Organizational Change: Models, Errors, and Interventions Analysis

This document provides a comprehensive analysis of an organizational change management assignment, addressing key concepts and models. It begins by examining research on change readiness, exploring the impact of positive emotions and cognitive beliefs on employee acceptance of change. The assignment then delves into Bouckenooghe's review of change attitudes, highlighting the shift from individual to collective and continuous change perspectives. Kotter's errors in leading change are discussed, along with a review of the practical implications of these conclusions. Furthermore, the document analyzes key steps from change practitioner models, supported by academic evidence. It also includes a self-reflection on the values of the student, and their influence as a change agent. The effectiveness of change interventions, particularly in the public sector, is assessed, along with the distinctions between team building and team training. The document references key articles, providing a thorough overview of the complexities of organizational change management.

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Organizational Change Management

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1. Rafferty and Minbashian (2019) conducted research exploring the antecedents and
consequences of change readiness. Discuss the findings of these studies and the practical
implication of the results of these studies.
The focus of the research was on the beliefs of individuals regarding change when taking
the antecedents of employee change readiness. The study was conducted in two parts in the
first part; the relationship between positive emotions, cognitive beliefs, and change readiness
was identified. The findings of the first study were that the positive emotions directly
correlated to change readiness as joy and interest contributes to change factors. The
proportion of positive emotion was significantly higher than other factors that were
discrepancy, appropriateness, change self-efficacy and Valence. In the second part; the focus
was on the relationship between individual behavior and change readiness and the result of
this analysis was also the same as the earlier one that included under individual behavior
positive emotion influence more on change readiness as a proportion of positive emotions
about change was .24 and after that appropriateness for 0.18. Hence, the result of the study
indicated that emotions are a central element of experiencing a change in the organization.
Further, both positive emotions and change beliefs considered as antecedents of change
readiness (Rafferty & Minbashian,2019).
On the other side, the practical implications of these studies are that in order to encourage
employees to accept change, change agents and managers need to focus on offering a better
opportunity to each employee in the organization so that they experience feeling of interest
and joy in response to change. Hence, the study guides managers to focus on developing
positive emotions and attitudes in employees in order to ensure that change accepted by
employees.
2. Bouckenooghe (2010) conducted a review of the change attitudes literature. Identify
three key conclusions that he drew from this review and discuss the practical
implications of these conclusions.
The article included a narrative review of 58 journal articles and from the analysis, it is
concluded that attitude is an individual-level concept and can be seen at a collective level
such in organization and team. It is identified from the study that the attitude of change is not
only depending on single level thinking but also multilevel thinking. It is known from

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research that earlier the concept of change was based on individual approach and single-level
thinking but now planned change perspective changed to continuous change perspective. In
practical terms, the change is part of personal and professional life. In order to run a business
and to reduce the resistance of change, the article suggests that the focus should be on
collective change and continuous change rather than individual change (Bouckenooghe,
2010). Hence, the practical implications of this conclusion are that organizational will focus
on continuous changes rather than planned changes and will consider change as part of
success as change leads to organizational development and effectively implementing it leads
to a better and positive outcome for organizations.
Change Leadership
3. Describe two of the errors that Kotter (1995) identifies in his paper and describe what
these errors entail.
According to Kotter, 1995, two errors discussed in the paper were based on the concept
that even very capable people often make one big error while renewing the organization.
Error 1 was “not systematically planning for and creating short term wins. Most
organizations lack short term goals celebration as most of the people don’t go on the long
march and want results in less time. As when people don’t see short term wins they start
resisting change. Creating short term wins becomes essential in successful transformation.
Managers when focus on short win become clear to the employee that big changes require
time so by committing to develop short term wins, urgency level can be maintained.
Error 2, “declaring victory too soon” as this error occurs when managers declare victory
too soon on the basis of the first performance. Celebrating victory is good but this declares
the war as it takes around five years to embed the culture in the organization. Instead of
announcing victory, leaders should use credibility so bigger problems can be tackle. Hence,
in order to transform an organization successfully, leaders need to focus on these errors so
that these cannot be repeated (Kotter,1995).
4. Stouten et al. (2018) review whether key practitioner models (such as Kotter’s 8-stage
model) are supported by academic evidence. Select two of the 10 steps that these
authors identify as underlying many change practitioner models and discuss whether

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the academic evidence supports the importance/appropriateness of each of the two steps
you selected.
From the change model two steps are selected and with academic evidence its importance
explained. The first step includes assessing the opportunity or motivating the change in the
organization. According to Lewin's change model, this is the unfreeze stage and in the Kotter
model, it is a stage of sense of urgency. The change model provided by different authors
integrated with the scientific evidence. This element in the Lewin model is termed as
unfreezes stage whereas in the ADKAR model it is awareness and in Kotter model sense of
urgency indicates this stage (Stouten, Rousseau, & De Cremer, 2018).
The second step includes the formulation of clear vision, and this stage according to
Lewin is described as the stage of transition and as per the Kotter model, this is the stage of
creating a vision. From the analysis of various models, Stouten, Rousseau, & De Cremer,
(2018), said that each factor relevant to each other. As in the first stage, each model related to
identifying opportunity as Kotter argues that urgency is related to “boldness”. The second
step focuses on communicating a clear vision. Kotter argues that vision leads to opportunity
into action. Vision is the way that helps to attract the right goals. This helps to motivate
employees to accept the change.
Self-Reflection
1. What are the values that are most important to you based on your results in the above
survey? Describe your value profile on the 4 broad values (i.e., self-transcendence vs
self-enhancement, openness vs conservation).
The values that are most important to me are Hedonism, self-direction, benevolence, and
universalism. From the survey, it is known that I mainly focus on self-transcendence value.
This indicates “concern for the welfare and good for others”. I possess values that lead to
acceptance of change and openness to change. As per the dimension of openness to change
vs conservation, I possess values such as self-direction and Hedonism. Hence, from the
survey, I analyzed my value profile and get to know that two dimensions are self-
transcendence and openness to change.

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2. Discuss how your value profile would influence you as a change agent in the workplace.
Focus on the openness vs conservation dimension.
The value profile that I possess includes self-transcendence and openness to change as
some of the most important values are hedonism, self-direction, benevolence, and
universalism. In the view of change agents, it can be said that a change agent possesses skills
such as creativity, curiosity, and gratification of desire. These people dare to lead a team and
are always ready to accept the change in a positive way. Further, my value profile includes
characteristics of a person that is open to change anytime as some of the key traits of
accepting change include hedonism, stimulation, and self-direction. Hence, in order to
become a change agent in the workplace, it is essential to be creative and open for new
opportunities so that all these traits help to influence others to accept the change and help in
to implement change successfully.
Change Interventions
1. Robertson and Seneviratne (1995) examine the effectiveness of planned organizational
change in the public and private sectors. What are some features of public sector
organizations that may make it more difficult to implement change in this sector?
The process of change is applicable in both the private and public organizations. Due to
the changing environment, organizational boundaries are collapsing and due to that many
public organizations adopt a broad range of proactive changes. The area of the planned
organizational change mainly depends on the techniques and knowledge derived from OD
(organizational development). Further, planned change differs in public and private
organizations because of features that are present in public organizations such as conflicting
goals, absence of market incentives, high accountability, high rules, and more regulations.
Due to all these traits of public organization, it is difficult to implement organizational
development theory or to implement planned change (Robertson, & Seneviratne, 1995). The
presence of various groups, lack of unity of purpose, the rigid bureaucratic structure creates
many obstacles to implement change strategy in private organizations. As a result, it is
difficult to implement planned change successfully in a private organization.

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2. Shuffler et al. (2011) discuss two types of team development interventions – team
building and team training. Define these two types of team development activities and
discuss when these activities are appropriate. What do Shuffler et al. conclude about
the effectiveness of these interventions?
The two types of team development interventions were team training and team building.
The term team building related to group process intervention that emphasizes improving
social interactions and interpersonal relations and includes meeting goals, achieving results
and completing tasks. According to Shuffler, DiazGranados, & Salas (2011), the four
approaches of team building are goal setting, interpersonal relationship, role clarification and
problem-solving. On the other side, team training is termed as the process of obtaining,
practicing the knowledge, attitude, and skills for improving team members' performance.
Together, team training and team building constitute a major part of team development
intervention. Team building mainly suitable when an organization wants to motivate its
employees to work harder, and achieve the organizational goals effectively. Moreover, team
training is classified as cross-training, adaption training, and team coordination training that
are suitable when there is a need to provide knowledge and skills to team members. At last, it
is concluded that the effectiveness of team development interventions is “when these
distinctions are attended to and the science behind them is utilized”. Both of these
interventions prove to be effective when designed in a systematic way.

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References
Bouckenooghe, D. (2010). Positioning change recipients’ attitudes toward change in the
organizational change literature. The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 46(4), 500-
531.
Kotter, J. P. (1996). Leading Change (Harvard Business School Press, Boston).
Rafferty, A. E., & Minbashian, A. (2019). Cognitive beliefs and positive emotions about change:
Relationships with employee change readiness and change-supportive behaviors. Human
Relations, 72(10), 1623-1650.
Robertson, P. J., & Seneviratne, S. J. (1995). Outcomes of planned organizational change in the
public sector: A meta-analytic comparison to the private sector. Public administration
review, 547-558.
Shuffler, M. L., DiazGranados, D., & Salas, E. (2011). There's science for that: Team
development interventions in organizations. Current Directions in Psychological
Science, 20(6), 365-372.
Stouten, J., Rousseau, D. M., & De Cremer, D. (2018). Successful organizational change:
Integrating the management practice and scholarly literatures. Academy of Management
Annals, 12(2), 752-788.