Literature Review: Challenges in Organizational Change Management

This report presents a comprehensive literature review on the challenges facing organizational change management. It analyzes five journal articles, including works by Herbert Kaufman, Helen Taylor, Cary Cooper, John Hayes, David Cromb, and Liviu Tudor. The review explores various obstacles to change, such as resistance to change, limitations of management frameworks, and the need for skilled labor and effective change processes. The report critically assesses each article, highlighting strengths and weaknesses, and then synthesizes the findings to provide a cohesive understanding of the complexities of change management. It emphasizes the importance of understanding organizational culture, proper planning, and the need for adaptability. The conclusion summarizes the key challenges and offers insights into the critical factors for successful organizational change.

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Organizational change management: Literature Review
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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Literature Review............................................................................................................................3
Critiques of the Literature Review..................................................................................................5
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................6
References........................................................................................................................................7
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The Challenges Facing the Field of Organizational Change
Management
Introduction
This study is mainly aiming at conducting the literature review related to Challenges Facing the
Field of Organizational Change Management. Five journal articles shall be chosen here, and each
of them shall be reviewed. After this, a critique of those articles and literary data shall be
conducted and conclusion shall be drawn upon them.
Literature Review
1. The Limits of Organizational Change by Herbert Kaufman:
This journal speaks about the various kinds of challenges that the business organization fail
while bringing an air of Organizational Change. Mainly there are three kinds of challenges or
oppositions that are faced and they can be divided or defined fewer than three main types:
● Acknowledged collective benefits of stability: In order to make an organization function,
some definite constraints are present. This is the regularity of the work or the process and
its overall repetitive nature. It has to be considered that if such repetitive nature has to be
avoided, then the organization shall not be able to function properly and in a team
structure. This becomes one of the biggest challenges for change.
● Calculated opposition to change: People try to resist such kind of changes which had
been serving them with special kind of advantage in the first place
(www.journals.sagepub.com, 2018). This change in organization and management related
to it faces issues in bringing change in this kind of circumstances.
● Inability to change: It has to be considered that effective timing has to chalked out and
the resources have to present at the disposition of the management body, otherwise
change cannot be brought. This also is a major challenge that is poised to change in
organizations.
2. Organizational Change — Threat or Challenge? By Helen Taylor and Cary Cooper
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As per this journal, it has specified that the change in any business organization comes with the
aid and helps of the Management and the leadership, as the primary characters playing in this
part. The change also is achieved if only the right kind of framework is taken into consideration.
Several of the contradictory theories and the poor framework and inefficiency shown by
management and the leaders lead to the culmination of various kinds of hindrances on the part of
the change that is to come. In order to get success in the change, understanding organizational
culture and keeping a realistic picture of the qualities of the organization has to be properly
ensured (Taylor and Cooper, 2018).
3. The Theory and Practice of Change Management (John Hayes) by Siu-Loon Hoe:
Figure 1: Process for sustaining change
(Source: Cameron and Green, 2015)
As per this journal, the main issues that are related to the change in the organization is the
sustenance of change. It can be said that a change may occur in the structure or functioning of
the organization, but it has to be ensured that such kind of change prevails and sticks on over the
period of time (Hoe, 2013). Change can be achieved only when it becomes a way of mainstream
or usual functioning way rather than something which has been forcibly added to the structure. In
order to ensure change, the system has to be changed a lot and this leads to the wastage of huge
amount of time, resources and labour work.
4. Making Sense of Change Management: A Complete Guide to the Models, Tools and
techniques of Organizational Change by David Cromb:
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As per the terms of this journal, only 30% of all the business organization is able to get success
in a proper kind of organizational change. The article also points out the fact that the main
resource for ensuring change is labour, which is skilled labour. In order to ensure the right kind
of organizational change, sufficient resources have to be arranged for by the organization. The
arrangement and finding for skilled people and professional is really hard (Cromb, 2015). Thus,
it becomes tough to effectively carry on with the organizational change at a cheaper budget and
by using less amount of time and resources.
5. Change Management – Challenge and Opportunity for Sustainable Development of
Romanian Companies by Liviu Tudor:
For change to come surely, managerial skill, adding value and supporting the strategic
management of an organization is very much necessary in the working sphere. Change can be
said to be sometimes out of the choice of the organization and the employees. However, the
management of the change or the process which shall incur change has to be structured and it has
to be performed ineffective way and this shall only lead to its success. It has to be understood
that, most of the times change cannot be properly forecasted and proper machinery do not remain
at the disposition of the management body (Tudor, 2014). This leads to an ineffective structuring
of the process and this leads to challenges that crop up in the way of the changes that the
organization wants to bring.
Critiques of the Literature Review
It has to be understood from the first journal that the limitations of the challenges in the way of
change can be defined in the three main categories. However, the number of categories does
exist and they completely shed the light on the fact regarding the various challenges faced by the
organization while welcoming a positive kind of change. The inefficiency shown by the staffs
also hinders the right kind of change (Slawinski and Bansal, 2015). However, this statement has
not been pointed out in the journal. The second journal points out the fact that the framework,
management and leader played a great role in the changes of the organization. However, the fact
related to taking up of right action/decision at the right time has not been pointed out, which can
be said to be the main element for removing any hindrance of organizational change. The next
literary document shed light on the fact that change as a process has to be made mainstream that
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is the part of the whole organization. However, rigidity and absence of healthy cultural diversity
among the staffs may pose to be a great point of hindrance even if the process for change does
not exist as an add-on for the organization (Benn et al. 2014). The next journal has pointed out
that skilled labour is necessary to pint out the blueprint for surfing proper change. However, the
factor of proper training has not been included, less skilled staff may be trained to lead to
increased and make them accustomed to the change in the organization. This shall bring down
the overall level of hindrances in the way of the change. From the last journal, it can be said that
proper structuring of the process and effective control may also not bring success and hindrances
may be faced if the organization has an authoritative kind of management system, that is, if there
are too much rigidity and authoritarian spirit in the working space, the employees may not find it
comfortable to easily prepare themselves as per the change. Thus even having a well-structured
change process, the hindrances may be still faced (Alvesson and Sveningsson, 2015).
Conclusion
The five of the journal articles have been analyzed with details. A relevant statement has been
drawn based on them and also their critique has been performed in the later part of the study.
Different facts have been countered related to the articles and theories have been related to each
other based on the challenges faced while ensuring change in an organizational context.
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References
Alvesson, M. and Sveningsson, S., 2015. Changing organizational culture: Cultural change
work in progress. Routledge.
Benn, S., Edwards, M. and Williams, T., 2014. Organizational change for corporate
sustainability. Routledge.
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.
Cromb, D. (2015). Making Sense of Change Management20053Esther Cameron and Mike
Green. Making Sense of Change Management. London: Kogan Page Limited February 2004.
282 pp., ISBN: 0749440872 £25 pbk. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 26(7),
pp.594-596.
Hoe, S. (2013). The Theory and Practice of Change Management20024John Hayes. The Theory
and Practice of Change Management. Palgrave, February 2002. 240 pp., ISBN: ISBN: 0‐333‐
98797‐7 (paperback) £28.99. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 24(1), pp.54-54.
Kaufman, H. (2018). The Limits of Organizational Change, by Herbert Kaufman. University,
Alabama: University of Alabama Press, 1971. Pp. 124, $5.75, 1973. [online]
Journals.sagepub.com. Available at:
http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/027507407300700122 [Accessed 28 Aug. 2018].
Slawinski, N. and Bansal, P., 2015. Short on time: Intertemporal tensions in business
sustainability. Organization Science, 26(2), pp.531-549.
Taylor, H. and Cooper, C. (2018). Organisational Change — Threat or Challenge?. Journal of
Organizational Change Management, 1(1), pp.68-80.
Tudor, L., 2014, November. Change management–challenge and opportunity for sustainable
development of Romanian companies. In Proceedings of the International Management
Conference, Faculty of Management, Academy of Economic Studies, Bucharest, Romania (Vol.
8, No. 1, pp. 466-476).
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