A Manual of Organizational Development

The Psychology of Change

Clare Huffington, Clare Huffington, Halina Brunning, Carol Cole, Halina Brunning, Carol Cole, Clare Huffington

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN: 9780367104856
• eBook ISBN: 9780429910340
• Topic: Psicologia
• Subtopic: Storia e teoria della psicologia

A practical guide to the essentials of organisational change which makes complex concepts accessible to managers, consultants, human resources professionals and others. Includes a directory of further sources of information and assistance.

Chapter 1
The World of Change and Organizations

1. Global changes & mega-trends
2. Organizations in transition

• Global Changes & Mega-Trends

It is a truism to state that society in general—and organizations in particular—are currently experiencing profound and wide-reaching change. The only certainty is uncertainty itself, and, with quantum changes and discontinuities in all aspects of life, the world of tomorrow will not be like the world of today.

The various commentators on this global upheaval agree that we are in the midst of a significant and sharp transformation, where worldview and values, political and social structures, arts and institutions are all altering in ways that are difficult to predict (see Figure 1.1).

The impact will be felt across infrastructure, science and technology, the environment, health and medicine, education and training, lifestyle, work, and business. The contingent challenges and opportunities may include:

• the likely emergence of three distinct world groupings (the Americas, Eurafrica, and Greater Asia/Australasia)
• the creation of small nation-states
• the globalization of the market-place
• the growth in power of regional and transregional agencies
• the impact of IT: "thinking local, acting global"
• the international mobility of management and professional people
• the rise of the "green" consumer and concern with conservation and pollution
• the promise of biotechnology and genetic engineering
• more business alliances, partnerships, and joint ventures
• the delivery of quality, design, and service
• the currency of "knowledge" as the basic economic resource.

FIGURE 1.1 The changing environment

• Organizations in Transition

Those individuals and organizations most likely to survive and thrive on these mega-trends are what Kanter (1995) calls "world-class"—cosmopolitans rich in three intangible assets:

• concepts—the best and latest knowledge
• competence—the ability to operate at the highest standards of any place anywhere
• connections—the best relationships, providing access to the resources of other people and organizations around the world.

And yet there is

.. no single formula or image.... Multiple possible futures, the need for discontinuity almost for the sake of it, means that we must be able to think imaginatively, to be able to develop ourselves and, in generative relationships with others, to organise and re-organise ourselves continuously."

[Pedler, in Fisher & Torbert, 1995]

The challenge for organizations (and for individuals and groups) is therefore in moving beyond the environmental turbulence and in dealing with organizational transitions by learning and actively managing change.

"For an organisation to survive, its rate of learning must be equal to, or greater than, the rate of change in its external environment."

[Revaris, in Garratt, 1987]

But where does this leave us? Such learning and change management, if they are to be successful, do not simply happen: they need careful orchestration.

"It is not enough to look at what excellent organisations and managers are already doing. It is also necessary to be proactive in relation to the future: to anticipate some of the changes that are likely to occur and to position organisations and their members to address these new challenges effectively."

[Morgan, 1988]

This is where the world of organizations—and organization development—comes in.

Chapter 2
Organizations and Organization Development

1. What is an organization?
2. Core elements of an organization
3. Organizational dynamics
4. The effective organization
5. The healthy organization
6. The learning organization
7. What is organization development?
8. OD interventions

• What is an Organization?

"Every enterprise has four organizations: the one that is written down, the one that most people believe exists, the one that really exists, and, finally, the one that the enterprise really needs."

[Turrill, 1986]

There are, of course, numerous perceptions of organizations. The personnel specialist may view it as a large organization chart with staff numbers and job descriptions. To the engineer, it may be a collection of machinery, plant, and equipment in need of maintenance and repair. The accountant may see it in terms of profits, losses, and balance sheets, while the clinician may think in terms of patient services and coping with multiple demands.

While each perspective is in itself valid and real, it is only part of the picture; there is a clear need to take a "helicopter" view of the totality of an enterprise and its activities (see Figure 2.1), The elements of the model in Figure 2.1 are discussed further in the next section.

FIGURE 2.1 A model of organizations [From D. Nadler & M. Tushman, "A Diagnostic Model for Organization Behavior." In: Perspectives on Behavior in Organizations, edited by J. R. Hackman, E. E. Lawler, & L. W. Porter. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1977. Reproduced by permission of the publisher.]

• Core Elements of an Organization

Inputs

An organization's environment, resources, history, and strategies together define how people in the enterprise behave, and these factors function as "setting conditions", i.e. constraints as well as opportunities.

The environment

Many of the demands made on an organization emanate from outside the organization itself. Thus the raison d'être for most organizations is to meet such demands, e.g. to provide a service for clients. It is therefore essential that an organization understands the demands that it is there to satisfy.

Resources

Resources can be tangible assets such as capital (equipment, finance, property, etc.), technologies, and people, and intangibles such as reputation or image.

History

Because people have memories of an organization's past, their experiences will influence their current and future patterns of behaviour. Similarly, the whole organization as an entity in itself will have a sense of history, which influences, for instance, its traditions, norms, policies, the sort of people it attracts and recruits, and even how crises are typically resolved.

Strategy

Strategy describes the process of defining how an enterprise's resources can be best deployed for optimal organizational effectiveness. It involves the identification of opportunities in the environment and an awareness of the organization's strengths and weaknesses.

The Transformation Process

The transformation process consists of four major interactive components:

• The formal organization This refers to the "structure" of an enterprise—organization charts, policies, procedures, information systems, monitoring and control mechanisms. These are the "hard" features used to organize the work to be done.
• Task Given that the organization exists in order to pursue a purposeful human activity, the tasks are the actual...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title
• Copyright
• ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
• Contents
• ABOUT THE AUTHORS
• FOREWORD
• INTRODUCTION
• Chapter 1 The world of change and organizations
• Chapter 2 Organizations and organization development
• Chapter 3 Consulting to organizations
• Chapter 4 External and internal consultancy
• Chapter 5 The consultancy process
• Chapter 6 Change management
• REFERENCES
• APPENDIX 1 Further reading
• APPENDIX 2 Resources
• INDEX