MODELS OF PLANNED ORGANISATIONAL CHANGE

Lecture Outline

1.1 Introduction
1.2 Kurt Lewin 3 step model
1.3 Bullock and Batten (1985)
1.4 Kotter’s 8 Step model
1.5 Beckhard and Harris change formula (1987)
1.6 Nadler and Tushman, congruence model
1.7 Action Research model

Learning Outcomes
By the end of this topic, you should be able to:
 Understand a range of useful models and ideas developed by some of the
most significant writers on organizational change.
 Illustrate the variety of ways in which you can view the process of
organizational change
 Understand the assumptions behind a model, benefits and limitations.

1.1 Introduction
- While leaders who recognize or anticipate shifts in their organization’s
external environment may be better placed to initiate change, recognition of a
need (or opportunity) for change may not be sufficient to ensure that it will
happen.

- A variety of models and theories exist in the literature for implementing

planned change in organisations.

The most common models are;

 Kurt Lewin’s model

 Bullock and Batten (1985)
 Beckhard and Harris change formula (1987)
 Kotter’s 8 Step model

Page 1 of 13
  Nadler and Tushman, congruence model

- In our previous two chapters we looked at to organizational behaviour and our

assumptions about how things really work.
- In this section or chapter we want to examine ways of looking at
organizational change as represented by the range of models and
approaches developed by the key authors in this field.
- There is need to first link Gareth Morgan’s organizational metaphors with the
above models of change.

Metaphors
Model or Machine Political Organism Flux and
approach system Transformation
Lewin, three-step ✓ ✓
model
Bullock and ✓
Batten,
Kotter, eight steps ✓ ✓ ✓
Beckhard and ✓ ✓
Harris, change
formula
Nadler and ✓ ✓
Tushman,
congruence model

1.2 Kurt Lewin 3 step model

- Kurt Lewin (1951) developed his ideas about organizational change from the
perspective of the organism metaphor.

- Lewin is responsible for introducing force field analysis, which examines the
driving and resisting forces in any change situation

- The underlying principle is that driving forces must outweigh resisting forces in
any situation if change is to happen.

Page 2 of 13
- He considered that, to achieve change effectively, it is necessary to look at all
the options for moving from the existing present to a desired future state, and
then to evaluate the possibilities of each and decide on the best one, rather
than just aiming for the desired goal and taking the straightest and easiest
route to it.

- Three possible strategies for change to occur: increase driving forces,

decrease the restraining forces or do both.

- Lewin suggested a way of looking at the overall process of making changes.

He proposed that organizational changes have three steps

 Unfreezing

- Unfreezing involves destabilizing the balance of driving and restraining forces.

We can unfreeze the organisation by energising the forces for change and
reducing the forces against change (Elsevier, 2005).

- Unfreezing means getting people to gain perspective on their day-to-day

activities, unlearn their old habits, and open up to new ways of reaching
their objectives.

- Creating a vision of a more desirable future state and providing information

that creates a sense of urgency can weaken restraining and strengthen
driving forces.

- Such action can motivate individuals and groups to let go of current ways of
behaving and encourage them to search out more effective alternatives.

- Schein (1996) also points to three psychological steps or processes necessary

to achieve unfreezing steps: “disconfirmation of the validity of status quo, the
induction (stimulation) of guilty or survival anxiety, and creating psychological
safety.

• TACTICS OF UNFREEZING

- Re-assuring employees of the benefits of change

- Communicating to individuals that managers and associates in other

organizations in similar circumstances have successfully changed

Page 3 of 13
 - Letting individuals know that support and training will be available for the
specific changes to be made

- Arouse dissatisfaction with the current state.

- Activate and strengthen top management support.

- Use participation in decision making.

- Build in rewards

 Moving

- Lewin’s second phase, movement, is where the balance of driving and

restraining forces is modified to shift the equilibrium to a new level.

- Although these forces can assume many forms, they tend to manifest in
terms of behaviours that affect performance.

- Managers need to anticipate some slowdown in the production line as

people unlearn and learn new skills.

- Consequently, movement tends to be achieved by adjusting attitudes and

beliefs, and modifying the processes, systems and structures that shape
new behaviour.

- Employees engage in activities that identify and implement new ways of

doing things or engage in new activities in order to bring about change.

- Although employees can all be well prepared and persuaded towards

change, it is essential that adequate support is given in this stage.

TACTICS FOR MOVING

• Dispel rumors and uncertainty through communication.

• Expect mistakes and provide support in the form of training, coaching and
motivating

• Maintain open, two-way communication

• Institute smaller, acceptable changes that reinforce and support change. E.g..,
Procedures and rules, job descriptions, reporting relationships.

Page 4 of 13
  Refreezing

- Once the organizational changes have been made and the structure has
regained its effectiveness, cementing is necessary.

- Techniques used include training sessions such as role-play to teach how

the new skill can be used in a real-life work situation.

- Refreezing is necessary because without it, the old ways of doing things
might soon reassert themselves while the new ways are forgotten hence
control systems are required.

- Positive reinforcement is used to reinforce the desired state for example

through rewards.

- There is need to create a sense of satisfaction with the new system,

thereby returning the forces at their equilibrium state

TACTICS FOR REFREEZING

• Build success experiences.

• Reward desired behaviour.

• Develop structures to institutionalize the change.

• Organizational retreats, appropriate computer technology, performance

appraisals that examine change efforts

- Lewin’s ideas provide a useful tool for those considering organizational

change.

- The force field analysis is an excellent way of enabling for instance a

management team to discuss and agree on the driving and resisting forces
that currently exist in any change situation.

- It is observed that this model is sometimes used by managers as a

planning tool, rather than as an planned change process.

- The unfreeze becomes a planning session.

Page 5 of 13
 - The move translates to implementation.

- The refreeze is a post-implementation review.

- This approach ignores the fundamental assumption of the organism

metaphor that groups of people will change only if there is a felt need to do
so.

Discuss the weaknesses of this approach or model

Bullock and Batten

- Bullock and Batten’s (1985) phases of planned change draw on the

disciplines of project management.

- It describes four stages of planned change. These phases include:

• Exploration

• Planning

• Action

• Integration.

 Exploration occurs when managers confirm the need for change and
securing resources needed for it.

- These resources may be physical or they may be mental, such as

managers’ expertise.

- To support the organisation at the time of instability a search may be made

for an outsider or facilitator

- In the next stage of planning, key decision makers and experts come up
with a change plan depicting a sequence of needed actions.

- This change plan is reviewed and approved by management before it is

implemented.

- In the action stage, actions are completed according to the plan made.

Page 6 of 13
 - This is the enactment of the plan.

- Thorough examination and understanding is necessary to build a realistic

plan.

- This stage also involves feedback mechanisms, allowing some sort of

replanning in case things go wrong.

 The fourth and last stage of integration starts.

- Here, the change is aligned with other areas of the organization.

Furthermore, the change is formalized through policies and rewards
(Bullock & Batten, 1985).

- The change needs to become an integral part of the organisation’s natural

structure and routine.

- Maintaining feedback and reinforcing behaviour which drive the change

are important.

 This particular approach implies the use of the machine metaphor of

organizations.

 The model assumes that change can be defined and moved towards in a
planned way.

1.3 KOTTER’S 8 STEP MODEL

- Kotter’s (1995) ‘eight steps to transforming your organization’ goes a little

further than the basic machine metaphor.

- The model addresses some of the power issues around making change
happen, highlights the importance of a ‘felt need’ for change in the
organization, and emphasizes the need to communicate the vision and
keep communication levels extremely high throughout the process.

 Establish a sense of urgency. Discussing today’s competitive realities,

looking at potential future scenarios. Increasing the ‘felt-need’ for change.

Page 7 of 13
  Form a powerful guiding coalition. Assembling a powerful group of people
who can work well together.

 Create a vision. Building a vision to guide the change effort together with
strategies for achieving this.

 Communicate the vision. Kotter emphasizes the need to communicate at

least 10 times the amount you expect to have to communicate. The vision and
accompanying strategies and new behaviours needs to be communicated in a
variety of different ways. The guiding coalition should be the first to role model
new behaviours.

 Empower others to act on the vision. This step includes getting rid of
obstacles to change such as unhelpful structures or systems. Allow people to
experiment.

 Plan for and create short-term wins. Look for and advertise short-term
visible improvements. Plan these in and reward people publicly for
improvements.

 Consolidate gains. Promote and reward those able to promote and work
towards the vision. Energize the process of change with new projects,
resources, change agents.

 Institutionalize new approaches. Ensure that everyone understands that the

new behaviours lead to corporate success.

1.4 BECKHARD AND HARIS CHANGE FORMULA

- Beckhard and Harris (1987) developed their change formula from some
original work by Gelicher.

- The change formula is a concise way of capturing the process of change,

and identifying the factors that need to be strongly in place for change to
happen.

C = [ABD] > X or [A*B*D] > X

Page 8 of 13
 C = Change

A = Level of dissatisfaction with the status quo

B = Desirability of the proposed change or end state / defined steps

D = Practicality of the change / vision or model of future state

X = ‘Cost’ of changing

Beckhard and Harris say:

Factors A, B, and D must outweigh the perceived costs [X] for the change
to occur. If any person or group whose commitment is needed is not
sufficiently dissatisfied with the present state of affairs [A], eager to
achieve the proposed end state [B] and convinced of the feasibility of the
change [D], then the cost [X] of changing is too high, and that person will
resist the change. … resistance is normal and to be expected in any
change effort. Resistance to change takes many forms; change managers
need to analyse the type of resistance in order to work with it, reduce it,
and secure the need for commitment from the resistant party

- The multiplication implies that if any one factor is zero or near zero, the
product will also be zero or near zero and the resistance to change will not
be overcome.

- This means that if the vision is not clear, or dissatisfaction with the current
state is not felt, or the plan is obscure, the likelihood of change is severely
reduced.

- These factors (A, B, D) do not compensate for each other if one is low

STUDENTS TO LOOK AT:

 Nadler and Tushman, congruence model

 Action research

CONCLUSION

Page 9 of 13
 - There are many approaches to managing and understanding change to
choose from, none of which appears to tell the whole story, most of which
are convincing up to a point.

- To be an effective manager or consultant we need to be able flexibly to

select appropriate models and approaches for particular situations.

Conclusions on each model

Model Conclusions
Lewin, three-step model Lewin’s ideas are valuable when
analysing the change process at
the start of an initiative. His
forcefield analysis and current
state/end state discussions are
extremely useful tools.
However, the model loses its worth
when it is confused with the
mechanistic approach, and the
three steps become ‘plan,
implement, review’.
Bullock and Batten The planned change approach is
good for tackling planned change
isolated, less complex issues.
It is not good when used to over-
simplify organizational changes, as
it ignores resistance and overlooks
interdependencies between
business units or sub-systems
Kotter, eight steps Kotter’s eight steps are an

Page 10 of 13
 excellent starting point for those
interested in making large or small-
scale organizational change. The
model places most emphasis on
getting the early steps right:
building coalition and setting the
vision rather than later steps of
empowerment and consolidation.
Change is seen as linear rather
than cyclical, which implies that a
pre-designed aim can be reached
rather than iterated towards.
Beckhard and Harris, The change formula is simple but highly
effective. The change formula can be
used at any point in the change process
to analyse what is going on.
It is useful for sharing with the whole
team to illuminate barriers to change.

STOP AND THINK!

1. Which model of organizational change would help you to move forward with
each of the following changes: •

• Combining two well-respected universities to form one excellent seat of

learning.

• Evolving a group of mature MBA students into a networked organization of

management consultants.

2. A fast food organization introduced a set of values recently which were well
communicated and enthusiastically welcomed. The senior management team
publicly endorsed the values and said, ‘This is where we want to be in 12
months’ time so that we are ready for industry consolidation. You will all be
measured on achieving these values in your day-to-day work.’ The values
were put together by a consultancy, which put a great deal of effort into
interviewing a broad range of people in the organization. People at all levels
like the look of the values, but the situation three months later is that activity
and conversations around the values are diminishing. A lot of people are
saying ‘We are doing this already.’ There is still some enthusiasm, but people

Page 11 of 13
are now getting scared that they will fall short of the values somehow, and are
starting to resent them. What needs to happen now?

Page 12 of 13