example organizations differ with each other in terms of their context (size, number and

industry etc.) Therefore students ought to know the application of any theory model or concept which is

relevant and valid. The skills which are valued most and considered superior by Examiners at this stage

and in this subject are of analysis, application and evaluation as against mere possession of knowledge

which is just a function of memory. As far as application is concerned student must take caution or

special note of level of analysis while describing or applying any concept related to change

management. The level of analysis may be individual, group like department or production unit,

business or corporation, organization or nation etc. Similarly it may be public or corporate sector, or

small, medium or large organization.

Another important advice for students to improve their performance is to develop following learning

skills and styles which are: Listening, Reading, Speaking and Writing. Different people exhibit their

reliance on different types of skills. Some are good reader while others are good speaker, listener and

writer or in some good combination of these skills. Though all four types of skills are considered

equally important in personality development and performance of an individual yet if we need to

prioritize for students it is the writing skills which are of utmost value. Students cannot translate their

potential into actual without having good writing skills. Teachers and Examiners know and evaluate

their student on this attribute as examination is heavily oriented towards this activity. Therefore students

ought to focus themselves to cultivate this type of skills. On the significance of these skills the

recommended article to go through is `Managing Oneself' written by Peter Drucker, published in the

Harvard Business Review, March April 1999, and this can be accessed through the HEC's digital

library.

Change Management MGMT625

One Important Instruction

Please go through the original text or articles of author referred and recommended at the end of these

lecture handouts, and do not merely rely on video lectures and lecture handouts only. Reading original

article is mandatory and has no alternative, and as redundancy and repetitions stands essential to

enhance learning effectively

Scope of the subject

The subject is of integrated nature related with multiple disciplines and has got diverse and

kaleidoscopic application. For instance this is closely related with other subjects like Strategic

Management, Organization Development, Training or Management Development, Knowledge

Management and Organizational Learning. This is pervasive in nature and is widely applicative from

individual, organization or nation in perspective. From individual's perspective learning means change

in knowledge, skills and attitude. Similarly individual has to manage changes taking place not only on

the job but also socially. Learning appropriate behaviour and role and to strike balance between

workplace and family is the concern of all. The training programmes either formal or informal are by

design managing change whether the purpose is formation of general managerial values or up gradation

of technical skills seek direct application of this course. Similarly with the onslaught of globalization,

structural changes in world politics and rapid transformation on International economics has made

traditional, stable and bureaucratic organization highly vulnerable. With such type of on-going

qualitative changes the foremost objective of organization becomes its survival and to avoid what is

known as organizational extinction. At the same societies like us are also in transition from agrarian to

industrial, rural to urban, traditional to modern all the more emphasizing the need to study this

phenomenon.

Specifically from the organization perspective the purpose of this advanced course on management is

just like the same as that of basic course, principles of management. The perpetual concern of

management is to learn or to manage so as to enhance productivity of a manager or for organization to

achieve its goals effectively and efficiently. Therefore imperative for organization is to manage changes

going on at two levels: one at external environmental level and second is at internal managerial level.

For change at external level means organization to manage change relations vis-à-vis change in

government policies, change in technology, change in customers' preferences or taste, change in society'

expectations. Similarly extraneous change always impacts the internal dynamics of organization.

Consequently organizations have to renegotiate terms with individuals, resource allocation pattern and

budgeting preferences may change leading to restructuring and downsizing and processes like decision

making, controlling and communicating could be centralized. Similarly the trend could be diametrically

opposite given the change at extraneous level conducive for growth; organization may develop new

products, new markets owing to expansion in the market and industry and as such organization

decentralizes its operations. In either case anticipating change and at appropriate timings moving in the

right direction is imperative.

Why to study change Management?

Its answer given by some leading expert of the subject as under

"The next few decades will bring about an avalanche of change and that most people and organisations

will not be prepared for the vastly accelerated pace of change."

Alvin Toffler, Future Shock

(1970)

Here followings variables are highlighted:

- Rate or pace of Change

- Quality and quantity of change

- Individuals

- Organizations

- Un-preparedness

"If we could understand the ways in which individuals were motivated we could influence them by

Change Management MGMT625

changing the components of that motivation process."

Charles Handy, Understanding organizations, (1976)

Three things focussed here

- Individuals

- Changing the components

- Motivation Process

The underlying theme here is that individuals can be control and their behaviour can be predicted in a

scientific or methodological manner which is the focus of this subject. The focus of subject like

management and change management is how to control, predict and motivate human behaviour for

productivity enhancement.

According to Schein, "Learning that creates stability and culture is different from the learning that

enables organisations to innovate as they encounter changing conditions in both their external and

internal environment."

Edgar H Schein, Models and Tools for stability and Change in Human System, (Society for

Organisational Learning & MIT; 2002)

Here Schein referred to change phenomena defined in terms of learning which are:

- Learning in stable organisation

- Learning in changing or innovative Organization

- Interaction with internal and external environment

This means learning attributes in stable environment is distinct from learning characteristics in dynamic

environment. Change takes place by reconciliation among forces internal to the organization and

external to the organization.

Another popular paradigm to understand change at individual level, because according to one approach

every thing eventually rests at individuals' personality at work as he has to take action. The three

dimensions are:

- Knowledge

- Skills

- Attitude

By this change means change in knowledge, skills and behaviour. It reveals of methods for change as

well. For instance change in the state knowledge can right be there by reading an article or listening a

lecture. Skills means repetition of knowledge or practice of knowledge like certain disciplines are skills

oriented, and one cannot learn without practice, for example mathematics, accounting or computers

(IT). Some level of difficulty is involved in building skills. More crucial is the third one that is to have

positive attitude or behaviour towards work. For instance how to make or transform an unwilling person

to work or learn into a willing one to work or learn. Adding one more level of difficulty to it, which is

how to transform the behaviour of a group from non-willing to a willing one? The subject change

management deals with such issues within the context of organization.

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