Organisational change theories: differences and similarities across six dimensions
| Systems | Organisational development | Complexity | Social worlds | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Goals | People | Evolution | Conflict | ||
| Metaphor of organisation19 | General practices are inertial and change is infrequent, discontinuous and intentional | General practices are emergent and self organising, and change is constant, evolving and cumulative | |||
| Analytical framework19 | Change takes place at the level of a single organisation | Change takes place where the organisation interacts with another organisation or with its environment | |||
| Trigger for change18 | Clear goals, measurement and feedback loops | Overlap between individual and organisational goals | Desire to try multiple approaches and let direction arise gradually over time | Difference of opinion | |
| Change process18, 19 | Change as goal achievement | Change as a Lewinian process | Change is Confucian, already under way, without end | Change as conflict followed by synthesis into new order | |
| Role of leader | To establish a measurement and feedback process | To encourage participation | To interpret emerging change with team | To take a strategic view of multiple agendas | |
| Resistance to change | Due to data poverty and lack of clear goals | When individual and organisational goals differ | As one stage in the sense making process | As a natural part of a conflict process | |