Organizational Frame Bending: Principles for Managing Reorientation

Abstract

O ne of the hallmarks of American business in the past decade has been the attempts by large organizations to manage large-scale planned change. In some cases — AT&T, Chrysler, and Apple, for example — the efforts have been dramatic and have captured public attention. Other cases, such as Corning Glass, Xerox, Citicorp, and GTE, have received less attention, but the changes have been no less profound. The concept of planned organizational change is not new; but this most recent generation of changes is somewhat different from what has gone before. First, they typically are initiated by the leaders of organizations rather than consultants or human resource specialists (although they have played significant roles in some cases). Second, they are closely linked to strategic business issues, not just questions of organizational process or style. Third, most of the changes can be traced direaly to external factors, such as new sources of competition, new technology, deregulation or legal initiatives, maturation of product sets, changes in ownership, or shifts in fundamental market struaure. Fourth,these changes affect the entire organization (whether it be a corporation or a business unit) rather than individual SBUs (strategic business units) or departments. Fifth, they are profound for the organization and its members because they usually influence organizational values regarding employees, customers, competition, or products. As a result of the past decade's changes, there are now more large visible examples than ever before of successful planned organizational change.