Organisational Behaviour

Organisational Behaviour

Anthony Arhin      ID LON

Module HRM3008-LSBM1     2015-2016

Lecturer: Dr Samta Rai

Teacher: Simon Taylor

The first assignment is an individual essay of between 1,500 and 2,000 words, which counts for 40% of the total module assessment.

“In today’s highly volatile, unpredictable and ever flexible business environment, organisations can only take an emergent approach to change.” Discuss the validity of this statement.

Title:” Reflecting on increasing uncertainty in the business environment, how can organisations plan for change”

Introduction

We live in a very unpredictable environment. Due to this unpredictable business environment the ideal approach to change is to take an emergent approach.

Emergent change is highly applicable to use in such situations of chaos because it deals with unforeseen events which modern day organisations go through.

We need change in organisations in order to survive and change to an organisation is due to effectiveness. Different theorists have come up with different ways of dealing with the change in organisations. There are different approaches to change and managing change and models by different theorists. Organisations need to avoid looking at an approach that fits one best way and gear towards looking at an approach which fits into both types of changes depending on the organisations situation.

Main body

Companies need to avoid looking at an approach that fits neatly for an emergent change, or planned change. Factors depending on the situation should be considered therefore one company should not depend on one model that tackles change.

Planned change approach is the opposite of emergent change approach. Plan change takes the concept that the organisation is going to plan something.

Planned change talks about a 3 phase model. Plan change works in an environment that has stability. When we have an unpredictable environment that is getting worse to deal with we have to plan change by Kurt Lewin. Lewin argued that to have success in a change project you need to have 3 steps which are unfreezing, moving and re- freezing, however planned change cannot deal with an environment that’s rapidly changing. What we have found is that the rate of failure is generally high. 70% of change projects fail. (Sackmann et al, 2009).

Planned change is a linear approach; a detailed plan from A to B about what the organisation is going to do. Planned change works together to get groups of organisations to function and work better together. Plan change is not suitable in a continuous changing evolving environment because it does not take into account where the business does face numerous external challenges i.e. The UK to vote on the Exit of the EU or the recession. Organisations need to be responsive to these challenges and make a plan; therefore taking emergent change approach which is incremental will be the best suited option.

Characteristics

Planned approach takes time to implement. It is a process from A to B which is slow and static.

Approaches to change advantages and limitations

Levin model of plan change says that you can change, freeze and unfreeze but later on there were a lot of theorists that thought of new ideas and new models were introduced. The entire theorist’s model that have come about over time  encourage a mind-set to change the individual and group. Levin’s model is made up of 3 steps which are planning, implementing and results. This theory looks at strategy implementation and the outcome.

The advantage of this model is that

The drawbacks of this model is that

Cumin’s model of planned change says that. Cumin’s model is equally good because it decodes the freeze model.

The advantage of this model is that

The limitations of this model is that

Models of managing change advantages and limitations

When organisations need to plan change they need to measure the frequency of change which is how often the change will occur. On a monthly, quarterly or weekly basis and the magnitude of change, how often the change will come about also taking into account whether the changes should be done all at one time or timed. Change models should be planned and done in a step by step manner.