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Running Head: CREATING AND ORGANIZATIONAL ENVIRONMENT

Creating an Organizational Environment that is Adaptive to Change

Ruben E. De Pena
Fort Hays State University

LDRS 600 Seminar in Organizational Leadership


Karl Klein
March 15, 2015

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Creating an Organizational Environment that is Adaptive to Change


This short paper will attempt to discuss different aspects that involve adaptive,
organizational change and provide research evidence as to why people resist the change and the
consequences for organizations. We will provide a couple examples of organizations who have
successfully managed to implement and keep with change and those who have struggled to do so
over the years. I will first start with an organizational model proposed by Lee G. Bolman and
Terrence E. Deal (2008). These four perspectives, which create a multiframe thinking approach
for organizational leaders, are described as follows: 1) Structural frame, which looks beyond
individuals to examine the social architecture of workThe right structure depends on
prevailing circumstances and considers an organizations goals, strategies, technology, people,
and environment (pp. 68-69); 2) Human resource frame, which highlights the relationship
between people and organizations (p. 137); 3)Political frame, which views organizations as
coalitions composed of individuals and groups with enduring differences who live in a world
of scarce resources. That puts power and conflict at the center of organizational decision
making (p. 209); and 4) Symbolic frame, which focuses on how humans make sense of the
chaotic, ambiguous world in which they live. Meaning, belief, and faith are its central concerns
(p. 248).
Moreover, both anecdotal and research evidence suggest that in order for an organization
to change, it requires a series of attributes from leadership to make it happen. Mosley et al (2011)
argue that in order for organizations to adapt and succeed in todays global economy leaders a
key attribute of that leader is her capacity to be able to adapt. Simply put,
[] Adaptive leadership is about organizational members taking a hard look at
the past to identify what to hold on to, while deciding what needs to go. Employee

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participation in the change process is the key, because with adaptive problems,
many times the employees themselves are the source. If your people are
empowered to evaluate the past and explore new ideas and ways of operating,
they will be more motivated to implement the changes. [A]daptive Leadership
requires an experimental mindset approach, not an Ive got the answer mindset.
Its not enough to have a vision for the future and to identify a critical path for
moving forward. Adaptive leaders have to understand that todays plan is simply
todays best guess [] (Mosley et al, 2011, p. 242).
There are times, however, when no matter how adaptive, transformational or any other
great attribute the leader might have, the organizational change process can be in jeopardy for a
number of reasons, including levels of resistance at different levels. That is the case when the
organization is centralized and do not offer an opportunity for creative ideas. Additionally, the
leadership style can be problematic. I can argue this is due in part due to personality issues
involving both the leader and followers. Northouse (2013) clearly discusses various personality
theories in his work. In regards to the leader, I believe a plausible solution is for organizations to
appoint change leaders of the marketing type. In this regard, he contends that
[] The marketing personality is characterized as being highly adaptable; such
people conform and align themselves with the right people and situations.
Marketers easily adapt to changes in society and in organizations. They usually
seek to develop and grow personally. Marketers are good at facilitating and
networking, and at using and enjoying the process of collaboration in order to
achieve consensus (p. 326).

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Moreover, if I were to create an organizational environment that is adaptive to change, I


would take very seriously the recommendations of a number of experts in the topic. In this
regard, Martin (2008) contends that organizational transformation requires breaking with the
rigid pattern of a four-stage syndrome that caused them to be in crisis. The way out of this
syndrome is not by blaming others; instead, change will happen through a candid reexamination
of conflictive processes involving the founders vision (strategy or steering mechanism) and the
strategy the organization enacts, such as actual behavioral patterns toward its customers and
competitors.
This thesis is based upon the authors 13 years of experience seeing big companies in
trouble for doing the same things that once made them big while ignoring the new trends in the
economic environment. Business as usual is a recipe for disaster and every employee needs to
understand and being involved in the process through ongoing, effective two-way
communication. The steering mechanism becomes rigid over the years and changing leaders
need to look back to the organizations mission or mind and align the changes to that mission.
Ultimately, the change will come by looking inside, not outside.
Schaffer and Thomson (2008) also contend that programs that are successful for adaptive
changes should begin with results. They argue that that to ensure transformation, change agents
need to shift away from activity centered programs to results driven programs. The basis for that
is that so many change efforts throughout organizational history have failed because they waste a
lot of time and resources in programs that yield very little results as they focus more in the
process than the actual outcomes. In fact, they assert that that most corporate improvement
programs only have negligible impact from an operational and financial perspective because of
managements focus on activities instead of results. Instead, they should pursue programs that

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are focused on specific achievement that is measurable within a few months. As an example of
successful organizational adaptive changes, from an anecdotal perspective, I would like to use
Apple and its incredible transformation since the first time they introduced the McIntosh
computer all the way to the success of the iPod, follow by the iPhone, iPad, and many other
current and, arguably, future innovative devices. In fact, one of the most memorable quotes of
Steve Jobs was If you are going to change the world, you need to work on challenges no one
else has solved before (Dada, n.d.).
Now, why is it that change efforts meet with resistance? Strebel (2008) contends that in
order for employees to embrace change, organizations need to instill trust by clearly defining
personal compacts, the mutual obligations and commitments between employees and the
organization. All three universally accepted dimensions of these compacts: formal,
psychological, and social need to be mutually aligned and understood between the players. The
basis for that is that many times change efforts fail because management and employees see
change from different perspectives. Managers often see change as good thing for business and
for career advancement while employees see this as disruptive and intrusive. Effective change
agents tend to put themselves in the employees shoes to gain their trust and commitment.
Lastly, why change fails? According to Kotter (2008), the reason is that many
organizations commit eight typical errors that cause them to fail in their transformation effort,
from not establishing a significant sense of urgency to not anchoring changes in the corporate
culture. The basis for that is the authors observation of more than 100 companies over the
years. He sustains that many of them have failed because they did not plan and follow through on
a series of steps that usually take long time to produce transformational change; when
organizations do create transformational steps, they commit the mistake of skipping some of

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them to create an illusion of speed, which leads to disaster. Reversing those errors constitutes a
solution for turning around organizations. Nonetheless, I contend that sometimes it is a little bit
too late. Again, from an anecdotal perspective, I can give as examples Research In Motion
(RIM), the maker of BlackBerry and, Microsoft. In contrast to Apple (and in recent years
Samsung), they failed to see a sense of urgency in research and innovation to adapt to rapid
technological changes to produce devices with the characteristics the market was looking for.
While they are trying to recover loss ground, I contend that it would extremely challenging.

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References
Bolman, L.G., & Deal, T.E. (2008). Reframing organizations: Artistry, choice, and leadership
(4th ed.), San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass
Dada, G. (n.d.). 12 Key Business Lessons from Steve Jobs. Retrieved March 13, 2015, from
http://theadaptivemarketer.com/tag/apple/
Kotter, J.P. (1998). Leading change: Why transformation efforts fail? In J. Collins & J. Porras
(Eds.), Harvard business review on change. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press.
Mosley Jr., D. C., Mosley Sr., D. C., & Pietri, P. H. (2011). Supervisory management. Mason,
OH: South-Western Cengage Learning.
Martin, R. (1998). Changing the mind of the corporation. In J. Collins & J. Porras (Eds.),
Harvard business review on change. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press.
Northouse, P. (2013). Leadership: Theory and practice (6th ed.). Thousand Oaks: SAGE.
Shafer, R.H., & Thompson, H.A. (1998). Successful change programs begin with results. In J.
Collins & J. Porras (Eds.), Harvard business review on change. Boston, MA: Harvard
Business School Press.
Strebel, P. (1998). Why do employees resist change? Changing the mind of the corporation. In J.
Collins & J. Porras (Eds.), Harvard business review on change. Boston, MA: Harvard
Business School Press.

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