MGT 321

Organizational Change and Stress Management

Forces for Organizational Change

Planned Change

• In the context of OB, we address change as an intentional, goal-oriented activity.

• What are the goals of planned change? • First, it seeks to improve the ability of the organization to adapt to

changes in its environment. Second, it seeks to change employee behavior.

• Who in organizations is responsible for managing change activities?

• The answer is change agents. Persons who act as catalysts and assume the responsibility for managing change activities

• They see a future for the organization that others have not identified, and

they are able to motivate, invent, and implement this vision.

• Change agents can be managers or nonmanagers, current or new employees, or outside consultants.

Resistance to Change

Resistance to Change

How to overcome resistance to change

• Education and Communication

• Participation

• Building Support and Commitment

• Develop Positive Relationships

• Implementing Changes Fairly

• Manipulation and Cooptation

• Selecting People Who Accept Change

• Coercion

Managing Organizational Change

• Action research: A change process based on systematic collection of data and then selection of a change action based on what the analyzed data indicate.

• Action research provides at least two specific benefits. First, it’s problem focused. The change agent objectively looks for problems, and the type of problem determines the type of change action.

• Second, because action research engages employees so thoroughly in the process, it reduces resistance to change.

Managing Organizational Change

• Organizational Development (OD): A collection of planned change interventions, built on humanistic–democratic values, that seeks to improve organizational effectiveness and employee well-being

• What are some OD techniques or interventions for bringing about change?

• Sensitivity training: Training groups that seek to change behavior through unstructured group interaction.

Managing Organizational Change

• Survey feedback The use of questionnaires to identify discrepancies among member perceptions; discussion follows, and remedies are suggested

• Process consultation (PC) A meeting in which a consultant assists a client in understanding process events with which he or she must deal and identifying processes that need improvement.

Managing Organizational Change

• Team building: High interaction among team members to increase trust and openness

• Intergroup development: OD efforts to change the attitudes, stereotypes, and perceptions that groups have of each other

• Appreciative inquiry (AI) An approach that seeks to identify the unique qualities and special strengths of an organization, which can then be built on to improve performance

Creating a Culture for Change

• Recently, some OB scholars have focused on a more proactive approach—how organizations can embrace change by transforming their cultures. We can identify two ways -

– stimulating an innovative culture and

– creating a learning organization

Creating a Culture for Change

• Innovation: A new idea applied to initiating or improving a product, process, or service

• Innovations can range from small incremental improvements, such as netbook computers, to radical breakthroughs, such as Nissan’s electric Leaf car.

Organizational Structure and Innovation

1. Organic structures positively influence innovation.

2. Long tenure in management is associated with innovation.

3. Innovation is nurtured when there are slack resources

4. Inter-unit communication is high in innovative organizations

Innovation and Organizational Culture

• Innovative organizations tend to have similar cultures. They encourage experimentation.

• They reward both successes and failures. They celebrate mistakes.

• Unfortunately, in too many organizations, people are rewarded for the absence of failures rather than for the presence of successes.

• Idea champions Individuals who take an innovation and actively and enthusiastically promote the idea, build support, overcome resistance, and ensure that the idea is implemented.

Creating a Learning Organization

• Just as individuals learn, so too do organizations. A learning organization has developed the continuous capacity to adapt and change.

• Most organizations engage in single-loop learning. When they detect

errors, their correction process relies on past routines and present policies.

• In contrast, learning organizations use double-loop learning. They correct errors by modifying objectives, policies, and standard routines.

• Double-loop learning challenges deeply rooted assumptions and norms. It provides opportunities for radically different solutions to problems and dramatic jumps in improvement

Managing Learning

• What can managers do to make their firms learning organizations? • Establish a strategy: Management needs to make explicit its

commitment to change, innovation, and continuous improvement

• Redesign the organization’s structure: The formal structure can be a serious impediment to learning. Flattening the structure, eliminating or combining departments, and increasing the use of cross-functional teams reinforces interdependence and reduces boundaries

• Reshape the organization’s culture: To become a learning organization, managers must demonstrate by their actions that taking risks and admitting failures are desirable

Work Stress

• Stress: An unpleasant psychological process that occurs in response to environmental pressures

• Although stress is typically discussed in a negative context, it is not necessarily bad in and of itself; it also has a positive value. It’s an opportunity when it offers potential gain

• Stress is associated with demands and resources. Demands are responsibilities, pressures, obligations, and uncertainties individuals face in the workplace.

• Resources are things within an individual’s control that he or she can use to resolve the demands.

Types of Stressors

• Challenge stressors associated with workload, pressure to complete tasks, and time urgency— operate quite differently from hindrance stressors —or stressors that keep someone from reaching his goals (for example, red tape, office politics, confusion over job responsibilities).

A Model of Stress

Sources of Stress

• Stressors Are Additive When we review stressors individually, it’s easy to overlook that stress is an additive phenomenon—it builds up.

• Each new and persistent stressor adds to an individual’s stress level

• Stress is equally bad for employees of all cultures

Consequences of Stress

Managing Stress • Individual Approaches: An employee can take personal responsibility

for reducing stress levels. – time-management techniques, – increased physical exercise, – relaxation training, and – expanded social support networks.

• Organizational Approaches:

– improved employee selection and job placement, – training, – realistic goal-setting, – redesign of jobs, – increased employee involvement, – improved organizational communication, – employee sabbaticals, and – corporate wellness programs