The nature of planned change

The pace of global, economic, and technological development makes change an inevitable feature of organizational life (Cummings & Worley, 2008). Organizational development is directed at bringing about planned change to increase an organization's effectiveness and capability to change itself.

Reasons for planned change

1.     To solve problems - If an organization suffers from a lack of human resources that is a problem that the company faces at that time. Therefore, the organization might think about a department re-structure as a solution to that problem.

2.     To learn from experience - After analyzing a couple of years of performance a company might find that a certain process is not feasible anymore, therefore requires change.

3.    To adapt to external environment changes – Many companies in the world, shifted to a working-from-home model because of the pandemic occurred of Covid 19 virus.

Theories of planned change

Conceptions of planned change have tended to focus on how change can be implemented in organizations. These frameworks describe the activities that must take place to initiate and carry out the successful organizational change. A few of these frameworks are mentioned below.

1.     Kurt Lewin’s change management model – This is one of the earliest models of planned change which was provided by Kurt Lewin (Cummings & Worley, 2008). This model provides a general understanding of organizational change.

2.     John P. Kotter’s eight steps- Dr John Kotter, who is a professor at Harvard Business School, introduced this 8-step change model in his book “Leading Change”. This model talks about 8 steps on how a change can be successfully applied to an organization. Neglecting any of the steps can be enough for the whole process to become a failure (Aktas et al., 2021).

3.     Action Research Model – The classic action research model focuses on planned change as a cyclic process in which initial research about the organization provides information to guide subsequent action. Then the results of the actions are assessed to provide further information to guide further action (Cummings & Worley, 2008). The action research model is the standard process of organizational change. There are many benefits to the organizational development practitioner in terms of understanding the current systems that the company is involved in and understanding the responsibilities of the client group (Zentis, 2019).

4.     The positive model – The positive model focuses on what the organization is doing right while the other models focus on the organization’s problems and how they can be solved so the functions of the organization run smoothly (Cummings & Worley, 2008). This positive approach to change is consistent with a growing movement in the social sciences called “positive organizational scholarship” which focuses on positive dynamics in organizations that give rise to extraordinary outcomes (Cummings & Worley, 2008).

Critique of planned change

Despite their continued refinement, the models and practice of planned change are still in a formative stage of development, and there is considerable room for improvement. Although, current models outline a general set of steps to be followed, considerably more information is needed to guide how those steps should be performed in a specific situation (Porras & Silvers, 1990). Furthermore, in the absence of rigorous assessment and measurement, it is difficult to make resource allocation decisions about change programs and to know which interventions are most effective in certain situations (Cummings & Worley, 2008).

Theories of planned change describe the activities necessary to modify strategies. Structures, and processes to increase an organization’s effectiveness. Lewin’s change model views planned change as a three-step process of unfreezing, moving and refreezing. It provides a general description of the process of planned change. The planned change efforts can vary in terms of the magnitude of the change, the degree to which the client system is organized and whether the setting is domestic or international.

References

Aktas, M. et al. (2021) What is Kotter's 8 Step Change Management Model (all you need to know), UserGuiding. Available at: https://userguiding.com/blog/kotters-8-step-change-model/ (Accessed: December 2, 2022).

Cummings, T.G. and Worley, C.G. (2008) “The nature of planned change,” in Organization Development & Change. 9th edn. Mason, OH, Canada: South-Western, pp. 24–45.

Porras, J.I. and Silvers, R.C. (1990) Organization development and transformation. Stanford, California: Graduate School of Business, Stanford University.

Storbiersky, 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: November 25, 2022).

Zentis, D.N. (2019) IOD blog - what is OD and the action research model (ARM)?, Institute OD. Available at: https://instituteod.com/od-action-research-model-arm/#:~:text=The%20Action%20Research%20Model%20(ARM)%20was%20introduced%20by%20Kurt%20Lewin,bring%20about%20positive%2C%20sustainable%20change. (Accessed: November 27, 2022).