Evolution of Change Management

Introduction

Organizational change refers to the actions in which a company or a business alters a major component of its organization, its culture, the underlying technologies, or infrastructure it uses to operate, or its internal processes. (Sorbierski, 2020)

Change is necessary for organizations to continue to thrive and meet and exceed the competition of industry competitors. Companies face changes every day such as launching new products or restructuring the organization. If the companies make changes without proper planning, they wouldn’t be able to sustain themselves in their respective industry for longer. Strategic change management allows companies to make needed changes carefully and responsibly. Strategic change management is the process of managing change in a structured, thoughtful way to meet organizational goals, objectives, and missions. (Davis and Stewart, n.d.)

Evolution of change management

In 1948, Lester Coch and John French Jr found that even though people were trained on new tools and methods, there was a motivational issue at play that caused people to push back on the change. Through their work, it is evident that “Resistance to change” is a crucial part in change management. The key takeaway point from their research was that it is highly recommended to communicate the importance of organizational change to workers, and the need to involve the workers in the planning of the change.

Then in the 1950s, Kurt Lewin and Edgar Schein created the “three-stage model” which defined change management in three distinct phases

Unfreeze – Break the existing form or the structure of the organization or the current style

 Move – Change whatever it is necessary to be changed or readjusted

Refreeze – Settle the new change and make it solid

Lewin’s Kurt management model inspired Everett Rogers in the 1960s and 1970s and he came up with something called “The adoption process”. Rogers began to talk about “Early adopters” which means the ones who adapted the change first and “Change champions” which means the people who promoted change. With that he created a new change management model, focusing on five discrete steps. (Burhan Syed, 2015)

Awareness – Keep the people aware of the upcoming change

2.      Interest – Find the interest towards the change

3.      Evaluation- Evaluate the pros and cons

4.      Trial – Keep a timeline and trial out the change

5.      Adoption – Adjust the immediate improvements and solidify the change

Also, during this same period of time change management started to gain a lot of attention from different aspects most importantly humanistic approach. It was led by Elizabeth Kubler-Ross. She was a social worker who worked with terminally ill patients and through her work, she noticed that there was a specific pattern of grief when she tells them that they were gonna die. She documented these stages and created the five-stage model (Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression and Acceptance) of grief which is highly relevant to people’s response towards change because in most cases employees go through all these stages when change is communicated to them.

In the 1980s, Warner Burke and George Litwin came up with an idea which is different to Kubler-Rose. In their idea, they looked at the change from more of an organisational perspective than looking at the individuals’ mindset. In this, they considered organizational items such as Company mission, Leadership, External environment, and systems and their impact on the success of an organizational change initiative.

However, keeping all the above aside it is evident that the beginning of what is today known as change management can be traced back to the 1990s. In this era, it was apparent that academics improve the collective understanding of human beings, how change is experienced and how our human systems interact and react. In the 10 years between the 1990s to 2000, the concept of enterprise change management started its journey to recognition within corporate board rooms. In meetings which recognized the people side of change, the language began to arise, moving the concept away from academic thinking into actionable discipline. (Campbell, 2016)

Despite the rapid progression from theory to recognized discipline, the evolution of the practice is far from reaching its saturation point. Adoption of the practice is still in its early stages and for those that do the opportunities to increase personal and organizational development are much more. As the scope for growth and innovation progresses it becomes crucial for organizations to understand how change can be strategically led and embraced. 

References

Burhan Syed, P.M.P. (2015) The evolution of Organizational Change Management, LinkedIn. Available at: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/evolution-change-management-burhan-syed-pmp/?trk=pulse_spock-articles (Accessed: December 1, 2022).

Campbell, M. (2016) The Evolution of Change Management, Home. CMC partnership global. Available at: https://www.cmcpartnership.sg/blog/the-evolution-of-change-management#:~:text=The%20beginnings%20of%20what%20is,human%20systems%20interact%20and%20react. (Accessed: November 27, 2022).

Cummings, T.G. and Worley, C.G. (2008) Organization development and change, https://www.mcs.gov.kh/. Mason, OH, Canada: South Western. Available at: https://www.mcs.gov.kh/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Organization-Development-and-Change.pdf (Accessed: December 1, 2022).

Sorbierski, T. (2020) What is organizational change management?: HBS Online, Business Insights Blog. Harvard Business School. Available at: https://online.hbs.edu/blog/post/organizational-change-management#:~:text=Organizational%20change%20refers%20to%20the,operate%2C%20or%20its%20internal%20processes. (Accessed: December 1, 2022).