Change Management Chapter 7 Shaping approaches to change

Organization Development Values  Humanistic Openness, honesty, integrity  Democratic Social justice, freedom of choice, involvement  Developmental Authenticity, growth, self-realization

History of OD T-groups (Lewin, 1946)  Training groups – a form of group therapy Socio-technical systems  Tavistock Institute  Focus on social teams and industrial democracy Surveys with Likert scales from 1946  Often used for diagnosis of organizational climate and post-intervention Participative action research  A Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle that involves those who are affected by the changes

Role of OD practitioner Steps  Problem identification  Consultation/collaboration with OD consultant  Data gathering and problem diagnosis  Feedback  Joint problem diagnosis (with group)  Joint action planning (with group)  Change actions  Further data gathering

Second generation OD Focus on transformational change, culture, and learning organizations  Argyris undiscussables, double loop learning, and triple loop learning (see next slide)  Senge’s system dynamics for learning New interest in teams  High performance work organizations  Self managed teams TQM Visioning, diversity, large meetings Large-scale OD

Argyris’ Loops Single Loop Learning  learning within existing premises of the organization (e.g. how do I make a better widget) Double Loop Learning  Theory in Use (what we do) vs Espoused theory (what we say)  Double loop learning involves surfacing and challenging deeply rooted assumptions and norms of an organization that have previously been inaccessible, either because they were unknown, or known but undiscussable. (e.g. Should we be making widgets at all.) Triple loop learning  Requires double loop learning in a sensitive way  TLL requires trust, listening skills, sharing of power, tolerance of diverse views, and ability to resist saving face

The New Agenda for OD Loss of community  People pretend to care more about one another than they really do Loss of employer-employee social contract  Focus on shareholder value  I must take care of myself Employability  Is my employer giving me the skills to find another job if I have to? Trust  Widening gap between have and have nots  Difference between what managers say and do  Lack of openness

Appreciative Inquiry Participation by large-scale intervention Shows a shift from problem solving to joint envisioning of the future Involves a four-step technique:  Discovering current best practices  Building on existing knowledge  Designing changes  Sustaining the organization’s future

AI Exercise Goal: Quality MBA education  Step 1: Describe your peak experience in quality education  Step 2: Generate some ‘provocative propositions’ for the UNLV MBA program based on step 1.  Step 3: Describe times when the UNLV program approached a peak experience  Step 3: Develop a vision of what could be  Step 4: What needs to change in skills, structure, processes and systems, management style, and staffing to enhance this vision

Sense-Making Approach Eight Lessons  Sense-making and identity construction have a symbiotic relationship  Social relations influence sense making  People look at a variety of cues to make sense of their situation  Sense making changes over time in response to new cues and events  Sense making often occurs retrospectively  Stories have to be plausible but not necessarily accurate  Our own actions (enactments) influence sense making  Powerful actors can shape the interpretations of others through their actions – how?

Strategy as simple rules Eisenhardt & Sull (2001) Example of a non-humanistic approach CEO as Coach  How-to rules R&D staff must rotate through customer service  Boundary rules We only takeover companies with <50 employees  Priority rules Product with highest gross margin gets first investment  Timing rules A new product version every 12 months  Exit rules No 1 or 2 in an industry or exit

Questions Is your change philosophy value-neutral or value-laden?  If the latter, what are your values? What does it mean to talk about a ‘successful’ change?  What criteria do you use?  Do others have different criteria?  Do values differ across borders?

Dupont Case Do what extent are the following approaches to change embedded in the Dupont story:  OD  Appreciative inquiry  Sense-making  Simple rules How compatible are the four approaches?