HRMG5064 Organisational Behaviour: Change Management Article Review

This essay critically analyzes four articles on change management, a key topic in Organizational Behaviour (OB) and Human Resource Management (HRM). It explores the concept of organizational change, its significance in modern businesses, and the impact of effective change management on communication and organizational structure. The essay discusses various perspectives from the literature, including the readiness of organizations and employees for change, steps for successful implementation, leadership during change, and the use of Kurt Lewin's change management model. It also critiques the methodologies used in the selected articles, such as inductive techniques, descriptive analysis, and factor analysis. The essay concludes by highlighting the findings related to change management procedures, leadership behaviors, and individual readiness for organizational change.

Running head: CHANGE MANAGEMENT
Change Management
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Introduction:
The modern business market is getting significantly competitive each day with the
entry of multiple number of competitors into the industry. The competition among the
business organizations is getting fierce and that is observed in every industry. The
organizations are observed to try their level best in order to get the largest share of the
revenue so that their business becomes stable. In the race to get this, the business
organizations are observed to use several business strategies. Such business strategies are
observed to be significantly benefiting for the organizations when the strategy aligns with the
resources that the organization has. But at times it is seen that various organizations are not
able to get their job done with the available resources and their strategy.
Along with this, many organizations are observed to be facing significant amount of
issues with the functioning of the available resources and that becomes a genuine menace for
he organizations in generating their desired amount of revenue. This creates the exact
position for the introduction of the organizational change. The concept of the organizational
change is present in the business for several years. Several business critics explained the
concept as the framework which manages the impact of the new business processes with
precise focus on the organizational structure and culture change. The organizational change
management has greater significance in cases where the entire workforce of an organization
requires to adapt to new behaviours or improved skills and competencies (Carnall 2018).
Apart from this, it is observed that the organization faces significant amount of issues due to
improper and ineffective communication of the employees. The change management is
significantly important in such cases as the application of the effective change management
procedure enables an organization to have a better and improved communication among the
employees of the organization (Cameron and Green 2015). This is instrumental in reducing

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the impact of the misinformation. The paper is focused in specifying the concept of the
organizational change management and the impact of it in the modern day business
organizations.
Critical Discussion on the Literature Review:
The general applications of the change management initiatives in cases of the
financial concern are mergers and acquisitions. The organizations which are subjected to
significant amount of vulnerability with the financial condition, are observed to go for the
mergers with the other organizations to survive. Choi and Ruona (2011), commented that the
change management initiative is not a strategy only for the cases where the organization is
suffering, rather it also provides considerable amount of opportunities to the organizations
which are focused towards the generation of more revenue. In such cases the mergers and
acquisitions provides them the chance to get associated with another organization and
conduct the business in regions where it was not conducting. Throughout the history of the
business conduction, it is seen that the comparatively large organizations took over many
small organizations in order to get the chance to conduct business in the served regions of the
small company and that provides the base of the article where the authors are observed to
discuss on the readiness of the organizations and the employees in implementing the change.
However, Van de Ven and Sun (2011) are observed to comment on the suitable steps
for the management of the change. Through their article, the authors confirmed that the steps
that the organizations need to take for having a successful implementation of the
organizational change are basically the formation of a vision that is well acknowledged by
everyone including the employees and the managers along with each and every important
stakeholder of the organization, an easy description of the vision to all the executives so that
they be able to understand the need of the change, an innovative strategy formation to make

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the employees understand about the changes that their daily operation in the organization will
face. On the other hand, the article of Cummings, Bridgman and Brown (2016), is concerned
with the situations that the organizations will be subjected during the management of the
change. The authors verified whether the creation of Kurt Lewin for the management of the
change with the segmentation of the situations like the unfreezing, freezing and change are
applied by the modern organizations in the absolute form desired by the Kurt Lewin or not.
On the contrary to the verification of Cummings, Bridgman and Brown (2016), Yukl
(2012) was concerned with the effective leadership during the management of the change in
the organizations. The article of Yulk (2012) was concerned with the operations of the
leaders during the change, the communication of the leaders for managing the change and the
measurement of the success of the change management initiative. The reason behind the
assessment of success of the change is observed to be significantly important for any
organization in order to assess whether the organization is following the correct path or not.
In case of ineffective follow up of the change management initiative, the organization needs
to restructure their strategies for the change. Hence Yulk (2012) commented that the list of
steps for the effective implementation of the change initiative will include a compact plan to
measure the success of the change management process and will also formulate a follow up
plan for both successful and unsuccessful cases which needs to be carried out by the leader
managing the change inside the organization. As the change management procedures are
subjected to significant amount organizational restructuring, the employees of the
organizations or other stakeholders are observed to be significantly threatened and
uncomfortable with it and Yulk (2012) is able to comment on the leaders approach towards
the introduction of the effective rewarding policies that can be financial or non-financial in
order to trigger the process.

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The article of Choi and Ruona (2011) is observed to be based on such secondary
resources which are majorly published even before 21th century. Hence it is evident that the
evidences that those resources produced to this article are the notably old. The gap between
those resources and this article might overlook many of the actual cases that happened over
the years. Hence the authenticity of the article might get questioned. Similarly the article of
Cummings, Bridgman and Brown (2016) is observed to use backdated resources which
majorly belongs to the 20th century. Hence the applicability of those resources in the modern
day business context is questionable.
Critical Discussion on the Methodology:
Choi and Ruona (2011) researched following the inductive technique as the readiness
of the employees and the organizations for the change is evaluated on the basis of the
information that is gathered from the articles of other In the article, the authors are able to
research following the inductive technique as the readiness of the employees and the
organizations for the change is evaluated on the basis of the information that is gathered from
the articles of other researchers on the same topic. On the other hand, Andrew H. Van de Ven
and Kangyong Sun (2011) shows descriptive analysis of the of the change models which can
be used to differentiate various changes inside the modern business contexts and the author is
able to form different models depending on the variation of the changes may that be planned
change, regulated change, dialectic change or competitive change. In response of this,
Cummings, Bridgman and Brown (2016) includes descriptive analysis where the authors are
able to portray the findings of it in alignment with the confirmation that the modern usage of
the Lewin’s in the corporate setting sis never the actual one formed by the great researcher,
Kurt Lewin. The authors are able to concentrate on the intrerpretivism philosophy for the
evaluation of the fact whether the modern organizations are using the correct approach of the
Lewin’s framework. On the contrary, Gary Yukl (2012) used the factor analysis method for

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the evaluation of the answers regarding the effective leadership behaviour during the
management of the change inside the organization and with the effective finding of the
hierarchical taxonomy of the leadership behaviours, the paper is significantly able to achieve
the desired output.
Choi and Ruona (2011) commented on the different views on the particular subject
taking references from the various authors’ creations and they are able to create one effective
portrayal for the preparation of the employees and the organizations comprising all the
different views of the authors. Hence they are able to achieve the exact answers of their
queries with the introduction of the inputs required for the preparation of the employees and
the organizations during the change. The analysis of Andrew H. Van de Ven and Kangyong
Sun (2011) proves to be significant with the effective generation of the remedies for each of
the forms of the change. Hence the author is able to find the exact answers for the queries
regarding the suitable form of approach that is required to be undertaken for a particular form
of change. On the other hand, Cummings, Bridgman and Brown (2016) followed the
exploratory method and the inductive technique for the research which is visible from the
external assessment that the researchers are able to conduct. In the paper the authors claimed
that the variation in the actual framework of Kurt Lewin and the mechanism of the change
that the modern organizations uses in the name of Lewin’s framework is partially destroying
the desired effectiveness that the organizations expected with the application of it. On the
contrary, Gary Yukl (2012) used the factor analysis method for the evaluation of the answers
regarding the effective leadership behaviour during the management of the change inside the
organization and with the effective finding of the hierarchical taxonomy of the leadership
behaviours, the paper is significantly able to achieve the desired output. In addition to this the
factor analysis method proved to be significant for the paper in the identification of the

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leadership behaviours during the avocation of the change, envisioning of the change and
during the process of collective learning.
Critical Discussion on the Findings:
With the change initiative, the management of the organizations are usually focused
with the procedures of the management of the change. Cummings, Bridgman and Brown
(2016) focuses on the Kurt Lewin’s legacy for the change management where the authors are
able to find the foundation of the three steps of the change. The paper is significant in stating
that the application of the model is not the same what was prescribed by Lewin. Rather the
application is significantly different from the model wrote by Kurt Lewin. Along with this,
the paper investigates the influence of the theory in the application of the modern change
management initiatives and questions the scope of innovation from the base of the model
prescribed by Lewin. On the other hand the article of Gary Yukl (2012) is significant in
specifying the effective leadership behaviour for managing the change in the organizational
context. The paper provides a detail description of the leadership characteristics that the
management of the modern day organizations must have in order to manage the
organizational change in a successful manner. In the past, the researchers faced significant
amount of scarcity of the articles on the leadership aspects that the management can opt as
reference for managing the change initiatives in an efficient manner. The paper is provides an
absolute framework for the management in terms of leadership qualities needed for the
leaders to manage the change in the organization.
Apart from that, the paper of Choi and Ruona (2011) significantly focuses on the
readiness of the individuals inside the organization for the organizational change. Though the
focus of the paper is still on the Lewin’s model of change management. The readiness of the

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individuals for the change along with a precise focus on the organizational culture is the
subject of the paper. The paper provides a detail description on the literature regarding the
change strategies. The paper has great significance in stating that the individuals are observed
to be significantly ready for the organizational changes in cases where there is a chance of
experiencing the normative-reeducative change strategies and in cases where they find the
work environment to be significantly associated with a learning culture. On the other hand
the article of the Andrew H. Van de Ven and Kangyong Sun (2011) is significant in
specifying that there is a gap in between the practice and the process theories. The paper is
able to evaluate the common breakdown of four process model of organizational change
consisting of teleology, dialectics, life cycle and evolution. Though the literature on the topic
confirms that the change management needs to be taken care by the effective follow up in the
four mentioned parts, the paper acknowledges the fact that the leaders or the managers have
the potential to do better in cases where they aligns their mental model with the change
journey that is taking place inside the organizations.
The article of Andrew H. Van de Ven and Kangyong Sun (2011), is able to confirm
the fact that the change is a continuous and never ending process. It also states that the
change is not something that can be predicted, yet the organizations are observed to focus on
the formation of the strategies in order to specify a framework which will be a guide for the
management. The organizational changes in large multinational organizations are observed to
be significantly huge in every aspect may that be the structure, size, the financial requirement
or the consequences. In such case the breaking down of the change is much needed for the
organizations. The paper is able to serve that absolute need of breaking down of the change
management initiative. The authors showed that the organizational change process model
includes 4 different parts. The evolution is the form of change in which the organization
proceeds through prescribed changes of multiple entities. The authors portrayed the fact that

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the evolution is a form of change which consists of three different stages which are the
variation, selection and retention. The mentioned form of change is considered to be
competitive change. The mentioned model of change gets applied in cases where the
organization faces competition of scarce resources. The mentioned model is observed to have
a typical breakdown in the form of requisite variety and lack of scarcity.
On the other hand the article of Cummings, Bridgman and Brown (2016) is able to
portray the fundamental approach of Kurt Lewin’s theory of change management in
organizational context. The authors in this section is able to show the difference between the
theoretical framework of the model and the applied model in many of the modern
organizations. The authors stated that the concerned change model is divided into three parts
which are unfreeze, change and refreeze. Over the years it is observed that the business
organizations which are concerned with changes in their organizational operations, plans the
implementation of each and every step of the change management initiative. In such cases the
organizations focuses on the preparation of the various organizational elements in accordance
with the change management motives. The paper serves that absolute need of a framework
for the preparation of the organization in acknowledging and implementing the change. The
first stage of the three part change model is a prescribed format for the organizations to
understand the method of preparation that they need to undertake before the occurrence of a
change initiative. Many of the critics of the change management is able to term the model as
the simplest format for the organizational change management unlike the other models.
Having said that, many modern researchers of the organizational change management are
also heard of speaking about the absence of large reach that a particular model must have in
order to cope up with the variety of the consequences that may take place as a result of the
change management initiative.

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In the article of Choi and Ruona (2011), a brief discussion on the individual readiness
among the different elements of the organizations for the change is observed. The paper is
able to confirm the variety of the definitions of the individual readiness for the organizational
change by different authors. According to Armenakis and Bedeian, the readiness for the
change can be defined as the attitude, belief and trust of the stakeholders of the organization
on identification of the required changes and the verification of the organization’s capacity to
meet those required changes. On the other hand Ebyet al. described the employee’s
perception of the organization’s readiness for the much needed change as the perception of
the individual entities of the organization in order to take on the large scale changes. Jansen,
another notable researcher of human resource management, is able to define the individual
readiness as the organization’s capability of conducting the change and the degree of
perfection with which the employees of the organization be able to achieve that.
Apart from that, Jones, Jimmieson and Griffiths defined the employees perception of
readiness for the change as the limit to which the employees of the organization considers the
need for the organizational change holds the potential to produce some positive outcomes for
themselves as well as for the organization. On the other hand, Holt et al. is able to define the
readiness for organizational change as the beliefs of the employees like the required
capability of implementing the proposed change initiative is available in them, the change
initiative is absolutely appropriate for the organisation under the current situation, the
assurance of the commitment of the leaders along with the change is beneficial for the
stakeholders of the organization.
The article of Gary Yukl (2012) is able to dictate about the effective leadership
behaviour during the change initiative. Many researches on the mentioned topic over the
years provided many different behaviour taxonomies but there exists a lack of clear result
which is the objective of the study. Unlike the other articles, this one is focused in description

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of the effective leadership behaviours. The research used four meta-categories along with 15
specific component behaviours were used to identify the factors that has the potential to
influence the effectiveness of those 15 behaviours (Yukl 2012). The paper is able to focus on
the hierarchical taxonomy of the leadership behaviours. The hierarchy is divided into four
part Task-oriented, Relations-oriented, Change-oriented and external. As the topic of the
paper is change management, hence the chosen hierarchy will be change-oriented. The
mentioned hierarchy is observed to be divided into 4 parts like advocating change,
envisioning change, encouraging innovation along with simplifying the collective learning.
The article of Andrew H. Van de Ven and Kangyong Sun (2011), states that the
model “Evolution” is significant in having remedies like the Niche development, Better
marketing and strategies for competitive advantages for the organizations. On the other hand
the dialectic form of change is observed to have a process cycle consisting of the parts like
confrontation, conflict and synthesis between opposing interests. Apart from this, the
dialectic form of change is a constructive change approach for multiple entities. Several
critics of the change management considers the dialectic form as the conflictive form of
change as well. The mentioned form of change gets applied in cases where the organization is
subjected to significant amount of conflict between the opposing forces. The typical
breakdown for the mentioned form of change is observed to incorporate the parts like
destructive conflict, power imbalance along irresolvable differences. The organizations which
are to employ this model of change will be subjected to remedies such the conflict
management and negotiation skills. Apart from this the authors are able to state two more
forms of change. One of them is the life cycle. The mentioned method of change is
considered as the regulated form of change. Kanter, a renowned researcher of the change
management is able to comment on the approach of Lewin in the year 1992 where Kanter
claimed that Lewin’s model is significantly static and linear in nature unlike the Van de Ven

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and Sun’s theory and the modern day organizations are so large in size that the change
management approach of Lewin may seem to be inappropriate for such organizations. The
authors portrayed the practical form of the Lewin’s theory of the change management for the
modern organizations. The authors are able to state that the unfreeze is the section of the
model where the organizations prepares themselves for the implementation change and in
doing so the steps that the organizations are in need to take care of are the determination of
the needs of the change, assurance of the strong support from the upper level management,
creation of the need for the change along with efficient management of the doubts and
concerns regarding the change.
The authors claimed that the steps are necessary for the effective implementation of
the change initiative as the management will face the need to communicate the reasons
behind the change to its stakeholders. Along with that, the process will be subjected to
significant amount of problems at every level of the organization and in that case the
assurance of the strong support from the part of the top level management is much needed.
Apart from that, the management of the organizations will ace considerable number of doubts
from the each and every section of the stakeholders regarding the process and for the smooth
conduction of the change, the management of the organizations need to manage those doubts.
In connection with this, the paper of Choi and Ruona (2011) shows three different change
strategies in the organizations which are Empirical-Rational Strategies, Power-coercive
strategies and Normative-reeducative strategies. The paper involved Chin and Benne’s
typology (1985) to express the characteristics of the mentioned strategies. The empirical-
rational strategies are observed to have characteristics like employment of the system analysts
as the consultants, the selection of the personnel and replacement along with distribution of
knowledge and insights through the general education. The paper has great significance in
specifying that the characteristics for the Power-coercive strategies which are the usage of the

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political institutions along with manipulation of the power sources. Apart from this, the
authors are able to state the characteristics of Normative-reeducative strategy in the form of
improvement in the problem solving capacities of a system along with promoting growth in
the persons who are able to set up the systems for the change.
The article of Gary Yukl (2012) claims that the application of the hierarchy in the
organizational context will follow the steps like explanation on the need of the change,
portrayal of the threats and opportunities of the change along with the creating influence on
employees regarding the acceptance of the need of the change. In managing the change, the
leaders will face the resistance and in that case the leaders are the one to take care of such
risky issues along with the help of the employees. Apart from this the paper portrayed that the
leaders are also responsible for the formation of such strategy which will trigger smooth
conduction of the change procedure. In the envisioning change part, the leaders are
responsible for the creation of a vision that will be clear and appealing to all the section of the
organization. The article of Andrew H. Van de Ven and Kangyong Sun (2011) insists that
the dialectic model incorporates four different stages depending on the occurrence of the
events which are Start-up, Grow, Harvest and Terminate. The model is a prescribed change
approach of single entity. The process cycle for the mentioned form of change management is
based on the prescribed sequence of the above mentioned steps.
The organizations which are subjected to prefigured programming regulated by
nature, logic or rules are observed to apply such form of change management. The mentioned
form of change is observed to have typical breakdown in the form of resistance to change,
lack of compliance along with monitoring and control. The organizations following the
mentioned form of change management are observed to have remedies in the form of
responding to complaints, local adaption along with internalizing mandates. On the other
hand the authors are able to term the teleology to be the planned change. The mentioned

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model is constructive change approach of the single entity. The model also consists of four
stages which are Search or Interact, Set goals, Implement goals and dissatisfaction. Along
with that the authors are able to state that the process cycle for the mentioned model of
change is a cyclic procedure of the above mentioned stages. The typical breakdown of the
mentioned model of change is observed to incorporate lack of recognition, biasness of the
decisions, lack of agreement along with groupthink.
In the article of Cummings, Bridgman and Brown (2016), the authors claimed that the
next part in this practical framework will be the change. The necessary steps that the
organizations need to take under this section are frequent and effective communication with
the parts of the organization that are subjected to the change. It is observed that the
organizations suffer significantly due to the rumours and speculation under this situation and
management needs to take care of this. Apart from this, the change procedure in the large
multinational organizations are observed to face the need of segmentation. In order to carry
out the segmented parts of the operation in the change management initiative, the
organization needs to form small section among the large group of stakeholder segments and
empower them. The authors are able to justify the procedure by stating the need of
involvement of the people in the process. Apart from this, the authors also recognised the
importance of the refreeze in the change management model where they stated that the
modern day organizations are in need to anchor the change into the culture of the
organization. Along with that, the management needs to develop various ways to sustain the
change. It is observed that in this sort of situations when the organizations are subjected to a
change initiative, the employees of the organizations face the need of the training in order to
cope up with the expectations. Hence the authors are able to justify their recommendation of
providing support and training.

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Gary Yukl (2012) commented that the leaders can encourage the employees in such a
manner that they prefer to look at the organizational problems from a different perspective or
they can think out of the box in solving the problems. This also triggers the employees to
look for innovative solutions and ideas that have the potential to be applied in the existing
problems. The creation of such ability among the employees is significantly triggered by the
leaders with the creation of an environment of mutual trust combining with psychological
safety. The leaders are usually observed to use the research projects or small scale
experiments in order to discover the innovative knowledge. The increment in the collective
learning can also be processed by the leaders by answering the queries like how the new
innovative knowledge can be used or what is the usage of such knowledge.
Conclusion:
On a concluding note, the change management is getting significantly important for
the modern day organizations. The paper includes 4 different articles on the topic of
organizational change management where each of the 4 articles addresses different aspects of
the organizational change management. The articles described in the paper are able to express
the leadership characteristics that the managers of the organizations must have, the
segmentation of the change process, the classification of the different forms of change and
preparation of the various entities of an organization for the change. Hence the paper is able
to serve a framework combining different requirements of managing the change.

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References:
Cameron, E. and Green, M., 2015. Making sense of change management: A complete guide
to the models, tools and techniques of organizational change. Kogan Page Publishers.
Carnall, C., 2018. Managing change. Routledge.

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Bibliography:
Armenakis, A.A. and Bedeian, A.G., 1999. Organizational change: A review of theory and
research in the 1990s. Journal of management, 25(3), pp.293-315.
Eby, L.T., Adams, D.M., Russell, J.E. and Gaby, S.H., 2000. Perceptions of organizational
readiness for change: Factors related to employees' reactions to the implementation of team-
based selling. Human relations, 53(3), pp.419-442.
Holt, D.T., Armenakis, A.A., Feild, H.S. and Harris, S.G., 2007. Readiness for organizational
change: The systematic development of a scale. The Journal of applied behavioral science,
43(2), pp.232-255.
Jansen, K.J., 2000. The emerging dynamics of change: Resistance, readiness, and
momentum. People and Strategy, 23(2), p.53.
Jones, R.A., Jimmieson, N.L. and Griffiths, A., 2005. The impact of organizational culture
and reshaping capabilities on change implementation success: The mediating role of
readiness for change. Journal of Management Studies, 42(2), pp.361-386.

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Appendix:
Choi, M. and Ruona, W.E., 2011. Individual readiness for organizational change and its
implications for human resource and organization development. Human Resource
Development Review, 10(1), pp.46-73. (Retrieved from:
http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.893.3501&rep=rep1&type=pdf)
Cummings, S., Bridgman, T. and Brown, K.G., 2016. Unfreezing change as three steps:
Rethinking Kurt Lewin’s legacy for change management. human relations, 69(1), pp.33-60.
(Retrieving from: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0018726715577707)
Van de Ven, A.H. and Sun, K., 2011. Breakdowns in implementing models of organization
change. Academy of Management Perspectives, 25(3), pp.58-74. (Retrieved from:
http://www.neeley.tcu.edu/uploadedFiles/Academic_Departments/Management/
Breakdowns_in_Implementing_Models_of_Organization_Change.pdf)
Yukl, G., 2012. Effective leadership behavior: What we know and what questions need more
attention. Academy of Management Perspectives, 26(4), pp.66-85. (Retrieved from:
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Gary_Yukl/publication/276183421_Effective_Leadershi
p_Behavior_What_We_Know_and_What_Questions_Need_More_Attention/links/
56eea40f08ae4b8b5e750e03/Effective-Leadership-Behavior-What-We-Know-and-What-
Questions-Need-More-Attention.pdf)