Models of Change

Abstract

The contemporary society entered in an accelerated phase of change. The social and economic structures are changing, as well as mentalities, collective representations, social practices and behaviour styles. No generation, from any corner of the world, can hope to evolve within the same economical and socio-psychological structures. The main objective of this paper is to underline the importance of a change within an activity, to highlight the basic notions related to the management of change, and, not at least, to detail the models of change that exist in management. Starting from the verb maneo (to stay), it has come to the French word maison, that means house and to housekeeping, which can be translated as household. The process of change, in one form or another, existed during the period of the whole history of the mankind, keeping the characteristics of the degree of development specific to the moment, giving birth to the same effects at the level of society, being a sustainable process.

Headnote

Abstract

The contemporary society entered in an accelerated phase of change. The social and economic structures are changing, as well as mentalities, collective representations, social practices and behaviour styles. No generation, from any corner of the world, can hope to evolve within the same economical and socio-psychological structures.(Adrian Neculau, 1998).

The main objective of this paper is to underline the importance of a change within an activity, to highlight the basic notions related to the management of change, and , not at least, to detail the models of change that exist in management..

The term of management comes from Italian and French. Starting from the verb maneo (to stay), it has come to the French word maison, that means house and to housekeeping, which can be translated as household. Then, from the Latin word manus, which means hand it has formed maneggio, which can be translated into manual processing. From these languages was born the derived verb manage in English that had various meanings: to lead, to administer. The words manager, management were formed by the British.

Among the classic definitions of the management, stands the one belonging to Gheorghe Boldur: The term of management means the successful leading of an action, or the effective management of an enterprise, includes actually a number of modern scientific processes, of solving the decisional problems, belonging to cybernetics, operational research, the theory of decision, psycho-sociology. (Gheorghe BoldurLatescu,1973).

The process of change, in one form or another, existed during the period of the whole history of the mankind, keeping the characteristics of the degree of development specific to the moment, giving birth to the same effects at the level of society, being a sustainable process. Only 25 years ago, the process of management of change started to represent an object of interest for the theorists of management, being introduced for the first time as an instrument of management using the change and at the standard of government institutions.

Key words: Management of change, model of change, destructuration, restructuring, organizational development

JEL Classification: Y9

Introduction

David Nadler (associated professor to Princeton University) and Michael Tushman (internationally known), have defined the origin of change as concept in 1988, in the book "Strategic organization design", which presents the occurrence of change in an organization. The cause of the occurrence may be the environment in which the organization develops its activity or even its intention. Thus, the changes divide into two categories: unintentional (occurring beyond the control of the organization) and intentional or deliberate (these are programmed by the organization).

Some theories have defined the change as being a state of transitory instability, a state which disrupts a balance that was, otherwise, stable (Lewin, 1958). This phenomenon amplified in the states of South-Eastern Europe, as well as in the developing states in the last 20-25 years. From the wish to recover the socio-economical gaps in front of the powerful countries, these states have travelled faster the changes preceding stages of economic, political and social changes. These stages lead to the occurrence of the crisis, tensions, social reactions, but they could not be diverted, removed or stopped.

In both sectors (private and public) there is a special interest to the flexible type of organization that answers and adapts better at the changing situations belonging to the market and society and it is innovative enough to maintain the services and products to date regarding technology and quality, corresponding as well as possible to the rising demands of society. Today, the organizations function within an environment that permanently changes, one of the needed features being the capacity to adapt to the environment, being also the prerequisite for success in business, and also the condition for simple surviving.

As art, the discipline of management is connected to the features of the leader, meaning the implementation of the methods and principles of leading in a creative way to the concrete situations within the enterprise functions.

The discipline of management uses the knowledge of other sciences in order to establish the visions on managerial practice such as social sciences, behaviours, mathematics and engineering.

The term of management of change is a reinvented form of approaching change, so it is not something new. This approach includes all the activities organized, planned and controlled in the field of the strategy, culture and structure of any social system, of the processes of production, in the public institutions and organizations and in the private ones. Most importantly, though, the management of change is the responsibility of the management. This supports in a sustainable and systematic way the transforming of organizations, as well as the achieving of goals. The concept takes into account, comprehensively, the total number of the relevant aspects, within the wanted or desired processes of change. It is necessary for the management of change to be adapted to some specific circumstances and objectives.

The management of change in the economy of the enterprise may be understood as being the development, monitoring and systemic evaluation of the changes in an enterprise, thus in the management of change, there are involved the control of changing in an organization and the flexible adaptation of an enterprise to the permanent change so that the changes appear as news, improvements, adjustments, eliminations of past mistakes.

In the explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language, the model is defined as being a material or theoretical system through which can be studied indirectly the transformations and properties of another system, more complex, with which the first system is similar. The essence of all the presented models is the same: the instauration of a new state instead of the existing ones.

1. The model of Kurt Lewin

Kurt Lewin (German Psychologist, considered the father of social psychology) treats the change using social conflicts and staff behaviour. For over 40 years, the works of the psychologist have controlled the theory and practice belonging to the management of change. Without taking this into account, his perspective on change was the target of various critics in the last 20 years, especially his model in "three steps". Some of them say that the opinions of Kurt Lewin fit only to small-scale projects of change and are ignored the politics and the organizational power.

Even if the model related to Kurt Lewin arose in the '50s, it is functional to this day. Lewin started from the following question: what does one have to do if he owns an ice cube, but he wants for it to have another form? The answer is the one that gave to the model three stages: melting (destructuration of the old system), change and refreezing (consolidation of change).

To start with, it must be stressed the reason for which the change should be done. The motivation for change should be generated before the change happens. Those involved should be helped to re-evaluate many of their assumptions and prejudices (often supported subjectively) about themselves and about the relations with the others. Along with the understanding of these aspects, the first stage of change, the destructuring, is already initiated. (Lewin's Change Management Model)

The destructuring is the first stage that involves preparing the group to accept the idea of change and the necessity of change. It can be said that we are talking about a destructuration of the existing order before promoting a new model of functioning. Usually, this first level is the most stressing and difficult in the change. The role of this stage is to challenge reactions, reactions against those who talk about the change. When criticism appears referring to the way things usually go, there is a distortion of the system, and various persons feel uncomfortable. In order to find a new balance, this stage forces people to re-evaluate faiths, behaviours and the concepts that form the basis of society and their daily life, creating a controlled crisis, after which it is build a strong motivation. It is necessary for those who want the change to be prepared to modify its foundation also, as it is possible that the old one not to support the new changes and the enrichment of superior structures to the building. Without this preparation, there is the chance that the changes made to the superior structures not to last.

Within the stage of change, the people seek for new ways of interaction, new things to substitute the old ones and start by solving the uncertainties. Between the two stages, the transition is not achieved so easily. It is required time for the people to associate change and act in a proactive way in its advantage. Communication and time are the key elements that may bring the success into the hands of those who want the change. Time is necessary for the people to understand change, feeling involved in that transition period. To coordinate the whole process of change, it is needed a team, as, in the management of change, the development of these stages may continue for long periods of time, requiring, also, a lot of efforts.

In order to agree change and to be part of its success, people should understand the benefits they will enjoy after the change. Not all the people are glad thinking on change, especially if this is seen as being necessary and not just for the good of the group. The false adhesion to the change is a trap that should be avoided. There are, though some situations that should be seen from time and carefully managed. Some people will be affected by the change, especially those who enjoy the greatest advantages within the actual functioning of the system. For some other persons a long time is required to understand the benefits of the change.

The restructuration is initiated in the moment when the hierarchical relations are clear, some fixed decisional structures take place, are well defined the rights and responsibilities. Also within this stage, there must be done the internalization and institutionalization of the achieved changes. Therefore, the new elements will be applied daily, and people will feel comfortable and trustworthy regarding the new realities. In this stage of restructuring, an important place is taken by the celebration of the success of change. By celebration, people identify a particular moment that represents the ending of the process of change. Also, this gives the opportunity to offer thanks to those who worked for the change, giving the people confidence in the fact that the effort was worth, and the future changes will be successful.

Sometimes there can be discussions in a world which is in a continuous change. These discussions arise due to the logic of a new balance. After a major change is implemented, there should be applied the stage of restructuration, regardless of the fact that changes occur permanently. By applying the stage of restructuration, the new elements introduced are consolidated. If this stage is not gone through, people may come to feel that they are in a continuous transition, and they are not sure, anymore, of how they should do things, without being able to express at their true ability. If there is no new state of balance, there is very difficult for the premises of the future changes to be evaluated. Also, in case people do not manage to feel the effects of changes already made it is very difficult to evaluate their quality. If it is not allowed to people to feel three consequences of the change, there may be the stage where individuals do not understand a thing, seeing the change as being made just for the sake of it. Thus, there will not be any motivation to promote it or follow it.

2. The Burke - Litwin model

This model was created by George Litwin and Wamer Burke, through a project of consultancy related to the organizational change in the British Airways company. They used as basis for the model an important distinction in the sector of organizational change, namely that between the "first order changes" and second order changes. These changes were named by the two authors "transactional" changes and "transformative" changes.

For the first order changes, the identity of the organization does not change, as well as its fundamental nature. Changes suffer only certain characteristics related to the organization, but which do not affect it. The main characteristics of this change are: evolutionary, continuous, transactional, and incremental.

For the second order changes, both the identity and the fundamental nature of the organization undergo important changes. These changes are revolutionary, transformative, discontinuous, and radical. (according to French and Bell).

The Burke - Litwin model is based on the following premise: the organizational development interventions within the mission of the organization, culture and organizational strategy leads to "second order changes" and those interventions on practices, structure, management styles and procedures and politics lead to "first order changes". Also, the model makes the difference between the transactional leading styles and the transformative ones. The leaders that adopt the transactional style are those who have already set goals, guiding and motivating their subordinates through clarifying roles, but also the requirements of the tasks that must be solved. The leaders that adopt the transformative style push their subordinates to think of the good of the organization, passing over their own interests. These leaders have the ability to exert a profound influence on subordinates. From here we can see that the transactional style is used in the first order changes, and the transformative one in second order changes.

The importance of this model is noticed through the fact that identifies, initially, two different types of operational changing that have various effects on the organization. After the identification of the problem, the agent dealing with the change may decide what kind of change to use, taking into account the wanted results and the dates of the problem. However, this model underlines the organizational dimensions on which we have to act in order to get the change we want, in this field being quite rare the systems that provide such information.

3. The ADKAR model

ADKAR is a model made for the first time by Prosci, in 1998. This arose from an investigation conducted using over 300 companies that were running projects in the field of major changes.

Its name is an acronym of the stages that an organization or an individual overcomes to succeed through the change: Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability, Reinforcement.

For a successful change, there must be taken some steps: awareness-it must be created the need for change, the desire- the members of the organization or a person must have the desire to participate in the change and to be prepared in order to carry it on; Knowledge- is necessary for an organization or a person to know to change; it is not enough to know only the reasons of the implementation of change; ability- any organization or person who really wants the implementation of the change must have and apply new knowledge and behaviours in order to produce the necessary changes. The skills of implementing change must be developed, making daily actions and by new behaviours; the consolidation-organizations and persons need to be consolidated, supporting and maintaining the changes, making a new behaviour. If this does not happen, there is the chance that those organizations or persons to return to the old behaviour.

4. The model of Price Waterhouse

According to this model, in case the processes are redesigned, the procedures and work places have to be changed. The technologies and systems need to be changed in order to keep up with the demands of the changing organization, as well as with the customers' needs. When this is done, it is essential the training of the employees in the new processes and the removal of any barriers to the implementation of change. It is also crucial the ensuring of communication of the mandates of change in a specific language, requiring that they would be translated in real measures of performance and appropriate to the targets. If the mandates of change are missing, there is the possibility of halving and doubling the cost of change.

If a change is made better, the performance will be higher, and the results will improve significantly. However, an effective change is supported by the employees also, who are motivated and empowered, and directed by the requirements specific to customers. In this way, companies that have success will be recognised through their permanent efforts to answer the requirements of the customers that are in a continuous change, but also to those who belong to the competitive environment.

Price Waterhouse describes the other types of communication that are shared by the members and leaders of the organizational change as communication" think in a big way, act in a big way". The starting of these conversations is represented by the idea that large-scale changes are possible, but also imperative. These include success in achieving some teams with different talents aimed at supporting innovation and moving new systems of work, those which do not function being eliminated gradually. However, those who initiated the change and their teams have to discover new practices and solutions having innovative ideas, respectively to "think outside the box". The feedback from teams and leaders will participate in the changes in a smoother way, especially if this includes fixing some measurable objectives. When the goals are achieved, and the solutions are found, the managers of change may give rewards, for the members of the team to notice the direct connection between their work and the profitability of the organization. The main role of the leader of the team inside the entities is very important, as he represents the person the underlines the message of change toward all the relevant departments, aiming to focus the vision of the workers on the big picture on transformation.

If the person responsible for the change does not make to execute its job well, he should be changed. When the culture modifies, this process is not made quickly, and in order that is making to be efficient it is required the desire of the management of the organization. In addition, experts say that the whole staff is not always willing to follow a new leader. The commitment of the superior management, as result, when there is the desire to ensure an effective implementation.

Ensuring consensus is very important, and if it is slow in one of the levels of the organization, it should be rectified immediately.

5. The Kotter model

Over a period of 30 years, John Kotter studied the process of change and reached to the conclusion that there are critical differences between the tests of change that enjoyed success and those which failed. This model is linear and requires predictability. Also, it addresses to those organizations that want to achieve some fundamental changes in the management of business, in order to resist in front of a new challenging environment.

John P. Kotter teaches at Harvard University since 1972, being on the 30 place in the global rakings-Thinkers 50- edition from 2007 of the most important management thinkers. He has published more than 15 books on change and leadership, giving a lot of lectures throughout the world on these topics.

This model implies passing over eight stages, the first four focusing on the defrosting process, the following three lead to the achievement of change, and the last step is based on the freezing and anchoring the changes in the organizational culture. Thus:

* the first step-increasing urgency-involves examining the market and competitive realities, identification and discution of potential crisis or opportunities, as well as the presentation of some evidence outside the organization that the change is necessary (J. P. Kotter, 1996);

* the second step- creating the guiding team- this step refers to the convocation of a group that holds enough power to lead the effort of change, to find the right persons, to create trust and develop a common aim. It is recommended the attracting of key leaders for the change and the stimulation of the members of the team to work together, this step referring to building a consensus;

* the third step-developing a clear vision- this vision has to help directing change efforts, but also the development of the strategies that are necessary to achieve the vision ;

* the fourth step- communication of the vision- this thing is made by using any possible vehicle to communicate a new vision and strategy. (J. P. Kotter, 1996);

* the fifth stage- the stage of empowerment related to employees - this step involves removal of obstacles of change and the changing of systems, of the structures that resist to the vision. In this process, is involved the stage of identification of the stakeholders in the project, stakeholders that want to experiment the resistance to change due to the cause of the previous experiences. The key in order to get the support of the stakeholders that resist the implementation of change is a combination between patience and involvement in the evaluation of the need of change and its implementation. (R. Maurer, 2004);

* the sixth step-creating short-term gains- refers to the planning, as well as to getting some improvements of the visible performance, as well as recognizing and rewarding of those who got involved in order to achieve improvements. The major change is created through a process;

* the seventh step- creating the impulse and its use- it is made by consolidation of the behaviours that contributed to improvements;

* the eight stage-anchoring changes in the culture of the organization- this step is made through the articulation of the connections that exist between the success of behaviour and the new behaviours. A new plan is developed, so that the processes of promotion to be compatible with the new practices and the old culture and to not be able to reassert itself.(I. Palmer, 2008). Within this stage, it is very important for the managers to offer a lot of verbal instructions, showing their support, this thing being necessary, as people are often reluctant to admit the validity of new practices (P. L. Gerhard, 2004).

Conclusions

In an organization, it is important to adapt to the change. Both the organizations and the people that operate within them meet with changing situations, not having the power to control them. The organization will evolve faster when the staff is more open to the change. By adapting, it is assumed that the establishment of some structured methodologies that need to answer to the changes in the business environment or the fixing of some mechanisms of adaptation in order to respond to the changes made at work. (new technologies, new policies)

In the current environment there are many factors that force organizations to adopt other structure of the activities so that they will meet better to pressures and existing requirements. Using the processes of organizational change, the entities try to remain afloat and even to evolve competitive, in order to ensure a profitable development, both on short-term and on medium and long-term. Organizational culture, within these changes, plays an extremely important part for the harmonious development and for the success of the organization. Many of these organizations have a reactive attitude in front of evolutions of the environment, which means that they take attitude only to those actions of the environment that already happened. Among these organizations, there are some firms that take pro-active attitude. These try to predict the development of the environment, using this basis for the conceiving and development of activities. The particularly anticipatory vision is reflected in all the policies and strategies, with the help of which is guided the behaviour of the firm in question.

The changing models present a special importance for the organization, as it details the steps that have to be taken for the success of a change.

References

References

Boldur Latescu Gheorghe (1973) The Complex Founding of the Economic Decisional Process, Bucharest: Scientific Publishing House

Gerhard P.L. (2004) Organizational change: a comparison of four of the best models of all time, Paris

Kotter J.P (1996) Leading change, Boston: Harvard Business School Press

Lewin's Change Management Model - available on line at http://www.mindtools.com /pages/ article/newPPM_94.htm

Maurer R., (2004) Making a compelling case for change, The Journal for Quality and Participation

Neculau Adrian (1998) The Psycho-sociology of Change , Bucharest: Polirom Publishing House

Palmer I, Dunford R., Akin G (2008) Managing organizational change: a multiple perspectives approach