Making Sense of Change Management

Citation

Cromb, D. (2005), "Making Sense of Change Management", Leadership & Organization Development Journal, Vol. 26 No. 7, pp. 594-596. https://doi.org/10.1108/01437730510624638

The intent of the authors with this book is to make sense of change management. The intended audience is anyone who wants to understand why and how change happens, and what needs to be done to make change a more welcoming prospect. The authors express a hope that leaders and managers might appreciate a book that does not give a single panacea, but that offers insights into different frameworks and ways of approaching change at an individual, team and organizational level.

The early chapters give an overview of some underlying theory about change initiation and reaction. Part One, the underpinning theory, comprises chapters on: individual change, team change, organizational change, and leading change. These chapters are designed to develop in the reader a broad understanding of change and to help them learn more about a variety of perspectives on how best to be a leader of change.

The later chapters draw on real life examples and give specific tips and guidelines. The authors believe that, with strategic change, one or more of the following have to be adjusted: organizational structure, commercial approach, organizational culture, and relevant processes. In Part Two, the application, therefore comprises chapters on restructuring, merges and acquisitions, cultural change, and IT‐based process change.

There is a wide range of models, tools and techniques presented in this book, in an endeavour to make sense of change management in the book's target audience. There is a range of ideas presented, not all of them complementary, so the reader achieves exposure to differing ways of thinking and types of approaches. For example, the chapter on organizational change presents nine models or approaches to the subject. The chapter on leading change presents the work of 14 authors on six different aspects, such as roles that leaders play and different leadership for different phases of change. The presentations and explanations are logical and coherent; easy to read, in other words.

One of the authors' themes is that leaders must pay attention to not only outcomes, but also to underlying emotions, power and influence in order to sustain change and achieve continued success in the long term. This sensational little book presents an extensive suite of knowledge in a small package. The secondary title of the book is A Complete Guide to the Models, Tools and Techniques of Organizational Change, which accurately sums up the content and the scope of the book.

I began my reading of the book in the chapters on organizational change and leading change, the subject areas most relevant to my current work. These chapters have given me a better understanding of what I am dealing with and I am now (I hope) more conscious of how others I work with could be approaching the same issues with different paradigms, therefore requiring from me possible changes in my approach. I am surprised that in these chapters the work of Mintzberg and his work on the sources of organization power hasn't been included, but take that as an observation, not a criticism.

I tested this book by presenting it to a change facilitator in another organization: he and his team have now purchased their own copy, so I take that to be a suitable endorsement. Change practitioners are likely to gain the most from the book as the integrated way in which the accepted models and approaches are presented should sharpen their focus of activity and enable them to narrow in on the “needed few” things required for a successful change intervention. However, given that the work of so many individuals in organizations involves change to a greater or lesser extent, this book should also be viewed as a valuable part of an individual's armoury of skills and knowledge, together with competence in negotiation, facilitation, and so on.