Change Kaleidoscope for IBM: Managing Resistance to Change

Leading and Managing
change

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
Change Kaleidoscope for IBM....................................................................................................1
Theories which could have been used by Gestner to overcome the resistance of employees to
change.........................................................................................................................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Change is a systematic approach to dealing with the transition or transformation of an
organization's goals, processes or technologies. This report is based on the IBM. IBM
Corporation is an American multinational information technology company headquartered in
Armonk, New York, with operations in over 170 countries. IBM used to employee in total
350600 employees in the organization. This report highlights the change kaleidoscope for the
IBM at the point at which the Gestner took over in the organization. Also, with the help of the
same report explain the change option available in front of the IBM. After that the report
highlight the different theory which will help the organization in getting aware of the different
steps Gestner might have taken to help the company in resisting the different changes in the
organization.
Change Kaleidoscope for IBM
Figure:- 1
Balogun and Hailey introduced change kaleidoscope in order to help the change agents so
that they effectively take actions in order to implement effective decision to bring changes in the
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Illustration 1: change kaleidoscope

organisation(Ferguson, Hall and Hopwood, 2015). This model consist of outer ring and inner
rings where the outer ring indicates contextual features like time, scope, preservation, diversity,
capability, capacity, readiness and also power. On the other hand, inner rings have change path,
change start point, change style, change target, change levers and change roles.
ORGANIZATIONAL CONTEXTUAL FEATURES
The respective organizational contextual features are as following:-
 Time:- This feature indicates the respective period in which change need to be
accomplished by the organization. From the case study of IBM, as the organization was
in serious trouble and was cutting cost for about six years, many changes were required in
order to take the business on right track(Hodges, 2016). As Gestner was appointed as
chairman of IBM, he initiated to bring the respective changes as organization was facing
lots of problems.
 Scope:- It represents the degree of change that organization can use in order to have
separation as realignment and transformation. The scope related to this change was quite
broad and clear in eyes of Gestner, and he worked effectively to manage the change by
setting priorities that organization have to work immediately.
 Preservation:- The respective assets that IBM used in order to bring the effective change
was its working employees who have trust on the business and the goodwill of the firm in
market. However, funds were required to implement the respective changes. Gestner also
implemented different practices improving the customer relations and also defined the
core areas of IBM where these changes were in need to be implemented(Peate, 2019).
 Diversity:- IBM is having a diverse working environment as they hire employees from
global market. There were many employees that were happy with the change
management but there were may employees who were dissatisfied with the respective
practices that Gestner was implementing. Gestner immediate action related to staff
reduction affected the attitude of working employees and the salary structure of
employees was also changed that affected the overall behaviour of working staff.
 Capability:- IBM was having capability to implement the respective change in its
business as the firm was financially strong and was having required resources that they
can use to bring the respective changes that was prioritized by the new chairman of IBM.
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