Implementing Organizational Change

Abstract

To secure the participation essential to move an organization from an inferior state to a superior state requires that workers be offered two incentives: (1) security that they will be excused if coordination breaks down, and (2) encouragement to make an effort to change rather than free-ride on the efforts of others. If offering both incentives is too costly, the organization continues to languish in the inferior state. Organizational inertia will not be overcome by merely increasing the attractiveness of the desired state or attempting to coerce workers to abandon established routines. Organizational change can be induced by actively managing the change process, as by shuffling parts of the work force and nominating change agents from among the workers. Moreover, the change process can be designed to make an organization more amenable to change: for example, starting with a “kick-off” event and making the process a vigorously disequilibrating phenomenon. Whether the change process is implemented incrementally or radically depends on how the manager trades off the cost of instituting wrenching change against the cost of having the organization partially misaligned with strategic necessity.