The following Organizational Design Model not only addresses the above issues but it also provides an overview

of the major steps in the design process.

Setting the Stage If you have done a thorough job in the Getting Started phase, setting the stage for the process to officially begin-in the eyes of the organization-becomes much easier. Here you need to communicate where the organization is headed long-term to all employees.

Communicate widely and prolifically the vision, long-term strategies, competitive climate, and customer needs. Communicate the values and culture you desire and do so in a way that demonstrates those values. Design the data-gathering process and declare to all that you will be looking at the organization and how it needs to change. Discuss the benefits and difficulties involved in the change process. Establish the initial design and data-gathering teams. Determine the information you need, who possesses that information, and how the information will be used.

Determine who needs to be involved in analyzing the information. Initial teams are usually at the senior management level. Let people know your intention to involve as many people as possible and share with them the membership and purpose of the design teams and the initial data gathering. Establish expectations for ongoing communication, and communicate the philosophy for staffing the organization.

Gathering the Data-Internal Assessment-Using a combination of survey and group interview techniques, gather information on the effectiveness of the current organization. Solidify the scope of the data-gathering process-will you gather information from all employees? Data required usually includes but is not limited to the following: core processes and their effectiveness, additional customer data, critical tasks or key activities, work load, roles and responsibilities, decision-making authority, qualitative data on management practices, and internal issues and suggestions for improvement. Utilize the team in the analysis of the data and assess the gap between what you know and your vision of the future. At this time, our assumption is that there will be a design change so that all elements of broader effective change management processes need to be incorporated. Consider the current culture, how change has been implemented in the past, and how it has been received by employees at all levels. Based on your gap analysis, determine if additional process improvement teams need to be established to change core processes. If so, identify and launch necessary teams. Designing the Organizational Transformation-Based on your gap analysis, determine the criteria for success for your design goals. Explore the pros and cons of various models or approaches. (It is at this stage that the consultants design expertise is especially beneficial). The organizational model you choose to drive your organization begins to influence the steps in the design process. You may be designing units that may be replicated throughout the organization or you may be designing the senior management structure, including roles and skills required. Regardless, the team is usually building the overall management structure of the new organization including decision-making level, scope, high level skills, knowledge required, roles, and leadership approach that will reflect the values and envisioned culture of the new organization. Several decision points emerge-how far down the management hierarchy should the team draft the structure? Should staffing selections at the strategy level be made prior to going any further in the design process? Our experience suggests that filling the senior positions in the new structure and including any new leaders in the remaining design effort is a more effective process. This requires that senior positions be developed more fully prior to moving forward. After selections are made, providing support for those who may no longer hold a position at the senior level is also essential. (Assessing any potential fall-out, new resources/people required, or overall impact of the proposed change now becomes a regular part of the process). Remember to communicate where you are in the organizational design process to all employees. Based on the organizational design model chosen, continue to build an organizational chart that describes, in general, the overall structure. The organizational chart reflects reporting relationships, broad job responsibilities, and the job

skills/knowledge/experience required. You now have an overall picture of the organization and staffing decisions made at the senior level. Incorporate updated information from core process improvement teams into the organizational design. Continue communicating to a broader group by testing out the model and proposed process changes in staff meetings or dedicated organizational design meetings. Implement and Evaluate-Job design and talent choices are the most critical part of this stage. How have the jobs in the new organization changed? To what degree have they changed? Are there incumbents who would see the jobs in the new organization as the same as the old ones? Critical to effective selection is an accurate assessment of the degree to which positions have changed. More often than not, the current practice for selection is to have employees interview for the new or changed jobs for all positions below senior management. Although this minimizes employee relations issues, this approach may not be the most effective process. Our experience suggests that placing people in the new or changed positions has a great deal of merit; to do so usually requires due diligence in assessing employees experience, skill, knowledge, and potential. The ideal approach is to discuss changes throughout the process. Test out your ideas, solicit the views of others, and understand their interests. The intent is to make this part of the process more about creating choice rather than one of arbitrary selection. This means designing jobs and selecting individuals to fill them simultaneously. Begin by forming a template for the job and engage the job candidates in finalizing the job requirements. Participative planning minimizes resistance and creates a more amenable outcome. As you are staffing the organization, the elements to be addressed in a change implementation plan become more apparent. Your plan needs to include an impact analysis-that is, how have your proposed changes impacted the current organization? (Remember, most people will have concerns about the pending changes even if the drivers of the change see the changes as positive.) How have the people been impacted? How will they see the changes? If you have been as inclusive as the authors think you need to be, you will already know the answer to these questions. In the change plan include: staffing and selection requirements, new skills needed, recruiting needs, technology requirements, outplacement needs, training and development needs, a phased implementation strategy, ongoing communication avenues, facilities requirements, resource requirements, and evaluation process. Organizational design, when done well, has a flow. It begins with a general view and gradually tests that view by creating more and more specific descriptions of what will go on in the new organization. Because design changes impact so many people and can make them feel powerless, we encourage you to take great care in managing the design flow. The process must value the contribution of all those impacted. We also caution you that the process is not linear or mechanical. It cannot be forced. It is more like a puzzle. If you know and have all the pieces, careful consideration of each one will help you create a picture that is rewarding to all involved.

As organizations evolve and come to be seen as dynamic, coping systems, the concept of how they change and methods by which they manage change has continued to be refined. Managing a process of change in an organization can be a highly complex task and is often essential for effective organizational development (OD). This article will provide an overview of the change process faced by many organizations. Different models of change will be highlighted and the resistance to change displayed by many employees will be examined.

The Focus of Change

Lewin's Force Field Model The Three-stage Lewin Model of Change The Seven-stage Huse Model of Change Popular Change Management Interventions Change Management Agents

Leavitt et al. (1973) proposed that change may focus on 1 of 4 subsystems in an organization:

Structure - levels of hierarchy, spans of authority, centralisation. Technology - complexity, degree of employee usage, operator control & responsibility. People - values, beliefs, attitudes, motives, drives, competencies, KSAs. Task - job design, repetitiveness, physical & cognitive demands, autonomy & discretion.

Lewin's Force Field Model A classic model of OD, commonly referred to as the 'force field' model, was proposed by Kurt Lewin in 1951. He described organizations as systems which are held in a constant state of'equilibrium' by equal and opposing forces. The model suggests that a range of 'driving forces', which exert a pressure for change, are balanced by a number of opposing 'resisting forces'. Driving forces urging change might include the availability of new technology, economic pressure from competitors or even changes in local or national legislation. Conversely, resisting forces might include a firmly established organizational culture and climate or industry-specific customs. Lewin proposed that any process of organizational change can be thought of as implementing a move in the equilibrium position towards a desired or newly established position.

-stage Process of Change To elaborate on his model, Lewin also suggested a three-stage process of change implementation which is necessary for effective change within an organization. Those three stages are: 1. Unfreeze - Creation of motivation to change. An organization must be prepared for any change which is about to occur. This process is known as 'unfreezing' and involves the investigation of resisting forces. Any premature unilateral or authoritarian increase in driving forces for change will, according to the Lewin model, be met by an equal and opposite increase in resisting forces. No change will occur unless there is motivation within the organization to do so. If there is no motivation, it must be induced. This is often the most difficult part of any change process. Change not only involves learning, but unlearning something that is already present and well integrated into the personality and social relationships of the individuals. It is for this reason that an organizations culture can often act as a resisting force to change. Practice: The following methods are often used by managers and OD consultants to unfreeze an organizational system:

Disconfirmation or a lack of confirmation of present behaviours or attitudes. Creation of guilt, discomfort or anxiety to motivate change. Creation of psychological safety by reducing barriers to change or reducing threat caused by past failures. Provision of information to employees and stakeholders giving knowledge of the first stage of the change process.

2. Change - Adjusting the equilibrium. Developing new attitudes, beliefs, values and behaviours based on new information. Once the resisting forces have been investigated, understood and minimized, the change can be implemented. Resisting forces are reduced and driving forces increased. Doing so adjusts the position of equilibrium towards the desired balance position. Practice: There are three main approaches with which change may be implemented:

Rational - Empirical

Change, or OD, is seen as a process of rational persuasion whereby the benefits of the change are logically explained to those who are influenced by it.

Normative - Re-educative

This approach also assumes employees are rational individuals, but acknowledges the existence of sociocultural norms within organizations. It challenges established values, beliefs, attitudes and norms and re-educates employees into the new techniques of working.

Power - Coercive

This method of change involves a process of the imposition of legitimate authority. Feedback may be denied and no alteration to plans may take place as a result of resistance. This approach simply forces through change by authority. Practice: Methods used by managers and OD consultants to lead change:

Establishing a sense of urgency. Forming a powerful leading coalition. Creating and communicating a vision. Empowering others to act on the vision. Planning for and creating short-term wins. Institutionalizing new approaches.

3. Refreeze - Making routine. For a change to become routine and accepted into the day-to-day practices of an organization, the organization must go through the final stage of refreezing the organizational system. A variety of strategies may be adopted to achieve this, including new rules, regulations and reward schemes to reinforce the change process and maximize the desired behaviours of staff or employees.

-stage Model of Change Whilst Lewin's model provides a simple and understandable representation of the organizational change process, more recent models have developed his model and extended the idea into more depth. In 1980, Edgar Huse proposed a seven-stage OD model based upon the original three-stage model of Lewin. 1. Scouting - Where representatives from the organization meet with the OD consultant to identify and discuss the need for change. The change agent and client jointly explore issues to elicit the problems in need of attention. 2. Entry - This stage involves the development of, and mutual agreement upon, both business and psychological contracts. Expectations of the change process are also established.

3. Diagnosis - Here, the consultant diagnoses the underlying organizational problems based upon their previous knowledge and training. This stage involves the identification of specific improvement goals and a planned intervention strategy. 4. Planning - A detailed series of intervention techniques and actions are brought together into a timetable or project plan for the change process. This step also involves the identification of areas of resistance from employees and steps possible to counteract it. 5. Action - The intervention is carried out according to the agreed plans. Previously established action steps are implemented. 6. Stabilization & Evaluation - The stage of 'refreezing' the system. Newly implemented codes of action, practices and systems are absorbed into everyday routines. Evaluation is conducted to determine the success of the change process and any need for further action is established. 7. Termination - The OD consultant or change agent leaves the organization and moves on to another client or begins an entirely different project within the same organization. Practice: The 7-stage model is a useful heuristic to illustrate the complex nature of organizational change. However, such neat linear models are prone to oversimplify situations. The pace of organizational change in today's rapidly developing economic climate can result in the 'refreezing' stage never being reached or completed. This means that organizational systems often undergo a continuous series of change interventions and rarely revert to a stabilized state of equilibrium. In other words, change is often so rapid and recurrent that the system fails to restabilize itself before the next change initiative is conducted. Organizations prone to fashion and fads in managerial practice particularly suffer from this effect.

Survey Feedback - A complex and skilled set of procedures involving the design, administration, analysis and feedback of a series of questionnaires to tap staff attitudes and opinions. Feedback meetings are also held with staff to change attitudes and modify behaviour. Quality Circles (QCs) - Where small groups of employees who work in a similar field meet regularly to identify, analyse, and solve product-quality and production problems and to improve general operations. Helps to motivate change by increasing perceptions of employee participation, communication and job satisfaction. Although QCs have been shown to influence staff attitudes, this impact may not necessarily translate into higher levels of production. Process Consultation (PC) - A client-centred approach to help the client organization to help itself. PC has the underlying objective of facilitating and developing the capacity of the client organization to self-rejuvenate over the longer term. The process of PC is a set of activities conducted by the OD consultant that helps the client to perceive, understand, and act upon the

process events that occur in the client's environment in order to improve the situation. PC may be compared to the 'purchase of expertise' concept and the 'doctor-patient' analogy.

Team Building - Groups of workers are formed into 'T-groups' (or 'encounter groups') and examine intra-group processes and their own interpersonal styles and impacts upon others. However, there is weak evidence of success as T-groups are often poorly facilitated and are commonly left purposefully unstructured by the 'trainers'.

Technician - The client organization diagnoses their own problems and formulates their own solutions. The OD consultant merely comes in to implement their plans. In this situation the organization is in complete control. Expert - The client organization diagnoses their problems and the consultant is hired to propose solutions. In this case there is a joint ownership of the solution. Coach - In this case the organization is aware of a problem and can see symptoms but is not certain what exactly the problem is, or how to go about finding a solution. Here, the consultant helps the organization to understand their problems. In this scenario there is a joint ownership of both the problem and solution between the consultant and the organization. Mentor / Counselor - Relationship based on support & partnership. Enables org to help itself. Consultant operates at very senior level. Sets up future success, as the org solves its own problems.