Items Description of Module

Subject Name Management

Paper Name Organisational Change and Development
Module Title Setting the Change
Module Id Module no.-13
Pre- Requisites Basic knowledge of organisation development
Objectives To study the components of setting the change.
Keywords Change, agent, change process, alliance team.
 QUADRANT-I

Module 13: Setting the Change

1. Learning Objectives
2. Introduction

3. Creating the Urgency to Change

4. Building Coalition for Change

5. Clarifying the change imperative

6. Elements of contract

7. Communication during this stage

8. Summary

1. Learning Objectives

After studying this module, the students shall be able to know about the following:

 Creation of the need for change.

 Building of the coalition and alliance team
 Clarification of the change process
 Elements of the contract
 Communication process in change

2. Introduction

To create a sense of urgency to change, a large number of organsitions members must recognise
that the status quo is no longer acceptable. As members assemble and recognise that change must
occur, then a coalition form is required. Also they become more concerned about the need for the
organsitions to change; they often form a stronger association. In synergistic fashion, each step
fosters the development of the other. Similarly, as organisation members struggle with clarifying
the change mandate, a stronger alliance is often forged, and members recognise even more that
there is urgent need to change. Because the model is not linear, decisions made at the later steps
often require that the earlier steps be revisited. For example, during the planning stage, it could
be possible that the major stakeholders had been left out of the alliance building process, and
then the team may need the identification of the additional strategies in obtaining the support of
the stakeholders. Change management is an iterative process that leaders need to constantly
review and revise. Thus, it is significant to know that the process is also a developmental one and
each step is based on the previous step. There could also be short-sighted view which could be
followed by the manager in that the manager can skip the earlier steps and can move on. There
are flaws in this approach. This model works best when the change initiatives are organised into
projects with clearly identified start and finish dates. When the change goals are too diffuse and
the time frame goes on indefinitely, then it is difficult, to mobilise the efforts of the
organisational members. Some researchers and authors have stated that it is best to organise
change efforts as time limited activities aimed at a defined final product in the managerial
processes. The steps of the setting the system for change are creating the urgency to change,
building an alliance for change and clarifying the change imperative. The details of these are as
follows.

3. Creating the Urgency to Change

For bringing the change in the organisation, there is requirement of cooperation, commitment of
time and energy and willingness to make the sacrifices. For obtaining this commitment, the
leaders must convince the organisation members that there is urgency to change. Unfortunately
the leaders often overlook this essential step in the change process. They do not recognise the
need to create the sense of dissatisfaction with the status quo and they fully understand that this
is the first step is necessary in breaking down the organisation indifference. Change is disruptive
to organsitions and it is also unsettling approach for leaders and painful for members; there is
enormous amount of momentum needed for moving the change effort forward. The urgency to
change becomes the energy that propels the organisation ahead and without the energy, the
change discharge and ultimately dies for a lack of interest. Many times this step is skipped by the
leaders and they move on to the next steps of planning and implementation. This is especially
true when there are political pressures to perform or to implement a new program. Due to the
result of the past experiences of the organisational change, many organsitions are doubtful of the
change processes and have also witnessed the great deal of discussion about the change without
the great deal of action towards the change. Thus, any processes that are not perceived directly
related to the accomplishment are believed.

3.1 Contentment within the Organisation

Without urgency there is often contentment in the organisations are not immune to thus
tendency, and public health service agencies, given their bureaucratic nature. Organisations are
complacent as opposed to superficial changes in structure and processes become difficult.

Following are some of the insights which are provided by Kotter in 1996 in hi work, which help
us in understanding the reason for contentment in organisations for change:

 There may be no visible crisis in the organisations. It means that there is possibility that
there might be no apparent financial struggles, layoffs are not impending, no major
lawsuits are evident or there is no major negative publicity. For many years, human
service agencies have sheltered from the types of crises that have faced private sector
organisations. But more and more human service organisations are facing the same type
of challenges as being faced by the private sector organisations in adapting to change.
 There may be too many visible resources within the organisation. For example, there may
be ample funds for travel, conferences; and some spoken message in contrast to this as,
“we are doing fine, why we need to change?” might portray some other image.
 The standard against which the organisation is measured is might be low. Many times the
leaders set realistic and attainable goals, and the organisation is capable of being
successful by those standards. But if the benchmark set is low, then there might some
problem with the standard achievement also. Setting up of the performance standards is
an emerging area for the organisations as they are increasingly becoming an expectation.
 Organisations might focus on the narrow functional or departmental goals rather than
focusing on the broad strategic goals. Members can see their departmental goals to be
more important than the organisational goals. In many organisations the directors have
the overall responsibility of the achievement of the organisational goals, but when the
 departments are following their own goals then in such situations, the non-achievement
of the goals of the organisation is not solely the responsibility of director; rather it is
responsibility of the departments also.
 In many organisations, there is lack of feedback from the external stakeholders, internal
resources or both. It is possible that the management can go for long time period without
having any feedback from the organisation and from stakeholders. Then, in such
situations it is easy for the leaders to become narrow-minded. One of the main tasks of
successful change is to bring focus on the identification of the needs and wishes of the
customers.
 Many organisations have also developed the low confrontation culture. In these
organisations, the truth is not valued if it is negative and the truth speaker is also seen as
trouble maker. Some studies have shown that the good news travel up in the hierarchy
faster than the bad news.
 Many leaders have a natural propensity to downplay problems and emphasise only what
is working in the organisation.

In complacent environment, organisational change needs bold action and this is challenging task
in case of bureaucratic organisations. In addition for leaders who are accustomed to being in
control, the bold action is quite risky.

3.2 Ways or Manners of Increasing Urgency Level

Kotter in 1996 offered helpful suggestions on how leaders can increase the urgency level of the
organisational change settings. Some of the similar ideas and suggestions are as follows:

 The crisis should not be covered up; rather there should be creation of sharing of
information about the overrun budget and the organisational members must be exposed
with the poor performance data. Although this is scary for the organisation leaders but it
must be done by the managers and leaders.
  The standards should be set high so that the organisation cannot achieve the goals by just
conducting the business as usual. So if the standards are set high, then the departments
will try to change its way of functioning to achieve and the clients and customers would
be better served.
 There should be more distribution of information among the employees; especially
information with regard to the level of satisfaction and dissatisfaction among the clients
and customers. This would help the organisation to be more responsive towards the
customers. Thus, it would help in reducing the level of dissatisfaction among the
customers.
 The emphasis should be made on the regular interaction with the dissatisfied
stakeholders.
 There should be regular interaction with the employees with regard to their opinion and
usage of information in order to create urgency among the managers for change.
 The managers must be willing to educate supervisors and employees about the dangers of
organisation remaining complacent and stagnant.

Kotter stated that the role of leader in creation of urgency to change is very important. It is
incorrect to assume that only leaders can generate organisation change. There are numerous
causes within the organisation which are responsible for bringing the change in the organisation.
For the staff members who are nor in leadership, it is difficult for them to bring change.

3.3 Drivers for change

Before starting any change project, the organisation’s leader can invite staff members to identify
those external and internal forces that are propelling the organisation to change. Some of the
reasons for the external change are as follows:

 The demographic profile has changed.

 The expectations of the community have increased with respect to the service integration
and coordination.
 The directors want their departments to function more cohesively.
Some of the internal reasons for change are as follows:

 Lack of cooperation and coordination among various departments

 Visible walls between management and the staff.
 Need for change as asked by the departmental head.
 Need for more line and staff participation.

4. Building Coalition for Change

Change can be initiated at any level and by anyone like it can be initiated by worker, manager,
director; regardless of the changes which can be bought in the organisation the individuals never
bring change by themselves. There is need of support of many people in bringing the successful
change in the organisations. Even for a small level of change in the organisations, the team offers
greater assurance that the change will be well planned and once the change is planned it will be
implemented. Like in human service organisations, there are large group of people comprising of
committees, task forces who study problems and make recommendations to the top management.
Although some of these groups have made major contributions to the organisations, even then
many fail to do.

4.1 Factors contributing to success

There are numerous factors that contribute towards the success of bringing change in the
organisations. Some of them are as follows:

 The team should comprise of the members who have functional representatives across
departments, who are open minded and highly motivated and represent the end users. As
suggested by Kotter that the members of a successful coalition team must have the
following:
o Position power
o Expertise
o Credibility
  A skilled team leader in a position of authority is key. The leaders of cross functional
teams need to be skilled or trained in group leadership skills. Due to the reason that
individual has positional power within an organisation does not mean that individual has
positional power within the organisation does not mean that individual knows how to
build a team, erroneous assumptions about team building skills have led to many failed
change projects.
 The team must have both the authority and accountability to accomplish the task. The
cross functional teams are important to clearly identify the shared goals of the group and
to clarify the team’s authority to make decisions.
 There must be upper level management support and involvement as well as adequate
resources for the team. Organisational support and involvement as well as adequate
resources for the team. It includes offering the work time to members working in cross
functional teams, involving immediate supervisors in supporting the active participation
of direct reports and many more.
 Adequate internal and external communication systems must exist.

5. Clarifying the change imperative

After the coalition team has convened, it must collectively clarify the nature of the change
imperative. Too frequently, a team will embark on a project without having clarity about the
nature of its authority, the anticipated outcomes from the project or the resources needed.
Besides, members also proceed without developing the shared vision for the changed effort.
Even sometimes the members proceed with their own agenda and later they find out that they
and the key decision makers had different viewpoints of the project. The researcher Schaeffer in
1987 suggested that the change agents’ work in collaboration with the key decision makers of the
organisation to clearly identify the decision maker’s intentions as well as the constraints imposed
on the process. Even if the decision maker is not clear about the results, it proves to be helpful to
be precise it as well. Schaeffer has also offered a series of questions which can be clarified in
written contract between the change agents and the key decision makers. The questions related to
the authority that is implementing it, official status of the project to be established, effect of the
change, outcomes expected out of change, funding limits and resources to be used for the project.
Following functions are valuable in the change management process:

 Creates clarity: Contracting helps the team members to organsitions their thoughts about
the project and focuses their attention and energy by minimising the wasted time and
resources.
 Improves communication: Other people are important to the project. Contracting
provides a base for communication with others who may be involved in the project and
who may be affected by them.
 Provides direction for the project: Contracting includes setting the direction for the
project. Each member of the project team needs a clear sense of the starting point where
the project will go and how o get there.
 Identifies measurements: Effective contracting comprises of determining the outcomes
for the project with a clear sense of the results desired, the project team members can
know when they achieve the purpose of the project.
 Improves chances for success: Effective contracting can increase the chances of the
success of the project. Success can occur because the contracting clarifies the objectives,
places limits on the scope of the project and realistically allocates time and other
resources.
6. Elements of contract

Once the elements of the contract are established, the alliance team will get the clear
understanding of the nature of the change project. Following are the main elements of the
contract:

 Problem identification: This provides a brief overview of the problem which the team is
going to solve. The benchmark is set in this step. Teams should consider the problem as
from system prospective so that the root causes of the problem can be studied. As in any
developmental process, if the root cause is not clearly defined, then the remainder process
will be affected.
 Purpose statement: The Purpose is a general statement of the solution to the problem or
issue previously identified. It is generally provides the overview of the project.
  Vision statement: Although vision definition provides information about the objective;
but it also help in creating a picture of the future that helps clarify the general direction
for change. It also helps in motivating the organisation members. It is the single most
important determinant of the successful change. Without proper picture, the work could
not be done in an effective manner.
 Outcomes: In outcomes the alliance team will identify the measurable outcomes.
 Evaluation: The alliance team will identify the sources from where the data will be
gathered in accomplishing the objectives. The team will have the means to measure the
degree of change from before to after implementation of the project.
 Resources: The team must identify the resources needed for the project’s
implementation. It will comprise of detailed information about the materials, money,
information, space, people and all other needs.
 Mandate of the team: In this section, the issue of authority is addressed. The team will
have the authority to implement the solutions it devises. It is better to address this issue
before the team proceeds.

7. Communication during this stage

Communication is an underlying theme throughout the change management process. As

suggested by Galpin in 1996 that there are numerous communication phases during the change
effort, two of which are relevant in this stage of change management process. The first involves
the building of awareness or creating a sense of urgency. The team should address the issue of
“this is why we need to change”. The purpose of this phase is to identify the need and
opportunity for the change and provides the information with regard of the process including the
opportunities for involvement and announces the senior level support for the project. And the
second one begins with the beginning of the project. And is addressed as “this is where we are
going”. At this team the team must communicate the vision of the change so that the members
get the clear picture of the change. The information should relate to why the change is made and
with which process the change will be implemented.
8. Summary

For bringing the change in the organisation, there is requirement of cooperation, commitment of
time and energy and willingness to make the sacrifices. For obtaining this commitment, the
leaders must convince the organisation members that there is urgency to change. Unfortunately
the leaders often overlook this essential step in the change process. They do not recognise the
need to create the sense of dissatisfaction with the status quo and they fully understand that this
is the first step is necessary in breaking down the organisation indifference. Change is disruptive
to organsitions and it is also unsettling approach for leaders and painful for members; there is
enormous amount of momentum needed for moving the change effort forward. The urgency to
change becomes the energy that propels the organisation ahead and without the energy, the
change discharge and ultimately dies for a lack of interest. Many times this step is skipped by the
leaders and they move on to the next steps of planning and implementation. This is especially
true when there are political pressures to perform or to implement a new program. Due to the
result of the past experiences of the organisational change, many organsitions are doubtful of the
change processes and have also witnessed the great deal of discussion about the change without
the great deal of action towards the change. Thus, any processes that are not perceived directly
related to the accomplishment are believed. Without urgency there is often contentment in the
organisations are not immune to thus tendency, and public health service agencies, given their
bureaucratic nature. Organisations are complacent as opposed to superficial changes in structure
and processes become difficult. Change can be initiated at any level and by anyone like it can be
initiated by worker, manager, director; regardless of the changes which can be bought in the
organisation the individuals never bring change by themselves. There is need of support of many
people in bringing the successful change in the organisations. Even for a small level of change in
the organisations, the team offers greater assurance that the change will be well planned and once
the change is planned it will be implemented. Like in human service organisations, there are
large group of people comprising of committees, task forces who study problems and make
recommendations to the top management. Although some of these groups have made major
contributions to the organisations, even then many fail to do. The team must communicate the
vision of the change so that the members get the clear picture of the change. The information
should relate to why the change is made and with which process the change will be implemented.