Managing Organizational Change

A Multiple Perspective Approach

Third Edition

Chapter 4
What to Change?
A Diagnosis
Approach

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 Learning Objectives
• Diagnostic Models
• Images of Managing Change
• Advantages of Diagnostic Models
• Diagnostic Models:
– Organization
– Strategy
– Readiness for Change

This chapter focuses on the use of diagnostic

tools of change. It summarizes a number of
models and assesses their applicability to
various aspects of change.
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 Diagnosis

• With regard to organizational change, what is the problem?

• Can we improve our understanding of the context and
nature of the problem?
• Can this diagnostic approach help us to solve the problem,
or problems, that we find?
• In short—what has to change?

This chapter introduces a number of diagnostic frameworks

and tools.

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Who does the diagnosing?
Answers to this question vary:
• Some perspectives see this as a senior management
prerogative, perhaps also involving external consultants
and advisers. Those consultants may use their diagnostic
expertise to help their clients to manage the change
process, rather than to determine the content of the
changes.
• Other perspectives emphasize the need to involve at the
diagnostic stage those who will be affected by change;
involvement can strengthen commitment to the change
process, and thus increase the probability of success.
• Some organization development (OD) consultants explicitly
reject the role of “diagnostician,” arguing that their role
is to help the organization’s members to do this for
themselves.

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 Diagnostic Models
• The image of the change manager has an
impact on the types of models that may be
used.
• The different images highlight the range of
reasons why models like these may be
utilized –
• They illustrate the numerous ways change
can be interpreted.
• The way in which these diagnostic models,
frameworks, and tools are deployed depends
on the image of change management in use

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Images of Managing Change & Diagnostic Tools
Images Diagnostic Models
Director Using diagnostic models to build up your own knowledge base and
confidence about what needs to change by using models that
specify relationships among variables and pinpoint where change
is needed when things are not going well.
Navigator You will find the diagnostic models attractive; models are ways of
“mapping” the environment they describe.
Caretaker You will be less convinced of the capacity of the diagnostic models
to support radical change, but several of them (see, e.g., PESTLE
and scenario planning) provide insights into the trends in the
external environment that you will have to take into account.
Coach You will focus on the diagnostic models that highlight the goals
being sought and the competencies needed to attain them
Interpreter You will be attracted to the diagnostic models that emphasize
images, framing, and cognitive maps
Nurturer Having an interest in emergent strategy, you may remain
unconvinced as to the value of such diagnostic models.

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 Advantages of Diagnostic Models
Diagnostic tools can be useful because of their ability to:
1. Simplify a complex situation: where thousands of different
things are “going on” by reducing that situation to a manageable number
of categories

2. Identify priorities for attention: by helping identify which

aspects of an organization’s activities or properties are those most needing
attention
3. Highlight interconnectedness of various organizational
properties (e.g., strategy and structure).
4. Provide a common “language” (specific ideas and
concepts) with which to discuss organizational
characteristics.
5. Provide a guide to the sequence of actions to take in a
change situation.

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 Diagnostic Models (Tools)
There are three types of models:
First: Models that deal with the functioning of organizations as a
whole. Typically, they focus on organizational performance such
as: The Six-Box Organizational Model, The 7-S Framework, The
Star Model and The Four-Frame Model
Second: Models which emphasise the strategy-organizational
change relationship such as: Gap Analysis, The PESTLE
Framework, Scenario Planning, Elements of Strategy, The
Strategic Inventory, The Cultural Web, Structural Dilemmas, and
The Boundaryless Organization.
Third: Models that provide a diagnosis of readiness for change. Assessing
the organization’s readiness to change is also important and can be seen
as a mediating variable between change management strategies and the
outcomes of desired strategies such as: The Receptive Organizational
Context, Absorptive Capacity, The Innovative Organization, Force-field
analysis, Individual Readiness for Change, and Stakeholder Analysis

Table 4.8 page 132: Change Diagnostics and Their Uses: A Summary
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 Diagnostic Models: Organization
• Six-Box Organizational Model
– The key focus here is on six variables – purpose,
structure, rewards, helpful mechanisms, relationship and
leadership. This model is useful to maintain awareness of
all areas for consideration even though one variable may
be identified as the main area for attention.

• 7-S Framework
– This focuses on seven key components that affect
organizational effectiveness – structure, systems, style,
staff, skills, strategy and superordinate goals. The
interconnectedness of these variables is vital to the
success of change.

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Diagnostic Models: Organization

• Star Model
– An organization is effective when the five components
of organizational design – strategy, structure,
processes and later capability, reward systems and
people practices – are in alignment.

• Four Frame Model

– This offers four frames for the managers to
conceptualize how the organization operates. These
frames are structural, human resource, political and
symbolic frames.

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 Diagnostic Models: Strategy

• Gap Analysis
– This is a model used for reviewing the organization’s
current situation relative to the situation in which it
wishes to be (the difference being ‘the gap’).
• PESTLE Framework
– Analyses the external environment in terms of six
factors – political, economic, social, technological, legal
and environmental.
• Scenario Planning
– Creating stories of multiple possible futures that an
organization might face as a basis for considering
potential actions if various futures emerge.

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 Diagnostic Models: Strategy

• Elements of Strategy
– Five elements of strategy are considered mutually
reinforcing – arenas, vehicles, differentiators, staging
and economic logic. Any misalignment of these signifies
the need for change.
• Strategic Inventory
– Identifies managers’ strategic assumptions and their
consistency with the business environment. This
determines whether strategy should be a focal point for
change.
• Cultural Web
Provides a mapping of an organization’s culture through a
focus on seven elements – paradigm, rituals and routines,
stories, symbols, control systems, power structures, and
organizational structure
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 Diagnostic Models: Strategy

• Structural Dilemmas
– Six possible structural dilemmas that can be
encountered during change are diagnosed so areas
that have been “traded off” during the change
process can be identified.
• Boundaryless Organization
Success is arguably achieved only if four types of
organizational boundaries are diagnosed and reduced.
These are vertical, horizontal, external, and geographical
boundaries.

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Diagnostic Models: Readiness for Change

• The Receptive Organization

– This approach identifies a number of ‘conditions’ which
determine how ready an organization’s members are to change,
and the actions that can be taken to improve receptiveness
– Asks a range of questions about the pressure for change,
shared vision, level of trust, will to act, available resources,
allocation of accountability, etc.
• Absorptive Capacity
– Focuses on the ability of an organization to find,
assimilate and apply new knowledge in a way that
improves organizational performance
• The Innovative Organisation
– Identifies characteristics associated with
organizations that are able to be innovative and
creative.
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Diagnostic Models: Readiness for Change

• Force-Field Analysis
– Identifies factors that are driving forces for
change as well as restraining forces.
• Individual Readiness
– Treats individual readiness as an attitude that
has both cognitive and emotional dimensions.
• Stakeholder Analysis
– Identifies those who are likely to be affected by
an organizational change (‘stakeholders’), their
expected gains and losses, and their capacity to
support or block a change.
– Use of Power-Interest Matrix

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 The concept of ‘Built-to-Change
This contrasts the organizational design principles
characteristics of the traditional work organization with
those of an organization which is designed to be continually
evolve. (See Table 4.6 page 124 for Traditional and
“Built-to-Change” Organization Design Principles)

• many businesses are organized in ways that discourage

change
• to design organizations that are built-to-change, that are
efficient in terms of today’s performance and also flexible in
responding to environmental trends and developments.
• The built-to-change organization uses design principles
concerning talent management, reward systems,
organization structure, information and decision processes,
and leadership.
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 The concept of ‘Built-to-Change
We contrasted “traditional” principles of organization design
with “built-to-change” principles, concerning talent
management, reward systems, organization structure,
information and decision processes, and leadership.

In an organization that is “built to-change,” continuous change

is “business as usual” and does not have to involve a
planned transition from one state to another.

In short, the built-to-change model of the organization

challenges the conventional change management models
and principles described in this chapter.

Given the design principles involved, any organization could

potentially develop the agility that “built-to-change” implies.
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