Chapter Three

Overview of Change Management

Up on completing this unit, students will be able to:
 Have an understanding of the meaning and implications change Management
 Identify factors of organizational change
 Identify level of change
 Understand the relevant process of organizational change
 Explaining the reason why employees resist to change and ways of managing
employee’s resistance.
1.1. Meaning and Implication
Change means making things different. When an organization makes things in a different
way, an organizational change is occurred. A transformation from one state, condition, or
phase to another. Change is about travelling from the old to the new, leaving yesterday
behind in exchange for the new tomorrow. Thus, Organizational change is the movement of
an organization away from its present state toward some desired future state to increase its
efficiency and effectiveness.
It occurs whenever we replace the old process, system, structure or job roles by the new
ones. Implementing change is incredibly difficult. Most people are reluctant to leave the
familiar behind and enter to new process, system, structure or job roles. We are all
suspicious about the unfamiliar; we are naturally concerned about how we get from the old
to the new, especially if it involves learning something new and risking failure.
Change management is the discipline that guides how we prepare, equip and support
individuals to successfully adopt change in order to drive organizational success and
outcomes.
Change management is a structured approach to transitioning individuals, teams, and
organizations from a current state to a desired future state, to fulfill or implement a vision
and strategy. It is an organizational process aimed at empowering employees to accept and
embrace changes in their current environment.
Change incorporates the organizational tools that can be utilized to help individuals and
teams make successful transitions resulting in the adoption and realization of change. Any
change to processes, systems, organization structures and/or job roles will have a 'technical'
side and a 'people' side that must be managed.

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Organizational success depends on the organization’s rate of adaptations to environmental
changes. It implies:
 Efficiency and effectiveness
 Successes or un successes depending up on its effect
 More profit and organizational growth etc.
Levels of Change Management
The steps in change management involves three levels
1. Individual Change Management
While it is the natural psychological and physiological reaction of humans to resist change,
we are actually quite resilient creatures. When supported through times of change, we can be
wonderfully adaptive and successful. Individual change management requires understanding
how people experience change and what they need to change successfully. It also requires
knowing what will help people make a successful transition: what messages do people need
to hear when and from whom, what is the optimal time to teach someone a new skill, how to
coach people to demonstrate new behaviors, and what makes changes ―stick in someone’s
work.
2. Organizational/Initiative Change Management
While change happens at the individual level, it is often impossible for a project team to
manage change on a person-by-person basis. Organizational or initiative change management
provides us with the steps and actions to take at the project level to support the hundreds or
thousands of individuals who are impacted by a project.
Organizational change management involves first identifying the groups and people who will
need to change as the result of the project, and in what ways they will need to change. Then,
involves creating a customized plan for ensuring impacted employees receive the awareness,
leadership, coaching, and training they need in order to change successfully.
3. Enterprise Change Management Capability
Once change is embraced at individual and organizational level, change should be embedded
in the organizations core values. This enables an organization to make change part of its
culture that help the organization to adapt an ever-evolving business landscape. Enterprise
change management is an organizational core competency that provides competitive
differentiation and the ability to effectively adapt to the ever-changing world. An enterprise
change management capability means effective change management is embedded into your
organization‘s roles, structures, processes, projects and leadership competencies. It

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indicates change management processes are consistently and effectively applied to
initiatives, leaders have the skills to guide their teams through change, and employees know
what to ask for in order to be successful.
The end result of an enterprise change management capability is that individuals embrace
change more quickly and effectively, and organizations are able to respond quickly to
market changes, embrace strategic initiatives, and adopt new technology more quickly and
with less productivity impact. This capability does not happen by chance; however, it
requires a strategic approach to embed change management across an organization.
Forces of Organizational Change
Today organizations are operating in an ever-changing environment. An organization is an
open system which has to interact with environment and is solely dependent on it. Any
change in environment makes it necessary for the organization to incorporate change in the
internal systems, sub-systems, structures, job roles and processes. This change has a chain
reaction on the other internal elements of organization. Organizations and their managers
need to be able to control their activities, make their operations routine predictable, and
responsive to the need to change. A modern manager is change conscious and operates in
the constantly changing environment. In general, there are two main forces that drive
organizations toward change: internal and external forces.
A. External Forces for Organizational Change: it includes
i. Customer demand: these days customers are becoming more sophisticated and
demanding; knowledgeable about their own needs; and customers often changing over
time. Customers are exerting ever greater pressure on their supplier. They will no
longer accept poor service or low quality. To be competitive, organizations have to
respond more rapidly to customer needs. Sellers no longer have the upper hand; rather
customers do. Customers now tell suppliers, what they want, when they want it, how
they want it, and what they will pay. This new situation is problematic issue for
companies that have known life only in the mass market.
ii. Intensive Competition: competition is intensifying, and becoming more global.
More organizations are forced to attain the standards of quality and cost effectiveness
by the pacemakers in the industry. The company that could get to market with an
acceptable product or service at the best price would get a sale. Companies are
competing each other through: service delivery, customer satisfaction, customer

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 delighting, customer handling, market share, product differentiation and Product
quality, etc.
iii. Technology: Technological changes have increased the rate of speed at which change
takes place. Technology is the most commonly used method of increasing productivity
to gain competitive leverage. The rate of technological change is greater today than
any time in the past and technological changes are responsible for changing the nature
of jobs performed at all levels in the given organization.
iv. Changing Government Regulations: Government barriers such as: Deregulation,
reduction of trade barriers, privatization, free market economy system, economic
integration, and other related issues are the major factors leading organizations toward
change.
B. Internal Forces for organizational changes
i. Changes in the managerial personnel: these changes include the retirement of
the old managers, transfer and promotion of mangers and replacement of old and static
managers by more versatile (having ability to adapt things) dynamic and young lots
(informational). So, a change in the managerial personnel is, thus, one reason to look
for organizational change.
ii. Certain deficiencies in the existing system: such as;
 Unmanageable span of control
 Lack of coordination between the departments
 Obstacles in communication
 Lack of uniformity in the policies (as you know policies are guidelines for decision
making);
 Contradiction of organizational procedures
 Non-cooperation between line and staff member, etc.
iii. Certain other forces: Changes in machinery, equipment, methods, and procedures,
working standard (work force), changes in authority and responsibility, and Employee
attitude.
3.3. Process of Organizational Change
To improve efficiency and effectiveness it is vital that mangers develop the skills
necessary to manage change effectively. Most people go from side to side four distinct
stages in the change process.

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 1st Assessing the Need for Change: Change can affect organizational structure,
culture, strategies, controlling system, and way of managing. So, organizations should
assess the need for change properly. Assessing the need for change calls for two
important activities:
 Recognize that there are problems that require change. The real problem/s, not the
symptom.
 Identify the sources of the problem/s.
 2nd Decide On the Change to Make:
Decide what the organization’s ideal future would be. Decide where they would like
their organization to be in the future: decide what kinds of goods and services it should
be making, what its business-level strategy should be, how structure should be changed
and develop strategy.
What can change agents change? Change agents can change the options essentially fall
into different categories such as: structure, technology, physical setting, job roles and
people.
 Plan how to attain organization’s ideal future state.
 Identifying sources of resistance for change and how to overcome them
 3rd Implementing the Change:
Under this stem the manager introduces and manages the change. At this stage the
manger should decide whether change will occur from the top down or from the bottom
up.
Top-down change: when the change is required to be implemented quickly, top-down
approach is appropriate. It is revolutionary in nature. The top manager will identify the
need for change, decide what to do, and then move quickly to implement the changes
throughout the organization. Usually, mangers use this approach for restructuring and
downsizing the organization.
Bottom-up change: it is more gradual and evolutionary. Top managers consult with
middle and first-line managers about the need for change. Then, over time, managers at
all levels work to develop a detailed plan for change. Such approach is important to
overcome resistance.
 4th Evaluating the Change:
Evaluate how successful the change effort has been in improving organizational
performance. Managers can evaluate change effect using measures such as

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 improvements in market share and profits, in the ability of managers to meet their goal.
We can also use benchmarking-the process of comparing one company’s performance
on specific dimensions with the high performing organizations.
Managing Resistance to Change
What Is Resistance to Change?
Resistance to change is the reluctance of adapting to change when it is presented. Resistance
to change is unwillingness to adapt to new circumstances or ways of doing things. It can
happen with individuals, relationships, or within organizations. There are many reasons
for resistance, but at its heart, resistance is rooted in fear of the unknown . People are
biologically wired to look for patterns and predictability, and any uncertainty — even if
it’s anticipated or positive — can trigger anxiety .
Employees can be either overt or covert about their unwillingness to adapt to organizational
changes. This can range from expressing their resistance publicly, to unknowingly resisting
change through their language or general actions. Some examples might be missed
meetings, sarcastic remarks, criticism, nit-picking, or even sabotage.
Individual resistance vs organizational resistance
 Individual resistance occurs when employees resist change based on their unique
perceptions, personalities, and needs. Things like job security, habit, and economic
factors have a massive influence on individual resistance.
 Organizational resistance is the tendency for an organization as a whole to resist
change and want to maintain the status quo. Companies that suffer from
organizational resistance become inflexible and are unable to adapt to environmental
or internal demands for change. Some of the signs that organizational resistance is in
play include internal power struggles, poor decision-making processes, and
bureaucratic organizational structures.

Generally, according to Hammer & Stanton,

 Resistance is natural and inevitable, so, Expect it
 Resistance doesn’t always show its face, so, Find it
 Resistance has many motivations, so, Understand it
 Deal with people’s concerns rather than their arguments, Confront it
 There is no one way to deal with resistance Manage it.
Reasons for Resistance to Change

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While there can be several reasons why an employee is resistant to organizational change,
here are the five most common reasons:
1. Mistrust and lack of confidence
When employees don’t trust or feel confident in the person making the change (mostly the
leader), their resistance to it increases. Change advisor and author Rick Maurer believes that
lack of confidence in change-makers is the most overlooked cause of resistance to change in
organizations.

Maurer’s 3 Levels of Resistance to Change are: I don’t get it, I don’t like it, and I don’t like
you. That’s right — people may not resist the change itself, but rather the person making the
change. Of course, “you” does not always refer to the change-maker specifically. It could
also be someone the change-maker represents, such as corporate headquarters or a faceless
CEO.
2. Emotional responses
Changing the status quo is difficult, and some people may have emotional reactions to
anything that disrupts their routine or status quo where they feel they are safe. This is a
natural and inevitable response. Brushing it off will only lead to stronger resistance.
Common emotional responses to change are fear, uncertainty, and worry. Employees
might not be able to articulate how they are feeling. Or, they may not want to say it to
leadership. But we get a sense of more negative emotions may be seen through
comments they make or nonverbal cues. These signs of resistance might include eye-
rolling or disengaging from conversations.
Use change management models that focus on emotional reactions to change, such as
the Kübler-Ross Change Curve , to mitigate the common cause of resistance to change. The
model recognize that change can lead to feelings of loss and grief. As such, change-makers

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must be prepared to manage these emotions and move people towards acceptance of the
change.

Start by coaching change leaders to approach resistance to change with empathy,

acknowledging that people may have a wide range of emotional reactions. Some may even
skip steps in the Kübler-Ross Change Curve, slide back into old habits, or have negative
reactions multiple times throughout the transition.
To manage these reactions, change leaders should clearly explain the need for change
while also listening attentively to the feedback from those affected by it. People want to
feel heard. Make it clear that their opinions are valuable to the change process.
Change leaders should also check in frequently to provide support, gather additional
feedback, and nudge people towards change acceptance and adoption.

3. Fear of failure
People won’t support a change if they’re not confident in their abilities to adapt to it. When
people feel threatened by their shortcomings (real or imagined), they protect themselves from
failure by resisting the change at the very beginning.

The ADKAR Model has two goals that address the fear of failure: knowledge and ability.

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Knowledge is all about effective training. The goal is to give people the tools they need to
facilitate the change, including those needed to handle transitions.
Ability is more about self-confidence. After training, people need to feel comfortable
applying the knowledge they have acquired. Give employees enough hands-on experience to
develop and test their new skills before fully launching the change.
4. Poor communication
The key to excellent change management communication is to create an active
conversation. When you talk at people as opposed to with people, you’re bound to get
pushback and resistance to change. Start by making a change communication plan. Before
you initiate change, you should have several communication actions planned, such as the
announcement of the change, small group discussions, one-on-one meetings, and methods for
gathering feedback.
When talking with employees about change, answer the questions, “What’s in it for me?”
(WIIFM) and “What does it mean to me?” (WDIMTM). When you address individual
concerns, you increase their engagement. People want to know how the change will impact
them specifically and what they will need to do to implement and solidify the change.
Furthermore, providing continuous motivation throughout the change process is essential.
5. Unrealistic timelines
Start with a change implementation timeline. Map out every action and set deadlines so you
have a general idea of how long the entire transformation will take. Often, designing the path
between the current state and change adoption helps you identify additional steps needed to
facilitate the transition.
Find a balance between creating a sense of urgency and allowing time to transition. Don’t
force change too quickly – when you push too hard for a change to happen, it’s easy to get
tunnel vision and neglect important elements of your change plan. Of course, you shouldn’t
be afraid to make adjustments. If your team needs more time to understand the change or
would benefit from additional training, make it happen.

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 6. Constant change
Organizations can sometimes overlook the need to space multiple changes out. If you are
constantly changing programs, leadership, or systems, employees are less likely to fully
adapt to and accept future change. Furthermore, in a study that looked at change
management in organizations, employees who were going through changes currently or
within the previous year were more likely to feel stressed out, have less trust in their
senior leaders, planned to find new jobs, and reported more health concerns. Timing of
changes is important in order to minimize resistance to them.
Strategies to manage resistance to change
Now that we have looked at some of the reasons people resist change, let’s dive into
some of the ways to overcome resistance to change, and how to implement change
successfully.
1. Communication and Listen to Employees’ View
Let employees know about changes to the status quo as soon as possible. Use employee
that others gravitate to, or whose opinions seem to carry more weight with their
colleagues. Get buy-in from them and help them lead the changes you are hoping for.
This helps to build a bridge between employees and management.
Involving key stakeholders as part of the change, especially those that are trusted by
colleagues, can help others adapt more readily. Share whatever information you have
with employees that you are free to share. If you are not sure of an answer or cannot
answer, it is okay to state that. You can say something like, “I don’t have that
information” or “I’ll have to look into that”. When there is a lack of communication ,
people tend to fill the void with speculation. The more open and honest in your
communication with them, the less likely this is to happen.
Listen to employees’ concerns, as there is a good chance that they are more in tune with
a plan’s potential blind spots given their day-to-day work. This also lets them know their
opinions are valued by the company. While you do not have to incorporate all their
ideas, listening will help you identify what sources of resistance are coming up and
address the root causes. For example, perhaps employees are concerned about the
timeline of the proposed changes. This is often a valid concern. If you can, explain
your decision-making processes . Looking at ways to address this with their buy-in, or
more clearly articulating the rationale for that timeline, can save time and money in the
long run.
2. Educate Employees on the Value of the Change

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Organizations are generally trying to make things better, not worse, for their employees.
Perhaps the old way of doing things presented a potential safety issue, was ineffective or
inefficient. Building a case for why change is necessary can help employees adapt to it
more readily, even in cases where they may not like it. How will this change impact
them directly? Train them well so that change effort make something easier, better, or
more efficient in the long run.

3. Choose the Right Timing to Introduce Change

Things are always constantly changing and evolving with the passing of time. That said,
within an organization, the timing of change can be important. It isn't always possible,
but sometimes it is best for organizations to methodically introduce change and wait
until that has stabilized before introducing further change. Even companies that are
"good at change" sometimes need a pause. Having a strategic plan in place that looks at
the rollout of all known upcoming changes can help determine if any don’t have enough
time between them. Build in time leading up to the change, during the change, and
following the change — asking for ample feedback from employees along the way.
4. Provide ongoing support
Once a change has been made, make sure to follow up with employees as those changes
roll out. Let them know that they continue to be important partners in making effective
changes that will stand the test of time. Provide training for any new skills needed to
make the change successful. Recognizing both privately and publicly those that are
helping facilitate the change or adapting to it, even in small ways, can further create
employee satisfaction with the changes.
5. A force change strategy
involves giving orders and enforcing those orders; this strategy has the advantage of being
fast, but it is plagued by low commitment and high resistance.
6. A rational or self-interest change strategy
Is one that attempts to convince individuals that the change is to their personal advantage.
When this appeal is successful, strategy implementation can be relatively easy. However,
implementation changes are seldom to everyone's advantage.

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 Chapter Four
Type of Change
At the end of this chapter students will be able to:
 Discuss planned and unplanned change
 Explain revolutionary and evolutionary change
 Understand BPR meaning, objectives, and its implementation
 Understand Total Quality Management concept
The following are the major categories of change
I. Planned Change VS Unplanned Change
I. Planned Change
Planned change is intentional and occurs with a change agent’s direction. It is
a direct response to a leader’s perception of a performance gap, or
discrepancy between the desired and actual state of affair. Performance gap
may represent problem to be resolved or opportunities to be explored. In
each Case leaders as a change agent is aware of performance gap and take
action to initiate planned change to deal with them.
Planned change is also regarded as developmental or incremental change
which is implemented with objectives of improving the present way of
operation and to achieve the predefined goals. Planned change is calculated
and is not threatening as the future state is chosen consciously. The
introduction of new product and technologies, organizational restructuring,
team building, enhancing employee communications and moral as well as
technical expertise fall under the category of planed change.

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 Phases in Planned Change: a successful planned change passes through the
following three stages.
Unfreezing: is the stage in which managers help others to develop,
experience, and feel a real need for change. The goal here is to get people to
view change as a way of solving problem or taking advantage of an
opportunity. Some might call this the “burning bridge” phase, arguing that in
order to get people to jump off a bridge, you might just have to see it on fire.
Managers can stimulate the burning bridge by engaging people with facts and
information that communicates the need for change environmental pressures,
declining performance, and alternative approaches.
Changing phase: is the phase where actual change will take place. Ideally
these changes are planned in ways that give them the best opportunities for
success having maximum appeal and posing minimum difficulties for those
being asked to make them.
Refreezing phase: here the focus is on stabilizing the change to make it as
lasting as needed. Linking changes with rewards, positive reinforcement and
resource support all help with refreezing. Of course, in today’s changing
environment there may not be a lot of time for refreezing before things are
ready to change again.
II. Unplanned Change
Unplanned change usually occurs because of a major, sudden surprise to
the organization, which causes its members to respond in a highly
reactive and disorganized fashion. Unplanned change is a result of
unforeseen occurrence of various factors like change in the demographics
compositions, change in governmental regulations and economic.
Unplanned change might also occur when the Chief Executive Officer
suddenly leaves the organization, significant public relations problems
occur, poor product performance quickly results in loss of customers, or
other disruptive situations arise. The appropriate goal in managing
unplanned change is to act immediately once it is recognized in order to
minimize negative consequence and maximize possible benefits.

B. Evolutionary Vs Revolutionary Change

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 Organizational change can be occurred quickly or slowly it is useful to classify
organizational change in to two types.
Evolutionary Change
Evolutionary change is gradual, incremental, and narrowly focused.
Evolutionary change is not dramatic or sudden but, rather, is a constant
attempt to improve, adapt, and adjust strategy and structure incrementally to
accommodate to changes taking place in the environment. Such improvements
might entail utilizing technology in a better way or reorganizing the work
process. Total quality management (TQM) and organizational development
are among the known evolutionary changes.
 Total quality management (TQM)
Is a management technique that focuses on finding the ways to continuously
make incremental improvements to work procedures that drive down cost and
drive up quality of organization’s products or services. TQM focuses on
improving the quality of an organization’s products and stresses that all of an
organization’s value-chain activities should be directed toward this goal. TQM
requires the cooperation of managers in every function of an organization, and
across functions, if it is to be succeeded.
The following steps are necessary for managers to implement a successful
TQM program
 Focus on customer needs: TQM see customers as the starting point. It
requires:
i) Identifying what customers want from the goods or services that the
company provides;
ii) Identifying what the company actually provides to customers;
iii) Identifying the gap that exists between what customers want and what
they actually get (the quality gap); and
iv) Formulating a plan for closing the quality gap.
 Measuring & assuring quality: TQM requires the development of a
measurement and assurance system that managers can use to evaluate
quality.
 Aligning goals and incentives: once a measure has been devised, mangers
‘next step is to set a challenging quality goal and to create incentives for

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 reaching that goal, Such as reducing consumers ‘complaints by 50%, and
so on. Regarding incentives- give bonus and promotional opportunities for
contributions and goal attainment.
 Solicit input from employees: create an environment in which employees
will not be afraid to report problems or recommend ways of
improvements. Quality circle is the one among the mechanism. Quality
circles –group of employees who meet regularly to discuss ways to
increase quality-are often created to achieve this goal.
 Identify defects and trace them to their sources: identify defects in the
work process, trace those defects back to their source, find out why
occurred, and make corrections so that they do not occur again.
 Design for ease of production: designing product that have fewer parts or
finding ways to simplify providing a service should be linked to fewer
defects or customer complaints. Because the more steps required
assembling a product or providing a service, the more opportunities there
are for making a mistake.
 Break down barriers between functions: successful implementation of
TQM requires substantial cooperation between the different value-chain
functions.
Advantage of Evolutionary Change
 Highly likely that, if the change is implemented it will become part of the
culture more people have been involved in the design more people
identified with change
 likely that the change fits the organizations, understanding the current
situations
 More brains around the problem, leading to more thoughtful solution
Disadvantage of Evolutionary Change
 Change may be introduced that do not move the organizations toward
where it needs to go.
 Hard to find people who are good at making evolutionary change it is skill
what’s more these people rarely take credit for their work.
Revolutionary Change

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 Revolutionary change is a rapid, dramatic, and broadly focused change. It
involves a bold attempt to quickly find new ways to be effective.
Organizations faced with dramatic, unexpected changes in the environment
(for example, a new technological breakthrough) or with an impending
disaster resulting from mismanagement, an organization might need to act
quickly and decisively. Revolutionary change is a radical shift in ways of
doing things, new goals, and new structure for the organization.
Reengineering, restructuring, and quantum innovation are the three important
instruments for revolutionary change.
 Reengineering: involves rethinking and redesigning work,
job or processes to increase or improve cost, quality, service
and speed.

 Restructuring – it involves reducing the size of the firm in

terms of size, number of employees, structure to reduce costs.
It may entail changing task and authority relationships and
redesigning organizational structure and culture to improve
organizational efficiency and effectiveness.

 Innovation: the process by which organizations use their

skills and resources to Create new technologies, developing
new goods and services, and better respond to the needs of
their customers.

 Advantage of revolutionary change

 low risk of the change failing to take effect or be implemented
 Change will occur quickly.
 looks good on resumes and annual report
 Disadvantage of revolutionary change
 change may not become part of the culture before management focus shifts,
the change may roll back a few months after leadership change focus.
 Job security for the leader if the change doesn’t provide the benefit expected,
or otherwise fails the people who mandated the change may lose their job
 Opportunity cost other improvement may be needed but everyone is tied up
working on mandated improvements.

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