Dynamics of Organizational Change

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Dynamics of Organizational Change

• Özge Pala
• Jac A. M. Vennix
• Nijmegen School of Management
• Nijmegen University, The Netherlands

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Contents

• Previous SD models on organizational change
• New model
• Base model
• Appropriateness of strategy
• Implementation success
• Behavior of the model
• Conclusions
• Future research

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Previous Models on Organizational Change

• 1965 McPherson - Organizational Change An
  Industrial Dynamics Approach.
• 1989 JacobsenSamuel - Planned Organizational
  Change Theory, Model, Data, and Simulation.
• 1991 FrechetteSpital - A Model of
  Organizational Change.
• 1996 LarsenLomi - The Dynamics of
  Organizational Inertia, survival, and Change.
• 1997 Sastry - Problems and Paradoxes in a Model
  of Punctuated Organizational Change

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Base model
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Appropriateness added
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Appropriateness added
Old organization 1 base model 2 base model with
appropriateness
Young organization 1 base model 2 base model
with appropriateness
Old organization High initial inertia. Change
starts too late when pressure is high and
appropriateness low
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Implementation Success
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Appropriateness and success added
Young organization
Old organization
Old organization with high inertia
Old organization with high inertia, without
threshold
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Different kinds of environment
1 one time (punctuated) change, pulse
function 2 incremental changes, fit decay
function 3 one time (punctuated) change and
incremental changes together

• Old organization Young
  organization

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Decay pulse, old organization
old organization, better communication
Under severe circumstances, e.g. faster
incremental changes
W/o info-processing loop, assume appropriateness
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Conclusions

• Not scanning the environment continuously can
  have detrimental effects for old, highly inert
  organizations
• In environments in which there are incremental
  changes, organizations should
• Scan their environment better
• Be more alert to changes and
• Have strategies other than punctuated change
• Both reacting too fast and too slow can be
  harmful.
• Too fast gt unnecessary amount of changes,
• Too slow gt death
• Organizational theorists should try to come up
  with criteria on how soon an organization should
  react to changes in the environment.