Process improvement and change
Lecture 1
-Questions related to the summaries and critical reviews of the four improvement approaches (30 %)
-Based on a case description, one question on diagnosis of the change conditions (10%)
-Based on a case description: make an improvement plan (10 %)
-The topics as discussed in the lectures and in the book of Cawsey et al. (50 %)
The red queen phenomenon:Organisations must constantly adapt, evolve, and proliferate not merely to gain productive advantage, but also simply to survive
In global competition, what matters is not the firm’s absolute rate of learning and innovation, but the relative pace of its development compared to its rivals
Change Process
-What needs to change (content)
-How to bring about that change
Change: three main processes:
Organizational change roles:
-Leaders / agent
-Initiators
-Implementers
-Facilitators
-Recipients
Four perspectives on change:
- Structural-functional perspective (chapter 5)
-Changing structures and functions
-Planned change
-Related organizational theories: system theory, structural theory
- Inputs-transformation-output; rational arrangement of tasks; no focus on culture, power
- Multiple constituencies perspective (chapter 6)
-Change by negotiation
-Planned change
-Related organizational theories: Stakeholder interests
- Manage stakeholders, pluralist conception of power, change still top down, governance, consensual negotiation, avoid conflict by participative management.
- Organizational development perspective (chapter 7)
-The humanistic approach to change
-Planned change
-Interventions on several levels
- Structural-functional perspective + HR, action research, organizational diagnosis, process consultation, personal growth, organizational learning
- Creativity and volition
-A critical theory of change
-Change can not be planned
-Conflict, flux and change, construct a grand narrative
- Change does not emerge from consensus but from conflict, people main element of analysis rather than systems.
Change models vary on:
- Scale: Network or chain of organizations, single organizations, departments, teams or individuals
- Scope / pace: Incremental / continuous vs. Radical / discontinuous
- Source: Anticipatory ( pro-active) vs. Reactive (response to external stimuli).
- How: Planned vs. Emergent
- Thinking first – Seeing first – Doing first
- Planned = Intentional, rational change, control over change process
- Emergent = Ongoing, unpredictable, informal, respond to problem and opportunities.
Thinking First
- When the issue is clear and the context structured
- Magnitude of the change is often incremental in nature
- Straightforward, well-structured solutions
Seeing First
- When many elements have to be combined into creative solutions
- Commitment is key and communication across boundaries is essential. People need to see the whole before becoming committed
Doing First
- When situation is novel and confusing
- Complicated specifications would get in the way and a few simple rules can help people move forward.
Four types of change:
Lecture 2:
Barriers to recognize the need for change
-Mental models about the world become blinders
-Existing values and corporate culture may harden into dogma
-Past successes reinforce existing practices
-Leadership practices may impede recognition of need for change
-Embedded systems and processes can harden into unquestioned routines and habits
-Existing relationships can become shackles that impede the ability to respond to a changing environment
Creating awareness of the need for change Different methods:
- Information and education - Make the organization aware of the crisis or create a crisis
- Identify a transformational vision
- Transformational leadership
- Identify common/shared goals and achieve them
Change context: Internal context
-Scope: Who defines the problem and in what terms
-Capability: The degree to which relevant capabilities are available to bring about the change:
- Individual level
- Managerial level
- Organizational level
Kind of capabilities:
- Technical knowledge and skills (relevant to the what to change)
- Project management knowledge and skills
- Problem solving skills (creativity, analyzing skills, method skills)
- Communication skills (convince, negotiate, motivate etc.)
-Readiness for change:
Individual:
- Cognitive component
- Believe that change is needed
- Affective component
- Currently experienced positive feelings regarding the change
Group
- Emerges from individual’s readiness
- Communicate with each other in order to make sense of the situation (develop collective beliefs).
-Power: Different dimensions of power:
- Resource power: Access to valued resources in organizations; rewards, sanctions, charisma, expertise etc.
- Process power: The control of formal decision-making arenas and agendas
- Meaning power: The ability to define the meaning of things
-Capacity
- Time available
- Money: Investments, training, meetings
- Information processing
-Preservation
- The degree that preservation is relevant: What does the company wants to maintain, protect, keep the same?
- Ways of working
- Cultural aspects
- Employees with particular skills, characteristics, competencies
- Mix of employees
- Maintain the collaboration with specific suppliers, clients
Lecture 4
Examples of what to change:
- De/Centralize the purchasing function in an organization
- Create more empowered employees: decentralisation of tasks, responsibilities and authorities to employees
- Create a formal meeting (e.g. once per week) to coordinate tasks that need to be executed for a specific client group
- Intensify the integration with suppliers by creating more informal structures
Rule related behavior (opposed to knowledge related behavior)
People act in accordance to a rule and procedure = compliance
-Violation: Deviation from a procedure, standard or rule
- Unintentional: Procedure is not known or unawareness of violating
- Intentional:
- Routine violation: Short cuts that become habits
- Optimizing violation: Optimizing non-functional goals
- Situational violation: Failures due to bad or unavailable equipment, tools, time that are necessary to complete job tasks.
Violation occur:
-Can increase risks and reduce quality
-May put a system in a more vulnerable state
+Not always results in unwanted outcomes
+Violations may become a “best practice” if rules are not appropriate.
How to structure your change process?
Change leadership:
-Change initiators
- Identifies need and vision and acts as a champion.
-Change Implementers
- Chart the detailed path forward & make it happen
- Nurture support and alleviate resistance
-Change Facilitators
- Aids in analysis & issue management along the way
- Provides advice and council
- Sometimes helps smooth the way through helping resolve issues, alleviate resistance & nurture support
-Change Recipients (Note: can have a very active role)
- Those affected by the change
- Have to alter behavior to ensure change success
Examples of structuring the change process:
•Combination of (a) change team that has same structure each time, but with different participants per unit/department, and (b) supported by experts (e.g. introduction of new system per department)
•Core change team and flexible skill of project teams
•Core change team and a few sparring teams (per topic, per stakeholder) to mirror ideas and results
•One change team that only consults stakeholders
•A hierarchical structure of change teams per topic (i.e., on lower and higher levels of the organization same kind of change teams focusing on one specific topic/theme)
What to take into account when choosing a structure:
-Complexity of the problem and solution
-Scope of problem and framing of solution
-Diversity in views and stakeholders
-Cultural context
-Performance – change (speed, efficiency, commitment)
-Context characteristics
- Thinking first
- Seeing first
- Doing first
Informal structures:
-Social structures that govern how people work together in practice
-Evolving constantly
-Requires insider knowledge to be seen
How to make use of informal organizational structures in change processes?
-Formal plans policies, procedures and standards
-Lighten management workload
- Provide social control and status
-Fills gaps in management abilities
- Reduce emotional and psychological pressures
-Encourage improved management practice
- Push professionalism
Leadership:
-Directive vs. participative
-Situational leadership: Style depending on focus of relationship or more on task
-Transactional leadership
-Transformational leadership: Strongly related to improvement and change
Transformational leadership: To move people, inspire with vision, give attention etc.
Change leader
-Leads the change
-May be the formal leader of the organization as well
-Informal change leader can emerge anytime throughout the change process
-Depending on the kind of change (incremental / radical etc.)
Leader roles:
-The Catalyst: Overcomes inertia and focusses the organization
-The Solution giver: Knows how to solve the problem
-The Process helper: Facilitates the “How to” of change playing the role of third pary intervener
-The Resource linker: Brings people and resources together to solve problems.
Change agent types
1. Emotional Champion
•Clear vision of what the organization needs
•Uses vision to capture hearts and motivations of
organization members
2. Intuitive Adapter
•Clear vision for the organization
•Uses that vision to reinforce a culture of learning and adaptation.
3. Developmental Strategist
•Analyzes the competitive logic of the organization and how it no longer fits the organization's existing strategy and the environment.
•Seeks to alter structures and processes & shift the organization to the new alignment
4. Continuous Improver
•Analyzes micro-environments
•Seeks changes such as re-engineering to systems and processes looking for smaller gains
Competences of change leader / agent
- Know yourself
- Be always open to learn and determination
- Sensemaking and visioning skills
- Communication skills
- Interpersonal skills
- Implementation skills to close the knowing-doing gap
- Team management skills
- Larger changes: Design implementation team
- Continuous change: Continuous improvement team
- Project management skills
- Intelligence
Behaviors of change leaders / agent
-Framing behaviors
- Changing the sense of the situation, establish starting points for change, design the change journey
-Capacity-creating behaviors
- Creating the capacity for change, create connections in the organizations
-Shaping behaviors
- Attempts to shape what people do ( Role model).
The approval process
-Formal approval: Using systems and structures to obtain formal approval for change = the traditional hierarchical approval approach, the rational approach.
-Strategies based on creeping commitment and coalition building:
- Foot-in-the-door approach: Acclimate organizational members to change ideas
- Create the momentum, create support from key coalition members
-The renegade approach: Strategies involving simply forging ahead without formal approval
The process of improvement (In general):
- Create a sense of urgency
- Collection of data
- Evaluation of potential improvement areas
- Creation and implementing solutions
- Iterative and sequential processes
What determine the choice in process steps?
-Fit with mission, vision, strategy and systems
-Magnitude of the change
-Uncertainty: How predictable and controllable is the change process?
When more uncertainty about problem definition and solution:
-Non-linear approach with feedback cycles
-A structured step-wise approach
-An open approach is more effective
-Formalize outcomes.
Lecture 5:
Recipients (Receive end of change):
-Reactions vary from positive to negative, and ambivalence often comes first
-Resistance is not inevitable: Listen, understand and respond in an early stage in order to understand and support.
Ambivalence (Doubt / Hesitancy) to change is no surprise:
-Mixed feelings are common as recipients try to make sense of the change
-Ambivalence generates discomfort, difficult to express emotions
-Ones feelings solidify, they become more difficult to change again
Influence tactics
Goal is to increase the readiness for change of recipients and influence behaviours; Tactics:
1)Systemic or system adjustment
-What kind of structures and systems influence change recipients’ behavior?
- Who does what en when in the change process?
- Leaders of change processes
2)Education & communication
-Stage of the change process
-Types of education (way that input is provided, size of group, F-to-F)
-Focus on kind of feelings and competencies
Determinants for success are:
-Length of education (longer = more effective)
-Composition of group
-Use of opinion leaders
-Active participation in educational activities
Goal is to help people by listening for information and sort out what actions are needed now.
Communication as influence tactic:
- Stability narrative: Change does not change that much in the organization
- Progressive narrative: Change does change a lot in the organization
Communication plan is an important part of any improvement plan:
- Puts the need for change on the angenda
- Creates need for change among recipients
- Informs about the change and progress and can influence people
- Gain feedback
Communication is a two way thing and has different functions: Inform, Motivate, Learn, Negotiate.
3)Participation & involvement
Goal: Increase the need, readiness, acceptance and sustainability for change. Also develop ideas for change.
Name the problem, create cohesion, create an environment for feedback and use relevant trusted co-workers.
4)Facilitation & support
5)Negotiation & agreement
Three main problems (cognitive mistakes)
-Fixed – pie assumption:
- Example of both people want that orange
-Escalated commitment
- Example of movie ticket and considering to go
-Anchoring and gain-loss fraiming
- Example of price of a share and offer
Fairness:
-Perception of fairness & Justice
-Procedural justice (= was procedure managed fair)
-Distributive justice (= was the end decision a fair one)
6)Manipulation & co-option and explicit & implicit coercion
Engaging those who are neutral or opposed, or engaging in ingratiating behaviour flattering behaviour.
-Managers have the explicit right and responsibility to insist that changes need to be done.
-Time pressure, no change observed and other options have been exhausted.
Some are more push tactics, while others pull tactics
-Pull strategies are most effective
- Inspirational appeals attract people towards the change
- Seeking the participation of others
-Combination of both tactics: Intermediate effectiveness
- Rational persuasion, integration, personal appeals and exchange tactis
-Push strategies are least effective
- Use of facts, logic or pressure to push people towards the change
- Legitimating tactics: Framing request as in line with policy and authority
- Coalition building
Use of data in change management
Perceived limitations of current existing measures:
-Ignore value of intangible assets
-Historic performance don’t mention future alertness
-Pursuing short term results rather than long term goals
-In chains: Ignore alignment of measures used at different parties to be able to changes.
1. Diagnostic control systems
-Traditional, what performance to achieve: sales data, production costs, inventory level etc.
-Focus: Internally, setting and achieving goals
-Use for: Understanding critical performance variables (what change should lead to)
2. Belief systems
-Relations to higher values of organization and employees mission and vision
-Focus: Internally, what the organization stands for
-Use for: Frame change in alignment with core beliefs to guide solutions and motivate.
3. Boundary
-To do right: Where not to go, limits on spending authority
-Focus: Internally, limits to action
-Use for: Provide focus and clarity & motivate creativity.
4. Interactive control system
-Uncertainties in and assumptions about wider environment expectations on customer demand, competitors actions, technological breakthroughs etc.
-Focus: External environment, opportunities and threats
-Use for: Frame the change initiative, continuous dialogue, knowledge and learning. Modify and adapt.
Tutorial 6
Customer involvement in changes / improvements
Two roles of customers:
- Provide information: Information source
- What do you want to know? Needs, preferences, experiences etc.
- Different informing / evaluating roles.
Which customers to involve?
Stratified: Closeness:
-Customers with whom a firm frequently interact even outside development projects
-Customers with whom a firm has maintained a long business relationship
Stratified: Lead users:
-The degree to which customers involved were positioned to benefit significantly from the solution provided
-The degree to which customers faced the need for the improvement before the rest of the market.
- Co-producer of change improvement
-In what stage? Framing problem, development of solution of implementation of solutions
-In what role? Improvement team, responsibilities and change roles in the team
-Conditions? Time, money, involvement and privacy
Managing expectations? Their role and impact should be clear and realistic
Supplier involvement (slide 29 for case example)
Complicating issues regarding the change context when involving suppliers
-SCOPE:
- Supplier might have different interests
- Supplier might not be the problem owner
-CAPABILITIES:
- What is the expertise in technical and change capabilities.
- Who has the capabilities
-POWER:
- What are relevant power sources to consider
- No hierarchical power relationship between supplier and buyer
-READINESS FOR CHANGE:
- Who are the recipients of change?
- Which stakeholders are involved?
-CAPABILITIES:
- Who pays for investments?
- Who puts in effort, time, resources and knowledge?
-PRESERVATION:
- Keep Business
- Keep good relationshion
Change processPlan, design, test & implement
Lecture 7: Power and culture in change
Unitary view (=Harmony-model)
-Realize common goals
-Conflict is rare, are removed by managers
-Power not very meaningful, managers lead the organization to achieve shared interests
Pluralist view (=Conflict model):
-There are individual and group interests in an organization
-Conflict is inherent to organization
-Power is crucial to understand how organizations work
Culture is about focus, attitudes, values, beliefs, norms of behaviour, ethical codes, basis assumptions about what is important.
Organization’s capacity to change (Senior and Swailes, 2010).
-Innovation and risk taking
-People, team outcome orientation
-Internal / External focus (sharing information)
-Organization’s structure facilitates changes
-Attitudes to conflicts
-Give people autonomy and support