HRM textbook

CHAPTER 8 TRAINING AND DEVELOPING EMPLOYEES 269
management system to wireless laptops. 124 Organizational change therefore invariably
involves bringing about changes in the employees themselves and in their attitudes,
skills, and behaviors. 125
Unfortunately, getting employees active support is easier said than done.
The change may require the cooperation of dozens or even hundreds of managers
and supervisors, many of whom might well view the change as detrimental to their
peace of mind. Resistance may therefore be formidable. Knowing how to deal with
that resistance is the heart of implementing an organizational change.
Lewin s Change Process
Psychologist Kurt Lewin formulated a model to summarize what he believed was the
basic process for implementing a change with minimal resistance. To Lewin, all behavior
in organizations was a product of two kinds of forces: those striving to maintain the
status quo and those pushing for change. Implementing change thus means reducing
the forces for the status quo or building up the forces for change. Lewin s process
consisted of three steps:
1. Unfreezing means reducing the forces that are striving to maintain the status quo,
usually by presenting a provocative problem or event to get people to recognize
the need for change and to search for new solutions.
2. Moving means developing new behaviors, values, and attitudes. The manager may
accomplish this through organizational structure changes, through conventional
training and development activities, and sometimes through the other organizational
development techniques (such as the team building) we ll discuss later.
3. Refreezing means building in the reinforcement to make sure the organization
doesn t slide back into its former ways of doing things.
Leading Organizational Change 126
Of course, the challenge is in the details. A CEO such as Nokia s Stephen Elop needs a
process for leading such a change. An 8-step process for leading organizational change
follows. 127
Unfreezing Stage
1. Establish a sense of urgency. Most managers start by creating a sense of urgency.
This often requires creativity. For example, the CEO might present executives
with a (fictitious) analyst s report describing the firm s imminent demise.
2. Mobilize commitment through joint diagnosis of problems. Having established a
sense of urgency, the leader may then create one or more task forces to diagnose
the problems facing the company. Such teams can produce a shared understanding
of what they can and must improve, and thereby mobilize commitment.
Moving Stage
3. Create a guiding coalition. No one can really implement major organizational
change alone. Most CEOs create a guiding coalition of influential people. They
work together as a team to act as missionaries and implementers.
4. Develop and communicate a shared vision. Your organizational renewal may require
communicating a new vision. For example, Stephen Elop s vision was of a streamlined
Nokia moving fast to build advanced smartphones based on Microsoft s operating
system. Guidelines here are keep it simple (for example, We are going to become
faster than anyone else in our industry at satisfying customer needs. ), use multiple
forums (meetings, e-mails, formal and informal interaction), and lead by example. 128
5. Help employees make the change. Are there impediments to change? Does a lack
of skills stand in the way? Do policies, procedures, or the firm s organization
make it difficult to act? Do intransigent managers discourage employees from
acting? If so, address the impediments. For example, Elop quickly replaced many
of Nokia s top and mid-level managers.