Introduction
- Change in organizations can be either proactive or reactive.
- Proactive change involves actively attempting to make alterations to the work place and its practices.
- Companies that take a proactive approach to change are often trying to avoid a potential future threat or to capitalize on a potential future opportunity.
- Reactive change occurs when an organization makes changes in its practices after some threat or opportunity has already occurred.
- Broadly there exist two forms of change
- Planned change
- Emergent change
Planned change
- Views organization change as a process of moving from one fixed state to another through a series of preplanned steps.
- Distinguishes change that is conscious as opposed to change that was brought about by accidents or impulse or that which might be forced on an organization.
- Most closely associated with the practice of Organizational Development (OD).
- OD is about people and organizations and people in organizations.
- It is also about planned change, i.e getting individuals, teams and organizations to function better.
- Planned change involves common sense, hard work applied diligently over time, a systematic goal oriented approach, and valid knowledge about organizational dynamics and how to change them.
Emergent change
- This approach emerged in the 1980s.
- Views change as a continuous, open ended and unpredictable process of aligning and realigning the organization to its changing environment.
- It recognizes the need for organizations to align their internal practices to the external conditions.
- Most importantly, it sees change as a political process whereby different groups in an organization struggle to protect and enhance their own interests.
- Views change as a process that unfolds through interplay of multiple variables (context, political process, and consultation) within an organization.
- Change not a series of linear events within a given period of time but rather a
continuous process. - Handling change is part of every manager‘s role and not work of a specialist.
- Emphasize a bottom up approach as opposed to top-down approach implied in planned change.
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