Appreciative Inquiry vs. Traditional Approach
Traditional organizational approaches to organizational development emerged from behavioral research undertaken after World War II. That research led to the development in the late 1940’s and 1950’s of behavioral development strategies such as sensitivity training, survey feedback, socio-technical systems, and quality management.
During the 1950’s, researchers and managers began to utilize different elements of the various behavioral development strategies to create more comprehensive processes for planning and executing change in organizations. Models such as Lewin’s 3 step planned change model and Action Research constituted some of the traditional forms of organizational development.
Weick, K. and Quinn, R. (1999) ‘Organizational Change and Development’, Annual Review of Psychology, vol. 50 (1), pp. 361—386
Leading Change was named the top management book of the year by Management General. There are three major sections in this book. The first section is ¡§the change of problem and its solution¡¨ ; which discusses why firms fail. The second one is ¡§the eight-stage process¡¨ that deals with methods of performing changes. Lastly, ¡§implications for the twenty-first century¡¨ is discussed as the conclusion. The eight stages of process are as followed: (1) Establishing a sense of urgency. (2) Creating the guiding coalition. (3) Developing a vision and a strategy. (4) Communicating the change of vision. (5) Empowering employees for broad-based action. (6) Generating short-term wins. (7) Consolidating gains and producing more changes. (8) Anchoring new approaches in the culture.
Spector, B. (2013). Implementing organizational change: theory into practice. (3rd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ
Burke and Litwin’s collaboration to understand how to bring change at BA resulted in the creation of the Burke-Litwin model depicted in Figure 1. They divided the model into transformational and transactional dimensions. For example, the top half of the model is associated with transformational factors (i.e., external environment, leadership, mission and strategy, organization culture, and individual and organization performance). While the bottom half of the model describes the transactional factors (i.e., management practices, structure, work unit climate, systems, individual needs, motivation, task requirements and individual skills, and individual and organizational
Organizational behavior can be considered a broad field covering a wide range of topics over the past hundred years. Areas include leadership, motivation, individuals in teams and groups, effects of the work environment, power and influence, and organizational change (Ott, Parkes, & Simpson, 2008). The last area, organizational change, has received much focus and attention, thus the vast amount of literature on the topic. This could be because scholars and researchers are aware that change is a necessary part of organizations, if they want to successfully move into the future.
The Organization Development (OD) approach in the Dupont story is shown by manager Tom Harris in his desire to improve overall organization effectiveness (Palmer et al., 2009, p. 193). One of the characteristics of OD is that “it aims at improving the effectiveness of the organization in order to help it achieve its mission” (Palmer et al., 2009, p. 193). Also, when Harris decided to have Professor Akin from Virginia come to assess the entire organization in order implement a plan for improvement he was further instituting the OD approach as Professor Akin assumed the role of OD practitioner (Palmer et al., 2009). This first order change approach was supported by the top management, was action-oriented and was focused on introducing the group of managers to new...
One of the change models of Organizational Development was created by Kurt Lewin. It includes three phases: unfreeze, move or change, and refreeze (Lewin, 1951, 1958). Lewin’s model recognizes the impormance of changing the people in organization and the role of top management involvement to overcome the resistance of change.
Ivancevich, J., Konopaske, R. & Matteson, M. (2011). Organizational Behavior and Management. NewYork, NY: McGraw Hill.
This paper will be broken down into six sections profiling each critical part of implementing and managing change in an organization. The sections included are; outline for plan creating urgency, the approach to attracting a guiding team, a critique of the organizational profile, the components of change, and how to empower the organization.
A theoretical framework provides guidance as a project evolves. The end results will determine whether the knowledge learned from implementing a project should create a change in practice (Sinclair, 2007). In this project is relied on the Kurt Lewin’s Change Theory. Burnes (2004) states that despite the fact that Lewin built up this three-step model more than 60 years prior, it keeps on being a commonly referred framework to support effective change projects. The three steps are unfreezing, moving and refreezing. Lewin decided in Step 1, unfreezing, that human conduct is held in balance by driving and limiting powers. He trusted this equilibrium should be disrupted with the end goal for change to happen (Burnes, 2004). Step 2 or moving, includes learning. Learning incorporates knowledge of what the conceivable alternatives are and proceeding onward from past practices to new practices which will...
Unlike many behavioral approaches to change, AI does not focus on changing people. Instead, it invites people to engage in building the kinds of organizations and communities that they want to work and live in. (Mohy & Watkins, p. 4)
French, W. L., & Bell, C. (1999). Organization development: behavioral science interventions for organization improvement (6th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Cummings, T. G. (2008). Organizational Development Diagnosis. Handbook of organization development (pp. 137-147). Los Angeles: SAGE Publications.
One of the first scholars to describe the process of organizational change was Lewin (1974). He described change as a three-stage process that consists of unfreezing, moving and freezing stage. During the unfreezing stage the organizations become motivated to change by some event or objective. The moving stage is like implementation when the organization actually makes the necessary change. Furthermore the freezing stage is reached when the change becomes permanent. Organizational change has also...
Organizational behavior (OB) is the actions of people behavior at work (Robbins, Stephen P., 2012) and how their actions affect the organization’s performance (Robbins, Stephen P., 2013). And it is “a field of study that investigates the impact that individuals, groups, and structure have on behavior within organizations, for the purpose of applying such knowledge toward improving an organization’s effectiveness” (Robbins, Stephen P. 2013, p. 10). In the late 1700s, Robert Owen (1889) was first concerned about miserable working conditions. He proposed the ideal working environment and stated that spending on employees’ training was a wise investment. Chester Barnard (1938) thought that, as social systems, organizations