Page 230 - Managing Change in Organizations

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The change equation

8 The way feedback is given to subordinates 76
regarding their progress
9 The capacity of the firm’s managers 71
to identify the development needs of
people with high potential
10 The way responsibilities are added to a 69
manager’s job for development purposes
11 Formal succession planning reviews 67
12 The firm’s participation in outside 66
management training programmes
13 The opportunities offered to people to give 64
them exposure to higher levels of management
14 The capacity of the firm’s senior managers 59
to identify people with potential
15 The firm’s use of in-company management 52
training programmes

Managers wanted obedience, not the threat of excellent performance (see Kotter,
1988, pages 72–3).
Yet these same managers were concerned about the ineffectiveness they had
reported. They recognized the changes in technology, competition, expectations
and so on: ‘To continue to succeed we must become more effective in these areas’
was a powerful message coming through these interviews.
In using the change equation idea we must be careful to consider the impact
on it of changes already underway. We must avoid trying to view change in
isolation. We are not dealing with discrete events; rather, we are dealing with
organizations experiencing many changes, each at different stages. As we said
at the outset, we must establish whether change is desirable and feasible.
People will not readily see change as desirable. We are often all too ready to

ignore the question of what is feasible in a given time. Circumstances some-
times demand that changes be made dramatically and quickly. If so, we should
be aware of the tensions so caused, recognize them explicitly and seek to man-
age them. If you do not measure them you cannot manage them.

CASE
STUDY London Underground

This organization operates an underground or ‘metro service’ in a major European
city. It was a public sector organization but in the 1990s it changed. Senior man-
agement reorganized to achieve a more commercial approach to its management.
The organization had been dominated by engineers. Top management had followed
a primarily technical approach. Much of its support work (e.g. track maintenance,
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