NHRD Journal - National HRD Network

epresents the culture of the organization.
Organization culture is resultant of shared
meaning, values and beliefs of the organization.
An organization is combination of all these
quadrants. Organization is so much of
individual experience and behavior as much it
is systems, processes and culture. Integral
approach suggests that all the four quadrants
are equally important. Wholesome change and
development of the organization is the result
of sustained efforts and appropriate inputs on
all the quadrants. Over or under emphasis on
one or two quadrants at the cost of others is
reflected in the poor organizational
performance in the long run.
Types of Change: An Integral View
Literature on organizational change
distinguishes between two general types of
change: organizational transition or
improvement and organizational
transformation. As the more traditional
approach, organizational transition or
improvement is relatively well defined and
circumscribed in terms of its process and
technologies. Generally speaking
organizational transition focuses on the change
process as a bottom-up and more of process
based phenomenon. More importantly for this
discussion, it represents the more traditional
deterministic management perspective. Looking
from the integral perspective organizational
Figure 2: Foci of Different Kinds of Organizational Change
transition and improvement related change
efforts are more focused on right quadrants
representing observable individual behavior
and organizational systems, processes and
design aspects. Whereas Organizational
Transformation is more a holistic pursuit
focused on deeper involvement of individuals
and cultural transformation. Case studies of
major organizational transformations which
had also been sustained over a period time (e.g.
Tata Steel, GE, Toyoto etc.) suggest the
importance of focusing on upper and lower left
quadrant. Figure 2 summarizes this point.
Different Foci of Change Interventions
If we go deeper and examine the different
interventions to bring change in the
organizations, we can observe that most of these
interventions focus on some specific quadrants
of organizational reality as depicted in figure 3.
For example T-group training focuses on 'I'
quadrant and most of the behavioral training
are largely focused on 'IT' quadrant. ERP
(Enterprise Resource Planning) or re engineering
are the interventions largely focus on 'ITS'
quadrant. Whereas interventions related to team
building and cultural integration etc focus on
'WE' quadrant of the organization.
Submission here is that key to successfully
leading the change is not trying one intervention
after another but in right balance of appropriate
and well aligned interventions in different
quadrants. I have studied a research and
development organization where state of art
Knowledge Management (KM) system was
installed (ITS quadrant) but its impact on 'WE'
quadrant is not consciously traced and
designed. No one was sure that whether the KM
system have any incremental value on real time
collaboration amongst the scientists for
knowledge creation and dissemination.
Similarly I have also observed an organization
where culture of open communication and great
deal of authenticity (I and WE quadrants) exist
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November 2007 NHRD Journal