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Choosing Strategies for Change

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Abstract

Few organizational change efforts tend to be complete failures, but few tend to be entirely successful either. Most efforts encounter problems; they often take longer than expected and desired, they sometimes kill morale, and they often cost a great deal in terms of managerial time or emotional upheaval. More than a few organizations have not even tried to initiate needed changes because the managers involved were afraid that they were simply incapable of successfully implementing them.

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Notes

  1. For example, see Robert A. Luke, Jr., ‘A Structural Approach to Organizational Change’, Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, September–October 1973, p. 611.

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  2. For a discussion of power and politics in corporations, see Abraham Zaleznik and Manfred F. R. Kets de Vries, Power and the Corporate Mind (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1975) ch. 6;

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  3. and Robert H. Miles, Macro Organizational Behavior (Pacific Palisades, Calif.: Goodyear, 1978) ch. 4.

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  4. See Edgar H. Schein, Organizational Psychology (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1965) p. 44.

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  5. See Chris Argyris, Intervention Theory and Method (Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley, 1970) p. 70.

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  6. See Paul R. Lawrence, ‘How to Deal with Resistance to Change’, HBR, May–June 1954, p. 49; reprinted as HBR Classic, January–February 1969, p. 4.

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  7. For a discussion of resistance that is personality based, see Goodwin Watson, ‘Resistance to Change’, in The Planning of Change, Warren G. Bennis, Kenneth F. Benne, and Robert Chin (eds) (New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1969) p. 489.

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  8. Peter F. Drucker, The Practice of Management (New York: Harper & Row, 1954).

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  9. For a general discussion of resistance and reasons for it, see Chapter 3 in Gerald Zaltman and Robert Duncan, Strategies for Planned Change (New York: John Wiley, 1977).

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  10. See, for example, Alfred J. Marrow, David F. Bowers, and Stanley E. Seashore, Management by Participation (New York: Harper & Row, 1967).

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  11. Zaltman, G. and Duncan, R. (1977) Strategies for Planned Change, ch. 4.

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  12. For an excellent discussion of negotiation, see Gerald I. Nierenberg, The Art of Negotiating (Birmingham, Ala.: Cornerstone, 1968).

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  13. See John P. Kotter, ‘Power, Dependence, and Effective Management’, HBR, July–August 1977, p. 125.

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  14. See Larry E. Greiner, ‘Patterns of Organization Change’, HBR, May–June 1967, p. 119;

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  15. and Larry E. Greiner and Louis B. Barnes, ‘Organization Change and Development’, in Organizational Change and Development, Gene W. Dalton and Paul R. Lawrence (eds) (Homewood, Ill.: Irwin, 1970) p. 3.

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  16. For a good discussion of an approach that attempts to minimize resistance, see Renato Tagiuri, ‘Notes on the Management of Change: Implication of Postulating a Need for Competence’, in John P. Kotter, Vijay Sathe, and Leonard A. Schlesinger, Organization (Homewood, Ill.: Irwin, 1979).

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  17. Jay W. Lorsch, ‘Managing Change’, in Organizational Behavior and Administration, Paul R. Lawrence, Louis B. Barnes, and Jay W. Lorsch (eds) (Homewood, Ill.: Irwin, 1976) p. 676.

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  18. Michael Beer, Organization Change and Development: A Systems View (Pacific Palisades, Calif.: Goodyear, 1979).

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© 1989 Macmillan Publishers Limited

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Kotter, J.P., Schlesinger, L.A. (1989). Choosing Strategies for Change. In: Asch, D., Bowman, C. (eds) Readings in Strategic Management. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-20317-8_21

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