21827 Change Management

Subject level: Postgraduate

Handbook description

This subject provides managers with a framework for rethinking their past change management experiences, and for gaining a critical appreciation of future change management practices. It takes students through four aspects of change management: leading change; managing individual experiences of change; conceptualising the need for change; and critiquing specific change management programs.

Subject objectives/outcomes

On successful completion of this subject students should be able to:

1. Evaluate the pressures managers face to change their organisations
2. Utilise diagnostic methods to identify what types of organisational changes are needed
3. Develop a change management plan
4. Anticipate and respond to individual reactions to change
5. Understand the principles involved in developing and communicating vision
6. Critically assess the political implications of change
7. Analyse the issues associated with achieving enduring organisational change
8. Evaluate issues associated with the measurement of organisational change programs
9. Evaluate the client/consultant relationship.

Contribution to graduate profile

Change management is fundamental to the understanding and success of organisational change. The subject develops students' ability to critically assess the key pressures/arguments about why the organisation needed to engage in the change, the diagnostic process whereby the change was selected, the change management process used to implement the change, individual/group reactions to the change and how these were managed, the effects of the change including variables/measurements, overall evaluation of the change, how well it was managed, recommendations for improvement.

Teaching and learning strategies

Classes will involve a combination of lectures, discussion of readings, analysis of case studies, role plays and simulation exercises.

Content

• Introduction to organisations change
• What needs to change: Diagnostic models
• What needs to change: Diagnostic tools
• Change management models
• Reacting to change
• Establishing the need for change and visioning change
• Talking change
• Powering change
• Consolidating change
• Measuring change
• Managing change: downsizing.

Assessment

Recommended text(s)

Book of Readings.

Indicative references

Buchanan, D. and Badham, R. (1999), Power, politics, and organisational change: Winning the turf game. London: Sage. Chapter 7: 'Power-assisted steering: maxims for Princes and Princesses' pp. 179-208.

Cliffe, S. (1999), 'Can this merger be saved?' Harvard Business Review 77(1) (Jan.-Feb.): 29-32.

Eisenhardt, K.M. and Brown, S.L. (1999), 'Patching: Restitching business portfolios in dynamic markets', Harvard Business Review (May-June): 72-82.

Folger, R. and Skarlicki, D.P. (1999), 'Unfairness and resistance to change: Hardship as mistreatment' Journal of Organizational Change Management 12(1): 35-50.

Harrison, M and Shirom, A. (1999), Organizational diagnosis and assessment: Bridging theory and practice, Thousand Oaks, Ca.: Sage. Ch. 4 'Diagnostic Models in Use' (pp. 91-110)

Hoffman, A.J. (1999), 'Institutional evolution and change: Environmentalism and the U.S. chemical industry', Academy of Management Journal 47(4): 351-371.

Kurtzman, J. (1998), "The art of taking charge" Heidrick and Struggles Leadership Journal 3(1): 1-12.

Maruca, R.F. and Milhaven, J.M. (2000), 'When the boss won't budge', Harvard Business Review (Jan.-Feb): 25-32.

Nadler, D.A. (1998), Champions of change: How CEOs and their companies are mastering the skills of radical change, San Francisco: Jossey Bass: Chapter 2 'Where to start: Understanding organisations'(pp. 21-43)

Nadler, D.A. and Tushman, M.L. (1999), 'The organisation of the future: Strategic imperatives and core competencies for the 21st century', Organizational Dynamics 28(1) (Summer): 45-60.

Pfeffer, J. and Sutton, R.I. (1999), 'The smart-talk trap' Harvard Business Review (May7-June): 135-142.

Sull, D. N. (1999), 'Why good companies go bad', Harvard Business Review (July-August): 42-52.

Tetenbaum, T.J. (1998), 'Shifting paradigms: From Newton to Chaos', Organizational Dynamics (Spring): 21-32.

Vischer, J. (1999), 'Will this open space work?', Harvard Business Review (May-June): 28-33.