LB5234: Leading and Managing Organizational

Change
Learning objectives

• After studying this chapter, you should be able to:

– Describe what are Organisation Development (OD) and
Organisation Transformation (OT), and explain the similarities
and differences
– Explain the relevance of OD and its role within organisations
– Analyse the evolutionary historical context of OD and have an
understanding of its future
– Assess the environment of OT and comment on its relevance in
today’s change environment
Managing in a changing
environment
What is organizational
development?
Organisation development is a system wide application of
behavioural science knowledge to the planned
development and reinforcement of organisational
strategies, structures and processes for improving an
organisation’s effectiveness.
Slide Title
Systems approach
Set of interrelated parts unified to achieve some
purpose or goal

Closed, open, dynamic equilibrium, feedback

Socio technical systems (process not tasks, flat

org., teams to manage, customers drive performance,
team performance rewarded)

Subject Code and Name

Socio-technical
Slide Title system

Goals Technical
and
values
Managerial

Psychosocial Structure

Subject Code and Name

 Slide Title
Checkland’s ‘Soft Systems’ Approach

7 Action to improve
1 Unstructured problem
situation
6 Feasible and
desirable changes

2 Problem situation
expressed 5 Comparison with
real world

3 Root definition of 4 Conceptual models

relevant systems

Subject Code and Name

CATWOE
• Clients of the system - customers who benefit from the system
outputs
• Actors - everyone who carries out any activity within the system
• Transformations - changes taking place within the system or are
caused by it such as the conversion of inputs into outputs
• Weltanschauung or world view - assumptions made about the
system and its environment by owners, actors, customers and
so on
• Owners of the system - persons to whom the system is
answerable and who have responsibility for it (e.g. person who
could make the system cease to exist)
• Environmental systems which surround the system and interact
with it

Subject Code and Name

Root
Slidedefinition
Title
• Concise and tightly constructed description of a human
activity system which states what the system is and does
(this information is then elaborated to ‘hows’ in the
‘conceptual model’ stage of Checkland’s model
• Description of a set of purposeful human activities
conceived as a transformation process
• Each definition must try and use the CATWOE
mnemonic where appropriate

Subject Code and Name

Root
Slidedefinitions
Title II
• Pop festival - “A system to celebrate a particular life style
using popular music as an emblem of the sub-culture
concerned”
• Pop festival - “A system designed to achieve maximum
economic return for resources invested’
• Community centre in a ‘deprived’ area - “An institution
encouraging and helping community action aimed at
development of the community’s own resources”
(Weltanschauung - developing self - help)

Subject Code and Name

Conceptual
Slide Title model
• Shows activities or list verbs
necessary implied by Root Definition
to achieve ‘transformation’ stated in
root definition e.g:
• ‘take customer’s order’;
• ‘enter customer’s order’;
• ‘collect goods’ and so on.

Subject Code and Name

What is organizational
development?
Definitions
• Organisation development is a planned process of change in an
organisation’s culture through the utilisation of behavioural science
technology, research and theory. (Burke, 1982)

• Organisation development refers to a long-range effort to improve an

organisation’s problem-solving capabilities and its ability to cope with
changes in its external environment with the help of external or internal
behavioural-scientist consultants, or change agents, as they are
sometimes called. (French, 1969)

• Organisation development is an effort:

• Planned, organisation-wide, and managed from the top, to:
• Increase organisation effectiveness and health through:
• Planned interventions in the organisation’s ‘processes’, using behavioural
science knowledge. (Beckhard, 1969)
What makes OD unique?

• OD applies to an entire system

• OD is based on behavioural science knowledge and
practice
• OD is oriented to improve an organisation’s
effectiveness through processes of adaptive
development
• OD creates change and also reinforces it
• OD encompasses strategy, structure and process
changes
• OD is oriented towards improving organisational
effectiveness
Why study OD?

• The knowledge gained from studying organisation

development is playing an increasingly important role in
helping organisations change themselves. There are
three major trends to which organisations need to
understand and respond effectively:
• Globalisation is changing markets and environments
• Information technology is changing work and knowledge
• Managerial innovation is responding to these trends and
accelerating their effect on organisations
A short history of OD
Participative management?

Origin
Likert found that participative management was the most effective way
to make change happen. He identified four systems:
1. Exploitative authoritative systems (autocratic; top-down)
2. Benevolent authoritative systems (paternalistic)
3. Consultative systems (workers involved; management
decides)
4. Participative systems (managers and staff involved in all
levels of decision making)
Now
Debates about levels of staff involvement in managing change
The evolution of OD

• Expansion of the OD network

• Growth in professional societies
• Growth in educational programs
• New theorists, researchers & practitioners
• Gen 1: Argyris, Bennis, Schein, Beckhard &
Tannenbaum
• Gen 2: Burke, Greiner, Lawler III, Margulies & Raia,
Vaill & Lundberg
• Wider network of use of OD
• A now-international span of organisations using the
OD approach, both for business and broader
organisational development
Limits of OD: Rise of OT
• Calls for Organisation Transformation (OT) arise when:
• There is a crisis
• OT approaches can respond quickly, often perceived as a ‘quick
fix’ and observable, which may even receive significant coverage
in the media as a result
• Where the environment may be unpredictable and planning
would be difficult
• The factors pressing the change are external
• OT also calls for a different leadership style than for OD
• OT is regarded as more ‘revolutionary’ and OD and more
‘evolutionary
Summary

• As organisations and their surrounding economy become

more complex and uncertain, the scale and intricacy of
organisational change has increased
• Organisational change is a fact of life
• Organisation Development has become a significant
approach to planning change using behavioural science
• This has been shown to enable organisations to become
more effective
• Unpredictable environments, external factors and crises
have seen the development of OT as another aspect of
organisation responsiveness to change
Readings and activities

• Read Chapter 1, Waddell et al. (2017)

• Activity 1: Smaller workplaces’ great ideas would travel, say Physio Co
and Coleman Brands
• Activity 2: In groups of four consider the following statement and be
prepared to discuss your idea in class:
• Many organisations have undergone significant change. Identify one such
organisation and explain how it has undergone the change process. Could
you determine any impediments? How would you improve the process?
• Activity 3: In groups of four consider the following statement and be
prepared to discuss your idea in class:
• Imagine you are an OD consultant. How would you describe the advantages
and disadvantages of OD to a potential client? What would be your
preferred area of expertise and why did you select such an approach?
• Activity 4: Monumental!
• Activity 5: Structuring the unstructured
Readings and activities

• Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Jk6clmMycI - intro to

change management
• Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=od39c7hRqQs - planned
organizational change U of Cranfield
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31XAtMjVkos – making sense
of OD
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RdDg3udzK2E – OD 101 -
animation