Knowledge Objectives

1. Knowledge Objectives • Explain how organizations and individuals respond to change • Explain how management can reduce resistance to change. • Describe why unfreezing-change-refreezing is important for OD • Identify and describe conflict resolution techniques, and elements of effective negotiation

2. Change: Organizational Perspectives • Types of Organizational Change • Anticipatory changes: planned changes based on expected situations. • Reactive changes: changes made in response to unexpected situations. • Incremental changes: subsystem adjustments required to keep the organization on course. • Strategic changes: altering the overall shape or direction of the organization.

3. Change: Organizational Perspectives (cont’d) • Tuning • The most common, least intense, and least risky type of change - basic routines are unchanged. • Also known as preventive maintenance and kaizen (continuous improvement). • Key is to actively anticipate and avoid problems rather than waiting for something to go wrong. • Adaptation • Incremental changes that are in reaction to external problems, events, or pressures.

4. Change: Organizational Perspectives (cont’d) • Reorientation • Change that is anticipatory and strategic in scope and causes the organization to be significantly redirected. • Also called “frame bending” (Nadler and Tushman). • Re-Creation • Intense and risky decisive change that reinvents the organization. • Also called “frame breaking” (Nadler and Tushman).

5. Individual Reactions to Change • How People Respond to Changes They Like • Three-stage process • Unrealistic optimism • Reality shock • Constructive direction

6. Individual Reactions to Change (cont’d) • How People Respond to Changes They Fear and Dislike • Stages • Getting off on the wrong track • Laughing it off • Growing self-doubt • Buying in • Constructive direction

7. Why Do Employees Resist Change? • Surprise • Unannounced significant changes threaten employees’ sense of balance in the workplace. • Inertia • Employees have a desire to maintain a safe, secure, and predictable status quo. • Misunderstanding and lack of skills • Without introductory or remedial training, change may be perceived negatively.

8. Why Do Employees Resist Change?(cont’d) • Emotional Side Effects • Forced acceptance of change can create a sense of powerlessness, anger, and passive resistance to change. • Lack of Trust • Promises of improvement mean nothing if employees do not trust management. • Fear of Failure • Employees are intimidated by change and doubt their abilities to meet new challenges.

9. Why Do Employees Resist Change?(cont’d) • Personality Conflicts • Managers who are disliked by their managers are poor conduits for change. • Poor Timing • Other events can conspire to create resentment about a particular change. • Lack of Tact • No showing sensitivity to feelings can create resistance to change.

10. Why Do Employees Resist Change?(cont’d) • Threat to Job Status/Security • Employees worry that any change may threaten their job or security. • Breakup of Work Group • Changes can tear apart established on-the-job social relationships. • Competing Commitments • Change can disrupt employees in their pursuit of other goals.

11. Overcoming Resistance to Change • Strategies for Overcoming Resistance to Change • Education and communication • Participation and involvement • Facilitation and support • Negotiation and agreement • Manipulation and co-optation • Explicit and implicit coercion

12. Making Change Happen • Two Approaches to Organization Change • Organization Development (OD) • Formal top-down approach • Grassroots Change • An unofficial and informal bottom-up approach

13. Planned Change Through Organization Development (OD) • Organization development (OD) • Planned change programs intended to help people and organizations function more effectively. • Applying behavioral science principles, methods, and theories to create and cope with change.

14. Planned Change Through Organization Development (OD) (cont’d) • Objectives of OD • Deepen sense of organizational purpose. • Strengthen interpersonal trust. • Encourage problem solving rather than avoidance. • Develop a satisfying work experience. • Supplement formal authority with knowledge and skill-based authority. • Increase personal responsibility for planning and implementing. • Encourage willingness to change.

15. Planned Change Through Organization Development (OD) (cont’d) • The OD Process • Unfreezing, change, refreezing (Kurt Lewin) • Unfreezing: neutralizing resistance by preparing people for change. • Refreezing: systematically following a change program for lasting results.

16. Unofficial and Informal Grassroots Change • Tempered Radicals • People who quietly try to change the dominant organizational culture in line with their convictions. • Guidelines for tempered radicals • Think small for big results. • Be authentic. • Translate. • Don’t go it alone.

17. Managing Conflict • Dealing with the Two Faces of Conflict • Competitive conflict: parties are pursuing directly opposite (win-lose) goals. • Cooperative conflict: a mutually reinforcing experience (win-win) that serves the best interests of both parties. • Conflict Triggers • Conflict trigger: any factor that increases the chances of conflict.

18. Managing Conflict (cont’d) • Types of Conflict Triggers (cont’d) • Ambiguous or overlapping jurisdictions. • Competition for scarce resources. • Communication breakdowns. • Time pressure. • Unreasonable standards, rule, policies, or procedures. • Personality clashes. • Status differentials. • Unrealized expectations.

19. Managing Conflict (cont’d) • Resolving Conflict: Conflict Resolution Techniques • Problem solving • Superordinate goals • Compromise • Forcing • Smoothing

20. Organizational Politics • What Does Organizational Politics Involve? • The pursuit of self-interest at work in the face of real or imagined opposition. • Effects of Organizational Politics • Hinders organizational and individual effectiveness. • Is an irritant to employees. • Can have significant ethical implications.

21. Organizational Politics (cont’d) • Research on Organizational Politics • The perception that the higher the level of management, the greater amount of politics. • The larger the organization, the greater the politics. • Staff personnel are more political than line managers. • Marketing people are the most political; production people were considered the least political. • 61% of employees believed organizational politics helps advance one’s career. • 45% of employees believed that organizational politics detracts from organizational goals.

22. Organizational Politics (cont’d) • Political Tactics • Posturing: “One upmanship” and taking credit for others work. • Empire building: gaining control over human and material resources. • Making the supervisor look good: engaging in “apple polishing.” • Collecting and using social IOUs: exchanging reciprocal political favors by making someone look good or covering up their mistakes.

23. Organizational Politics (cont’d) • Political Tactics • Creating power and loyalty cliques: facing superiors as a cohesive group rather than alone. • Engaging in destructive competition: sabotaging the work of others through character assassination.

24. Organizational Politics (cont’d) • Antidotes to Political Behavior • Strive for a climate of openness and trust. • Measure performance results rather than personalities. • Encourage top management to refrain from political behaviors. • Strive to integrate individual and organizational goals through meaningful work and career planning. • Practice job rotation to encourage broader perspectives and understanding of the problems of others.

25. Negotiating • Negotiation • A decision-making process among interdependent parties with different preferences. • Common Types of Negotiation • Two-party negotiation (e.g., buyer and seller) • Third party negotiation (e.g., agents and arbitrators)

26. Negotiating (cont’d) • Elements of Negotiation • Adopting a win-win attitude • Understanding that mutual beneficial agreement addresses the both parties’ interests. • Knowing your BTNA (best alternative to a negotiated agreement) • Your “bottom line” for accepting or rejecting offers. • Identifying the Bargaining Zone • Negotiation is useless if both parties involved have no common ground on which to maneuver during bargaining.

27. Negotiating (cont’d) • Added Value Negotiating (AVN) • A practical five-step win-win process involving development of multiple deals. • Clarify subjective and objective interests; seeking common ground. • Identify options and their marketplace values. • Design alternative deal packages that foster a creative agreement. • Select a mutually acceptable deal that is most feasible for both parties. • Perfect the deal by hammering out unresolved details.