What is meant by ‘change’?
This document describes and reviews a range of approaches, models and tools which managers and practitioners may be interested to learn more about as part of understanding and managing change. To begin the exploration, readers are introduced to some of the key terms and concepts in the literature. These will demonstrate the diversity of thinking and activity encompassed by the single term ‘change’.
Planned versus emergent change
Sometimes change is deliberate, a product of conscious reasoning and actions.
This type of change is called planned change. In contrast, change sometimes unfolds in an apparently spontaneous and unplanned way. This type of change is known as emergent change.
Change can be emergent rather than planned in two ways.
- Managers make a number of decisions apparently unrelated to the change that emerges. The change is therefore not planned. However, these decisions may be based on unspoken, and sometimes unconscious, assumptions about the organisation, its environment and the future (Mintzberg, 1989) and are, therefore, not as unrelated as they first seem. Such implicit assumptions dictate the direction of the seemingly disparate and unrelated decisions, thereby shaping the change process by ‘drift’ rather than by design.
- External factors (such as the economy, competitors’ behaviour, and political climate) or internal features (such as the relative power of different interest groups, distribution of knowledge, and uncertainty) influence the change in directions outside the control of managers. Even the most carefully planned and executed change programme will have some emergent impacts.
This highlights two important aspects of managing change.
- The need to identify, explore and if necessary challenge the assumptions that underlie managerial decisions.
- Understanding that organisational change is a process that can be facilitated by perceptive and insightful planning and analysis and well crafted, sensitive implementation phases, while acknowledging that it can never be fully isolated from the effects of serendipity, uncertainty and chance (Dawson, 1996).
An important (arguably the central) message of recent high-quality management of change literature is that organisation-level change is not fixed or linear in nature but contains an important emergent element.
Episodic versus continuous change
Another distinction is between episodic and continuous change. Episodic change, according to Weick and Quinn (1999), is ‘infrequent, discontinuous and intentional’. Sometimes termed ‘radical’ or ‘second order’ change, episodic change often involves replacement of one strategy or programme with another.
Continuous change, in contrast, is ‘ongoing, evolving and cumulative’ (Weick and Quinn, 1999). Also referred to as ‘first order’ or ‘incremental’ change, continuous change is characterised by people constantly adapting and editing ideas they acquire from different sources. At a collective level these continuous adjustments made simultaneously across units can create substantial change.
The distinction between episodic and continuous change helps clarify thinking about an organisation’s future development and evolution in relation to its long-term goals. Few organisations are in a position to decide unilaterally that they will adopt an exclusively continuous change approach. They can, however, capitalise upon many of the principles of continuous change by engendering the flexibility to accommodate and experiment with everyday contingencies, breakdowns, exceptions, opportunities and unintended consequences that punctuate organisational life (Orlikowski, 1996).
Developmental, transitional and transformational change
Change can also be understood in relation to its extent and scope. Ackerman (1997) has distinguished between three types of change: developmental, transitional and transformational. (See Figure 1.)
- Developmental change may be either planned or emergent; it is first order, or incremental. It is change that enhances or corrects existing aspects of an organisation, often focusing on the improvement of a skill or process.
- Transitional change seeks to achieve a known desired state that is different from the existing one. It is episodic, planned and second order, or radical.
The model of transitional change is the basis of much of the organisational change literature (see for example Kanter, 1983; Beckhard and Harris, 1987; Nadler and Tushman, 1989). It has its foundations in the work of Lewin (1951) who conceptualised change as a three-stage process involving:
- unfreezing the existing organisational equilibrium
- moving to a new position
- refreezing in a new equilibrium position.
Schein in 1987 further explored these three stages. He suggested that unfreezing involves:
- disconfirmation of expectations
- creation of guilt or anxiety
- provision of psychological safety that converts anxiety into motivation to change.
Moving to a new position is achieved through cognitive restructuring, often through:
- identifying with a new role model or mentor
- scanning the environment for new relevant information.
Refreezing occurs when the new point of view is integrated into:
- the total personality and concept of self
- significant relationships.
3. Transformational change is radical or second order in nature. It requires a shift in assumptions made by the organisation and its members. Transformation can result in an organisation that differs significantly in terms of structure, processes, culture and strategy. It may, therefore, result in the creation of an organisation that operates in developmental mode – one that continuously learns, adapts and improves.
