Managing Change And Innovation
CHAPTERlearning outcomesManagingChange andInnovation7.1Defineorganizationalchange andcompare andcontrast viewson the changeprocess.p.1927.37.27.4Discusstechniquesfor stimulatinginnovation.p.204Fundamentals of Management: Essential Concepts and Applications, Seventh Edition, by Stephen P. Robbins, David A. DeCenzo, and Mary Coulter.Published by Prentice Hall. Copyright 2011 by Pearson Education, Inc.ISBN 1-256-14379-0Explainhow tomanageresistance tochange.p.199Describewhatmanagersneed to knowaboutemployee stress.p.201
Technology TransformersISBN 1-256-14379-0Imagine lying as a patient in a hospital bed and being visitedby a 5-foot robot.1 You might attribute such a “vision” to toomany drugs or too little sleep. But in Methodist Hospital inHouston, that 5-foot robot isn’t a vision. It’s real. The robot,which looks like “an oversize carpet cleaner with a computermonitor stuck on top,” visits patients, being guided remotely bya patient’s doctor from a command center on another floor. Withthis type of technology, especially in a critical care unit, a medicalteam can do its rounds and “read” vital signs and “see” howpatients are doing without disturbing or distressing them.Robots roaming hospital hallways aren’t the only technological advancementstransforming how medical centers and health care systems work. Radio-frequency ID tags keeptrack of doctors, nurses, and pieces of equipment in real time, leading to faster emergencyresponse times. “Smart beds automatically transfer patients’ breathing and heart rates to theircharts,” quickly alerting nurses to potential or developing problems. And one of the biggesttechnological changes is in medical records information keeping. Rather than having massivenumbers of paper-based files, health care organizations are moving toward completely digitalmedical records. But the rate of change has been slow. Currently, only 1.5 percent of privatehospitals have a comprehensive electronic medical records system in all clinical units. Only7.6 percent have a basic system in at least one unit. Yet, it’s a major change with significantpromise. “Putting patient records into digital form . . . can provide a wealth of informationabout which treatments work and which don’t, and speed diagnosis and medical care.”The investment that hospitals and other health care organizations are making in technologyhas basically two goals: (1) to improve medical care and reduce error rates, and (2) to minimizepatient stress, which encourages healing. “Ironically, one of the most anticipated developments isthat technology will allow hospitals to keep people out of them.” The vice president of the innovation and technology group at Kaiser Permanente’s Sidney R. Garfield Health Care InnovationCenter says, “By 2015, the home will be the hub of health care.” And such changes are alreadytaking place. In many rural areas of the United States where specialized medical care is scarce,telemedicine is in place to cover the gaps. For instance, 31 hospitals in remote locations inMichigan use robots, similar to the one described earlier, for diagnosis and follow-up. Robots areeven found in operating rooms—the “assembly line” of a health care system—just as they are inother organization’s assembly lines, and for the same reasons: quality control and cost control.In an industry where you’d expect up-to-date technology, the changes in the way healthcare organizations do their work haven’t been occurring as rapidly as you mightthink. However, technological changes will continue to transform theindustry and the organizations and the people who make it work.191Fundamentals of Management: Essential Concepts and Applications, Seventh Edition, by Stephen P. Robbins, David A. DeCenzo, and Mary Coulter.Published by Prentice Hall. Copyright 2011 by Pearson Education, Inc.
Change is a constant for organizations and thus for managers. Large companies, smallbusinesses, entrepreneurial start-ups, universities, hospitals, and even the military are changingthe way they do things. Although change has always been a part of the manager’s job, it’sbecome even more so in recent years. And because change can’t be eliminated, managersmust learn how to manage it successfully. In this chapter, we’re going to look at organizationalchange efforts, the ways that managers can deal with the stress that exists in organizations,and how managers can stimulate innovation in their organizations.7.1Defineorganizationalchange andcompare andcontrast viewson the changeprocess.What Is Change and How Do ManagersDeal with It?If it weren’t for change, a manager’s job would be relatively easy. Planningwould be easier because tomorrow would be no different from today. Theissue of organizational design would be solved because the environmentwould be free from uncertainty and there would be no need to adapt. Similarly, decision making would be dramatically simplified because the outcomeof each alternative could be predicted with near pinpoint accuracy. It wouldalso simplify the manager’s job if competitors never introduced new products orservices, if customers didn’t make new demands, if government regulations were nevermodified, if technology never advanced, or if employees’ needs always remained the same.But that’s not the way it is.Change is an organizational reality. Most managers, at one point or another, will haveto change some things in their workplace. We classify these changes as organizationalchange, which is any alteration of an organization’s people, structure or technology.(See Exhibit 7-1.) Let’s look more closely at each of these three areas.Changing structure includes any alteration in authority relationships, coordinationmechanisms, degree of centralization, job design, or similar organization structurevariables. For instance, in previous chapters, we’ve mentioned that work process engineering,restructuring, and empowering result in decentralization, wider spans of control, reducedwork specialization, and work teams. These structural components give employees theauthority and means to implement process improvements. For instance, the creation of workteams that cut across departmental lines allows those people who understand a problem bestto solve that problem. In addition, cross-functional work teams encourage cooperativeproblem solving rather than “us versus them” situations. All of these may involve some typeof structural change.Changing technology encompasses modifications in the way work is done or themethods and equipment used. One organizational area, in particular, where managers dealwith changing technology is continuous improvement initiatives, which are directed atdeveloping flexible processes to support better-quality operations. Employees committedEXHIBIT7-1Categories of Organizational ChangeTechnologyWork processesWork ionsBehavior192Fundamentals of Management: Essential Concepts and Applications, Seventh Edition, by Stephen P. Robbins, David A. DeCenzo, and Mary Coulter.Published by Prentice Hall. Copyright 2011 by Pearson Education, Inc.ISBN 1-256-14379-0StructureAuthority relationshipsCoordinating mechanismsJob redesignSpans of control
CHAPTER 7 MANAGING CHANGE AND INNOVATIONto continuous improvements are constantly looking for things to fix. Thus, work processesmust be adaptable to continual change and fine-tuning. Such adaptability requires anextensive commitment to educating and training workers. Employees need skills trainingin problem solving, decision making, negotiation, statistical analysis, and team-building,and they must be able to analyze and act on data. For example, Herman Miller, Inc., usedboth technology and employee training to achieve its market-leading position in theoffice furniture industry.2Changes in people refer to changes in employee attitudes, expectations, perceptions,or behaviors. The human dimension of change requires a workforce that’s committed toquality and continuous improvement. Again, proper employee education and training areneeded, as is a performance evaluation and reward system that supports and encouragesthose improvements. For example, successful programs put quality goals into bonus plansfor executives and incentives for employees.Why Do Organizations Need to Change?In Chapter 2 we pointed out that both external and internal forces constrain managers. Thesesame forces also bring about the need for change. Let’s briefly review these factors.WHAT EXTERNAL FORCES CREATE A NEED TO CHANGE? The external forces that createISBN 1-256-14379-0the need for organizational change come from various sources. In recent years, themarketplace has affected firms such as AT&T and Lowe’s because of new competition.AT&T, for example, faces competition from local cable companies and from free Internetservices such as Skype. Lowe’s, too, must now contend with a host of aggressive competitors such as Home Depot and Menard’s. Government laws and regulations are also an impetus for change. For example, when the Americans with Disabilities Act was signed into law,thousands of businesses were required to widen doorways, reconfigure restrooms, and addramps. Even today, organizations continue to deal with the requirements of improvingaccessibility for the disabled.Technology also creates the need for organizational change. Our chapter opening caseperfectly illustrates how changing technology can impact organizations. The Internet haschanged the way we get information, how products are sold, and how we get our work done.Technological advancements have created significant economies of scale for manyorganizations. For instance, technology allows Scottrade to offer its clients the opportunityto make online trades without a broker. The assembly line in many industries has alsoundergone dramatic change as employers replace human labor with technologically advancedmechanical robots. Also, the fluctuation in labor markets forces managers to initiate changes.For example, the shortage of registered nurses in the United States has led many hospitaladministrators to redesign nursing jobs and to alter their rewards and benefits packages fornurses, as well as join forces with local universities to address the nursing shortage.As the news headlines remind us, economic changes affect almost all organizations.For instance, prior to the mortgage market meltdown, low interest rates led to significantgrowth in the housing market. This growth meant more jobs, more employees hired, andsignificant increases in sales in other businesses that supported the building industry.However, as the economy soured, it had the opposite effect on the housing industry and otherindustries as credit markets dried up and businesses found it difficult to get the capital theyneeded to operate. And although it’s been almost a decade since 9/11, the airline industry isstill dealing with the organizational changes forced on them by increased security measuresand other environmental factors such as high fuel costs.organizational changeAny alteration of an organization’s people,structure, or technology.Fundamentals of Management: Essential Concepts and Applications, Seventh Edition, by Stephen P. Robbins, David A. DeCenzo, and Mary Coulter.Published by Prentice Hall. Copyright 2011 by Pearson Education, Inc.193
194PAR T THREE ORGANIZINGWHAT INTERNAL FORCES CREATE A NEED TO CHANGE? Internal forces can also createthe need for organizational change. These internal forces tend to originate primarily fromthe internal operations of the organization or from the impact of external changes. (It’s alsoimportant to recognize that these changes are a normal part of the organizational life cycle.)3When managers redefine or modify an organization’s strategy, that action often introduces a host of changes. For example, when Nokia brings in new equipment, that’s aninternal force for change. Because of this action, employees may face job redesign,undergo training to operate the new equipment, or be required to establish new interactionpatterns within their work groups. Another internal force for change is that the compositionof an organization’s workforce changes in terms of age, education, gender, nationality, andso forth. A stable organization in which managers have been in their positions for yearsmight need to restructure jobs in order to retain more ambitious employees by affordingthem some upward mobility. The compensation and benefits systems might also need tobe reworked to reflect the needs of a diverse workforce and market forces in which certainskills are in short supply. Employee attitudes, such as increased job dissatisfaction, maylead to increased absenteeism, resignations, and even strikes. Such events will, in turn,often lead to changes in organizational policies and practices.Who Initiates Organizational Change?Organizational changes need a catalyst. People who act as catalysts and assume the responsibility for managing the change process are called change agents.4Any manager can be a change agent. When we talk about organizational change, weassume that it’s initiated and carried out by a manager within the organization. However,the change agent could be a nonmanager—for example, an internal staff specialist or anoutside consultant whose expertise is in change implementation. For major systemwidechanges, an organization will often hire outside consultants to provide advice andassistance. Because these consultants come from the outside, they offer an objectiveperspective that insiders usually lack. However, the problem is that outside consultants maynot understand the organization’s history, culture, operating procedures, and personnel.They’re also prone to initiating more drastic changes than insiders—which can be either abenefit or a disadvantage—because they don’t have to live with the repercussions after thechange is implemented. In contrast, internal managers who act as change agents may bemore thoughtful (and poss
vation and technology group at Kaiser Permanente’s Sidney R. Garfield Health Care Innovation Center says, “By 2015, the home will be the hub of health care.” And such changes are already taking place. In many rural areas of the United States where specialized medical care is scarce, telemedicine is in place to cover the gaps.
MANAGING CHANGE INSTRUCTOR MANUAL 2015 - 8 - B. What is Managing Change? 1. Definition of Managing Change: (The instructor invites participants to define managing change. The participants are provided space in their workbook for notes. Page 4). Understanding how people adjust to change; and knowing how to negotiate the change process successfully.
Managing Change Resources Frontline Leadership - Managing Change Training System & Personal Strategies for Navigating Change: Zenger-Miller, Inc. USA, 2000 Managing the Non-Profit, Peter Drucker, 2006 Leading Change: John P. Kotter, 1996 Daily Affirmations: today@dailyom.com 5 Characteristics of a Change Agent, georgecouros@gmail.com
2 Managing innovation in pharma Foreword Every day we see the impact of innovation up close. Pharmaceuticals (Pharma) is one sector where innovation has a dramatic impact on the health and wellness of millions of people and the bottom lines of companies that provide it. For most of our clients innovation is the central element of their corporate
destruction it is important to gain more insight on the process of managing innovation, especially disruptive innovation. Therefore, the aim of this research paper is to explore how large global incumbents manage innovation over time, with the purpose of contributing to the theory of disruptive innovation.
Basic Concepts of Innovation and Innovation Mgmt M.Lorenzo 2010-03-253 Introduction What is Innovation? Innovation is typically understood as the introduction of something new and useful Innovation is
ii Managing change SChool-BaSed ProfeSSional learning for iMPleMenting the CoMMon Core www.learningforward.org s Managing change UnIt 1 T his unit focuses on how and why individuals change their practice. By understanding change and the process of change, and helping others understand, facilitators can better support adult learners in reaching the
Change management is not a stand-alone process for designing a business solution. Change management is the processes, tools and techniques for managing the people-side of change. Change management is not a process improvement method. Change management is a method for reducing and managing resistance to change
Managing change in a world of excessive change: Counterbalancing creative destruction and creative recombination motto, change or perish is its justification, and, no pain no change its rationale for overcoming a purportedly innately human "resistance to change" in order to win the race to inventing a spanking new future ahead of their competitors.
