(Extracted from an article by Henry L. Thompson, Ph.D., titled, High Performing Staffs, and published in the Army Organizational Effectiveness Journal, 1984.)

The key individual is the leader; the key group is the staff; the key process is teamwork; the key feeling is ownership.

The two basic types of organizational change are participative and directive. Participative change is “bottom up” change made by educating the staff members and letting them share in the ownership of the change. This type of change seems to work best with a staff that is relatively high in ability and willingness. Participative change tends to be long lasting and to have the strongest support of the staff after all, it's their idea. The major disadvantage is that it is slow to occur.

Directive change is “top down” change imposed on the staff from the leader or other higher external force. For example, the leader, without warning, may say to the staff, “All expenditures, without exception, will be cleared through me until further notice.” This type of change works best with a staff that is relatively low on the ability and willingness subdimensions. Exceptions may be in emergency situations where rapid change is needed. For directive change to be effective, the leader must have sufficient position power (coercive, connection, reward and legitimate power) to enforce the change. A disadvantage of this type of change is that it requires the presence of the leader to maintain it and often results in dissension among the staff.

Before the leader begins to make any changes, he should be aware that there will probably be a resistance to the change, especially if the staff's perception of its current state is “good.” The larger the staff, the greater the difficulty in bringing about the change. There are various reasons for resistance to change, but the most common is that change is disruptive to the established patterns of operation. A great deal of security is obtained when an individual learns the rules of operating in a particular structured system. When the rules change and personal security is reduced, fear develops. An extra effort is required on the part of the individual to learn the new rules.

The staff members may have strong vested interests in the current method of staff operation. Quite often, changes are perceived as being made just for the sake of change. Staffs, like individuals experiencing traumatic life changes (terminal illness, etc.), go through the stages of (1) denial that the change is necessary, (2) turmoil or anger, (3) bargaining, (4) depression and (5) acceptance. Each of these stages results in a degradation of productivity.

To overcome resistance to change, the leader should consider the following:

• Recognize that the peer group will provide the major influence on willingness to change. Involvement of the members of staff sections in planning (participative change) and implementing the developmental plan will help insure that staff members can see the vision and the payoffs for changing as well as providing ownership in the change.
• Change must be slow, incremental, sequential and progressive (previous exceptions have been mentioned.)
• The changes should appear positive and produce some immediately recognizable payoff.
• The changes should appear positive and produce some immediately recognizable payoff.
• Provide rewards and incentives for successes during the change period.
• Maintain a healthy leadership climate.
• Abandon a particular change that is not working after a reasonable amount of time.

© 1984 Henry L. Thompson, Ph.D.