FOOTNOTES TO ORGANISATIONAL CHANGE:Stable Processes of Change, Rule Following, Conflict

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Change Management MGMT625

LESSON #21

FOOTNOTES TO ORGANISATIONAL CHANGE

The leading management scholar James March's study dealt with the leading attribute of

organizational change. Following are the excerpts and selection from his famous article footnotes to

organizational change published in one of the leading management research journal, Administrative

Sciences Quarterly in 1981.

He suggested five footnotes on organization change as they emphasize the relation between change

and adaptive behavior which highlights the prosaic nature of change.

Foot Note 1

Organizations are continually changing, routinely, easily and responsively, but change within them

cannot be controlled arbitrarily. Organizations rarely do exactly what they are told to do.

Foot note 2

Changes in organizations depend on a few stable processes. Theories of change emphasize either

the stability of the processes or the changes they produce, but serious understandings of

organizations require attentions to both.

Foot note 3

Different theories of change are in fact different ways to depict different theories of action. Most

changes in organization reflect simple responses to demographic, economic, social and political

forces. What we identify as political, economic societal and technological (PEST) analyses are

connected with different parts of environment?

Footnote 4

Although org. response to environmental events is broadly adaptive and mostly routine-based, the

response takes place in a confusing world. As a result prosaic (characterless) processes sometimes

have surprising outcomes.

Footnote 5

Adaptation to changing environment involves and interplays of rationality and foolishness.

Organization foolishness is not maintained as conscious strategy, but embedded in such

organisational anomalies as slack, managerial incentives, symbolic action, ambiguity and loose

coupling.

Stable Processes of Change

One view is that change fails not because organizations are rigid and inflexible but they are

impressively imaginative. According to Aldrich in most organization failure occur early in life

when organizations are small and flexible, not later. There is considerable level of stability in

organization and organisations are remarkably adaptive as enduring institutions, respond to volatile

environments easily, though not optimally

We are inclined to look for most dramatic explanations for change, is our common mistake. Most

changes in organizations result neither from organization processes or forces, nor from uncommon

imagination but from relatively stable, routine processes that relate organization to their

environments. Many of the most stable procedures in an organisation are procedures for responding

to economic, social and political contexts. The routine processes of organisational adaptation are

Change Management MGMT625

little complex, and a theory of change must take into account how these processes can produce

unusual patterns of action. Therefore theory of organization change should not be different from a

theory of ordinary action.

Therefore research on organization as routine adaptive systems emphasize six (06) basic

perspectives for interpreting organization action which are as under:

1. Rule following

2. Problem solving

3. Learning

4. Conflict

5. Contagion

6. Regeneration

1. Rule Following

Application of standard operating procedures (SOPs), duties, obligation, roles, rules, and criteria

evolve through competition and survival, and those followed by organizations that survive, grow

and multiply come to dominate the pool of procedures

2. Problem Solving

Action can be seen as problem solving. The underlying process involves choosing among

alternatives by using some decision rule that compares alternatives in terms of their expected

consequences. It is the rational actor model which prevails in organizations. Managers make

rational choice under certain conditions of risk and cost-benefit analyses.

3. Learning

Action can be seen as stemming from past learning. The underlying process is one in which an

organization is conditioned through trial and error to repeat behaviour that has been successful in

the past, and to avoid that has been unsuccessful. Learning is what can be identified as experiential

in nature.

4. Conflict

Action can be seen as resulting from conflicting among individuals or groups representing diverse

interests. The underlying process is one of confrontation, bargaining and coalition, in which

outcomes depend on the initial preferences of actors weighted by their power. Edgar Schein talked

of negotiated order to exist in context of organization. Changes result from shifts in the

mobilization or in the resources managers' control. This change is again a negotiated one by

different members of organization who want to adjust policies as per their understanding view and

influence in organization. This model is the one based on politics. Members of organization interact

in a political manners and change results in a politically negotiated settlement amongst them.

Another view relates to the pecking order in organization explains the existence of hierarchical or

top down order in organizations.

5. Contagion

Action can be seen as spreading from one organization to another. The underlying processes is one

in which variations in contact among organizations and in the attractiveness of the behaviour or

beliefs being imitated affect the rate and pattern of spread.

6. Regeneration

Action can be seen as resulting from the intentions and competencies of organization actors.

Change Management MGMT625

Turnover in organization introduces new members with different attitudes, abilities and goals. This

resembles organization life cycle approach and is quite like birth, growth, maturity and decline.

An organization uses rules, problem-solving, learning, conflict, contagion, and regeneration to cope

with its environment and actively adapt to it. The processes are conservative that is they tend to

maintain stable relations, sustain existing rules, and reduce differences among organizations. The

above six processes are neither esoteric (mysterious), complicated nor mutually exclusive.

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