Organizational Change Is a Phenomenon That Is

Organizational Change Change is a phenomenon that is part and parcel of life. In the business world, change is often challenging on multiple levels, including the interpersonal and the organizational levels. In terms of the interpersonal level, many employees or even managers may resist change because it tends to remove the comfort zone, even if only temporarily. Change may also cause fear, especially when there is a danger of job losses and the like.

These personal issues can cause inter-level tension within the organization and have unforeseen and unintended negative effects on the process and its goals. For this reason, as Burke notes in the chapter on levels of organization change, it is important for managers to be aware of and actively manage the various levels of change that occur within his or her organization. I believe that Burke (p.

99) makes an important statement in recognizing that there are differences not only in the types of changes that occur within the organization, but also among the different levels in the organization. This is what makes change such a complicated process. The differences and change processes need to be integrated in such a way that change is optimized and serves its purpose. This can mitigate some of the potential negative effects caused by change within the organization.

In his introduction, Burke (100) recognizes that there are many intricate interactions within organizations, which might influence change. In order to arrive at a relatively broad understanding of how change occurs at various levels, however, he has identified three broad categories of change, including the individual, the group, and the total system. In this way, the author addresses all the levels at which the organization operates.

The results of such an analysis can then be used as a basis for further and more detailed analysis within the interpersonal, inter-group, and inter-organization levels. One important factor that Burke (p. 100) highlights about the individual level of change within organizations is that such change seldom affects the organization as a whole because it misses a fundamental component. This component concerns the decision regarding the necessity for and implementation of change. According to Burke (p.

100), any level of change should be pre-empted by a decision regarding the overall change direction for an organization. All other levels of change should then be implemented to serve this overall direction. In many cases, however, this is not the case, particularly when it comes to implementing change for individuals. Some companies, for example, implement training programs to mimic their competitors rather than because there is a true assessment of its necessity for the organization as a whole. Instead, Burke (p.

100) suggests that change at the individual level should focus on placing and maintaining the right people in the right roles and jobs to facilitate change within the larger context of the organization as a whole. Another important component of the chapter is that the discussion of each level includes a section that focuses on the responses of the individual, groups, and systems to the change process. An understanding of these is vital in order.