Organizational Change
Keeping Organizations Alive through Evolutionary and Revolutionary Change
Keeping Organizations Alive through Evolutionary and Revolutionary Change
Organizational change is an inevitable factor in all organizations. Even when there is no deliberate movement toward change, an organization’s very existence means that it will change in its life cycle from birth through maturity and unfortunately for some, through decline and organizational death. In George and Jones, organizational change is defined as “…the movement of an organization away from its present state and toward some desired future state to increase its effectiveness” (603). The focus of this paper is the portion of organizational change that centers on how organizations make that movement toward a desired future state.
The forces for change within an organization’s environment may be competitive, economic, political, global, socio-demographic and/or ethical. Acting in response to one, some or all of these forces, organizational changes may be evolutionary or revolutionary in nature. Evolutionary change involves processes such as Total Quality Management and is a consistent and incremental movement toward improvement. Conversely, revolutionary change is radical, usually painful and sometimes necessary to react to rapidly shifting environmental forces. While both methods are effective, revolutionary changes are typically required because of ineffective management. Organizations that practice evolutionary change are frequently ahead of market forces and ultimately stand a better chance of avoiding the suffering that accompanies revolutionary change. An organization forced to implement revolutionary change to stay alive on the other hand, face ...