Organizational Change: Comparing Planned and Emergent Approaches

This essay provides a comprehensive analysis of organizational change, contrasting planned and emergent approaches. It begins by defining the dynamic business environment and the need for organizations to adapt. The essay then explores the two main approaches to change: planned, which relies on pre-defined strategies, and emergent, which emphasizes flexibility and adaptation. It delves into various models for emergent change, including those by Kanter, Kotter, and Luecke, and discusses their applications. A detailed example of the transport industry is presented to illustrate how both approaches are used in practice. The essay also discusses the merits and limitations of each approach, highlighting the benefits of emergent change such as adaptability and teamwork, while also acknowledging potential drawbacks like unpredictability and stress. The conclusion emphasizes the importance of adopting an emergent approach in today's dynamic business environment, recommending strategies such as clear communication, training, and the formation of change management teams to effectively navigate organizational transformations.

ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE

Business operates in an environment which is sum total of external and internal factors
influencing its working. The internal factor occurs within the organization while the external
happen outside the firm. In today's competitive world, due to the presence of economic pressure,
political priorities, technological advancement, legal proceedings and environmental issues and
various changes takes place in the organization. This essay, explains the theory that due to
dynamic, flexible and unpredictable business environment an organization needs to take
emergent approach to rescue such situation. It identifies a framework consisting of planned and
emergent changes to be adopted by the companies to manage the ongoing business occurrence.
As mentioned earlier elements like political, economic, social, technological, economic,
and legal and existence of internal factors effects the working of a company. Different levels of
management and departments are influenced and interrupted by changes. In the modern era,
globalization and constant innovation in field of science and business is effecting company's
environment (Baum and Wally, 2003). The ability to manage and adopt organizational alteration
is an essential quality required to present day managers. It can be assumed that modern
organizational changes are largely motivated by exterior innovations rather than internal factors.
So the manager require a systematic and synchronized system to balance these modifications.
They should follow a process: that determines the need of alteration, prepare and plan for
change, implement them and sustain it.
Organizational change management is a systematic approach to learn, adopt and
implement new behavior and skills depending up on the current trend (Carr and Gabriel, 2001).
There are mainly two approach to handle and manage changes in the company: planned and
emergent approach. The planned change approach rely more on assumptions and already
prepared strategies and procedures. It lays emphasis on smooth sailing from the current state or
position of the firm to the expected or desired level of the organization. Here, significance of
internal and external factors is not given much consideration. On the other side, emergent
approach to change is applied on a particular occasion or evens that happens unevenly (Diamond
and Allcorn, 2009).
Planned modification foresees difference between present and the desired policies for an
organization and then plan accordingly. This approach was provided by Lewin considering three
stages of change: first, unfreezing current behavior; secondly, adopting the new change or a new
behavior and finally refreezing that behavior. Some merits of this approach are, increase in
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productivity, enhancement of quality, expansion of market and development of manpower
(Giraud and Autissier, 2013). From the time of its formulation, it has been revised, reviewed and
modified to make it more specific. This three-step model was adopted dominantly for many
years but later it was criticized for being based on small scale samples.
Due to criticism of traditional approach there was a need for new concept to rise. An
alternative to planned strategy was developed, known as emergent approach. According to this
approach, more focus is laid on facilitating remedies to change frequently rather than pre-
planned steps. Various models are proposed for emergent strategy such as Kanter et al, 10
commandments for executing change (1992), Kotter's eight-stage process for successful
organizational transformation (1996) and Luecke's seven steps for organizational change.
According to Kanter et al. theory the organization should identify and analyze business entity
needs and demands. A vision is created to achieve common goal of the company. After, framing
vision and purpose, a sense of urgency developed that separates the management and employees
from past policies and procedures. Importance of leadership comes into the existence providing
political sponsorship in the organization. Later, an appropriate plan is formulated and
communicated among the members of these units (Cameron and Green, 2009).
Another popular model of emigrant approach is Kotter's eight-stage process for
successful organizational transformation. Under this approach, few measures are adopted to
modify and react to the changing business environment. Firstly, here also a vision is developed
and a strategy is prepared. The actions are empowered and communicated to every individual in
the company. This anchors new approach in the working culture and structure of the firm and
generate short term wins. It ultimately encourages acceptance of more new modifications in the
organization.
Today, in the modern time, Luecke's seven step theory of emergent change is widely
accepted and adopted. The company mobilizes energy, resources and commitment through joint
identification of business needs, problems and their solutions. It develops a vision to organize
and manage competitiveness. Like Kanter theory, here also leadership plays significant role in
motivating and encouraging team members to work for the vision of the company. After this
formal policies, systems and structures are implemented and enacted effectively. The changes
start to spread to various units without the involvement from the top level management side. In
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this approach, focus is laid on monitoring and analyzing the after effects of decisions made. In
this manner, the seven step theory works for structural alteration (Cameron and Quinn, 2005).
Emergent concept is based on the assumption that change is a continuous, unpredictable
and open-ended process of positioning and re positioning an organization to its dynamic
environment. It reviews modification as a process of dynamic and flexible nature. It advocates
that there can be no single solution to manage organizational change owing to temporal and
contextual factors (Rasel, 2014). This type of management process is not driven by experts rather
it is importantly played by every manager.
The 21st century characterizes globalization, technological advancement and
environmental issues as the main element in an organization. Henceforth, the emergent approach
to change is the need of time. This concept can be better understood by considering an example.
Transport industry plays a vital role in carrying people and commodities from one place to
another. Mainly three modes of transportation are utilized in transferring, they are: goods,
carriages and passengers. Proper and better rail, road and air connectivity contributes to smooth
functioning of the economy (Rodrigue and Notteboom, 2013). The five major ways of
transportation technology can be expressed as seaports, rivers, canals, railways, roadways,
airways and information technologies. In indirect manner it provides huge range of raw materials
to the manufacturing units. This sector has increased employment opportunities resulting in
expansion of market area to even the remote places of a nation. Time-to-time maintenance and
repair of these modes of conveyance provides more opportunities of employment to the young
generation. Today, this industry too faces dynamic events in respect of current trends and
techniques. In order to cope up with such situations the industry enforces planned and emergent
approach to change. The planned management sets out the basic policies and guidelines to be
followed by the industry to meet the desired outcomes. But with the course of time like
machines, engines, vehicles and equipment, the policies and framework needs to be changed and
re-framed. (Dunphy, Griffiths and Benn, 2007). The purpose and visions are changed, new
policies are framed, and they are communicated at all levels of management and lastly monitored
to review solutions of the problems.
Nowadays, because of flexible and unpredictable market economy various merits of
emergent change management are favored by the organizations. Primarily, it is continual process
or a cycle of experimentation and adaption, where when a change takes place it is reviewed first,
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then experimented and finally adopted. This type of modification helps organization to test the
maturity levels of its executives during any dynamic change. The policy of managers to apply
similar logic again and again to specific situation is monitored and highlighted. It has become a
parameter to evaluate present performance of the managers with respect to their past execution.
(Cennamo, Berrone and Gomez-Mejia, 2009). This approach became a means of harnessing the
emergent capacity of the organization to reveal its productivity. Through this concept, the team
members are able to develop better understanding about their roles and responsibility in the
company. Also, it builds a sense of coordination and teamwork among the managers and their
subordinates. A strong bonding and relationship is developed by the top level managers with
middle and lower level managers. Such type of approach brings in new ideas and theories
towards a peculiar problem or situation. New patterns of interaction and behavior are generated
providing flexibility in the working environment of any organization. In that manner it becomes
boom for the organization to work with a dynamic aspect avoiding rigid and traditional
approach. (Appelbaum and et.al., 2012).
However, this approach have some limitations which effect the performance and
productivity to attain desired goals. The major drawback of this tactic is that individuals and
teams are unable to predict results or outcomes. Modification in technology, political instability,
and environmental issues, social and cultural traditions these are of ever-changing nature. It is
quiet undetectable that the solutions guided for them will be appropriate or not. Another
loopholes of emergent approach is sometimes it creates situation of chaos and confusion among
the employees and managers. The activities performed at different and cross level needs to be
handled carefully. Sometimes, this pendulum condition generates ineffective and wrong
decisions making system. The decisions and solutions to the critical situations are not met in
effective and efficient manner (Bevington and Samson, 2012). Yet, another demerit of this
approach is it builds stress among the mangers of the company. It creates situation of disturbance
and loss of mental peace among the managers. At that point of time, planned alteration is
regarded as a better option for the managers. Due to this consequence, resistance to change is
rated high among the individuals. It means that the employees and managers are not ready to
accept such fluctuations. This causes lack of interest and time-consuming process. Still, due to its
flexible approach emergent changes are adopted by the companies (A Theory of Change
Management. 2016).
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The present essay elucidates the significance of emergent approach to change in present
dynamic business environment. The essay mentions that earlier the significance of planned
approach to change was very popular. It was having its own merits and advantages because of
again and again criticism new concept was drawn. This new concept has different models which
are discussed here briefly. It describes the impact of emergent theory in the transport industry
that how it contributes in adopting and modifying abilities and behaviors according to time. It
can be recommend that to have an effective managing organizational change the volatile events
should be recognized at a broader canvass. The company should make necessary adjustments
according to its needs. Middle and lower level managers should give instructions and policies in
a clear manner. Training and development programs or sessions should be held on regular basis.
A team or committee should be framed to cope up with the sudden changes happening in the
business environment. It will help to balance and maintain employees in adverse conditions,
reducing the rate of stress among the individuals. Hence, it can be articulated that the present
scenario demands to adopt emergent approach to change instead of the conventional theory.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Cameron, K. S. and Quinn, R. E., 2005. Diagnosing and changing organizational culture: Based
on the competing values framework. John Wiley & Sons.
Appelbaum, H. S. and et.al., 2012. Back to the future: revisiting Kotter's 1996 change model.
Journal of Management Development. 31(8). pp.764 – 782.
Baum, R. J. and Wally, S., 2003. Strategic Decision Speed and Firm Performance. Strategic
Management Journal. 24(11). pp.1107-1129.
Bevington, T. and Samson, D., 2012. Implementing Strategic Change: Managing Processes and
Interfaces to Develop a Highly Productive Organization. Kogan Page Publishers.
Cameron, E. and Green, M., 2009. Making Sense of Change Management. Kogan Page.
Carr, A. and Gabriel, Y., 2001. The psychodynamics of organizational change management: An
overview. Journal of Organizational Change Management. 14(5). pp.415 – 421.
Cennamo, C., Berrone, P. and Gomez-Mejia, L. R., 2009. Does stakeholder management have a
dark side? Journal of Business Ethics. 89. pp. 491-507.
Diamond, M. A. and Allcorn, S., 2009. Private Selves in Public Organizations: The
Psychodynamics of Organizational Diagnosis and Change. Palgrave Macmillan.
Dunphy, D., Griffiths, A. and Benn, S., 2007. Organizational Change for Corporate
Sustainability. Routledge.
Giraud, L. and Autissier, D., 2013. Uncovering the intellectual development of the Journal of
Organizational Change Management: A knowledge-stock and bibliometric study. Journal
of Organizational Change Management. 26 (2). pp.229 – 264.
Online
Rodrigue, J. and Notteboom, T., 2013. Transportation and Economic Development. [Online].
Available through:
<https://people.hofstra.edu/geotrans/eng/ch7en/conc7en/ch7c1en.html>. [Accessed on 8th
February 2016].
A Theory of Change Management. 2016. [Online]. Available through: <http://www.the-happy-
manager.com/articles/a-theory-of-change-management/>. [Accessed on 6th February
2016].
Rasel, 2014. Advantages / Importance of Planned Change in Organization. [Online]. Available
through:<http://bankofinfo.com/importance-of-planned-change/>. [Accessed on 6th
February 2016].
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