Management of change

Abstract

The capacity to change is a hallmark of intelligence. This applies to the intelligent organization as well as to individuals. In this chapter we address this phenomenon in several ways. In the first instance, we recognise that many contemporary change management approaches presume the organization is like a blank sheet over which they can paint a new organization. The reality for many organizations is that their current arrangements for everyday working include practices and policies which become embedded in the organization as layers of distinct thinking and practice, over time. Secondly, many change management approaches presume that their changes will be effective and presume that their proposed changes will be better than previous practices. This may not be the case. Thirdly, advocates of change management have a rhetoric which implies there is only one approach, one model for change, and it is the model which they advocate. This chapter addresses change management as potentially having different objectives which differentiates this work from extant literature on change management. There are key issues to be resolved in change management programmes: (1) the extent to which organizations use management consultants as agents of change; (2) whether there are structural changes which are necessary to make the organization more effective; (3) the importance of processes of management and the extent to which they need to change and (4) the role of technology in change management. All of these dimensions of change management need to recognise the human relations element of change programmes. The enrolment of articulate and influential members of staff can be critical in the articulation of a change agenda which makes sense to the people in the organization.