Managing Change and Innovation

1. Managing Change and Innovation Chapter Thirteen

2. Organizational Change • Any alterations in people, structure, or technology.

3. Forces for Change • External Forces • Marketplace • Governmental laws and regulations • Technology • Fluctuations in labor markets • Economic changes

4. Forces for Change (continued….) • Internal Forces • Organization’s strategy • Workforce composition • New equipment • Employee attitudes • Change Agent • Employee • Outside consultants

5. Two Views of the Change Process • The Calm Waters Metaphor • Large ship crossing a calm sea; change comes as an occasional storm.

6. Two Views of the Change Process (continued….) • White Water Rapids Metaphor • Small raft navigating a raging river; change is an expected and natural state. • Managing change is a continual process. • Uncertain and dynamic environments. • Flexible and responsive to survive

7. Managing Change

8. Types of Change • Changing structure • Work specialization, departmentalization, span of control, chain of command, centralization, formalization, job redesign, or actual structural design. • Changing technology • Work processes, methods, and equipment. • Changing people • Attitudes, expectations, perceptions, and behavior.

9. Why People Resist Change • Uncertainty • Habit • Concern over personal loss • Status, money, authority, friendships, conveniences, or other economic benefits • Belief that the change is not in the organization’s best interest

10. Actions to Reduce Resistance to Change • Education and Communication • Help employees to see logic of the change. • Educate through one-on-one discussions, memos, group meetings, or reports. • Appropriate if source of resistance is either poor communication or misinformation. • Requires mutual trust and credibility between managers and employees.

11. Actions to Reduce Resistance to Change (continued….) • Participation • Allows those who oppose the change to participate in the decision. • Assumes that they have expertise to make meaningful contributions. • Involvement can reduce resistance, obtain commitment to seeing change succeed, and increase quality of change decision.

12. Actions to Reduce Resistance to Change (continued….) • Facilitation and Support • Provide supportive efforts such as employee counseling, and skills training. • Can be time-consuming and expensive. • Negotiation • Exchange something of value to reduce resistance. • May be necessary when resistance comes from powerful source. • Potentially high costs and likelihood of having to negotiate with other resisters.

13. Actions to Reduce Resistance to Change (continued….) • Manipulation • Manipulation is covert attempts to influence such as distorting facts, withholding information, or creating false rumors. • Inexpensive and easy way to gain support. • Can fail miserably if targets feel they’ve been tricked.

14. Actions to Reduce Resistance to Change (continued….) • Coercion • Using direct threats or force. • Inexpensive and easy way to get support. • May be illegal. Even legal coercion can be perceived as bullying.

15. Contemporary Issues in Managing Change

16. Changing Organizational Culture • A dramatic crisis occurs. • A surprising financial setback, the loss of a major customer, or a dramatic innovation by a competitor. • A change in leadership. • The organization is young and small. • The culture is weak.

17. Accomplishing Cultural Change • Identify cultural aspects needing change. • Communicate to employees that the organization’s survival is legitimately threatened if change doesn’t happen. • Appoint new leadership with a new vision. • Initiate a reorganization. • Introduce new stories and rituals to convey the new vision. • Change the selection and socialization processes and the evaluation and reward systems to support the new values.

18. Employee Stress • The physical and psychological tension an individual feels when facing extraordinary demands, constraints, or opportunities, and for which the outcome is perceived to be both uncertain and important. • Caused by personal factors and job-related factors.

19. Symptoms of Stress • Physical • Changes in metabolism, increased heart and breathing rates, and raised blood pressure. • Psychological • Job dissatisfaction, tension, anxiety, irritability, boredom, and procrastination. • Behavioral • Changes in productivity, absenteeism, job turnover, changes in eating habits, rapid speech, fidgeting, and sleep disorders.

20. Reducing Job-Related Stress • Select employees with abilities that match the job requirements. • Clarify job responsibilities. • Provide clear job goals. • Reduce ambiguity through feedback. • Redesign jobs to increase challenge or reduce workload.

21. Reducing Stressors from Employee’s Personal Life • Only try if employee is receptive. • Employee counseling through human resources or outside professional help. • Employee wellness programs.

22. Innovation

23. Creativity Versus Innovation • Creativity—the ability to combine ideas in a unique way or to make unusual associations between ideas. • Innovation—the process of taking a creative idea and turning it into a useful product, service, or method of operation.

24. Is Innovation Important? Why? Why not?

25. Creativity Economy • Knowledge Economy is being eclipsed by the Creativity Economy. • Outsourcing of high-end service jobs such as software writing, accounting, and engineering to overseas. • Outsourcing of manufacturing to Asia. • New core competence is creativity, imagination, and innovation.

26. Creativity Economy (continued…) • Intimate understanding of a consumer culture. • Ability to understand what people want before they can even articulate it. • Heated car seats • Voice over IP • Swiffer product line

27. Most Innovative Companies

28. Old Needs, New Ideas

29. Innovation Variables • Structural Variables • Cultural Variables • Human Resource Variables

30. Structural Variables • Organic structure • Abundant resources • Lots of innovative products fail miserably • Cross-functional teams, task forces • Minimal time pressure

31. Cultural Variables • Acceptance of ambiguity • Tolerance of the impractical • Low external controls • Rules, regulations, policies • Tolerance of risks • Tolerance of conflict • Focus on ends • Positive feedback

32. Human Resource Variables • High commitment to training and development • High job security • Creative people