1. Overview and Resistance to Change Change affects individuals directly and indirectly in this rapidly changing world and directly impacts organizations. Reasons for change range from mandated to geopolitical pressures. In previous modules, we identified what changes when organizations experience change caused from expansion to downsizing, we outlined a number of key diagnoses for change, and we introduced causes for resistance to change. Consider each of the following boxes as they relate to organizational innovation and change on a regional, national, and global scale. As a “refresher,” think about two or three points that come to mind for each of the topics we have covered thus far. Then keep reading to explore resistance to change and implementing change in more detail. Resistance to Change Employees do not naturally resist change, but they often resist change because of the way change is implemented. As stated by Specter (2013), a professor of strategic change management and business model innovations: Employee response to change is not either/or, not “for” or “against.” The reactions of employees can be from commitment to aggressive resistance. Each of these reactions to change helps shape the behavior of individuals and, ultimately, the success of a change effort. (p. 10) The following table illustrates the continuum of responses and reactions to change Commitment Involves a strong emotional attachment to the goals of the organization and the aims of the change effort Involvement Involves a willingness to participate in the behaviors, being called for by the change effort Support Involves speaking on behalf of the change effort without taking any other explicit actions to promote the effort Apathy Represents a neutral zone in which individuals know about the change effort and engage in no behavior either to support or oppose it Passive resistance A mild form of opposition that involves a willingness to voice reservation or even threatening to resign if the change goes through Active resistance Involves behaviors that block or impede change, usually by behaving in ways that contradict the goals of the change effort Aggressive resistance Involves purposeful sabotage and subversion of the change effort (Exhibit 1-4, Spector, 2013, p. 10) Managing Resistance to Change Though there is no best way to manage resistance to change, careful diagnostics can assist in identifying the root cause or causes of the resistance. Strategies can then be employed to manage resistance. Click on the strategies below to explore the advantages and disadvantages associated with each strategy (Palmer, Dunford, & Akin, 2016, p. 267). Strategies.docx 2. Implementing Change It is crucial to understand the organizational development (OD) approach to implementing change. The Concept of Organization Development (OD) Organizational Development (OD) is a field of research, theory, and practice dedicated to expanding the knowledge and effectiveness of people to accomplish more successful organizational change and performance. It is explained in more detail in the following video: What is Organizational Development? OD is a process of continuous diagnosis, action planning, implementation, and evaluation, with the goal of transferring knowledge and skills to organizations to improve their capacity for solving problems and managing future change. There are extensions of the OD approach that include appreciative inquiry and positive organizational scholarship. Appreciative Inquiry (AI) Positive Organizational Scholarship (POS) References Palmer, I., Dunford, R., & Akin, G. (2016). Managing organizational change: A multiple perspectives approach (3rd ed.). New York: McGraw Hill. Running head: MONEYBALL 1 Critical Thinking: Moneyball Case Study Fallon Urquhart Course Number (MGT351) – Organizational Innovation and Change Colorado State University – Global Campus Dr. Corey Mathis October 22, 2016 MONEYBALL 2 MoneyBall Implanting a change is different on its’ own but when there is excessive resistance the change becomes more difficult. The best way to approach this issue is to figure out why there is resistance by communication. Knowing why the resistance is occurring is how a manager or organization can figure out how to resolve the issue and allow the change to occur. It is important that an organization cares and understands the point of view from their employees about change, especially if they want to have a smooth change process. Forcing a change on to an organization is going to have a higher resistance rate then allowing the change to occur with the input of the employees. There are always different ways to handle change. When everyone is on the same page and agree you will see less resistance and more desire to allow the change to occur. Moneyball Change happens in every organization even in sports teams. The book Moneyball describes how a change occurred to assess a player’s value and revolution Major League Baseball. This change was accepted by some but resisted by many more. There are factors that come in to affect that makes change so hard to accept and some of those factors took place in this story. This story talks about a team that had consistent wins but did not the funds like the other major league baseball teams (Lewis, 2004). Without the instant proof of guaranteed wins there was still much resistance for the change. Applying this sabermetrics Beane was able to use the Oakland A’s as an example of success for this change and that it could help the rest of the league. Billy Beane never gave up on this effort and continued to try and show the rest of the league why this change would benefit everyone who was involved. Despite constant resistance from almost everyone he never gave up. Billy Beane was able to take his idea and implement it to his own team in order to proof his idea would be successful. MONEYBALL 3 Resisting Change Moneyball tells about that change in the MLB using sabermetrics to assess the player’s talent based on past performances instead of future potential. With the help of Peter Brand, Billy Beane created this new method to find the right player based on their talents and not by the amount of funds a team has. This caused a lot of resistance from several different sources such as environmental, organizational, and situational factors. This change threatened its traditions that could have negative outcomes with media and fans (Lewis, 2004). With the lowest financial resources Beane implemented this method on the Oakland A’s having incredible success. Even though there was obvious success Major League Baseball still resisted against this change. On top losing traditions the league was also concerned with the scouting methods and the limitations it would set on them (Craig, 2014). With so much resistance it is easy want to give up but Beane was confident this change would better everyone so he continued on with resolving the resistance. Behaviors with Resistance In Moneyball there was a lot of power plays being made to bypass the resistance. When Billy Beane staff showed resistance to the change he took advantage of his authority as a general manager and simply ignored this resistance and insisted they continued to work towards making this change happen. When that’s easy to do with staff members the same method could not be used towards other owners (Weidner, 2015). To address the resistance the owners were showing Beane decided to meet with then on a continuous bases and played of his desire to win a championship. However, without being able to provide strong evidence that this method is needed or guaranteed it was difficult to convince them (Lewis, 2004). This caused them to refuse the method and causing Beane to come up with a new approach. Even Art How, an important MONEYBALL 4 manager to the league, refused to play the players chosen with this method and used his own players that he prefers. All the resisted the change Beane was trying to make refused to believe that a change was even needed, mostly because they were the ones with the higher budgets. They did not want to change something that was going well for them even if it meant more wins. Emotions We often hear to not let our emotions get the best of us. That is true, especially when trying to implement change. Billy Beane had to experience several moments where he could have quit and given up when he began to feel frustrated with the change. During this time he did play the power card and started to trade off players to prove a point and also fired one of his head scout because of the resistance the scout showed. Billy Beane however maintained his desire to make this change occur and didn’t let the resistance discourage him. However, on the other side of the change process emotion played a big part (Craig, 2014). The resistors were upset because of Beane wanted to make the change and after reviewing this story he was trying to force the change on to the entire league. When it comes to a large change, force is not the right method to use. There was also the fear of this change going through the minds of the resistors. There was the risk of losing the tradition set in place, also losing media and possibly fans because of this. Even though this change could help the teams win, there is more at risk then just not winning a game. All of these emotions played a part in this change and how the process played out. Tactics to Resistance After facing several areas of resistance from the owners, team members and managers Beane had to find a solutions to this. Billy Beane chose to not listen to the owners and applied the method to his own team. When an employee resisted the change he either ignored them or looked elsewhere for insight (Weidner, 2015). Many of the players resisted the change so Beane MONEYBALL 5 decided to change up the team and get new players using his method to prove it will work. When handling the resistance for managers Beane went to the extreme of firing one who refused to follow his idea for change. At times when you are passionate about the change you have to take extreme measure to get the change to occur. Take Away Lessons There are few lessons that come from Moneyball. First off there is going to be conflict with anything new. The point is to not be afraid of conflict and organizational tension. When change is going to be a long process tensions to get high. From this story Beane refused to quit and even contradicted what so called “experts” would say. He would not allow his idea of change to get pushed to the side. Second lesson is to look outside the box (Weidner, 2015). Often times we can stuck on one way of thinking if that’s how the organizations works. In these cases brining in a new set of eyes, this will help getting a better perspective on the situation. The third lesson from this story is to know the change is not for one person, it is for the whole organization. Emotions and ego can get in the way causing a change to fail. Being able to step back and remember what the change is for will help it become successful. All three of these lessons can be applied to future changes for any organization to use and be successful. Conclusion Change is difficult no matter where it is being implemented at. Communication is a large key for a successful change. When all parties are informed and educated on what is going on with the organization they are more willing to help the process. Many times there is so much resistance that instead of finding out why it is there and resolving it organizations decide to make a power play and force the change. This causing much more resistance and possible failure of the change. It is ok for an individual to be passionate about the change and want to make sure it gets MONEYBALL implemented but allowing for communication and input would get an organization a lot further then using force. 6 MONEYBALL 7 References Craig, A. R., Nevin, J. A., & Odum, A. L. (2014). Resistance to Change. The Wiley Blackwell Handbook of Operant and Classical Conditioning, 249. Lewis, M. (2004). Moneyball: The art of winning an unfair game. WW Norton & Company. Weidner, D., & Girard, J. (2015). Moneyball for Knowledge Management.Strategic Data-Based Wisdom in the Big Data Era, 51.
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