ABSTRACT
Organizational change refers to any significant alteration of the behavior pattern of a large number of the individuals who constitute an organization (Gabris, 1983; Heffron, 1989; Pasmore, 1994; Imai, 1997). For example, an organization that seeks to initiate Total Quality Management (TQM) is engaged, fundamentally, in organizational change. In today’s global economy, organizational change is frequently discussed within the context of what are called learning organizations, “organizations where people continually expand their capacity to create the results they truly desire, where new and expansive patterns of thinking are nurtured, where collective aspiration is set free, and where people are continually learning how to learn together” (Senge, 1990, p. 3). Learning organizations, in effect, are skilled at organizational change. To understand the nature of organizational change, managers need to look beyond human factors alone (Perrow, 1986; Taylor and Fe1ton, 1993; Imai, 1997). In this chapter, organizational culture and climate, as well as structure, technology and environment will all be represented in models guiding managers who successfully produce organizational change (Senge, 1990; Hofstede, 1991; Kochan and Useem, 1992; Osborne and Gaebler, 1992; Trice and Beyer, 1993; Imai, 1997). This chapter also outlines the critical elements of person-organization interface and proposes strategies which managers can employ to effect change within an organization. We proceed by defining each of the factors relevant to organizational change and then consider the actual change process, the type of organizational learning involved, and the strategies managers may adopt to help organizations change.
