Michael Beer (1990) and his colleagues suggested in a seminal Harvard Business
Review article, ‘Why change programs don’t produce change’, that most such
programmes are guided by a theory of change that is fundamentally flawed. This
theory states that changes in attitudes lead to changes in behaviour. ‘According to
this model, change is like a conversion experience. Once people “get religion”,
changes in their behaviour will surely follow.’ They believe that this theory gets the
change process exactly backwards.
In fact, individual behaviour is powerfully shaped by the organizational roles people play. The most effective way to change behaviour, therefore, is to put people into a new organizational context, which imposes new roles, responsibilities and relationships on them. This creates a situation that in a sense ’forces‘ new attitudes and behaviour on people.
They prescribe six steps to effective change, which concentrate on what they call ‘task alignment’ – reorganizing employees’ roles, responsibilities and relationships to solve specific business problems in small units where goals and tasks can be clearly defined. The aim of following the overlapping steps is to build a self-reinforcing cycle of commitment, coordination and competence. The steps are.
1. Mobilize commitment to change through the joint analysis of problems.
2. Develop a shared vision of how to organize and manage to achieve goals such as competitiveness.
3. Foster consensus for the new vision, competence to enact it, and cohesion to move it along.
4. Spread revitalization to all departments without pushing it from the top – don’t force the issue, let each department find its own way to the new organization.
5. Institutionalize revitalization through formal policies, systems and structures. 6. Monitor and adjust strategies in response to problems in the revitalization process.
In fact, individual behaviour is powerfully shaped by the organizational roles people play. The most effective way to change behaviour, therefore, is to put people into a new organizational context, which imposes new roles, responsibilities and relationships on them. This creates a situation that in a sense ’forces‘ new attitudes and behaviour on people.
They prescribe six steps to effective change, which concentrate on what they call ‘task alignment’ – reorganizing employees’ roles, responsibilities and relationships to solve specific business problems in small units where goals and tasks can be clearly defined. The aim of following the overlapping steps is to build a self-reinforcing cycle of commitment, coordination and competence. The steps are.
1. Mobilize commitment to change through the joint analysis of problems.
2. Develop a shared vision of how to organize and manage to achieve goals such as competitiveness.
3. Foster consensus for the new vision, competence to enact it, and cohesion to move it along.
4. Spread revitalization to all departments without pushing it from the top – don’t force the issue, let each department find its own way to the new organization.
5. Institutionalize revitalization through formal policies, systems and structures. 6. Monitor and adjust strategies in response to problems in the revitalization process.
No comments:
Post a Comment