23  Organisational Change and Development

This chapter closes the OB module with the topic that ties everything before it together. Organisational change is the what — the alteration of structure, technology, processes or people. Organisation Development is the how — the deliberate, behavioural-science-informed approach to managing change well. Chapter 12 introduced OD’s mechanics in HRD context; this chapter extends the treatment with frameworks for diagnosing and managing change, and closes with innovation and the learning organisation.

23.1 What is Organisational Change?

Change is any alteration in the organisation’s people, structure, technology or strategy that has occurred or is about to occur. The starting question for any practitioner: what is changing, why, how fast, and who decides?

Heraclitus’s ancient observation — “the only constant is change” — has become a working assumption of modern management. Charles Darwin’s adapted slogan — “it is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change” — captures the strategic stakes.

23.2 Forces for Change

Forces driving change come from inside and outside the firm. The external forces are typically dominant.

TipForces for Change
Source Examples
External Technology (AI, automation, digital platforms); competition; globalisation; economic conditions; demographics; social and political change; regulation; environmental concerns
Internal Strategy and goal shifts; new leadership; workforce changes; performance gaps; employee attitudes and expectations; structural inefficiencies

The wise change agent reads both layers — many internal forces are themselves responses to external forces.

23.3 Types of Change

Several useful classifications cut across each other.

TipMajor Classifications of Organisational Change
Classification Categories
Pace Incremental (small, continuous) vs Transformational / Radical (big, discontinuous)
Origin Planned (deliberate, designed) vs Emergent / Unplanned (arises from circumstances)
Disposition Proactive (anticipating) vs Reactive (responding)
Frequency Continuous vs Episodic
Scope Strategic (whole firm, long horizon) vs Operational (a unit or process)
Object Structural (the chart) — Technological (tools and processes) — People (skills, attitudes, behaviour) — Strategic (direction)

The most-cited dichotomy is first-order (incremental, continuous improvement within an existing frame) vs second-order (transformational, requiring a new frame). The two need different leadership styles, different timeframes and different change methods.

23.4 Lewin’s Three-Stage Model

Kurt Lewin’s foundational model, encountered in chapter 12, remains the simplest scaffold for any change effort (lewin1947?).

TipLewin’s Three-Stage Change Model
Stage What it does Working activity
Unfreezing Reducing forces that hold the status quo Create dissatisfaction; surface the burning platform
Moving (Changing) Introducing the new state Train, redesign, communicate, model
Refreezing Stabilising the new state Reward new behaviours; embed in structure, systems, culture 

flowchart LR
  U[Unfreeze<br/>Surface dissatisfaction] --> C[Change / Move<br/>Introduce the new]
  C --> R[Refreeze<br/>Stabilise & embed]
  R -. New cycle .-> U
  style U fill:#FFEBEE,stroke:#C62828
  style C fill:#FFF8E1,stroke:#F9A825
  style R fill:#E8F5E9,stroke:#2E7D32

The model’s strength is its simplicity. Its critics argue that in continuously changing environments, refreezing is itself a problem — the next change starts before the current one has stabilised. The remedy is the continuous-change perspective, which treats change as the default state and stability as the exception.

23.5 Lewin’s Force Field Analysis

Alongside the three-stage model, Lewin’s force-field tool is the most widely used diagnostic in change work. Any situation is held in a quasi-equilibrium between driving forces (pushing for change) and restraining forces (resisting change).

TipForce-Field Analysis
Force What it does Implication for the change agent
Driving forces Push the system towards change Strengthen them — but cautiously
Restraining forces Push the system back to status quo Weakening them is usually more effective than strengthening drivers

Lewin’s counter-intuitive prescription: increasing driving forces alone raises tension and often increases resistance. The more elegant move is to identify and reduce the restraining forces.

23.6 Kotter’s Eight-Step Model

John Kotter’s Leading Change (1996) gave change managers their most-used checklist (kotter1996?). The eight steps run in three phases — preparing (steps 1–4), executing (5–7) and embedding (8).

TipKotter’s Eight Steps for Leading Change
# Step What it does
1 Establish a sense of urgency Surface evidence that the status quo is unsustainable
2 Form a powerful guiding coalition Assemble a leadership group with the credibility, expertise and authority to drive change
3 Develop a vision and strategy Create a picture of the desired future and the path to reach it
4 Communicate the change vision Use every channel; the vision must be repeated tenfold more than seems necessary
5 Empower broad-based action Remove obstacles; change systems that undermine the vision; encourage risk-taking
6 Generate short-term wins Visible results within 6–18 months; reward those who delivered them
7 Consolidate gains and produce more change Use the credibility from short-term wins to drive deeper changes
8 Anchor new approaches in the culture Connect the change to the firm’s identity and to leadership succession 

flowchart TB
  P[Prepare]
  E[Execute]
  EM[Embed]
  P --> P1[1. Urgency]
  P --> P2[2. Guiding Coalition]
  P --> P3[3. Vision & Strategy]
  P --> P4[4. Communicate Vision]
  E --> E1[5. Empower Action]
  E --> E2[6. Short-term Wins]
  E --> E3[7. Consolidate & Continue]
  EM --> EM1[8. Anchor in Culture]
  style P fill:#E3F2FD,stroke:#1565C0
  style E fill:#FFF3E0,stroke:#E65100
  style EM fill:#E8F5E9,stroke:#2E7D32

Kotter’s central observation: most change efforts fail not because the strategy is wrong but because one or more of the eight steps is short-circuited. The most common shortcut is declaring victory after step 6 — celebrating the short-term wins and losing the energy needed for steps 7 and 8.

23.7 The ADKAR Model

Jeff Hiatt’s ADKAR model, developed at Prosci, takes the opposite tack from Kotter — it works at the individual level rather than the organisational level, on the premise that organisational change happens one person at a time (hiatt2006?).

TipThe ADKAR Model
Element What the person needs
A — Awareness Of the need for change
D — Desire To support and participate in the change
K — Knowledge Of how to change
A — Ability To implement new skills and behaviours
R — Reinforcement To sustain the change

The five elements are sequential — awareness without desire stalls; desire without knowledge fumbles; knowledge without ability struggles; ability without reinforcement reverts. Practitioners use ADKAR to diagnose where a particular individual or group is stuck.

23.8 Bridges’s Three-Phase Transition Model

William Bridges drew an important distinction between change (the external event — new structure, new system, new boss) and transition (the internal psychological process people go through). Change is situational; transition is psychological. Three phases, in order, mark every transition (bridges1991?).

TipBridges’s Three Phases of Transition
Phase What the person experiences
Ending, losing, letting go Loss of the old way; grief, anger, denial
The neutral zone Disorientation; old ways gone, new ways not yet settled; creativity is also possible here
The new beginning Emergence of new identity, energy, sense of purpose

Bridges’s argument: change can be announced overnight, but transition takes weeks or months — and ignoring transition is the most common cause of failed change. Most organisations rush from announcement to delivery without acknowledging the ending phase, and pay for it in resistance and disengagement.

23.9 Resistance to Change

Chapter 12 introduced the topic; here is the consolidated table.

TipSources of Resistance and Strategies to Address Them
Source of resistance Strategy (Kotter & Schlesinger)
Lack of information, misunderstanding Education and communication
Lack of involvement, ownership Participation and involvement
Adjustment problems, anxiety Facilitation and support
Loss of power, status, resources Negotiation and agreement
Lack of trust, manipulation history Manipulation and co-optation (used cautiously, ethically dubious)
Time pressure, no other option Explicit and implicit coercion (last resort)

Lawrence’s classic point: people do not resist change; they resist being changed. Engagement at design time pre-empts resistance at delivery time.

23.10 Organisation Development (OD)

OD is the planned, organisation-wide effort to improve organisational effectiveness through deliberate behavioural-science interventions — Beckhard’s classic framing. Chapter 12 covered OD’s mechanics; here are three points worth pinning.

23.10.1 Characteristics of OD

TipIdentifying Features of OD
Feature What it means
Planned Deliberate, designed effort, not spontaneous
Organisation-wide Affects multiple units, not a single team
Top-managed Senior leadership sponsorship is non-negotiable
Process-focused Targets how the work happens, not just what gets done
Behavioural-science based Diagnosis precedes prescription, drawn from psychology, sociology, etc.

23.10.2 OD vs Organisational Change

OD and change are not synonyms. Change is the alteration; OD is one approach — among several — to managing change.

TipOD vs Other Change Approaches
Approach Lever Example
OD Behaviour, culture, processes Team-building, survey feedback
Strategic change Direction and vision Repositioning, M&A
Re-engineering Process redesign BPR (Hammer-Champy)
Restructuring Formal structure De-layering, divisionalisation
Cultural change Shared values Vision-and-values programmes

A working programme often combines several of these.

23.10.3 The Action-Research Model

Chapter 12 detailed the seven-step action-research cycle that is OD’s classical method: problem identification → consultation → data gathering → feedback → joint diagnosis and action planning → action → evaluation. The model is repeated through cycles — each evaluation feeds the next problem identification.

23.11 Organisational Effectiveness

Beneath every change effort lies a question: effective at what? Four classical models of organisational effectiveness give different answers.

TipFour Models of Organisational Effectiveness
Model Effectiveness defined as
Goal attainment Achieving stated goals — productivity, profit, market share
Systems Acquiring and using resources from the environment, plus internal coordination
Strategic constituencies Satisfying the demands of key stakeholders — investors, employees, customers, regulators
Competing values (Quinn & Rohrbaugh) Balancing four competing emphases — flexibility / control × internal / external focus

The competing-values framework underlies the OCAI culture instrument — clan, adhocracy, market and hierarchy cultures.

23.12 Innovation and Creativity

A specific type of change — innovation — has become the central preoccupation of strategy. Innovation is the implementation of a new or significantly improved product, process, marketing approach or organisational method. Five types are commonly distinguished.

TipFive Types of Innovation
Type What it covers Example
Product innovation A new or improved good or service Smartphone, electric vehicle
Process innovation A new way of producing or delivering Toyota production system
Marketing innovation A new way to package, price or sell Subscription pricing for software
Organisational innovation A new way to structure or manage Self-managed teams, holacracy
Business-model innovation A new way to create, deliver and capture value Platform businesses, freemium

23.12.1 Conditions for Innovation

A climate for innovation shares a recognisable set of features: psychological safety (Edmondson), autonomy, resources slack, cross-functional contact, tolerance for honest failure, risk-friendly reward systems and visible senior support.

23.12.2 Disruptive vs Sustaining Innovation

Clayton Christensen’s distinction (chapter 16 echoed it) is widely tested: sustaining innovations improve products along dimensions valued by existing customers; disruptive innovations introduce a different value proposition, often inferior on traditional dimensions but accessible to a new market segment, that eventually overtakes the incumbents.

23.13 The Learning Organisation Revisited

Senge’s five disciplines — personal mastery, mental models, shared vision, team learning, systems thinking — were treated in chapter 13 as part of knowledge management. From the change-management angle they describe the capacity to keep changing without exhausting the system.

The key OB takeaway: a learning organisation does not avoid change; it normalises it. The unfreeze–change–refreeze sequence becomes a continuous flow rather than an episodic project.

23.15 Practice Questions

Eight questions to test the chapter. Each card hides the answer — click Show answer to reveal it.
Q1 Lewin's three-stage change model runs in
Lewin's three-stage change model runs in the order:
ARefreeze → Move → Unfreeze
BUnfreeze → Move → Refreeze
CMove → Refreeze → Unfreeze
DMove → Unfreeze → Refreeze
Show answer
Correct answer
B. Unfreeze — Move — Refreeze.
Q2 Match the change framework with its
Match the change framework with its lead author:
Framework Author
(i) Eight-step change (a) William Bridges
(ii) ADKAR (b) Kurt Lewin
(iii) Force-field analysis (c) John Kotter
(iv) Three-phase transition (Ending → Neutral Zone → New Beginning) (d) Jeff Hiatt
A(i)-(c), (ii)-(d), (iii)-(b), (iv)-(a)
B(i)-(a), (ii)-(b), (iii)-(c), (iv)-(d)
C(i)-(d), (ii)-(c), (iii)-(a), (iv)-(b)
D(i)-(b), (ii)-(a), (iii)-(d), (iv)-(c)
Show answer
Correct answer
A. (i)-(c), (ii)-(d), (iii)-(b), (iv)-(a)
Q3 Lewin's force-field analysis recommends that the
Lewin's force-field analysis recommends that the change agent should typically:
AStrengthen the driving forces only
BWeaken the restraining forces in preference to strengthening drivers
CIgnore both kinds of force
DUse coercion to overwhelm restraining forces
Show answer
Correct answer
B. Reducing restraining forces tends to be more effective than amplifying drivers.
Q4 ADKAR stands for
ADKAR stands for:
AAwareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability, Reinforcement
BAction, Design, Knowledge, Action plan, Result
CAuthority, Discipline, Knowledge, Application, Recognition
DAwareness, Design, Knowledge, Acceptance, Reward
Show answer
Correct answer
A. Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability, Reinforcement
Q5 William Bridges's three-phase transition model ...
William Bridges's three-phase transition model treats change as situational and transition as psychological. The phase between ending and the new beginning is called the:
ARefreezing phase
BNeutral zone
CStorming stage
DAcceptance stage
Show answer
Correct answer
B. The neutral zone — disorientation but also creative possibility.
Q6 Kotter argues that the most common
Kotter argues that the most common reason change efforts fail is:
ALack of resources
BOne or more of the eight steps is short-circuited, often by declaring victory too early
CThe strategy is wrong from the start
DGovernment regulations interfere
Show answer
Correct answer
B. Premature celebration after step 6 (short-term wins) is the classical trap.
Q7 Christensen's distinction between sustaining an...
Christensen's distinction between sustaining and disruptive innovation argues that disruptive innovations:
AAre always technologically superior to incumbent products
BImprove along dimensions already valued by mainstream customers
CIntroduce a different value proposition, often initially inferior on traditional dimensions, that eventually overtakes incumbents
DAre limited to the high end of the market
Show answer
Correct answer
C. Disruptive innovations open new markets and grow into the mainstream.
Q8 Quinn and Rohrbaugh's competing-values framewor...
Quinn and Rohrbaugh's competing-values framework places organisational effectiveness on two axes. They are:
APlan vs control, and external vs internal
BFlexibility vs control, and internal vs external focus
CCost vs value, and short term vs long term
DPeople vs profit, and innovation vs efficiency
Show answer
Correct answer
B. Flexibility-vs-control on one axis; internal-vs-external focus on the other.
ImportantQuick recall
  • Change = alteration of people, structure, technology or strategy. Forces: external (technology, competition, regulation, demographics) and internal (strategy, leadership, workforce, performance gaps).
  • Classifications: incremental vs transformational, planned vs emergent, proactive vs reactive, continuous vs episodic, strategic vs operational, structural / technological / people / strategic.
  • Lewin three stages: Unfreeze → Move → Refreeze. Force-field analysis: weaken restrainers before strengthening drivers.
  • Kotter’s eight steps: urgency → coalition → vision → communicate → empower → short-term wins → consolidate → anchor in culture.
  • ADKAR (Hiatt): Awareness → Desire → Knowledge → Ability → Reinforcement (individual level).
  • Bridges: change is situational, transition is psychological. Three phases: Ending → Neutral Zone → New Beginning.
  • Resistance and remedies (Kotter & Schlesinger): education, participation, facilitation, negotiation, manipulation / co-optation, coercion.
  • OD characteristics: planned, organisation-wide, top-managed, process-focused, behavioural-science based. Action-research method (chapter 12).
  • Four effectiveness models: goal attainment, systems, strategic constituencies, competing values (Quinn & Rohrbaugh).
  • Innovation types: product, process, marketing, organisational, business-model.
  • Christensen: sustaining vs disruptive innovation.
  • Modern shift: change as capability, not project.