Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-02-28
- #saveBBC6music – absolutely agree. the vast majority of music radio stations in UK and germany are appaling #
- bad management at portsmouth – the fans and non-footballing staff and young players suffer, not the big names – at http://bit.ly/9KR9pi #
- more on #GoldmanSachs and greece – it doesn't look all that ethical #
- unsurprising news: is there anything banks won't do? NYTimes: Banks Bet Greece Defaults on Debt They Helped Hide http://s.nyt.com/u/oGu #
- it should be a PR disaster – RBS loses billions but pays over £1bn in bonuses http://tinyurl.com/ydefbxn #
- interesting article on visualising data on twitter. Visuaiising data is an excellent way of getting an overview http://tinyurl.com/ydtfrez #
- jobs in fiction: can't say i'm impressed by this list in the guardian http://tinyurl.com/yd58eue #
- will google ever realise that privacy is a concern in europe? executives convicted in Italy of violating privacy laws http://bit.ly/cB9oZH #
- commerzbank loses billions but no change at the top. strange to say the least #FT. http://tinyurl.com/y9sdeqq #
- just installed new financial times deutschland app, very good #
Organizational Change and More Theory
One way to understand change is to consider it in terms of the motors, or general theories, that bring about change. Van de Ven and Poole’s (1995) paper presents four ideal types of theory drawn from a wide range of disciplines which address the question of why organizations change:
- Life-cycle: immanent within any organization are the logics or processes that lead it to change from the present state to more advanced ones in a series of evolutionary stages.
- Teleological: the organization develops purposefully towards an envisioned goal or end-state; there is not a pre-ordained sequence of events as in life-cycle theories because the desired goal can be defined and socially constructed.
- Dialectical: conflicts between opposing forces (representing thesis and antithesis) may create a synthesis which represents a new state.
- Evolutionary: at the level of organizational populations, change occurs through variation, selection, retention or random chance.
The motors of change identified by Van de Ven and Poole have a relationship to the pace and scale of change. Life-cycle and evolutionary motors tend to lead to continuous and incremental change, while dialectical and teleological motors lead to episodic and radical change.
What does this mean for people who deal with change in organizations? Successful change management demands an understanding of the concept ‘change’, so a bit of theory is always appropriate. I’ll discuss this more in future notes.
Van de Ven, A. H. & Poole, M. S. 1995. Explaining Development and Change in Organizations. Academy of Management Review, 20(3): 510-540.
Mergers are organizational change
One of the most fundamental reasons for starting change initiatives in an organization is a merger.
Amazing but true: 50% of mergers fail – just ask Daimler about their adventures with Chrysler if you want to get confirmation.
In a merger, one set of staff has to change the way they work to match that of the other organization. It’s not enough to simply send out a few Powerpoint slides – people want an answer to the questions ‘What does this mean for me?’
And this needs to take place not only in the ‘losing’ firm, because the kind of change that a merger involves also affects staff in the ‘winning’ firm.
So this means that the management of the relevant change processes has
to take account of the fact that when a merger takes place, there are
always (perceived and actual) winners and losers. It means that the
change has to be managed and the level of the individual and the group,
as well as at the the level of the whole organization.
Organizational change outcomes
It is useful for people involved in organizational change to pay attention to the nature of the change outcomes that they wil be dealing with. It’s a bit less straightforward than it might appear to be at first sight. My research and experience have shown that there are three aspects to the concept change outcome.
First, there is the issue of intentionality. Any planned change has objectives – these are shown in Powerpoint presentations. So managers undertake planned change initiatives with certain outcomes in mind – these are intended outcomes. However, the unpredictable nature of change processes means that there will be unexpected outcomes which were not predicted. These develop as the change initiative progresses.
Next, when a change outcome is classified as intended, there is the issue of how well it meets its goals, i.e. whether its intended results have been achieved fully, or not achieved at all – or something in between. In fact, there can be different views within the same organization about the extent to which an intended change outcome has been achieved. Read more
Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-02-14
- change at the top of SAP, a new manager needed to repair morale. http://tinyurl.com/yklzsrm #
Negotiation and Organizational Change
When things are changing at work, everyone involved in the change needs to be able to deal with a new situation.
During a change process, it’s important that employees do not simply accept what they are told, but question the change. A good change manager should always be open for suggestions.
Then when the change manager and staff deal with each other and discuss these suggestions, they need to be able to come to an agreement. By doing this, they increase the chances of a successful organizational change.
And this is where negotiation is important. There is no space here for me to go into detail, but here is a link to a test from Edinburgh University Business School that will help you determine your negotiation style.
Good change managers are good negotiators – fact!
Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-02-07
- golden welcoming handshake at m&s – poor timing http://tinyurl.com/y9lua64 #
- let's hope #toyota have got a good PR team to deal with this disaster…. http://is.gd/7tRl3 #
Business English Resource
These days, a lot of the world talks in English when they are doing business.Are you involved with companies outside Germany? Or do you deal with parts of your own company where they speak English?
Change management programmes often have international components where the change manager needs to speak English. How good is your business English?
FT Deutschland has a good page with material here.
