Leadership and Change

1
Leadership and Change

• Topic 7
• Reassessing Approaches to Change Management
  Emergent Approaches

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Introduction

• Internal and External forces act as major drivers
  for change
• Important that organisations have the capability
  to adapt and respond to changes in operating
  environment
• Central Question Is organisation Change planned
  or does it just happen?
• Most (change) writers tend to fall into one
  of two broad camps those who support the Planned
  approach to change and those who espouse the
  Emergent approach. (Coram and Burnes, 2001)

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Planned v Emergent changePlanned Change

• Implies a conscious and positive decision to
  bring about a desired difference
• Involves a series of stages and an iterative
  process
• Requires collaboration from organisational actors
• Dominated theory and practice until early 1980s
  but has faced criticism from Culture/Excellence,
  Processualist and Post-modern schools

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Planned v Emergent change Criticisms of Planned
Change

• Culture Excellence criticisms
• Developed for bureaucratic organisations
  operating in a predictable and controlled
  environment
• Culture Excellence School proposed solutions to
  organisational problems?
• Flexibility
• Innovation and entrepreneurship
• Bottom-up continuous change

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Planned v Emergent change Criticisms of Planned
Change

• Processual criticisms
• Planned Change emphasises incremental, isolated
  change based on the assumption that common
  agreement can be reached
• The same approach will not always work in dynamic
  and continually changing environment with
  different types of individual and coalitions
  involved off the shelf prescriptive focus
• general argument is that because of the
  complexity of social interactions, organisations
  are much less coherent and consistent than such
  rationality (planned change approach)
  presupposes. (Knights and McCabe, 2002241)

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Planned v Emergent change Criticisms of Planned
Change

• Processual Approach seeks to understand change
  as it happens
• Change is a complex, unpredictable and continual
  process
• Organisations characterised by conflict, power
  struggles and politics
• Need to fully understand the context and
  substance of change
• Internal and external context
• Scale, scope, defining characteristics, timeframe
  and centrality

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Planned v Emergent change Criticisms of Planned
Change

• Post-modern criticisms
• Those with power to drive change which will
  dominate individuals in weaker positions
• Change needs to be socially constructed in a way
  that gives freedom and opportunities for other
  parties to contribute
• Generally critics united on two points
• Change cannot be pre-planned and does not have a
  finite end point it is an emerging process
• Open systems perspective needs environment
  impact on organisation and organisations impact
  on environment

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Emergent Approach to ChangeCommon Assertions

• Based on the assumption that all organisations
  operate in a turbulent, dynamic and unpredictable
  environment
• Organisations need to continuously check their
  environment to identify developments and respond
  appropriately
• Change must be local and incremental, leading to
  potential transformation
• Change is interconnected
• Context of change shapes and is shaped by action
• Change is multi-causal and non linear natural
  changes (Strickland, 1998)
• Change is a political-social process and not an
  analytical-rational one

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Emergent Approach to ChangeCritical Success
factors (Burnes 2000)

• Structure
• Recognising both formal and informal aspects
• Culture
• Change anchored in organisations culture
• Culture change dangers
• Organisational Learning
• Stimulating criticism, open debate, challenging
  convention
• Managerial Behaviour
• Leaders, facilitators, coaches who span
  hierarchical boundaries
• Listening, counselling and understanding of
  resistance to change
• Power and politics

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Emergent Approach to ChangeCritical Success
factors Role of Change Managers/agents

• Change generators
• Key change agents demonstrators patrons
  defenders
• Change implementers
• External external/internal internal
• Change adopters
• Early adopters maintainers users
• (Ottaway, 1983, in London, 1988)

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Emergent Approach to ChangeCritical Success
factors Role of Change Managers/agents

• Planned approach
• logical
• planning analysis
• structures controls
• resources
• detailed timings

• Emergent approach
• stresses behaviour
• beliefs assumptions
• needs commitment
• values learning

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Emergent Approach to Change Criticisms

• Not all organisations are operating in a
  constantly changing environment
• Dismisses idea of stages, but still talks in
  terms of transition
• Scratch any account of creating and managing
  change and the idea that change is a three-stage
  process which necessarily begins with a process
  of unfreezing will not be far below the
  surface. (Hendry, 1996, in Coram and Burnes,
  2001)
• Too much emphasis on politics and culture?

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Summary and Conclusions

• Planned
• Aimed at improving group effectiveness
• Tends to have a top-down orientation
• Most suitable for stable environments
• Emergent
• Focuses on organisational transformation through
  continuous change
• Most suited to turbulent environments

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References

• Burnes, B. (2000) Managing Change A Strategic
  Approach to Organisational Dynamics, Harlow
  Pearson FT. (Chapter 8)
• Coram, R and Burnes, B (2001), Managing
  Organisational Change in the Public Sector,
  International Journal of Public Sector Management
  142, pp 94-110
• Knights, D. and McCabe, D. (2002) A road less
  travelled Beyond mangerialist, critical and
  processual approaches to TQM, Journal of
  Organisational Change Management, 15(3) 235-254.
• London, M (1988), Change Agents, SF Jossey-Bass
• Stickland, F. (1998) The Dynamics of Change
  Insights into Organisational Transition from the
  Natural World, London Routledge