Page 341 - Managing Change in Organizations

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Chapter 17 ■ Culture models and organization change
This is a difficult balance to draw because to ignore change may well be taken as
a signal of low priority.
Interpret the traditions of the organization around the new systems,
procedures and solutions
Give powerful emphasis to how the traditions of the organization support and
are sustained by changes. I work for a business school which pioneered dis-
tance learning in management education in Europe. One of the school’s key
traditions has always been its concern to deliver and establish learning situa-
tions which meet the needs of course members, in a practical way.
Throughout the early development of distance learning, the need to design
the new material on this principle was always paramount. Also emphasized
was the idea that distance learning was a practicable and flexible means of
providing management education to the large numbers of managers who
never attend business schools. The rapid growth of distance learning clearly
demonstrates that this was not because the managers had no need or desire
for management training. For us the point is to note how the traditions of the
school were linked to the development of new systems for delivering man-
agement education.
Manage the timing effectively
Managing the timing of change is very important. A number of considerations
apply. How much expertise does the organization possess? The more estab-
lished the necessary knowledge and expertise, the quicker will be the changes.
To what extent is there opposition? How powerful is it and what control does
it have over resources and decision making? Are other significant changes
likely? If change creates disruption, then it is worth looking at how to time
various changes so that they occur together. Managing the timing to manage
the stresses induced also deserves attention to balance this latter point.
Finally, attention must be given to logistics, resources and other commit-
ments. We tend to underestimate the time, resources and energy needed to
achieve change. More attention to these issues is invaluable, particularly if
realism prevails.

Managing corporate politics

Managing the politics of change requires us to consider the interests of the
various groups involved in the changes, but it also requires much more than
that. Ultimately, it involves us in finding ways of making sense of the ‘boom-
ing, blooming confusion’ around us. Creating effective organizations is not
about eliminating corporate politics. There is too much uncertainty for that to
be feasible. It is about finding principles of action which allow politics and
conflicts to be handled constructively and thus harnessed for corporate
change.

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