Organisational Change and Development Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Organisational Change and Development - Essay Example Organisational theory has compared and contrasted many ways of fostering the types of effective change deemed necessary to improve the production and distribution of goods and services. In addition, a variety of strategic change recommendations have been advanced based on organisational structures, relations with the public, and objectives oriented change to optimally enhance operations. This literature has given concerned stakeholders tremendous insight into the diverse methods available for enhancing the likelihood for successful transformation, all the while minimising risks for productivity, goals and objectives, as well as human resources. Given the turbulent financial environment that managers currently find themselves in, it is unlikely that any element of classic theoretical frameworks approaching problem identification and solution on a start and stop basis will provide the instruments or mechanisms necessary to continuously create the responsive flexibility and adaptability needed to survive in the current environment. Before describing the planned change factors and related resilience and fortitude now needed by contemporary organisations to address perpetual problem solving, it may be useful to describe relevant theoretical frameworks that can help managers understand and guide complex organisations through these turbulent waters of today, through the development of cohesive and responsive change strategies needed to survive and thrive under these challenging environmental conditions. RELEVANT LITERATURE The theoretical justification for organisational change has been reconciled in many ways. Classic organizational specialists argue that organisations should imitate the activities, structures, and operational patterns of those thriving in a given industry. Paradigms that advance these tendencies for organisational imitation are known as isomorphism, believed to be highly beneficial for performance and cultures (Zucker, 1977). In contrast, other frameworks suggest that flexibility and adaptation to fluctuating environments is much more likely to facilitate success (Robertson & Seneviratne, 1995). Still others examine organisational problem-based operations in light of resource mobilization or by the accumulation and maintenance of power structures (Pfeffer, 1977). Change management theorists take the position that change will be needed at certain critical points throughout an organizational lifespan, and that when necessary, constructive transformations might optimally be implemented through rational and judicious decision-making. Throughout the period of critical events when change might be indicated, managers should not necessarily exploit their power or opportunistically capitalize on their authority to impose unnecessary levels of uncertainty. According to Jackson and Carter (2007, p. 6), this could be highly detrimental to process and action oriented objectives. Our belief is that the proper purpose of the study of organisational behaviour is to provide an understanding of it, not to prescribe its uncontrolled manipulation. Such an understanding cannot be achieved independently of consideration of the purposes, practices, and ethical issues surrounding organisational