cameron and green making-sense-of-change-management

Organizations as organismsOrganizational changeThis metaphor of organizational life sees the organization as a living, adaptivesystem. Gareth Morgan says, ‘The metaphor suggests that differentenvironments favour different species of organizations based on differentmethods of organizing… congruence with the environment is the key tosuccess.’ For instance, in stable environments a more rigid bureaucraticorganization would prosper. In more fluid, changing environments alooser, less structured type of organization would be more likely to survive.This metaphor represents the organization asan ‘open system’. Organizations are seen as setsof interrelated sub-systems designed to balancethe requirements of the environment withinternal needs of groups and individuals. Thisapproach implies that when designing organizations,we should always do this with the environmentin mind. Emphasis is placed onscanning the environment, and developing ahealthy adaptation to the outside world.Individual, group and organizational health andhappiness are essential ingredients of thismetaphor. The assumption is that if the social needs of individuals andgroups in the organization are met, and the organization is well designedto meet the needs of the environment, there is more likelihood of healthyadaptive functioning of the whole system (socio-technical systems).The key beliefs are:• There is no ‘one best way’ to design or manage an organization.• The flow of information between different parts of the systems and itsenvironment is key to the organization’s success.• It is important to maximize the fit between individual, team and organizationalneeds.This leads to the following assumptions about organizational change:• Changes are made only in response to changes in the external environment(rather than using an internal focus).103