The Roles of a Project Manager in Managing Change in an Organiztaion

University of Nairobi
College of Education and External Studies
School of Continuing and Distance Education
Department of Extra Mural Studies

MASTER OF ARTS IN PROJECT PLANNING AND MANAGEMENT
LDP 601: FUNDAMENTALS OF MANAGEMENT

Group 2

Question: Using examples explain the concept of organizational change? What is the role of a manager in reducing employee resistance to change?

Group Members:

Stephen Gachie L50/71564/08 – [e-mail]
Waeni Kithyoma L50/72242/08 – [e-mail]
Janet Ombwayo L50/72255/08 – [e-mail]
Ruth Osebe L50/72445/08 – [e-mail]
Naomi Karani L50/72370/08 – [e-mail]
Dennis Muigu L50/72515/08 – [e-mail]
Stephen Thuo L50/72275/08 – [e-mail].k

1 Introduction: What is organizational change?

Organisational change refers to fundamental and radical reorientation of the way an organization operates. Another definition of organizational change is wider changes that affect the organization as a whole, as opposed to smaller changes in some sections of the organization. Organisational change is also referred to as organizational transformation. (steve to provide website url)

Some of the key types of organizational change include:
- Change in mission
- Restructuring operations (lay-off)
- New technologies;
- Mergers;
- Major collaborations;
- Right sizing;
- New programmes e.g. Total Quality Management (TQM) and Business Process Re-engineering (BPR). .

Organisations change what they want to achieve and how. Some organizations change mainly in response to external circumstances (reactive change), while other change principally because they have decided to change (proactive change) (Cole,1996).

Change in organizations can be triggered by a number of external and internal factors (Cole,1996), which are discussed briefly below, using familiar local examples.

External – These are changes triggered by factors outside the organization

Bibliography: Bridges, W. (1991) Managing Transitions: Making the most of change. Wesley Publishing Company Coetsee, L Cole, G.A. (1996) Management Theory and Practice. Letts Educational, London De Jager, P Dent, E. & Goldberg, S. (1999). Challenging “resistance to change.” Journal of Applied behavioural Science 25-41 Folger, R & Skarlicki, D Hultman, K (1995). Scaling the wall of resistance. Training &Development, 15-22 Kegan, R Kotter, J.P., & Schlesinger, L.A. (1979). Choosing strategies for change. Harvard Business Review 106-114 Morgan, G Moss Kanter, R. (1984) The Change Masters – Corporate Entrepreneurs at Work, Allen and Unwin Peters, T Piderit, S.K. (2000). Rethinking resistance and recognizing ambivalence: a multidimensional view of attitudes toward an organizational change. Academy of Management – 794. Schein, E. (1951) The Mechanics of Change, in Bennis, W.G. et al (eds) Interpersonal Dynamics, Dorsey Press Strebel, P