MGMT 110 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Sensemaking, Business Process, Group Dynamics
INNOVATION AND CHANGE
• Change processes/dimensions
• Buy-in (would you participate with me?)
• Resistance
• Leadership (participative or authoritative)
• Planned vs emerged
• Scale
• Emotion
• Sensemaking (what/why/how)
• Time (short/long-term)
• Communication
• PLANNED CHANGE
• Change can be implemented and planned for in a rational way
• Organisations may adapt quickly in order to restore stability
• Lewin’s model of unfreezing, changing and refreezing
• Interested in group dynamics (how people work in groups)
• There’s a ‘forcefield’ with an energy wanting to change (motivation),
as well as counterforces (resistance) against the motivation (e.g.
wanting to go to the gym but being lazy). These forces and
counterforces create tension, and only through reducing this can we
adhere to the change – we must reduce the resistance. This is
referred to as a forcefield analysis.
• Change is more likely to remain permanent if people collaborate
• In order to bring about organisational change, there needs to be an
‘unfreezing’ of the norms (the natural way of doing things becomes
contested). People should be involved in the discussion on how
change might be conducted and what would be desirable. This
reduces resistance and increases buy-in as they feel in control of
these changes
• Changing is the process of implementing changes with consideration
to the change process and its elements (timeframe, communication)
• Refreezing is the process of locking these new norms into the
organisation
• E.g. business process reengineering
• Types of planned change
• Downsizing
• Retrenchment (reduce workforce
• Downscaling (reduce quantity of products)
• Downscoping (reduce number of products/services/locations)
• Does not necessarily lead to increased productivity and can be
an excessively costly exercise
• Technological change
• There are a variety of new technologies being used including
customer relations management systems, wireless technology
and business process reengineering
• Mergers and acquisitions
• Enables organisational growth at an accelerated rate
• Mergers: when two businesses merge operations
• Acquisitions: where one business takes over another
• Change is a transition from one state to another and is not just a cognitive
and rational process, but an emotional one (e.g. anxiety)
• Reality is essentially fixed (Parmenides)
• Static movement and change are simply appearances
• Tradition adopted in the West by Democritus which emphasised
permanence and stability
