Deze samenvatting is gebaseerd op het studiejaar 2013-2014.

Chapter A – Changing minds

A.1 - Introduction

Individuals go through several phases during a change process. Bridges (1995) described three stages in the transition process: endings, the neutral zone and new beginnings. However, change management philosophies tend to ignore how individuals respond to change.

- Psychological philosophy: The key motive is minimizing the trauma and discomfort associated with organizational change. The philosophy encourages employee involvement and empowerment in organizational decisions. It also cautions that decision-makers have to act on the feedback and recommendations of employees, otherwise communication can cause resistance.

A.2 – Responses to organizational change

Rational and systems philosophies view resistance to change as any structural, cultural, systematic or strategic barrier that impedes either introduced or externally pressured change. Psychological approaches see change in all of it forms as something that naturally draws a complex response. The acceptance or rejection of change may be conceptualized as a continuum that stretches from commitment to resistance. Employees may fear loss of status or privilege, become more anxious in the face of the unknown or simply lack trust in the change plan according to Gray, 2002. So fear and anxiety are normal and unhelpful responses to change.

Common psychological solutions for overcoming negative but intuitive responses to change include empowerment, participation, education, facilitation and negotiation (Friedman, 2004). People resist change, not organizations.

A.3 – Empowerment

There is a difference between how rationalistic, change and psychological philosophies see empowerment.

- Rationalist philosophy: Empowerment represents a solution to resistance, for instance decentralization and team-based organization forms. They prefer hard and formal management solutions.

- Change philosophy: Empowerment does not mean chasing strategic objectives. It aims to foster communication, contribute to society and to help organizational members feel better about their work. Empowerment strives less to give power away and more assumes that employees already have it. Examples are role modeling and organizational learning.

- Psychological philosophy: Empowerment enhances workplace creativity. Better organizational outcomes come through greater sensitivity to the negative psychological and emotional experiences that employees endure when they feel powerless. Examples are demonstrations by managers of their sincerity, such as through commitment to organizational development techniques.

However, not every employee wants to be empowered if it leads to more work, responsibility and risk (Foegen, 1999).

A.4 – Practices for adjustment to change

The psychological philosophy encourages employees to develop their own capacities, learn independently and advocate their own wants. With or without formal empowerment, when employees develop a sense of self-determination their responses to change become more positive (Fenwick, 2003). Besides planned change programs, learning and development can also occur during regular work. For instance: job enrichment and job rotation.

Coaching and mentoring are also common psychological approaches during change processes. Examples are training, guidance and feedback. However, there are some cons with coaching and mentoring: What are the professional and personal boundaries in the relationship?

A.5 – Organizational spirituality

Spirituality influences organizational change through personal psychology and it has a strong alignment with the psychological philosophy. Organizational spirituality places emphasis on individuals as the most important parts of organizations. Change transitions should support individual spiritual development. Spirituality inextricably connects with an individual’s search for meaning about their life, their work and their organization. Spirituality spans a bridge of values and principles between organizations and employees. The spiritual view sounds nice, however, it is limited.

A.6 – Organizational development

Organizational development (OD) explores the human side of change responses. It places enormous importance on individual and subjective experience. OD converges on the values, intentions and perceptions of employees, whose personal experiences of change need to be positively managed. OD also emphasizes the value of employees as a tremendous resource of learning, development and productivity. Employees must be placed in working environments that encourage self-determination, creativity and the opportunity for flexible responses to change. A working environment that meets employees’ needs, support inter-personal relationships, promote satisfaction and fulfillment and bolster commitment should be created. In practice this means that change leaders must find ways to introduce open, trusting and collaborative structures. Action research is a part of OD.

Downsides of OD are its impracticality and its costs. It is impossible to have constant interventions with consultants. OD also doesn’t offer a generic prescription for change and has been criticized for failing to bridge the gap between theory and practice.

A.7 – Organizational learning

Organizational learning (OL) marries the developmental side of OD with the cognitive side of the culture philosophy and a smattering of critical theory, to create a psychological approach that emphasized knowledge. For knowledge-intensive organizations, innovation, growth and productivity gains rely upon sharing and combining information. Bottom-up approach with network-based structures.

A.8 – Decision-making, reasoning and change

Too much choice can delay and disrupt decision-making because it introduces an emotional dimension.

- Agency theory: People will make decisions that reflect their best interests.

According to Hsee and Hastie (2205), people fail to choose optimally either because they do not accurately predict the consequences of the choices they are pressed to make or because they ignore their own predictions when they come to choose.

- Impact biases: Refer to individuals’ tendencies to overestimate the effect of an emotional event while overlooking the contextual circumstances.

- Prediction biases: Accompany skewed emotional arousal states. Current states get projected into future imagined states, which reinforces why one should avoid food shopping when hungry.

- Distinction biases: Occur in predictions made during different modes of evaluation as well as emotional states. People evaluate options differently before and after the decision. Romanticizing.

Of all the variables affecting predictions, psychologists refer to the most obvious as medium-maximization, when individuals resolve to focus on something other than the target outcome. People work harder and longer to maximize their status and wealth without making any actual improvements to their happiness. Similarly, change agents may end up working with greater dedication and intensity in the wrong areas.

A.9 – Conclusion

Psychological philosophy focuses on the traumatic as well as the subtle experiences that individuals face. Change arrives from the inside-out. Psychological change advocates point to organizational learning as the key outcome from development.

Critics of psychologically-styled programs of change point to the problematic aspects of allowing employees to initiate change.

Chapter B – Managing recipients of change and influencing internal stakeholders

Change leaders need to acknowledge that change can require people to modify their personal or professional identities, skill sets and other deeply held beliefs and expectations.

B.1 – Stakeholders respond variably to change initiatives

Many managers assume that resistance is inevitable in change situations. Employees do not always react negatively and in many situations they will react quite positively. Some researchers have suggested that resistance to change is a term that has lost its usefulness, because it oversimplifies that matter and becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. That is, if change leaders assume resistance will occur, it becomes more likely. Change leaders should focus on trying to understand why people react to the change as they do and how those reactions are likely to evolve over time.

When changes are introduced, people often find themselves pulled in different directions. The mixed feelings that many people feel can be magnified by concerns about their jobs and the impact of the change on (a) their relationships with others, (b) their ability to do what is being asked of them, (c) the fit with their needs and values and (d) their future prospects. Some people make a cost and benefit analysis of the change.

Recipients’ understanding and responses to the change will evolve over time as the change unfolds. As a result, the approaches used by change leaders will need to vary over the course of the change process.

B.2 – Responding to positive feelings in stakeholders: channeling their energy

A change initiative can also represent a chance for personal growth, promotion, variety, opportunities and challenges. Change leaders need to:

- Channel the energy in positive ways, not letting the enthusiasm for change overwhelm legitimate concerns.

- Name the problem of mixed feelings and the need to understand the different reactions to change.

- Appoint highly respected, positively oriented stakeholders to chair significant committees or other change initiative structures, but ensure they have the skills and resources required to fill these roles in ways that don’t stifle needed discussion and debate.

- Manage the dilemma and remember that going too slow can lose enthusiastic support of change enthusiasts and going too fast will choke those who are doubtful.

So, employees are likely to have mixed feelings about change, as it often gives rise to perceptions of increased complexity, uncertainty, and higher risk, particularly in the short run. People’s beliefs about a change and its potential impact can be both positive and negative and can vary in intensity. People protect their attitudes by employing a variety of strategies:

- Turn to habits and approaches that have served us well in the past.

- Engage in selective perception (actively seeking out confirming information and avoiding disconfirming data).

- Selectively recall.

- Deny in the form of counterarguments geared to support and strengthen one’s position.

- Sarcasm, anger, aggression and withdrawal.

Rather than interpreting mixed feelings as resistance, change leaders are better served by:

- Focusing on helping people make sense of the proposed changes.

- Listening for information that may be helpful in achieving change.

- Constructively reconciling their ambivalence.

- Sorting out what actions are now needed.

It is almost always in the best interest of change agents to actively engage people in meaningful discussions early in the change process and help to align their interpretations with the process. Once the blueprint for more complex change is set out, it is brought to life through the interpretations and responses of employees.

Table 7.1 on page 220 summarizes some causes of negative reactions to change.

Concerns and negative reactions toward change develop for a variety of reasons:

- Perception of negative consequences of the change may be a reality.

- Communication processes may be flawed.

- People may have serious doubts about the impact and effectiveness of the change.

- People may lack experience with change and are unsure about its implications or their capacity to adjust.

- People may have had negative experiences with change initiatives or approaches that seem similar to the one being advocated.

- They may have had a negative experience with those advocating the change.

- People may be influenced by the negative reactions of peers, subordinates or supervisors.

- Last but not least, there may be justice-related concerns.

The key question is not who is to blame, but rather what is happening, why is it happening and what does this tell us about what we should do now?

For successful change management and implementation, there needs to be engagement and open conversation, especially in the face of resistance. Alignment also needs to exist between what is communicated and the systems and structures of the organization.

B.3 – Make the change of the psychological contract explicit and transparent

- Psychological contract: The contract that represents the sum of the implicit and explicit agreements we believe we have with our organization. It defines our perceptions for ourselves and for the organization, including organizational norms, rights, rewards and obligations. They both influence and are influenced by the culture of the organization. Much of the contract is implicit, so it could be hard for change agents to recognize the impact that a change has.

Change can be thought of as occurring in three phase: before the change, during the change and at the end of the change.

Table 7.2 – Stages of reactions to change

- Survivor syndrome: Refers to the reaction of those who survive a poorly handled, traumatic change such as downsizing. Survivor syndrome effects include lower levels of job satisfaction, motivation, and organizational loyalty, greater stress, greater ambiguity, vulnerability about one’s future position, a sense of entrapment in a negative situation and guilt about being retrained while others have been let go.

Three specific factors that have an influence on how people adapt to change:

1. Individuals’ perceptions of the change experience and the risk of change will also be influenced by their personalities.

2. Previous experience with change will affect a person’s view and behavior.

- Competency or a complacency trap: The tendency to rely on competencies and strategies that have worked in the past.

Figure 7.2 on page 229 shows the past rate of change and the perceived risk of the new change.

Table 7.3 on page 230 shows the interaction of personality with the experience of change.

3. Our views are also influenced by the comments and actions of those around us, particularly those whose opinions and relationships we value. Coworkers and work groups play a critical role in how people sort out their own reactions to change, because these individuals live in a similar organizational world and their relationships are bound together by norms, roles and shared obligations and experiences.

Table 7.4 – Impact of trusted peers on recipients

4. How employees view and react to change is influenced by their perceptions of the change leaders. If people believe their perspectives and interests are recognized and they trust these leaders, then they are likely to respond positively to the suggestions of change.

B.4 – Integrity is one antidote to skepticism and cynicism

Followers may believe that the promise are suspect, particularly if the leader is relatively unknown or untested. If followers have received promises before and found them wanting, then people will be skeptical. Cynicism persists because it is selectively validated by the organization’s mixed record of successful change and by other people in the organization who hold and express similar views.

Table 7.5 on page 234 shows ways to manage and minimize cynicism about change.

B.5 – Avoiding coercion but pushing hard: the sweet spot?

At times, employees respond to leaders out of fear of what will happen if they don’t comply. While fear can motivate, leaders who rely primarily on fear or coercion are following a risky path – both ethically and pragmatically. Leaders are attracted to the use of punishment and fear, because these tools are available, are immediate in their short-term effects, and carry the illusion of control through obedience and compliant behavior. Such techniques can create undesirable side effects: frustration, withdrawal in the form of absenteeism and turnover, aggression and sabotage.

B.6 – Creating consistent signals from systems and processes

A leader’s credibility will be either enhanced or diminished by the extent to which organizational systems and processes send a consistent message or are themselves the focus of changes that will bring them into alignment with the change vision. Credibility and trust are diminished when the leader’s words say one thing, but the systems and processes signal something else.

B.7 – Steps to minimize the negative effects of change

- Engagement.

- Timeliness.

- Two-way communication.

Table 7.6 on page 237 shows some strategies for coping with change.

B.8 – Make continuous improvement the norm

One benefit of continuous improvement approaches such as Six Sigma is the legitimization of ongoing changes in ways that provide continuity with the past. Rather than searching for the silver bullet that will produce the cure for current organizational ills, these approaches seek to advance less heroic, ongoing initiatives that will enhance organizational health in incremental ways. If the organizational culture promotes an ongoing and constructive embrace of change, perceptions of the threat related to change are bound to be reduced.

Creating organizational agility and resiliency enables organizations to be more prepared for change.

B.9 – Encourage people to be change agents and avoid the recipient trap

One way to reduce the negative effects of change is to take risks, get more involved and become a change agent. When people attempt to influence the events swirling about them, they are, in effect, acting as their own change agents.

Chapter C – Becoming a master change agent

C.1 – Factors that influence change agent success

The situation, the vision and the actions of a person determine also the success of a change agent.

Being a change agent = Person x Vision x Situation

- Exothermic change situations: Situations that invigorate and energize the change agent. Enthusiasm builds as coalitions form and the proposed change gains momentum and seems likely to succeed.

- Endothermic change situations: Situations that suck energy out of the change agent and seem to lead to a never ending series of meetings, obstacles and issues that prevent a sense of progress. The change program consumes energy and arouses opposition. This will require more energy from the change agent.

Six attributes are particularly relevant for change leaders:

1. Commitment to improvement. This is a trial-and-error approach.

2. Communication and interpersonal skills. Emotional resilience, tolerance for ethical conflicts and ambiguities and political savvy.

3. Determination.

4. Eyes on the prize and flexibility.

5. Experience and networks.

6. Intelligence.

- Bad leadership: abuse of power, inflicting damage on others, over exercise of control to satisfy personal needs and rule breaking to serve the individual’s own purposes.

Table 8.1 on page 266 – Attributes of change leaders and change managers

The following three categories of change behaviors are a helpful way of grouping their actions:

- Framing behaviors: Behaviors oriented toward changing the sense of the situation, establishing starting points for change, designing the change journey and communicating principles.

- Capacity-creating behaviors: Behaviors focused on creating the capacity for change by increasing individual and organizational capabilities and creating and communicating connections in the organization.

- Shaping behaviors: Actions that attempt to shape what people do by acting as a role model, holding others accountable, thinking about change and focusing on individuals in the change process.

C.2 – Developing into a change leader

Many change leadership skills can be learned, which means that they can be taught. Awareness of the following macro level changes will help change agents better understand the environment and use and develop necessary skills to lead change internally:

- More complex challenges.

- A focus on innovation.

- An increase in virtual communication and leadership.

- The importance of authenticity.

- Leading for long-term survival.

As part of the continuous learning process, self-discovery, discipline and reflection are critical to ongoing success and growth. Jeanie Daniel Duck argues that an organization will not change if the individuals within that organization do not change themselves. The key questions to ask, according to Duck, are:

- Which of your behaviors will stop/start or change?

- What, specifically, are you willing to do?

- How will others know?

- How might you sabotage yourself?

- What’s the payoff in this for you?

Bennis describes four rules that he believes change leaders should accept to enhance their self development:

- You are your own best teacher.

- You accept responsibility and blame no one.

- You can learn anything you want to learn.

- True understanding comes from reflection on your experience.

Bennis’s fundamental message is to take responsibility for your own learning and development as a change leader.

Organizations are able to change more effectively when individuals and change leaders within the organization shift their mental maps and frameworks. This also requires openness and reflection. The skill of communication mentioned earlier is essential here, as it is through conversation and open dialogue that change occurs. Therefore, there is a need to be willing to think with others in a reflective way to see change happen.

Appreciative inquiry (AI) is critical in these conversations of reflection. It is the engagement of individuals in an organizational system in its renewal.

C.3 – Developmental stages of change leaders

Miller argues that there are developmental stages of change leaders. He believes that individuals progress through stages of beliefs about change, increasing in their complexity and sophistication. Table 8.2 on page 269 shows Miller’s stages of change beliefs: novice, junior, experienced and expert.

C.4 – Four types of change leaders

- Episodic change: Infrequent, discontinuous and intentional.

- Continuous change: Ongoing, evolving and cumulative.

Weick and Quinn suggest that the role of change agents shifts depending on the type of change. Episodic change needs a prime mover change agent: one who can creates change. Continuous change needs a change agent who is a sense maker and able to redirect the organization.

- Pull actions: Pull actions by change agents create attractions or goals that draw willing organizational members to change and are characterized by organizational visions or higher-order purposes or strategies.

- Push actions: These actions are data based and factual and are communicated in ways that advance analytical thinking and reasoning and that push recipients’ thinking in new directions.

Strategic change

Incremental change

Table 8.3 – Change agent types

- The emotional champion: He/she has a clear and powerful vision of what the organization needs and uses that vision to capture the hearts and motivations of the organization’s members.

            - Comfortable with ambiguity and risk.

            - Thinks tangentially and challenges accepted ways of doing things.

            - Has strong initiative abilities.

            - Relies on feelings and emotions to influence others.

- The developmental strategist: He/she applies rational analysis to understanding the competitive logic of the organization and how it no longer fits with the organization’s existing strategy.

- Engages in big-picture thinking about strategic change and the fit between the environment and the organization.

- Sees organizations in terms of systems and structures fitting into logical, integrated components that fit (or don’t) with environmental demands.

- Is comfortable with assessing risk and taking significant chances based on a thorough assessment of the situation.

- The intuitive adapter: He/she has the clear vision for the organization and uses that vision to reinforce a culture of learning and adapting.

            - Embraces more moderate risks.

            - Engages in a more limited search for solutions.

            - Is comfortable with the current direction that the vision offers.

- Relies on intuition and emotion to persuade others to propel the organization

forward through incremental changes.

- The continuous improver: He/she analyzes micro environments and seeks changes such as re-engineering systems and processes.

            - Thinks logically and carefully about detailed processes and how they can be

improved.

            - Aims for possible gains and small wins rather than great leaps.

            - Is systematic in his or her thinking while making careful gains.

The purpose of this model is to marry types of change with methods of persuasion. Each change agent will have personal preferences. By knowing your own level of flexibility, you can undertake initiatives that will develop your capacity to adapt your approach as a change agent in a given situation.

Hunsaker also identified four different internal roles a change agent can play:

- Catalyst: He/she is needed to overcome inertia and focus the organization on the problems faced.

- Solution giver: He/she knows how to respond and can solve the problem.

- Process helper: He/she facilitates the how to of change, playing the role of third-party intervener often.

- Resource linker: He/she brings people and resources together in ways that aid in the solution of issues.

C.5 – External change agents/consultants

Internal change agents are critical to the process because they know the systems, norms and subtleties of how things get done, and they have existing relationships that can prove helpful. However, they may not possess needed specialized knowledge or skills, lack objectivity or independence, have difficulty reframing existing relationships with organizational members, or lack an adequate power base. Therefore, it can be helpful to have an external change agent (consultant) in the change team. They can offer:

- Subject-matter expertise.

- Fresh perspectives through exposure to ideas that have worked elsewhere.

- Independent, trustworthy support.

C.6 – Change teams

Change initiatives that are larger require the efforts of more than one change agent. Outside consultants may be able to help, but they may lack credibility and often lack the deep knowledge of the political environment and culture of an organization. As a result, change agents look to extend their reach by using change teams. Worren suggests that teams are important because employees learn new behaviors and attitudes by participating in ad-hoc teams solving real business problems. Further, as change agents become immersed in the change, the volume of work increases and the roles and skills required of them vary.

Prosci describes a good change management team member as:

- Being knowledgeable about the business and enthusiastic about the change.

- Possessing excellent oral and written communications skills and a willingness to listen and share.

- Having total commitment to the project, the process and the results.

- Being able to remain open minded and visionary.

- Being respected within the organization as an apolitical catalyst for strategic change.

Change leaders must not only achieve the change, but they must also bring the change team along so that it accepts and is enthusiastic about the change initiative.

Creating the conditions for successful change is more than having an excellent change project plan. Equally important is recognizing the different change roles that need to be played and then developing a strong change team.

Possible roles within change teams:

- Champion: Someone within the team who will fight for the change under trying circumstances and will continue to persevere when others would have checked out and given up.

- Steering team: Provides advice to the champion and the implementation team regarding the direction of the change.

- Design and implementation team: Plans the change, deals with the stakeholders and has primary responsibility for the implementation.

- Change project manager: He/she will coordinate planning, manage logistics, track the team’s progress toward change targets and manage the adjustments needed along the way.

- Sponsors: Senior executives who foster commitment to the change and assist those charged with making the change happen.

Developing the team is an important task for the change leaders because the ability to build teams, motivate and communicate are all predictors of successful change implementation. Wageman has identified the following seven factors as critical to team success with self-managed teams:

- Clear, engaging direction.

- A real team task.

- Rewards for team excellence.

- The availability of basic material resources to do the job, including the abilities of individual team members.

- Authority vested in the team manage the work.

- Team goals.

- The development of team norms that promote strategic thinking.

There are off course other lists with different factors, for instance: dedication and willingness, personalities and skills.

Table 8.4 on page 282 shows some design rules for top teams.

C. 7 – Change from the middle – everyone needs to be a change agent

Most of the change agents will be operating from the middle of the organization. Oshry’s advice for those in the middle is to:

1. Be top when you can and take responsibility for being top.

2. Be bottom when you should. Don’t let problems just flow through you to subordinates.

3. Be coach to help others solve their own problems so they don’t become yours.

4. Facilitate rather than simply carry messages when you find yourself running back and forth between two parties who are in conflict.

5. Integrate with one another so that you develop a strong peer group that you can turn to for advice, guidance and support.

C.8 – Rules of thumb for change agents

- Stay alive.

- Start where the system is.

- Work downhill.

- Organize, but don’t over organize.

- Pick your battles carefully.

- Load experiments for success.

- Light many fires.

- Just enough is good enough.

- You can’t make a difference without doing things differently.

- Reflect.

- Want to change: focus on important results and get them.

- Think and act fast.

- Create a coalition.