FOOTNOTES TO ORGANISATIONAL CHANGE

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Change Management MGMT625

LESSON #21

FOOTNOTES TO ORGANISATIONAL CHANGE

The leading management scholar James March's study dealt with the leading attribute of organizational

change. Following are the excerpts and selection from his famous article footnotes to organizational

change published in one of the leading management research journal, Administrative Sciences Quarterly

in 1981.

He suggested five footnotes on organization change as they emphasize the relation between change and

adaptive behavior which highlights the prosaic nature of change.

Foot Note 1

Organizations are continually changing, routinely, easily and responsively, but change within them

cannot be controlled arbitrarily. Organizations rarely do exactly what they are told to do.

Foot note 2

Changes in organizations depend on a few stable processes. Theories of change emphasize either the

stability of the processes or the changes they produce, but serious understandings of organizations

require attentions to both.

Foot note 3

Different theories of change are in fact different ways to depict different theories of action. Most

changes in organization reflect simple responses to demographic, economic, social and political forces.

What we identify as political, economic societal and technological (PEST) analyses are connected with

different parts of environment?

Footnote 4

Although org. response to environmental events is broadly adaptive and mostly routine-based, the

response takes place in a confusing world. As a result prosaic (characterless) processes sometimes have

surprising outcomes.

Footnote 5

Adaptation to changing environment involves and interplays of rationality and foolishness. Organization

foolishness is not maintained as conscious strategy, but embedded in such organisational anomalies as

slack, managerial incentives, symbolic action, ambiguity and loose coupling.

Stable Processes of Change

One view is that change fails not because organizations are rigid and inflexible but they are impressively

imaginative. According to Aldrich in most organization failure occur early in life when organizations

are small and flexible, not later. There is considerable level of stability in organization and organisations

are remarkably adaptive as enduring institutions, respond to volatile environments easily, though not

optimally

We are inclined to look for most dramatic explanations for change, is our common mistake. Most

changes in organizations result neither from organization processes or forces, nor from uncommon

imagination but from relatively stable, routine processes that relate organization to their environments.

Many of the most stable procedures in an organisation are procedures for responding to economic,

social and political contexts. The routine processes of organisational adaptation are little complex, and a

theory of change must take into account how these processes can produce unusual patterns of action.

Change Management MGMT625

Therefore theory of organization change should not be different from a theory of ordinary action.

Therefore research on organization as routine adaptive systems emphasize six (06) basic perspectives

for interpreting organization action which are as under:

1. Rule following

2. Problem solving

3. Learning

4. Conflict

5. Contagion

6. Regeneration

1. Rule Following

Application of standard operating procedures (SOPs), duties, obligation, roles, rules, and criteria evolve

through competition and survival, and those followed by organizations that survive, grow and multiply

come to dominate the pool of procedures

2. Problem Solving

Action can be seen as problem solving. The underlying process involves choosing among alternatives

by using some decision rule that compares alternatives in terms of their expected consequences. It is the

rational actor model which prevails in organizations. Managers make rational choice under certain

conditions of risk and cost-benefit analyses.

3. Learning

Action can be seen as stemming from past learning. The underlying process is one in which an

organization is conditioned through trial and error to repeat behaviour that has been successful in the

past, and to avoid that has been unsuccessful. Learning is what can be identified as experiential in

nature.

4. Conflict

Action can be seen as resulting from conflicting among individuals or groups representing diverse

interests. The underlying process is one of confrontation, bargaining and coalition, in which outcomes

depend on the initial preferences of actors weighted by their power. Edgar Schein talked of negotiated

order to exist in context of organization. Changes result from shifts in the mobilization or in the

resources managers' control. This change is again a negotiated one by different members of

organization who want to adjust policies as per their understanding view and influence in organization.

This model is the one based on politics. Members of organization interact in a political manners and

change results in a politically negotiated settlement amongst them. Another view relates to the pecking

order in organization explains the existence of hierarchical or top down order in organizations.

5. Contagion

Action can be seen as spreading from one organization to another. The underlying processes is one in

which variations in contact among organizations and in the attractiveness of the behaviour or beliefs

being imitated affect the rate and pattern of spread.

6. Regeneration

Action can be seen as resulting from the intentions and competencies of organization actors. Turnover in

organization introduces new members with different attitudes, abilities and goals. This resembles

organization life cycle approach and is quite like birth, growth, maturity and decline.

Change Management MGMT625

An organization uses rules, problem-solving, learning, conflict, contagion, and regeneration to cope

with its environment and actively adapt to it. The processes are conservative that is they tend to

maintain stable relations, sustain existing rules, and reduce differences among organizations. The above

six processes are neither esoteric (mysterious), complicated nor mutually exclusive.

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