Page i
Managing Organizational
Change
A Multiple Perspectives Approach
Ian Palmer
Richard Dunford
David A. Buchanan
Fourth Edition
Page ii
MANAGING ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE: A MULTIPLE PERSPECTIVES
APPROACH, FOURTH EDITION
Published by McGraw Hill LLC, 1325 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10121.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Palmer, Ian, 1957-author. | Dunford, Richard, author. | Buchanan,
David A., author.
Title: Managing organizational change : a multiple perspectives approach /
Ian Palmer, Richard Dunford, David A. Buchanan.
Description: Fourth edition. | New York, NY : McGraw-Hill Education, [2022]
| Includes index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020031288 (print) | LCCN 2020031289 (ebook) | ISBN
9781260043716 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781264071616 (spiral bound) | ISBN
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mheducation.com/highered
Page iii
DEDICATIONS
From Ian
To Dianne, Matthew, and Michelle
From Richard
To Jill, Nick, and Ally
From David
To Lesley with love—and thanks
Page iv
Acknowledgments
A number of people have contributed to this edition, and we owe them all a debt of
gratitude, including Francis Adeola, University of New Orleans; Terrence R.
Bishop, Northern Illinois University; Frederick Brockmeier, Northern Kentucky
University; Lesley Buchanan; and James Cornwell, U.S. Military Academy. We
must also thank the many change managers—too many to name—with whom we
have explored the issues addressed in this book, for their time, their insights, and
their willingness to share their experiences with us.
Page v
Brief contents
Preface
PART 1
x
Groundwork: Understanding and Diagnosing Change
1
Managing Change: Stories and Paradoxes
2
Images of Change Management
3
Why Change? Contemporary Pressures and Drivers
4
What to Change? A Diagnostic Approach
PART 2
3
29
63
103
Implementation: The Substance and Process of Change
139
5
What Changes?
6
Purpose and Vision
7
Change Communication Strategies
8
Resistance to Change
9
Organization Development and Sense-Making Approaches
10
Change Management Perspectives
PART 3
1
141
175
211
249
281
319
Running Threads: Sustainability and the Effective Change
Manager
353
11
Sustaining Change versus Initiative Decay
12
The Effective Change Manager: What Does It Take?
Name Index
Subject Index
DIGITAL EDITION
425
433
355
387
Page vi
Contents
Preface
x
Part 1
Groundwork: Understanding and Diagnosing Change
1
Managing Change: Stories and Paradoxes
Learning Objectives
3
3
Stories about Change: What Can We Learn?
The Starbucks Story
The Sears Story
4
5
7
The Detroit Story
10
Tension and Paradox: The State of the Art
Assessing Depth of Change
11
16
What’s Coming Up: A Roadmap
18
Change Diagnostic: The Starbucks Story
Change Diagnostic: The Sears Story
20
21
Change Diagnostic: The Detroit Story
23
Exercise 1.1 Writing Your Own Story of Change
Additional Reading
Roundup
References
2
24
25
25
26
Images of Change Management
Learning Objectives
29
29
What’s in a Name: Change Agents, Managers, or Leaders?
Images, Mental Models, Frames, Perspectives
The Six-Images Framework
32
Six Images of Change Management
Using the Six-Images Framework
36
45
31
30
1
Self-Assessment: What Is Your Image of Managing Change?
Self-Assessment: Scoring
51
Exercise 2.1: Assessing Change Managers’ Images
Exercise 2.2: Turnaround at Beth Israel
Additional Reading
Roundup
References
3
52
53
56
57
58
Why Change? Contemporary Pressures and Drivers
Learning Objectives
64
Environmental Pressures for Change
66
Why Do Organizations Not Change after Crises?
Exercise 3.1: COVID-19 Consequences
Exercise 3.2: Top Team Role Play
88
90
91
Exercise 3.3: Case Analysis—The Netflix Story
92
Exercise 3.4: The Reputation Trap—Can You Escape?
Additional Reading
References
4
63
63
Internal Organization Change Drivers
Roundup
49
94
96
96
98
What to Change? A Diagnostic Approach
Learning Objectives
103
Organizational Strategy and Change
Diagnosing Readiness for Change
Agile Organization
112
121
130
Exercise 4.2: Readiness for Change Analysis
Roundup
134
References
135
Page vii
125
Exercise 4.1: Scenario Planning
Additional Reading
103
133
131
Part 2
5
Implementation: The Substance and Process of Change
139
What Changes?
141
Learning Objectives
What Changes?
141
142
Organizational Culture
153
Digital Transformation and the Social Matrix
Exercise 5.1: The Mattel Toy Story
159
166
Exercise 5.2: Organizational Culture Assessment
168
Exercise 5.3: How Will Digital Transformation Affect Your Organization?
168
Additional Reading
6
Roundup
169
References
172
168
Purpose and Vision
175
Learning Objectives
175
Missions and Visions: Fundamental or Fads?
Mission: Why Are We Here?
178
Vision: Where Are We Going?
183
Why Visions Fail
176
192
Linking Vision to Change: Three Debates
194
Exercise 6.1: Interviewing Change Recipients
201
Exercise 6.2: Analyze Your Own Organization’s Mission and Vision
202
Exercise 6.3: The Role of Vision at Mentor Graphics
Additional Reading
Roundup
References
7
203
204
206
Change Communication Strategies
Learning Objectives
211
211
202
The Change Communication Process
Gender, Power, and Emotion
212
217
Language Matters: The Power of Conversation
Change Communication Strategies
222
228
Contingency Approaches to Change Communication
231
Communication Channels and the Impact of Social Media
Exercise 7.1: Listen to Who’s Talking
239
Exercise 7.2: How Defensive Are You?
240
Exercise 7.3: Social Media at the Museum
Additional Reading
Roundup
241
242
243
References
8
245
Resistance to Change
Learning Objectives
249
249
WIIFM, WAMI, and the Dimensions of Resistance
Benefits
251
Causes
254
Symptoms
250
261
Managers as Resisters
263
Managing Resistance
265
Exercise 8.1: Diagnosing and Acting
Exercise 8.2: Jack’s Dilemma
Exercise 8.3: Moneyball
Additional Reading
9
235
Roundup
274
References
277
272
Page viii
272
273
274
Organization Development and Sense-Making Approaches
Learning Objectives
281
Alternative Approaches to Managing Change
Organization Development (OD)
282
282
281
Appreciative Inquiry (AI)
293
Positive Organizational Scholarship (POS)
Dialogic Organization Development
Sense-Making
295
297
300
Exercise 9.1: Reports from the Front Line
307
Exercise 9.2: Designing a Large-Scale Change Intervention
Exercise 9.3: Making Sense of Sense-Making
307
Exercise 9.4: Interpreting the Interpreter: Change at Target
Exercise 9.5: Change at DuPont
Additional Reading
Roundup
309
311
313
Change Management Perspectives
Learning Objectives
Why Change Fails
Change by Checklist
Stage Models
319
319
Options for Managing Change
320
321
323
327
The Process Perspective
333
Contingency Approaches
336
Exercise 10.1: Develop Your Own Change Model
Exercise 10.2: Getting Boeing Back in the Air
343
343
Exercise 10.3: Did Heinz Choke on the 3G Recipe?
Additional Reading
Part 3
11
308
311
References
10
307
Roundup
348
References
351
346
348
Running Threads: Sustainability and the Effective Change
Manager
353
Sustaining Change versus Initiative Decay
Learning Objectives
355
355
Initiative Decay and Improvement Evaporation
Praiseworthy and Blameworthy Failures
Actions to Sustain Change
Words of Warning
356
359
361
369
Exercise 11.1: A Balanced Set of Measures
Exercise 11.2: Treating Initiative Decay
374
374
Exercise 11.3: The Challenger and Columbia Shuttle Disasters
Additional Reading
Roundup
380
381
References
12
383
The Effective Change Manager: What Does It Take?
Learning Objectives
388
Change Managers: What Kind of Role Is This?
Change Management Competencies
Political Skill and the Change Manager
399
401
404
Developing Change Management Expertise
Exercise 12.2: How Resilient Are You?
Roundup
419
References
Subject Index
425
433
421
414
415
Exercise 12.3: How Political Is Your Organization?
418
Page ix
411
Exercise 12.1: Networking—How Good Are You?
Additional Reading
387
387
Change Managers: Who Are They?
Name Index
375
417
Page x
Preface
The previous edition of this book was published in 2016. Since then, the
organizational world has continued to change dramatically. The aftermath of the
global financial crisis is still with us; there are fresh and severe geopolitical
tensions; environmental concerns are increasingly urgent; the focus on corporate
social responsibility has intensified; organizations are under pressure to
demonstrate their environmental, social, and governance (ESG) credentials;
technological developments continue to surprise; and cybersecurity is a constant
concern. Organizations have to consider how to manage demographic trends
including an ageing, multigenerational, and multicultural workforce. Consumer
preferences and expectations change radically and rapidly. Stir into this mix the
impact of social media, where positive and critical views of organizations and their
products and services—along with personal and corporate reputations—can be
shared instantly and globally.
What Do CEOs Think?
The business magazine Fortune carries out an annual survey of
U.S. chief executives, asking them about trends and challenges.
The 2019 survey (Murray, 2019) found that the main challenges
facing these CEOs were:
cybersecurity
technological change
increased regulation
shortages of skilled labor
competition from China
shareholder activism
They were positive about the economy and business opportunities,
particularly in America, and 65 percent said that they expected to
be employing more people in two years’ time and planned to
continue investing in artificial intelligence (AI); 60 percent said
that they had already used AI to improve efficiency and cut costs;
and 22 percent had used AI to create new products and services.
However, around half were expecting a recession within two years.
How do CEOs feel about wider social issues and criticisms of large
organizations in particular? Over 70 percent said they thought that
capitalism was not in crisis but that “some tweaking” to better
serve society would be appropriate. Over 40 percent felt that their
business strategy should include finding ways to address major
social problems. They also felt that companies such as Amazon,
Facebook, and Google had grown so large and influential that they
needed additional regulation.
Murray, A. 2019. 2019 CEO survey: The results are in. Fortune
179(6):3.
From a management perspective, the drivers or catalysts for change are
Page xi
now more numerous and unpredictable. The pace of change has not
slackened: more pressures, more opportunities, more changes, faster changes.
Failure to respond to those pressures and opportunities, and in some cases failure
to respond quickly enough, can have significant individual and corporate
consequences. The “agile organization” has become fashionable—and is perhaps
strategically indispensable. Many companies are experimenting with new ways of
organizing—co-working spaces, no hierarchy, social enterprises, virtual teams, and
platform organizations. The personal and organizational stakes appear to have
increased.
The management of organizational change thus continues to be a topic of strategic
importance for most sectors, public and private. Current conditions have
continued to increase the importance of this area of management responsibility.
This new edition, therefore, is timely with regard to updating previous content,
while introducing new and emerging trends, developments, themes, debates, and
practices.
In light of this assessment, we continue to believe that the multiple perspectives
approach is particularly valuable, recognizing the various ways in which change
can be progressed and highlighting the need for tailored and creative approaches
to fit different contexts. Our images of how organizational change should be
implemented affect the approaches that we take to understanding and managing
change. Adopting different images and perspectives helps to open up new and
more innovative ways of approaching the change management process. We hope
that this approach will guide and inspire others in pursuing their own
responsibilities for managing organizational change.
This text is aimed at two main readers. The first is an experienced practicing
manager enrolled in an MBA or a similar master’s degree program or taking part in
a management development course that includes a module on organizational
change. The second is a senior undergraduate, who may have less practical
experience, but who will probably have encountered organizational change directly
through temporary work assignments or internships or indirectly through family
and friends. Our senior undergraduate is also likely to be planning a management
career, or to be heading for a professional role that will inevitably involve
management—and change management—responsibilities. Given the needs and
interests of both our readers, we have sought to present an appropriate blend of
research and theory, on the one hand, and practical management application, on
the other.
Instructors who have used our previous editions will find familiar features in this
update. The chapter structure and sequence of the book remain much the same,
with minor adjustments to accommodate new material. The overall argument is
underpinned by the observation that the management of organizational change is
in part a rational or technical task and is also a creative activity, with the need to
design novel strategies and processes that are consistent with the needs of unique
local conditions. We hope that readers will find the writing style and presentation
clear and engaging. We have maintained the breadth of coverage of the different
traditions and perspectives that contribute to the theory and practice of managing
change, with international examples where appropriate.
Page xii
What’s New in This Edition?
The new content for this edition includes the following:
Real-world examples. We draw on the experience of change in the following
organizations, including a U.S. city and baseball team and one nation-state.
Examples range from full-length cases to short vignettes: Airbnb, Alibaba, Best
Buy, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, BlackRock, Boeing, BP, British Army,
Carnival Cruise Line, Chobani, Continental Airlines, Detroit, DuPont, Estée
Lauder, FedEx, Etsy, Facebook, Ford, General Motors Poland, Goldman Sachs,
Google, HP, IBM, Instagram, Intuit, Johnson & Johnson, Kaiser Permanente, Kraft
Heinz, Lego, Levi Strauss, McDonald’s, Mattel, Mentor Graphics, a Siemens
Business, Microsoft, NASA, Netflix, Nike, Oakland Athletics, Progressive
Insurance, Sandvik AB, Sears, Semco, Spotify, Starbucks, Swiss Re, Thai Union,
Twitter, Uber, Unilever, U.S. Postal Service, Vanuatu, YouTube, and Zumba
Fitness.
Leadership language. The power of meaningful stories is well known. But the role
of language in articulating vision and mission statements is less well understood.
However, research on organization mission statements has found that concrete
imagery works, and abstractions do not, with regard to encouraging support for
change. In addition, support for change is more likely to be forthcoming when
vision statements emphasize continuity as well as change (chapters 1 and 6).
Change managers and change leaders. We argue that the distinction between
leaders and managers is blurred and that these are different labels for the same
role. However, research offers counterintuitive advice with regard to the
complementary roles of middle managers and senior executives. Middle managers
may be better able to initiate change, because they have a better understanding of
frontline operations. Senior leaders may be better able to execute change, because
they have more power and better access to resources (chapters 2 and 8).
The world out there. Conditions in the external environment of the organization
continue to become more turbulent, volatile, and unpredictable. The nature of
globalization is also changing, creating more pressures and opportunities, as well
as more change drivers and catalysts (chapter 3).
COVID-19 consequences. The World Health Organization declared a global
pandemic in March 2020, following an outbreak of a zoonotic coronavirus,
COVID-19, for which there was no treatment or cure at the time of writing. To stop
the virus from spreading, countries closed borders and introduced social
distancing. These steps had a major impact on social life, working patterns, and
most businesses, driving major organizational changes. Exercise 3.1 asks readers to
consider the nature of these changes and the long-term consequences (chapter 3).
Technology as a change driver. Robots, cobots, machine learning, artificial
intelligence, automation. Emerging technologies are reshaping the world of work,
probably creating more benefits and opportunities than downsides. Many
organizations are undergoing digital transformations. Professional roles are no
longer immune to automation. The change implications are significant, requiring
careful management (chapter 3).
Initiative overload. Too much change is a problem for many organizations. Page xiii
This leads to a dilution of effort and misallocation of resources. Why does this
happen? What can be done to manage multiple change initiatives more effectively?
(chapter 4).
Agile organization. Adaptability is a strategic priority in a turbulent, unpredictable
world. “Agile” has its roots in the concepts of “mechanistic and organic” systems,
“segmentalist and integrative” cultures, and “built to change” organizations. The
core concept is based on the classic concept of autonomous, self-managing teams,
but the approach needs “agile managers” in new roles, able to balance flexibility
with stability (chapter 4).
Social media. Social media platforms have become increasingly important as a
general management tool, contributing to change management by improving
communications, employee voice, and involvement and by building momentum for
change. Many organizations have yet to exploit fully these opportunities, and there
is a need to balance the opportunities with the risks (chapters 5 and 7).
The purpose-driven organization. Purpose, or organizational mission, is now
recognized as a driver of competitive advantage, and thus of change. But the
concept is not always taken seriously by organizations, which often produce vague,
abstract statements of purpose. We consider the evidence that supports clarifying
the organization’s mission or purpose and consider the language in which purpose
is best articulated (chapter 6).
Pragmatic resistance to change. Everyday resistance to change can benefit the
organization by preventing or reshaping poorly designed change initiatives
(chapter 8).
Has resistance to change been exaggerated? New research shows that employees
often welcome the opportunities that new technologies have to offer. This positive
approach contrasts with the beliefs and expectations of many managers (chapter
8).
Counterproductive work behavior (CWB). Evidence suggests that some types of
damaging CWB can be triggered by change initiatives. Why does this happen?
What can be done about it? (chapter 8).
Evidence-based implementation. A systematic review of the research suggests that
there are 10 steps to successful change. Most organizations seem to ignore the
evidence, and this may contribute to the reportedly high failure rate of major
change initiatives (chapter 10).
Change resourcing. Contrary to accepted wisdom, research now suggests that, at
least in some circumstances, underfunding a change initiative can be
advantageous. How can this be? (chapter 10).
Transformational change. What is the nature of transformations? Why do as
many as three-quarters fail? Many of the causes of failure are predictable. What
can organizations do to improve the odds of success? (chapter 10).
Issue-selling. Why multimodal approaches are more successful for pitching Page xiv
change initiative ideas to senior management: how to choose the right combination
of words, body language, and visual imagery (chapter 12).
Collective change agency. Responsibility for change management rarely rests with
one individual, or even with a small group. Now, different models of change
delivery units are emerging. Which approach best fits your organization? (chapter
12).
The politics of change. Management political games can disrupt or stop change
initiatives. Political skill is critical for the change manager. The constructive
aspects of “playing politics” are now widely recognized, challenging the negative
stereotype of politics as harmful “dirty tricks” (chapter 12).
Chief transformation officer (CTO). A new kind of change agent, a “high-level
orchestrator” of change. What is the nature of this role, and what capabilities are
required? (chapter 12).
Pedagogy
The pedagogical features in the text include:
learning outcomes identified at the beginning of each chapter
a mix of short and longer “high-impact” case studies of organizational change
case studies of “new economy” as well as “old economy” organizations
organizational diagnostic and self-assessment exercises for personal and
classroom use
movie recommendations, identifying films and clips that illustrate theoretical
and practical dimensions of organizational change management
YouTube clip recommendations, following up case and research accounts with
commentary from the managers and researchers concerned
a “roundup” section at the end of each chapter, with reflections for the
practicing change manager, summarizing the key learning points linked to the
learning outcomes
suggestions for further reading at the end of each chapter.
Instructors will also find useful the experiential learning exercises in the edited
collection by Schwartz et al. (2019).*
Since our book was first published, we have continued our conversations with
managers who have been using it as part of their teaching, consulting, and other
change activities. In many of these conversations, it was reassuring to hear how
our multiple perspectives framework strikes the right chord with them, opening up
new, innovative, and different ways of seeing, thinking, conceptualizing, and
practicing organizational change. We hope that this new and updated fourth
edition will continue to inspire our various change journeys, and we look forward
to more conversations along the way.
Page xv
Additional Resources
Instructors. If you are looking for teaching materials in this subject area, such as
case studies, discussion guides, organizational diagnostics, self-assessments,
company websites, audio-visual materials (feature films, YouTube clips) to use in
lectures and tutorials, then go to: connect.mheducation.com.
Page xvi
Page xvii
PART 1
Groundwork: Understanding and
Diagnosing Change
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 4
Managing Change: Stories and Paradoxes
Images of Change Management
Why Change? Contemporary Pressures and Drivers
What to Change? A Diagnostic Approach
The central theme of the four chapters in Part 1 is groundwork. How are we to approach an
understanding of organizational change? With what approaches, perspectives, or images of
change management should we be working? What drivers and pressures produce
organizational change? What diagnostic tools can we use to decide what aspects of the
organization and its operations will need to change or will benefit from change?
Page 2
Page 3
Chapter 1
Managing Change: Stories and
Paradoxes
Learning Objectives
By the end of this chapter you should be able to:
LO 1.1
LO 1.2
LO 1.3
LO 1.4
Understand how stories of change can contribute to
our knowledge of theory and practice.
Explain why managing organizational change is both
a creative process and a rational process.
Identify the main tensions and paradoxes in
managing organizational change.
Evaluate the strengths and limitations of our current
understanding of this field.
Jonathan Haidt, social psychologist
Page 4
Stories about
Change: What Can We Learn?
LO 1.1
LO 1.2
Changing organizations is as exhilarating as it is messy, as satisfying as it is
frustrating, as creative as it is rational. This book recognizes these tensions and
how they affect those who are involved in managing change. Rather than pretend
that these tensions do not exist or that they are unimportant, we confront them
head-on, considering how they can be addressed and managed, recognizing the
constraints that they can impose. We also want to demonstrate how the images
that we have about the way in which change should be managed, and our image of
the role of change agents, affect how we approach change and the outcomes that
we think are possible.
To begin this exploration, we present three stories of recent changes. The first
concerns how Roz Brewer restored the “buzz” at Starbucks. The second concerns
the organizational model introduced at Sears Holdings in an unsuccessful attempt
to restore falling sales and profits. The third describes how Mike Duggan, mayor of
Detroit, transformed the city’s fortunes. These stories each address different
problems: a coffeehouse chain, a retailer, and a city. But they illustrate common
issues concerning the management of change. Each account opens with a set of
assessment questions. We ask that you think through the answers for yourself.
What can we learn about change management from stories like these? You will find
our answers to these questions at the end of the chapter.
Our aim is to demonstrate that stories about change can be a valuable source of
practical lessons, as well as help to contribute to our general understanding of
change. This narrative perspective has a number of advantages. Stories are a
familiar and popular medium. They give us rich information set in context. They
enable us to put ourselves at the center of the action. They encourage us to
consider how we could transfer the issues that we are reading about into our own
experience.
These stories are, of course, each distinctive, one-off. How can they contribute to
knowledge and practice in general, in other sectors and organizations? Stories are
one of our main ways of knowing, communicating, and making sense of the world
(Dawson and Andriopoulos, 2017; Gabriel, 2019). Our stories have actors: change
leaders, other managers, staff, customers, etc. They make decisions that lead to
actions that trigger responses: acceptance, resistance, departure. There is a plot: a
serious problem that could be solved by organizational change. There are
consequences: To what extent did the change solve the problem, and were other
problems created along the way? The sequence of events unfolds in a typical
manner: . . . and then . . . and then. This tells us why the outcomes were reached.
These narratives do not simply describe what happened with a change initiative.
They also provide us with explanations. These are process narratives. Process
narratives have advantages over more traditional (quantitative, statistical)
research methods (Mohr, 1982; Langley et al., 2013):
They tell us about the context, give us a sense of the whole, a broader frame of
reference.
Complexity can be expressed within a coherent sequence of events.
The nature and significance of the causal factors acting on events are exposed.
The narrative patterns transcend individual cases.
Page 5
This approach is based on what is called narrative knowing (Langley and
Tsoukas, 2010; Vaara et al., 2016)—understanding events through the stories that
are told about them. Because stories can reveal the mechanisms, or logics, behind a
sequence of events, they are process theories. (We will explore process
perspectives on change in chapter 10.) What combinations of factors drive,
slow down, accelerate, or block the change process? The three stories that follow
explain the relative success of the changes in Starbucks, Sears, and Detroit. We will
ask you to consider the extent to which those explanations, each based on a single
unique case narrative, can be applied to managing organizational change in
general, in other settings.
LO 1.1
The Starbucks Story
Issues to Consider as You Read
This Story
1. To what extent can management expertise in general, and change management
expertise in particular, translate from one company and sector to another?
2. What elements of Roz Brewer’s approach to change management would be
appropriate for you to use in your organization?
3. Do you think that senior executives should be closely involved with the frontline
day-to-day operations of the business as Brewer was?
The Context
Founded in 1971, based in Seattle, with over 30,000 locations, 330,000 employees,
and annual revenues of around $25 billion, Starbucks is the largest seller of coffee
in the world.
The Problem
Roz Brewer joined Starbucks’ business in America as chief operating officer in
2017, the first woman and first African-American to hold such a senior position in
the company. In her new role, she had a number of problems to deal with. The
company’s iconic founder and executive chairman, Howard Schultz, had decided to
leave the company after three decades. After five years of exceptional growth, sales
had stalled. In 2018, the company was accused of racial bias after a manager called
police to deal with two Black men who had been waiting for a friend in an outlet in
Philadelphia; they had not bought drinks and refused to leave when asked. Some
customers called for a Starbucks’ boycott after a social media video of the arrest
went viral. When Brewer analyzed Starbucks’ business operations in detail in her
first three months, she found that the company was “melting down behind the
coffee bar.” Paradoxically, this was the result of the success of the mobile order and
pay system; customers placed their orders through an app before coming to the
store. But the stores were not ready for the sudden increase in orders. Crowds of
customers jostled each other as they waited for their drinks, and stressed baristas
struggled to keep up with the flow. She also found that 40 percent of employees’
time was spent on tasks away from the customers, such as counting milk jugs three
times a day and unnecessarily restocking the floor with cups. And like many other
organizations, there were too many development and change initiatives being run
by corporate headquarters.
Page 6
The Solution
Brewer was not an obvious choice for the role at Starbucks. Her previous position
was as a senior executive at Walmart. Investors were skeptical that her experience
with a big-box retailer could translate to a “high touch” coffee shop business. And
she preferred green tea to coffee. However, one of Brewer’s colleagues at Walmart
said, “Roz is a tough cookie. She’s into the details. She’s not a fluffy person. She
gets things done.” Another colleague said, “She’s an operator. She’s not just a
person with a point of view and vision. She can execute” (Kowitt, 2019, pp. 86 and
88).
Schultz had managed the company by instinct and intuition. Brewer, who trained
as a chemist, focused on the numbers and sought to bring some discipline and
order to the stores. Brewer and her team simplified, eliminated, or automated
tasks to allow store staff to spend more time with customers. Dedicated baristas
were appointed to handle the mobile orders in stores where those were popular.
Cleaning was carried out when the stores were closed. Two-thirds of the corporate
projects were stopped. Only those relating to three priorities—beverage innovation,
store experience, and the digital business—were allowed to continue. Brewer
earned a reputation for making tough decisions. For example, she asked her team
to assess the benefits and disadvantages of Mercato—Starbucks’ fresh food
business that was introduced, with much publicity, to 1,500 stores in 2017. The
assessment showed that Mercato did not fit the company’s priorities, so she killed
it. She also cut specialist stand-alone, time-limited offers, like the Unicorn
Frappucino. These were popular with only a small number of customers, and they
complicated the baristas’ work. She had the development team work instead on
simpler products that could be made with existing ingredients. Following analysis
of the timing of customer visits to stores and focusing on converting occasional
midday customers to “rewards” members (who account for 40 percent of sales),
Brewer was able to grow the afternoon business, which was traditionally a slack
period.
Following what became known as “the Philadelphia incident,” Brewer flew to
Philadelphia to apologize in person to the two men, and she organized racial bias
training for 175,000 employees. Brewer also spent a lot of her time visiting the
stores, talking to employees, and assessing their pride in the business. Do
employees who recognize her look her in the eye? Brewer says, “If they look down
at their feet, they’re not proud about the store. Ninety-nine percent of the time I’m
right about that” (Kowitt, 2019, p. 91). Brewer sees Starbucks’ stores as more than
coffee shops; they are also public spaces, like libraries, serving the needs of
employees and communities. In some shops, if they think that safety will be
increased, managers have been allowed to install needle boxes in restrooms, for the
disposal of drug users’ syringes. “Brewer wants baristas to make the perfect flat
white or pour-over. But she also wants them trained in how to deal with the
hardest social situations they could possibly encounter so that everyone feels like
they belong in Starbucks” (Kowitt, 2019, p. 92).
The Outcome
Starbucks’ sales growth recovered, proving Brewer’s critics wrong. By 2018, there
were 15 million rewards members, who spend three times as much as
nonmembers. Afternoon customers started to generate 50 percent of beverage
sales, and in 2019 Starbucks saw its best sales growth in three years. Starbucks’
stock price rose 70 percent between 2017 and 2019.
Page 7
Case Sources
Kowitt, B. 2019. How Starbucks got its buzz back. Fortune, 180(4):84–92.
On YouTube, find ‘Starbucks COO Roz Brewer on big changes at
Starbucks’ (2019; 6 minutes).
LO 1.1
The Sears Story
Issues to Consider as You Read
This Story
1. How would you describe Eddie Lampert’s leadership style?
2. How would you assess his approach to implementing major organizational
change—in this case restructuring the whole company with a new organizational
model?
3. On balance, how would you assess his new organizational model?
4. What lessons about managing organizational change can we take from this
experience and apply to other organizations, in this or other sectors?
The Setting
A household name in America, Sears was once the world’s largest retailer. In
October 2018, the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and its remaining
assets were sold to a hedge fund, ESL Investments, owned by Eddie Lampert. What
happened?
Sears Holdings Corporation was a specialty retailer, formed in 2005 by the merger
of Kmart and Sears Roebuck. The merger was the idea of Eddie Lampert, a
billionaire hedge fund manager who owned 55 percent of the new company and
who became chairman. Based in Illinois, the company operated in the United
States and Canada, with 274,000 employees, 4,000 retail stores, and annual
revenues (2013) of $40 billion. Sears and Kmart stores sold home merchandise,
clothing, and automotive products and services. The merged company was
successful at first, due to aggressive cost cutting.
The Problem
By 2007, two years after the merger, profits were down by 45 percent.
The Chairman’s Solution
Lampert decided to restructure the company. Sears was organized like a classic
retailer. Department heads ran their own product lines, but they all worked for the
same merchandising and marketing leaders, with the same financial goals. The
new model ran Sears like a hedge fund portfolio with autonomous businesses
competing for resources. This “internal market” would promote efficiency and
improve corporate performance. At first, the new structure had around 30
business units, including product divisions, support functions, and brands, along
with units focusing on e-commerce and real estate. By 2009, there were over 40
divisions. Each division had its own president, chief marketing officer, board of
directors, profit and loss statement, and strategy that had to be agreed on by
Lampert’s executive committee. With all those positions to fill at the head of each
unit, executives competed for the roles, each eager to run his or her own
multibillion-dollar business. The new model was called SOAR: Sears Holdings
Organization, Actions, and Responsibilities.
Page 8
When the reorganization was announced in January 2008, the company’s
share price rose 12 percent. Most retail companies prefer integrated structures, in
which different divisions can be compelled to make sacrifices, such as discounting
goods, to attract more shoppers. Lampert’s colleagues argued that his new
approach would create rival factions. Lampert disagreed. He believed that
decentralized structures, although they might appear “messy,” were more effective
and they produced better information. This would give him access to better data,
enabling him to assess more effectively the individual components of the company
and its assets. Lampert also argued that SOAR made it easier to divest businesses
and open new ones, such as the online “Shop Your Way” division.
Sears was an early adopter of online shopping. Lampert (who allegedly did all his
own shopping online, but had no previous experience in retailing) wanted to grow
this side of the business, and investment in the stores was cut back. He had
innovative ideas: smartphone apps, netbooks in stores, and a multiplayer game for
employees. He set up a company social network called Pebble, which he joined
under the pseudonym Eli Wexler, so that he could engage with employees.
However, he criticized other people’s posts and argued with store associates. When
staff worked out that Wexler was Lampert, unit managers began tracking how
often their employees were “Pebbling.” One group organized Pebble conversations
about random topics just so they would appear to be active users.
The Chairman
At the time of the merger, investors were confident that Lampert could turn the
two companies around. One analyst described him as “lightning fast, razor-sharp
smart, very direct.” Many of those who worked for him described him as brilliant
(although he could overestimate his abilities). The son of a lawyer, it was rumored
that he read corporate reports and finance textbooks in high school, before going
to Yale University. He hated focus groups and was sensitive to jargon such as
“vendor.” His brands chief once used the word consumer in a presentation.
Lampert interrupted, with a lecture on why he should have used the word
customer instead. He often argued with experienced retailers, but he had good
relationships with managers who had finance and technology backgrounds.
From 2008, Sears’ business unit heads had an annual personal videoconference
with the chairman. They went to a conference room at the headquarters in Illinois,
with some of Lampert’s senior aides, and waited while an assistant turned on the
screen on the wall opposite the U-shaped table and Lampert appeared. Lampert
ran these meetings from his homes in Greenwich, Connecticut; Aspen Colorado;
and subsequently Florida, earning him the nickname, “The Wizard of Oz.” He only
visited headquarters in person twice a year because he hated flying. While the unit
head worked through the PowerPoint presentation, Lampert didn’t look up, but
dealt with his emails or studied a spreadsheet until he heard something that he
didn’t like—which would then lead to lengthy questioning.
In 2012, he bought a family home in Miami Beach for $38 million and moved his
hedge fund to Florida. Some industry analysts felt that Sears’ problems were
exacerbated by Lampert’s penny-pinching cost savings, which stifled investment in
its stores. Instead of store improvements, Sears bought back stock and increased
its online presence. In 2013, Lampert became chairman and chief executive, the
company having gone through four other chief executives since the merger.
Page 9
The Outcomes
Instead of improving performance, the new model encouraged the divisions to turn
against each other. Lampert evaluated the divisions and calculated executives’
bonuses, using a measure called “business operating profit” (BOP). The result was
that individual business units focused exclusively on their own profitability, rather
than on the welfare of the company. For example, the clothing division cut labor to
save money, knowing that floor salespeople in other units would have to pick up
the slack. Nobody wanted to sacrifice business operating profits to increase
shopping traffic. The business was ravaged by infighting as the divisions—behaving
in the words of one executive like “warring tribes”—battled for resources.
Executives brought laptops with screen protectors to meetings so that their
colleagues couldn’t see what they were doing. There was no collaboration and no
cooperation. The Sears and Kmart brands suffered. Employees gave the new
organizational model a new name: SORE.
The reorganization also meant that Sears had to hire and promote dozens of
expensive chief financial officers and chief marketing officers. Many unit heads
underpaid middle managers to compensate. As each division had its own board of
directors, some presidents sat on five or six boards, which each met monthly. Top
executives were constantly in meetings.
The company had not been profitable since 2010 and posted a net loss of $170
million for the first quarter in 2011. In November that year, Sears discovered that
rivals planned to open on Thanksgiving at midnight, and Sears’ executives knew
that they should also open early. However, it wasn’t possible to get all the business
unit heads to agree, and the stores opened as usual, the following morning. One
vice president drove to the mall that evening and watched families flocking into
rival stores. When Sears opened the next day, cars were already leaving the parking
lot. That December, Sears announced the closure of over 100 stores. In February
2012, Sears announced the closure of its nine “The Great Indoors” stores.
From 2005 to 2013, Sears’ sales fell from $49.1 billion to £39.9 billion, the stock
value fell by 64 percent, and cash holdings hit a 10-year low. In May 2013, at the
annual shareholders’ meeting, Lampert pointed to the growth in online sales and
described a new app called “Member Assist” that customers could use to send
messages to store associates. The aim was “to bring online capabilities into the
stores.” Three weeks later, Sears reported a first-quarter loss of $279 million, and
the share price fell sharply. The online business contributed 3 percent of total
sales. Online sales were growing, however, through the “Shop Your Way” website.
Lampert argued that this was the future of Sears, and he wanted to develop “Shop
Your Way” into a hybrid of Amazon and Facebook. The company’s stock market
valuation fell from $30 billion in 2007 to $69 million in October 2018, while
carrying $5 billion in debt. Revenues in 2018 were $16.7 billion, down from $50.7
billion in 2007. Sears had around 3,500 stores in America in 2007, and young
shoppers rarely visited the 866 stores that remained in August 2018. Sears filed for
Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2018, and Lampert resigned as chief executive, but
stayed on as chairman.
Case Sources
Kimes, M. 2013. At Sears, Eddie Lampert’s warring divisions model adds Page 10
to the troubles. Bloomberg Businessweek, July 11.
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-07-11/at-sears-eddie-lampertswarring-divisions-model-adds-to-the-troubles.
Forbes (n.d.), #2057 Edward Lampert, http://www.forbes.com/profile/edwardlampert.
Sears Holdings, http://www.searsholdings.com.
Sears holdings, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sears_Holdings.
Shop Your Way, http://www.shopyourway.com.
The Economist. 2018. The collapse of an American retail giant. October 20.
https://www.economist.com/business/2018/10/20/the-collapse-of-anamerican-retail-giant.
On YouTube, find ‘The fall of a retail icon: why Americans stopped
shopping at Sears’ (2018, 6 minutes).
LO 1.1
The Detroit Story
Issues to Consider as You Read
This Story
1. Mike Duggan transformed Detroit without a “management textbook” plan for
change. Why do you think he was successful?
2. What aspects of Duggan’s change management style would be appropriate for
you to use in your organization?
3. To what extent can we generalize from managing change in a Midwestern
American city to managing change in commercial organizations?
The Context
Detroit, Michigan, has a population of over 4 million people. It was once the fourth
largest city in America. In the early twentieth century, Henry Ford and other
motorcar manufacturers made Detroit famous as the automotive capital of the
world; Detroit is also known as the Motor City and Motown. But decades of
decline, starting in the 1970s, made Detroit famous as America’s worst urban
disaster story, as an iconic city in America’s Midwestern rust belt.
The Problem
Oil crises in the 1970s meant that customers wanted smaller, fuel-efficient vehicles,
not the “gas guzzlers” that Detroit made. In the late twentieth century, with falling
employment in the motor industry and other businesses leaving, Detroit’s
population fell. As skilled workers found employment elsewhere, the proportion of
poor people in the city’s population increased. These factors led to a smaller tax
base, lower property prices, abandoned homes, and higher crime rates. The city
administration was corrupt, and several officials (including the mayor) were
imprisoned. In 2011, half of Detroit’s property owners failed to pay their taxes.
By 2013, Detroit was bankrupt, and $18.5 billion in debt. When the current mayor,
Mike Duggan, was elected in 2013, 40 percent of the city’s streetlights and 25
percent of the fire hydrants were not working and 40,000 properties were vacant.
The city had stark racial, economic, and social divisions. In the run-up to his
election, Duggan organized house parties with small groups of residents across
Detroit. In total, 8,000 people turned up to these meetings, and Duggan described
this experience as powerful:
You go to a house party at Mack and Beals, where the
people had an abandoned house on each side of their
property, and their streetlights were out, they have
one perspective on the city of Detroit. And then you
go to Indian Village and they have a different
perspective. And East English Village has a different
perspective. But the aspirations of the people of the
city are really the same. They want their
neighborhoods back. They want the police to show
up. They want the abandoned buildings dealt with.
And they want to be able to stay in their
neighborhood and not leave. They did teach me about
the different issues in those neighborhoods. They
were enormously educational. Anyone can come up to
me from any neighborhood in this city, and I’m able
to have a conversation about their problems and what
we’re going to do about them.
Page 11
The Solution
Duggan’s past experience involved turning around the Detroit Medical Center,
which had lost $500 million over the six years, before he was appointed chief
executive in 2004. The Center generated over $57 million net income in 2012.
Duggan’s priority as mayor of Detroit was once again to reverse the decline. He
describes his strategy as “focusing on the boring.”
Get the boring stuff right—streetlights, fire hydrants,
ambulance response times—and the rest falls into
place. If each individual person says, OK my job is to
get the grass cut in the parks; my job is to get the
tractors repaired 20 percent faster to get the grass cut
in the parks, turnaround occurs. People get into
public service because something in their heart wants
them to help people, and over time the bureaucracy
beats that idealism out of them. We are trying to
bring idealism back.
Duggan continued to hold weekly meetings with residents, in their homes, where
he asked them what he could fix next.
The Outcomes
Bankruptcy brought some debt relief. Wealthy Detroit families invested in
redevelopment, which brought sports teams and businesses back to the city.
Entrepreneurial start-ups came to Detroit for its low costs and light traffic and
because “rust belt” became trendy. Now the streetlights work, the fire hydrants
have been repaired, and the city’s population is growing again. In 2018, Duggan
bid to host the new U.S. headquarters for Amazon (subsequently awarded to
northern Virginia). “Mike Duggan is an unremarkable guy who has done
unremarkable things to achieve extraordinary results.”
Case Sources
Hagen, N. 2018. Halting Detroit’s decline. Financial Times, January 8, p. 24.
https://www.crainsdetroit.com/awards/mike-duggan-making-improbableinevitable.
On YouTube, find ‘The revitalization of Detroit — Talks at GS’, (2016,
15 minutes).
Tension and
Paradox: The State of the Art
LO 1.3
LO 1.4
tension
when two or more ideas are in opposition to each other
paradox
when two or more apparently correct ideas contradict each other
Page 12
From a management perspective, organizational change is seen as
problematic. How do we persuade people to accept new technologies that will
make their skills, knowledge, and working practices obsolete? How quickly can
people who find themselves with new roles, and new relationships, learn to operate
effectively after a major reorganization? How about this new system for capturing
and processing customer information? We prefer the old system because it works
just fine. Change can be difficult. Change that is not well managed, however, can
generate frustration and anger.
Most estimates put the failure rate of planned changes at around 60 to 70 percent
(Bucy et al., 2017; Stouten et al., 2018; Keller and Schaninger, 2019). There is,
therefore, no shortage of advice. However, that advice is both extensive and
fragmented. The literature—research and other commentary—can be difficult to
access, and to absorb, for several reasons:
many perspectives
There are contributions from different academic
disciplines and theoretical perspectives—there are several
literatures.
rich history
Work dating from the 1940s is still interesting and useful;
recent research has not necessarily made previous
commentary irrelevant.
range of concepts
The concepts that are used vary in scale, from schools of
thought or perspectives on change, through
methodologies, to single tools.
blurred boundaries Depending on the definitions of change and change
management in use, the boundaries of the topic vary
between commentators.
varied settings
LO 1.2
As with our stories, evidence and examples come from a
range of organizational types and contexts, using different
methodologies.
Many perspectives is the most significant of these properties. That is
usually seen as a problem—“the experts can’t agree.” We disagree
and prefer instead to emphasize the advantages in adopting a
multiple-perspectives approach to the management of organizational
change. First, a perspective that works in one context may not work
well in a different setting: We will explore contingency frameworks
in chapter 10. Second, this is a way of opening up debate:
“Should we define our problem in these terms, or in some other
way?” Third, multiple perspectives encourage the search for creative
solutions: “Can we combine ideas from two or more approaches and
adapt them to fit our context?” We will meet all these characteristics
again in later chapters.
The practicing manager, less interested in theoretical perspectives, wants to know
“what works?” It is difficult to give a clear answer to that question, too, for the
following reasons:
many variables
Even with simple changes, the impact is multidimensional,
and measuring “effectiveness” has to capture all the factors
to produce a complete picture.
slippery causality
It is difficult to establish cause and effect clearly across
complex processes that unfold over time, usually at the
same time as lots of other changes.
many stakeholders Different stakeholders have different views of the nature of
the problem, the appropriate solution, and the desirable
outcomes. Whose measures should we use?
Page 13
What works well in one setting may not work well in another. The broad
outlines of a good change strategy are widely known and accepted. However, what
matters is the detail, concerning how an intervention is designed for a particular
organization. For example, most practical guidelines begin by suggesting that
change will be more readily accepted if there is a “sense of urgency” that underpins
the business case for change. That sense of urgency can be seen in the issues facing
Starbucks, in the falling profitability at Sears, and in the many problems in Detroit.
Note, however, that there are many different ways in which a sense of urgency can
be established and communicated. Some methods emphasize the (negative)
“burning platform” that heightens anxiety and encourages escape. Other
approaches encourage a (positive) “burning ambition” to confront and solve the
problem.
What works depends on the context. It is rarely possible to just do what someone
else has done. Change is in part a rational process; we know what kinds of issues
need to be taken into account. Change is also a creative process; it is always
necessary to design—to create—an approach that is consistent with local
circumstances. However, creatively adapted, such accounts of how other
organizations have handled change can be helpful in addressing similar problems
in other settings.
LO 1.3
The field of change management is also rich in tensions and
paradoxes. We will explore six of these briefly, in the form of key
questions. These issues will also appear in later chapters. You will
probably encounter further tensions in your reading across the
subject and in practice. How these tensions and paradoxes are
managed has implications for the process and outcomes of change.
Transformational Change, or Sweat
the Small Stuff?
Where to start—with sweeping radical changes, or a gradual process of incremental
initiatives? We will explore a simple model for “locating” the scale of change in the
next section. However, faced with geopolitical, economic, demographic,
sociocultural, and technological developments, most organizations seem to think
in terms of deep transformational change. The Sears story reflects this view,
implementing whole-organizational changes to deal with survival threats. In
contrast, Roz Brewer at Starbucks began by focusing on operational details
—“behind the coffee bar”—and Mike Duggan turned Detroit around by focusing on
“the boring stuff.” A focus on transformation may mean that minor changes are
seen as less valuable and important and are overlooked in favor of “high impact”
initiatives. This could be a mistake. Moore and Buchanan (2013), for example,
demonstrate how an initiative designed to fix small problems quickly in a hospital
generated major improvements for almost no cost. In this case, “sweating the small
stuff” was an enabling strategy, getting people involved (the small problems were
identified by staff), establishing a reputation for getting things done, and creating
the platform for further developments. Shallower changes can facilitate and
complement the deeper initiatives, and evidence suggests that these should not be
underestimated.
Systematic Tools, or Messy
Political Process?
If one looks below the surface of cases of managed
change, one can always discern the ever-present effect
of the “other side” of organizational life. The
ambiguities, uncertainties, ambivalences, tensions,
politics and intrigues are always involved, and are
influential and addressed in some manner—however
half-cocked, fudged, guessed at, messed up or little
understood.
(Badham, 2013, p. 24)
Page 14
Most practical guidelines on change implementation ( chapters 9 and
10) suggest a systematic sequence of steps, with support from diagnostic tools
and assessments ( chapters 4 and 5). We have already suggested that
change is a creative process as well as a rational one. It is also a political process.
Organizations are political systems, and because there are often “winners and
losers,” change is a political process. The systematic tools-based approach, the
creativity, and the politics work hand in hand. We will explore the political skills
that change managers require later ( chapter 12). It is important to recognize
that, despite what the textbook or the change management consultant says, those
systematic tools are only part of the answer to, “how to do it, and how to get it
right.”
Organizational Capabilities, or
Personal Skills?
Starbucks’ founder Howard Schultz grew the company on a combination of instinct
and intuition. Roz Brewer brought a different style, based on the evidence, data,
and the numbers. Either of these approaches works well in the right context,
particularly with regard to whether or not the organization will welcome change.
We thus need to pay attention to organizational readiness and capabilities, as well
as individual personalities and skills, to understand the change drivers and
barriers ( chapter 5). The skills of change agents are, of course, also important.
However, skilled change agents struggle in rules-based organizations, and agile
organizations still need capable change agents. We will explore the capabilities of
effective change managers in chapter 12.
Rapid Change, or the Acceleration
Trap?
The pace of change—social, political, economic, technological—appears to have
accelerated. Can organizations keep up? There is now a considerable amount of
advice on how to speed up change, to accelerate the pace. Rapid change, however,
can cause problems. Can people keep up? Change too fast, and you run the danger
of destabilizing the organization and creating staff burnout (Buchanan and
Macaulay, 2019). There is also, therefore, advice on how to manage “painless
change,” and how to avoid “the acceleration trap” (see chapter 8).
Change Has Never Been So Fast
That this is an age of change is an expression heard frequently
today. Never before in the history of mankind have so many and so
frequent changes occurred. These changes that we see taking
place all about us are in that great cultural accumulation which is
man’s social heritage. It has already been shown that these
cultural changes were in earlier times rather infrequent, but that in
modern times they have been occurring faster and faster until
today mankind is almost bewildered in his effort to keep adjusted
to these ever-increasing social changes. This rapidity of social
change may be due to the increase in inventions which in turn is
made possible by the accumulative nature of material culture [i.e.,
technology]. (Ogburn, 1922, pp. 199–200).
Change Leader, or Distributed
Leadership?
There is a personality at the heart of each of our stories: Roz Brewer, Eddie
Lampert, Mike Duggan. It seems that the fate of change is in the hands of the
leader. This is rarely the case. It is widely assumed that change needs a champion,
a senior figure, who sets the direction, inspires others, and drives the project. A lot
of work has gone into identifying the competencies of this “ideas champion,” the
effective change leader. This parallels work on the capabilities of effective leaders
in general (although the evidence says that leadership success is highly
contingent). However, in most organizations, change is not a solo performance but
a team effort. There is usually a “guiding coalition” of more or less senior
managers, who guarantee permission for change, oversee progress, and unblock
problems. Different models of change delivery units have evolved ( chapter 12).
Research has shown how change is often driven by large numbers of organizational
members, through “distributed leadership” or “leadership constellations,” or
“leadership in the plural.” As you read the case history “The Vanuatu Plastics Ban,”
note the number of individuals, groups, agencies, government ministers, and
government departments contributing to this change. Vanuatu is a nation state,
not a company, but this distributed approach to implementing change is typical.
Page 15
The Vanuatu Plastics Ban
Vanuatu in the South Pacific is made up of 80 islands stretching
over 1,000 kilometers, with a population of 300,000 people. Three
and a half hours flight time from Sydney on the east coast of
Australia, Vanuatu’s coral reefs and World War II wrecks are
popular with scuba divers.
Ocean plastic is a global problem, harming marine life and
polluting the food chain. It is estimated that by 2050, there will be
more plastic by volume in the world’s oceans than fish. Most of this
marine pollution comes from East Asian and Pacific countries. The
United Nations has “declared war” on marine litter, noting that a
garbage truck of plastic is dumped into the ocean every minute.
Vanuatu makes a tiny contribution to global plastic waste.
However, the waste damages the islands’ ecosystems and
biodiversity. Vanuatu hosted cleanup days to develop awareness of
the problems that plastics created. But after these cleanups, the
plastic waste would gradually return.
Solution: First Phase
The war on plastic in Vanuatu started with a campaign organized
by Christelle Thieffry and Georges Cumbo. Having seen the plastic
rubbish on the beaches around the capital Port Vila, they launched
their Facebook page in March 2017, calling for a ban on plastic
bags. Their Facebook campaign attracted a lot of support, so they
launched a petition in May 2017, gaining 2,000 signatures. Their
efforts attracted the attention of politicians. In July 2017, the
Prime Minister, Charlot Salwai, announced the government’s
intention to eradicate plastic bags within a year.
In 2018, Vanuatu banned single-use plastics, including bags and
polystyrene containers, with fines of $175 to $900 for violations
(World Bank, 2019). When the ban was introduced, it was resisted.
But people became accustomed to the idea, and shops became
more comfortable about not giving shoppers plastic bags. Ellen
Jimmy, a stallholder in Port Vila’s market, said that her business
had not been harmed by the ban, and customers rarely complained
(Visser, 2019).
Solution: Second Phase
Donna Kalfatak became Director of Vanuatu’s Department of
Environmental Protection and Conservation in 2019. To implement
the second phase of the plastics ban, she worked with Vanuatu’s
waste management team, the Ministry of Climate Change, and the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Centre for Environment, Fisheries,
and Aquaculture Science conducted a waste audit and concluded
that the ban should be extended to disposable diapers, drinking
straws, grocery packaging, Styrofoam food containers, and plastic
cutlery. Christina Shaw and her colleagues at Dive Against Debris
gathered further data. The Minister of Foreign Affairs and External
Trade, Ralph Regenvanu, announced the expanded list of banned
items, endorsed by the Council of Ministers, in December 2019.
The Outcomes
The ban had an immediate effect, with locals noting the absence of
trash on the capital’s streets and urban areas. The ban was helped
by the islands’ handicrafts tradition of making biodegradable bags
woven from pandanus fronds. Sales of these bags grew,
benefitting those who made them (Bulvanua Arts and Crafts
Cooperative members). But bottle caps and chip packets still wash
up on the beaches, and plastic bags and water bottles have not
disappeared. To evade the ban on bags, some shops packaged
fruits and vegetables in plastic netting. These will eventually be
banned, too.
Page 16
Foreign Minister Ralph Regenvanu thinks that Vanuatu’s
success may be explained by the fact that it is a small country.
Only one company that makes plastic products and the
government have helped them to adapt to the new regulations.
Regenvanu says, “It’s because we’re so small that we can do it.
We’re like a little laboratory for being able to do things like this.
One of the advantages here is that it is so small that you can do
things that you may think impossible in other places” (Visser,
2019).
Case Sources
Visser, N. 2019. Vanuatu has one of the world’s strictest plastic
bans. It’s about to get tougher. Huffington Post, February 24.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/entry/vanuatuplastic-ban-law-ocean-pollution_n_5c6ee757e4b0f40774cd355d.
World Bank. 2019. Meet the innovator battling plastic waste in
Vanuatu: Donna Kalfatak. June 4.
https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2019/06/0
4/meet-the-innovators-battling-plastic-waste-in-vanuatudonna-kalfatak.
Find on YouTube, ‘Local Impact Story Big Blue Vanuatu’ (2018, 1.38
minutes)
Learning Lessons, or Implementing
Lessons?
Change following crises, accidents, misconduct, failures, and other extreme events
often does not happen. There is always an investigation, which produces
recommendations for preventing such an event from happening again (or at least
reducing the probability). The evidence shows that those recommendations are
often ignored. One might assume that, in such circumstances, change would be
welcome, rapid, and straightforward. The distinction between passive learning
(identifying lessons) and active learning (implementing changes) is important
here. The latter does not automatically follow. Why is that not the case? In
exploring “why organizations change’ in chapter 3, we will also consider why
organizations do not change, when perhaps they should.
The perceptive reader will have noticed that the answer to each of these six
paradoxes, these six questions, is in every case “both.” We need big change and
small change. Change is at the same time a systematic process and a political one.
We need both organizational and individual capabilities. The pace of change must,
if possible, vary with circumstances. It almost always takes “a cast of characters”
that includes champions and supporters to drive change. There is no point in
learning lessons if we do not then implement them. As noted earlier, the way in
which these tensions are confronted and managed both drives and constrains the
change process and influences the outcomes.
Assessing Depth of
Change
LO 1.4
We have noted the tension between transformational change and the small stuff.
Depth is one metaphor that can be used to categorize change. Figure 1.1
presents a framework for that assessment.
Page 17
FIGURE 1.1
Assessing Depth of Change
At the bottom of Figure 1.1 sits the “small stuff” that may not even be regarded
as “change.” In the middle of the scale, we have “sustaining innovation” that
involves improving on current practices. At the top of the scale is “disruptive
innovation,” which involves radically new business models and working methods
(Christensen et al., 2015). Clearly, in considering change in an organization, the
proposed solution should be consistent with the diagnosis of the problem. Using
shallow changes to address strategic challenges may not be appropriate.
Attempting to solve minor difficulties with disruptive innovation could consume
disproportionate amounts of time and resources.
Shallow changes are often easier to implement than frame-breaking changes.
Transformational “off the scale” changes are more challenging because they are
costly and time consuming and affect larger numbers of people in more significant
ways, potentially generating greater resistance. However, in most organizations,
several changes at different depths are likely to be under way at the same time (see
the box “ Turnaround at Etsy”). Many large organizations have thus
established corporate project or program management offices (PMOs), or delivery
units, to support and coordinate their multiple initiatives (Ward and Daniel, 2013;
Wylie and Sturdy, 2018).
Page 18
One of the tensions in this framework concerns the ambitions of the
individual manager. When one is interviewed for the next promotion, stories about
the impact of the deep transformations for which one has been responsible are
typically more impressive than stories about minor stuff. If an initiative looks like
“change for the sake of change,” find out who will be adding it to their resumé.
Turnaround at Etsy
When an organization is in trouble, should management focus on
changing the high-level strategy or on fixing “the small stuff”?
Here is an example of a company that did both, while cutting the
number of change initiatives that were running.
Founded in 2005 and based in New York, Etsy is an e-commerce
company linking customers with suppliers of handmade and
vintage items such as jewelry, bags, clothing, toys, art, craft
supplies, and furniture, with 60 million items for sale at any given
time. But in this sector, Etsy is a small company, with less than
900 staff, competing with large e-commerce companies (such as
Amazon Handmade), which offer fast, consistent, and reliable
online shopping.
When Josh Silverman became chief executive in 2015, Etsy was
making a loss. Sales were slowing. A major investor wanted the
company to be sold if business did not improve. Etsy had 800
active business development initiatives. Silverman cut half of
these, and most of the rest were fast-tracked to completion in
weeks rather than months or years. Technical resources were
moved to a cloud platform to give the technical team more time to
focus on Etsy’s issues. In his first few weeks in the job, Silverman
made a quarter of the employees redundant—a decision he
described as “tough love.” Etsy has 40 million active buyers, but 60
percent make a purchase only once a year, with the average
shopper spending $100 annually. With its ethos of “keeping
commerce human,” Etsy has a loyal base of customers and
suppliers. To grow, Etsy has to reach beyond this core group.
Silverman also focused on the “nuts and bolts” of the online
business. An autocorrect feature was added to the website’s search
box. Customers were reassured about the safety of using credit
cards for online payments. Silverman made sellers use the
company’s own payments system, allowing Etsy to charge
transaction fees and standardize the checkout procedure. Tools to
support the sellers were introduced, including a dashboard to track
orders and streamline payments. The search algorithm was
redesigned: While it used to prioritize low-value items that sold
more often, it now finds higher-priced items of better quality,
encouraging shoppers to consider buying a desk, for example,
when searching for a desk lamp. The new algorithm also prioritizes
sellers who offer free shipping.
What Silverman has not changed, however, is Etsy’s youthful,
idealistic organizational culture. The headquarters in Brooklyn has
a bicycle garage, local food in the cafeteria, and a plan to offset its
shipping-related carbon dioxide emissions. Sales revenue rose by
65 percent over two years, to $604 million in 2018. The company
has been profitable for two years, and its stock value was five
times higher in 2019 than when Silverman took over (based on
Wahba, 2019).
What’s Coming Up: A
Roadmap
LO 1.4
This text is divided into three parts. Part 1, including this chapter, sets out the
groundwork and is concerned with understanding and diagnosing change and
with different images of change management. Part 2 focuses on
implementation, exploring the substance of change, the role of vision, managing
resistance, developing communication strategies, and several approaches to the
implementation process. Part 3 examines two running threads, which relate to
all the previous chapters. The first concerns managing the sustainability of change,
which we argue has to be considered from the beginning, and not managed as an
afterthought. The second running thread is an assessment of what it takes to be an
effective change manager—which is, of course, the theme of the book as a whole.
Figure 1.2 sets out a roadmap, an overview of the content.
Page 19
FIGURE 1.2
To Be an Effective Change Manager, This Is
What You Need . . .
Page 20
One of the main assumptions underpinning this roadmap is that our images of the
roles of change leaders affect how we approach the other issues on the map.
Remember, for example, how the different change leadership styles adopted by
Roz Brewer at Starbucks, Eddy Lampert at Sears, and Mike Duggan in Detroit
colored their approaches to designing and implementing the changes that they
wanted to implement. This explains why “images,” chapter 2, is at the center
of the figure. However, by necessity, a book such as this follows a linear sequence
for presentational reasons. This is not necessarily the sequence in which change
leaders will need to consider these issues or in which instructors will wish to
introduce and explore these themes. What will work best depends on context. In
some cases, the question of “vision” may be fundamental to the change process,
and it would be unwise to proceed until that issue has been resolved. In many
change models and textbooks, the question of sustainability is presented at the
end, as it is here. However, if sustainability is not built into change implementation
from the beginning, then this may become an unnecessary problem.
Communication is another issue that is typically involved throughout the change
process.
This roadmap comes with an added caution. If you follow a recipe correctly, that
cake should be perfect; enjoy. However, success is not guaranteed by following a
set of change implementation guidelines. There are two main reasons for this.
First, designing a change process is a task with both technical and creative
components; blending these components can in many circumstances be a
challenging business involving much trial and error. Second, what works depends
on organizational context, which is not stable, but which can change suddenly and
in unpredictable ways. External conditions can change, intensifying or removing
the pressures for change. Budget considerations may mean that resources are
diverted elsewhere. Key stakeholders change their minds and shift from supporting
to resisting. There are numerous factors that are not under the control of change
leaders, and things go wrong despite careful planning and preparation. This is one
reason why, as chapter 12 explains, resilience or “bouncebackability” is a core
attribute for effective change leaders.
Change Diagnostic: The
Starbucks Story
LO 1.1
Here are the three questions that you were asked to consider while reading Roz
Brewer’s story, followed by our answers.
1. To what extent can management expertise in general, and change
management expertise in particular, translate from one company
and sector to another?
Page 21
Critics argued that Brewer, with experience of the big-box retailer
Walmart, was not a good choice for Starbucks’ coffee shop business. But she is
not the only executive to transfer her capabilities to a completely different
sector. Before joining and managing the turnaround of the computer company
IBM, Lou Gerstner worked for American Express, a financial services company,
and Nabisco, a cookie and snacks manufacturer. Most management skills are
“portable”: strategic thinking, commercial awareness, communication and
listening, diagnostics, data analysis, problem-solving, teamworking—and, of
course, change management expertise. Gerstner may have had a limited
understanding of how computers work or how they were made, but he had
people around him who did and on whose expertise he could draw. It was
probably easier for Brewer to develop an operational understanding of
Starbucks’ business.
2. What elements of Brewer’s approach to change management would
be appropriate for you to use in your organization?
The main elements of Brewer’s approach were:
Focus on the evidence, not on intuition.
Understand in detail how the company meets the needs of its customers.
Be prepared to make tough, controversial decisions.
When the company makes a mistake, apologize openly and take remedial
action.
Develop rapport and empathy with employees.
See the organization as a part of the community, not just as a bunch of sales
outlets.
3. Do you think that senior executives should be closely involved with
the frontline day-to-day operations of the business as Brewer was?
This is a difficult judgment call. If you want to make improvements, it helps if
you have a good understanding of the details of the operations that you want to
change. Often, top management is accused of being too remote from the day-today, of not understanding frontline operations, and of making poor (or even
unworkable) decisions as a result. Frontline staff members often complain that
they never see top management or that any visits management does make are
too short to be worthwhile. Understanding the operational details of the
business can thus enhance management credibility and establish goodwill with
employees on the frontline. However, acquiring that understanding takes time
for someone not familiar with the business. Brewer spent three months doing
little else. Shouldn’t top management focus on more important strategic issues?
There is also a danger that frontline and middle managers will feel threatened
by a senior executive appearing to do their jobs. If you want to know what is
going wrong, why not ask them, rather than doing it for yourself? It is helpful to
pause and consider the benefits and disadvantages, before dropping into the
operational details, as Brewer did. Should you draw on the expertise of the
current team instead of doing this yourself?
Change Diagnostic: The
Sears Story
LO 1.1
Is this the Sears story or the Eddie Lampert story? One commentator said that, as
well as the other issues facing retailers, Sears had a unique problem—Lampert
himself. Here are the four questions that you were asked to consider while reading
the Sears story, followed by our answers.
1. How would you describe Eddie Lampert’s leadership style?
Lampert could be described as a transformational leader. He was highly
intelligent and decisive. He was innovative, concerning both the company
structure and its service delivery. He had a clear and interesting vision for the
online future of the business. Check out Shop Your Way for yourself.
However, he also appears to have been an autocratic leader. There is
Page 22
little evidence to suggest that he either sought or considered the views
of others, including his senior colleagues, before making business-critical
decisions. He was something of a recluse, preferring to meet with his division
heads infrequently and through a video link (and he rarely allowed media
interviews). His “engagement” with staff through the company’s social network
was more confrontational than consultative.
2. How would you assess his approach to implementing major
organizational change—in this case restructuring the whole
company with a new organizational model?
If rapid action is necessary to rescue an organization that is experiencing
extreme difficulties, then an autocratic approach may be appropriate. It takes
time to pause, to ask everyone else what they think should be done, to process
that feedback, to develop a more widely informed decision, to check that with
those involved, and then to implement the approach. By that time, the company
could be bust. Lampert’s “crisis management” style may thus have been
appropriate immediately after the merger. Although profitability was declining,
it is debatable whether that approach was appropriate in 2008.
A more prudent approach in this case would probably have been to listen to the
views of colleagues, at all levels of the company, and to take those into account,
before imposing that reorganization. There could have been many other ways in
which to achieve the required end results, including improved divisional and
corporate performance, and data transparency. Whatever restructuring was
implemented, it was probably going to be more successful if those who were
affected understood the decision, had contributed significantly to it, and had
agreed with it. “Behavioral flexibility” is one of the core capabilities of managers
and leaders at all levels in an organization. This means adapting one’s overall
approach and personal style to fit the circumstances. Lampert did not do that.
3. On balance, how would you assess his new organizational model?
From 2005 to 2013, the company’s sales, profits, and share value fell. Although
not mentioned in the case account, many experienced executives left the
company, frustrated by the impact of the restructuring. Divisional collaboration
was stifled, and it appears that the competition stimulated by the new
organizational model was not healthy competition. The model, therefore,
appears to have been damaging to the company’s performance and to its
reputation. The new model, however, made it easier for Lampert to set up the
online business as a division run independently of the other units. The balance
of benefits and costs, however, appears to be weighted on the costs side.
4. What lessons about managing organizational change can we take
from this experience and apply to other organizations, in this or
other sectors?
Change leaders need to adapt their style to fit the context. An autocratic style
can rapidly resolve a crisis. In other circumstances, “decisive action” may leave
others feeling that they have been excluded, and they may decide to undermine
decisions that they feel were ill-advised (especially where the approach was
considered to be idiosyncratic), as well as imposed on them.
Page 23
Change Diagnostic: The
Detroit Story
LO 1.1
Here are the three questions that you were asked to consider while reading Mike
Duggan’s story, followed by our answers.
1. Mike Duggan transformed Detroit without a “management textbook”
plan for change. Why do you think he was successful?
First, Duggan did not have a detailed plan to “sell” to Detroit’s residents and
employees. He had a single, clear aim—to reverse the city’s decline. The
operational details came from the residents themselves, and most, if not all, of
the employees were also Detroit residents. Instead of telling the residents what
he wanted to do, he asked them what they wanted him to do. As he was doing
what the residents were asking him to do, there was no resistance to the changes
that he made. Second, the changes that he introduced were immediately visible
and beneficial: The streetlights and the fire hydrants worked again, and the city’s
population started to grow. Third, he won support for these changes from more
affluent residents, creating a “virtuous circle,” which enticed entrepreneurs to
the city, which became fashionable. This could be described as a textbook case of
participative change management, although there was no formally documented
change strategy.
2. What aspects of Duggan’s change management style would be
appropriate for you to use in your organization?
Duggan’s change management style had four components. First, he had previous
successful turnaround experience and sincerely believed that he could do a
similarly good job for Detroit. Second, he was willing to listen and to learn from
those on the ground before launching into a major change program. Third, he
paid attention to the operational details of the city’s infrastructure, in the belief
that minor improvements would be cumulative and transformational. Fourth, he
trusted the public-service idealism of the city’s employees. Self-belief,
willingness to listen, attention to detail, trust in others—are those attributes
useful for you in your change management role?
3. To what extent can we generalize from managing change in a
Midwestern American city to managing change in commercial
organizations?
Can we take general advice from a sample of one? The answer to this question,
traditionally, is “no.” But this is misleading. Of course, we can. We are always
looking at single instances and asking ourselves, “Would that work for me or for
my organization?” The technical term for this is naturalistic generalization; we
naturally consider whether or not the behaviors and methods and techniques
that we see, in single examples, would apply to us in some way. We can ask
whether Duggan’s approach to Detroit’s residents would apply to a chief
executive’s approach to employees. We can consider how Duggan’s focus on the
“small, boring stuff” could contribute to a change program in a commercial
organization or public-sector agency. Duggan’s belief in the idealism of his
employees applies in other parts of the public sector (healthcare, for example),
and also in some commercial organizations.
Page 24
EXERCISE 1.1
Writing Your Own Story of Change
LO 1.1
Think of a change that you have experienced, in either your work or
personal life. We would like to ask you to write a story about that
experience. Here is a definition of a story to help you:
A story expresses how and why life changes. It begins with a situation
in which life is relatively in balance: You come to work day after day,
week after week, and everything’s fine. You expect it will go on that
way. But then there’s an event—in screenwriting, we call it the
“inciting incident”—that throws life out of balance. You get a new job,
or the boss dies of a heart attack, or a big customer threatens to
leave. The story goes on to describe how, in an effort to restore
balance, the protagonist’s subjective expectations crash into an
uncooperative objective reality. A good storyteller describes what it’s
like to deal with these opposing forces, calling on the protagonist to
dig deeper, work with scarce resources, make difficult decisions, take
action despite risks, and ultimately discover the truth. (McKee, 2003,
p. 52)
Plan A
Write down your experience of change in about one page, and then
answer these questions:
What made this experience a “story”?
What lessons for managing change can you take from your story?
Compare these with the lessons from the Starbucks, Sears, and
Detroit stories. Which are the same?
From your experience, what new lessons have you added,
particularly for future changes in which you might be involved?
In small groups, share your lessons with colleagues. Which
lessons are similar, and what are the differences among you?
What three main conclusions can you take from these stories
about managing change?
Plan B
In small groups of around four to six people, ask each group
member to tell their story of change, taking only three or four
minutes each. Record key elements of each story on flipchart paper.
When everyone has told their story, answer the following questions:
What are the common themes and issues across these stories?
What are the differences between these stories?
Of the change lessons from Starbucks, Sears, and Detroit, which
are revealed in the groups’ stories and which are absent? What
are the implications of this?
Are there any further lessons embedded in these stories that
could apply to future changes in which group members may be
involved?
What three main conclusions can you take from these stories
about managing change?
Page 25
Additional Reading
Barsoux, J. L., and Narasimhan, A. 2017. What everyone gets wrong about change
management. Harvard Business Review 95(6):78–85. Notes that three-quarters of
change efforts are unsuccessful. The answer, they argue, is to align three factors:
the catalyst for transformation, the organization’s “quest” or strategy, and
leadership capabilities. In other words, successful change depends on a
combination of organizational and individual characteristics.
Christensen, C. M., and Carlile, P. R. 2009. Course research: Using the case
method to build and teach management theory. Academy of Management
Learning and Education 8(2):240–51. Explains how to use stories and case
studies in management teaching, to develop, test, and improve theory.
Colvile, R. 2016. The great acceleration: How the world is getting faster, faster.
London: Bloomsbury. Argues that almost everything we do—walking, travelling,
communicating, processing information, buying things, you name it—is getting
faster. He also claims that this is beneficial, because we are wealthier and better
informed than we were. But organizations that are not able to keep up with the
pace of change will suffer, and many of us now feel overwhelmed by too much
information.
Gabriel, Y. 2019. Case studies as narratives: Reflections prompted by the case of Victor, the wild child of Aveyron. Journal of Management Inquiry 28(4):403–
408. Argues from an unusual basis, that stories and case studies can give us
considerable insights and are thus valuable vehicles for developing and sharing
management knowledge.
Hughes, M. 2011. Do 70 per cent of all organizational change initiatives really fail?
Journal of Change Management 11(4):451–64. Challenges the evidence behind the
argument that so many change initiatives fail, suggesting that this has been
exaggerated.
Roundup
Successful change is not guaranteed, despite the care and attention given to
implementation planning. If there is one firm prediction that we can make about
change, it is that it will go wrong, however meticulously designed. Why? By
definition, we are always doing it for the first time—in this organization, facing
these problems, with these resources, given the past history—and so on. One
cannot confidently predict what will happen. The change leader is always building
the plane as it flies. This is not an argument against planning; it is an argument for
recognizing when things are going wrong, learning from that, and adapting
accordingly. So this text does not set out to tell change leaders what to do. Such
perspectives perpetuate the problem by creating the illusion that the outcomes can
be kept under control if carefully planned steps are followed. Most people’s
experience of organizations suggest that they are complex and untidy—and
political—arenas. Acknowledging these characteristics is the first step to taking a
more realistic view of what change leaders can expect to achieve. As discussed in
chapter 2, it is more appropriate to think in terms of shaping the change
process rather than controlling it. We hope that reflective change leaders will
accept that choices must be made for change to proceed and that these are
informed choices, not adopted on the grounds that there is one best way to
approach the process.
Here is a short summary of the key points that we would like you to take
from this chapter, in relation to each of the learning objectives:
LO 1.1
*
Page 26
Understand how stories of change can contribute to our
knowledge of theory and practice.
Stories can be read as process narratives, which explain what
happened in a given context. These explanations are therefore
theories of change, pointing to the combination of factors
interacting over time, leading to more or less successful change.
Although those theories cannot be copied simply to other
organizations and contexts, they are still a rich source of general
lessons, and aspects of one organization’s approach can be
adapted to fit other organizational contexts, if appropriate.
LO 1.2
*
Explain why managing organizational change is both a
creative and a rational process.
As with management practice in many other areas, what is going
to work well when it comes to implementing change depends on
the organizational context. Although general guidelines help to
identify the factors to take into consideration, the details have to
be determined by local, informed management and staff
judgment. That is a creative process.
LO 1.3
*
Identify the main tensions and paradoxes in managing
organizational change.
Should we focus on transformational changes, or do we need to
sweat the small stuff as well? Should change be a rational,
systematic process, or do we need to recognize the political
dimension? What is more important, organizational capabilities
or individual skills in implementing change? Should we
accelerate the changes or adopt a more measured pace? Do we
rely on one change champion or recognize the distributed
contributions of many change agents? Once we have learned the
lessons from a crisis or other extreme event, how do we ensure
that these are put into practice?
LO 1.4
*
Evaluate the strengths and limitations of our current
understanding of this field.
There is a significant amount of commentary, but little
consensus. Most of the advice says much the same thing, but the
failure rate of change is still high. The commentary is highly
fragmented and includes multiple perspectives and
conceptualizations. Evidence comes from a range of different
settings and approaches, and contributions from the last century
are still relevant today. Establishing cause and effect with regard
to change and outcomes is made difficult by the many variables
and the many stakeholders typically involved.
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Journal (November):29–31.
Page 27
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