Organizational change approaches and implementation at DuPont

Managing Organizational Change

a) Approaches to change

Change at DuPont was implemented as a natural process by which the organizational evolved. It was not embraced as a formal phenomenon nor was any emphasis placed on the creation of a context in which the employees and the firm would be prepared for a smooth transition. In other words, organizational development as a framework for change was not widely used.

On the other hand however, the firm focused on the sense-making approach, in the meaning that it was expected of the strategies implemented to be effective and efficient, as well as suitable and able to support the company in reaching its objectives. In a context in which the firm did not implement a specific pre-designed framework for dealing with change, it nevertheless turned to appreciative inquiry -- with the support of the academic community -- and strived to identify the best solution to the specific organizational problem.

b) Compatibility of approaches

At a general level, it could be assumed that the three approaches to change -- organizational development, appreciative inquiry and sense-making -- are incompatible as they each present different means of dealing with change, from a structured approach, to a customized approach. In essence nevertheless, with the real context of an organizational change situation, the three models are not entirely self exclusive.

In other words, in the context of an organizational change situation, the manager will not implement a strict and pre-defined model of change management, but will start from such a model of OD to gradually build on it. In other words, it would customize the solution based on the frameworks available, as well as based on the specifics of the encountered situation (Blecker, 2005), observed through the techniques of sense making and appreciative inquiry.

Assessment of the means in which the stakeholder perceive the change

Redesign of the means in which change is handled in order to ensure that it is understood and embraced by as many stakeholder categories as possible.

d) Fictional change

An important change which could impact DuPont is represented by the need to entirely replace the technological system. Such a change would generate employee reticence due to the elements of novelty, but also as a result of the additional complexities generated. Under the appreciative inquiry approach, it would be necessary to identify the sources of reticence and gradually address them. Under the problem solving approach, the change strategy would be implemented and any potential resistance would be resolved throughout the implementation process.

It is at this stage believed that in this scenario, the appreciative inquiry would be more beneficial as it would identify and address the cause, whereas the problem solving approach would implement the change and only address the effects of the reticence, rather than the causes themselves.

References:

Blecker, T., 2005, Information and management systems for product customization, Springer

Saunders, M., Lewis, P., Thornhill, a., 2009, Research methods for business students, 5th edition, Pearson Education

Case study: change at DuPont