Literature Review
Best practices for undertaking change in organizations are disputed among academics and researchers. Some theoretical approaches believe that managers can frequently make change happen in their organizations, while other approaches downplay the significance of human agency (Fernandez and Rainey 168). Fortunately, there are models and frameworks that describe factors contributing to successful organizational change. The analysis in this paper utilizes the eight-factor model outlined by Professor Sergio Fernandez and Professor Hal G. Rainey in their article, “Managing Successful Organizational Change in the Public Sector,” to evaluate the MMSD and Sandburg Elementary School transitions. The analysis is further supported by: The Heart of Change, by John Kotter and Dan Cohen; “Trust in Schools: A Core Resource for School Reform,” by Anthony S. Bryk and Barbara Schneider; and “Seven strong claims about successful school leadership,” by Kenneth Leithwood, Alma Harris, and David Hopkins.
Managing Successful
…show more content…
Similarly to Fernandez and Rainey, Kotter and Cohen provide an eight-factor guideline to follow for successful change. This guideline is normative and not completely aligned with Fernandez and Rainey. However, it does provide a deeper understanding of the applicability of the factors described in both pieces. The book stresses that truth influences people’s feelings rather than facts changing people’s thinking. This is an important statement for public managers to consider when implementing change because it implies that the eight-factor guideline only works when people’s behavior is changed. Furthermore, successful organizations know how to seize opportunities and overcome obstacles to big change. They argue that strategy, culture, and systems are not the core problems when implementing change, even though they play a
Spector, B. (2013). Implementing organizational change: theory into practice. (3rd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ
In his book, Leading Change, Dr. John P. Kotter communicates why organizations fail or succeed based on ten years of conducting research on more than 100 companies to see what contributed to their successful transformations and what hindered those transformations. “In October 2001 Business Week magazine reported a survey they conducted of 504 enterprises that rated Professor Kotter the number one “leading guru” in America.” The two significant aspects I took from this book were the reasons why change initiatives fail and an eight-stage process to lead the organization through a successful transformation.
Change is a double-edged sword (Fullan, 2001). Change is a word that might inspire or put fear into people. Leadership is challenging when it comes to dealing with change and how individuals react within the organization to the change. Marzano, McNulty, and Waters (2005) discuss two orders of change in their book School Leadership that Works; first and second. Fullan (2001) also adds to the discussion in his book Leading in a Culture of Change, with regard to understanding change. In Change Leadership, Keagan and Wagner (2006) discuss many factors of change and the systematic approach to change. Change affects people in different ways. Leaders need to be able to respond to the individuals throughout the change process.
Our change situation will be replacing workers by increasing machines and bringing out new technology. As these days it was very difficult to hire the employees with professional skills, they made some changes in the workplace. As the manpower will also take on a major part in increasing production by operating machines, they have broken in that experiment. In this difficult business environment, leaders should be able to discharge their functions in such a way that they provide the proper guidance to fill in their goals. To treat this kind of situations, these are the most important things we should look at. (James.k, 1967)
As an emerging leader whose desire is to see progress in his/her organization change is inevitable and necessary. Although change is an important component of moving forward and growing a lot of people resist change, this resistance can be contributed to our fear of the unknown which is what change represent to many people. Hence, when it comes to implementing change it would be best to start off by recognizing and identify what needs to be change ad how to bring about that change. You can’t convince others to go on a journey if you are not aware where you are going.
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.
Organizations are preserved by change and constant renewal; otherwise, they will stagnate and die (Marquis & Huston, 2015). Leading change can be one of the most challenging tasks for a leader. Many times attempts at change fail because the person trying to implement the change was ill prepared to deal with resistance and used an unstructured
In today’s ever changing world people must adapt to change. If an organization wants to be successful or remain successful they must embrace change. This book helps us identify why people succeed and or fail at large scale change. A lot of companies have a problem with integrating change, The Heart of Change, outlines ways a company can integrate change. The text book Ivanceich’s Organizational Behavior and Kotter and Cohen’s The Heart of Change outlines how change can be a good thing within an organization. The Heart of Change introduces its readers to eight steps the authors feel are important in introducing a large scale organizational change. Today’s organizations have to deal with leadership change, change in the economy,
Judge Jr., W. Q. (2013, February). Focusing on Organizational Change. Retrieved November 8, 2017, from VitalSource: Retrieved from https://mbsdirect.vitalsource.com/#/books/MBS1549164/cfi/160!/4/4@0.00:39.5
The change process within any organization can prove to be difficult and very stressful, not only for the employees but also for the management team. Hayes (2014), highlights seven core activities that must take place in order for change to be effective: recognizing the need for change, diagnosing the change and formulating a future state, planning the desired change, implementing the strategies, sustaining the implemented change, managing all those involved and learning from the change. Individually, these steps are comprised of key actions and decisions that must be properly addressed in order to move on to the next step. This paper is going to examine how change managers manage the implementation of change and strategies used
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.
Change is the only constant in life. And therefore it should be understood as part of a continuing work in progress that calls for a much broader canvas that seeks out competing voices, and works with the resulting ambiguities, contradictions and tensions of messy reality (Graetz, F. & Smith, A., 2010). In this submission I try to show that organizational change is majorly based on the environment surrounding it much more than the desire of the members or change agents working in that organization. This view diverts from that of Lippitt, (1958) who suggests that implementing planned organizational changes successfully depends on premeditated interventions intended to modify the functioning of an organization. It also diverts from the traditional approaches to organizational change that generally follow a linear, rational model in which the focus is on controllability under the stewardship of a strong leader or ‘guiding coalition (Collis, 1998). In this discussion therefore, comparison made between the different philosophies of change and I try to show that successful change implantation largely depends on an organizations appreciation of what goes on around it rather than what they have planned as a strategic direction.
When organizational change proves necessary, all people at all levels of the organization should address change as a “how,” “what,” and “why” problem in order for the change to be sustained over time.
The goal of organizational change management is to create a prosperous work environment through strategic change and applying those changes through the people side of management. Organizational change management is a branch of handling the outcome and strategies of new business processes, changes in organizational structure or cultural changes within a company. There are multiple components in understanding the techniques and goals of Organizational change management. The first part discussed will be on setting goals for an organization as it can be a complex process because if aimed too high, the goals will most likely not be attained and performance will deteriorate.
Robbins et al. (2011, p. 186), states ‘Change is an organizational reality and affects every part of a manager’s job’. Today’s wave of change primarily created by economic condition so change is now such a constant feature of organization life (Goodman, E. 2011, p.243). Organizations need to be changed at one point or another in structure, technology or people. These changes are defined as organizational change (Robbins et al. 2011, p.18). Organizational change is important because changes can increase effectiveness and efficiency, the innovation of products, services as well as dealing with changes in external and internal forces (Goodman, E. 2011, p.243). However, ‘the bottom line is that organizational change is difficult because management systems are design and people are rewarded for stability’ (Lawler, E.E. & Worley, C.G. 2006, p.11).