Processes Models of Change

Change doesn’t occur in an instant. It’s not an event nor does it happen after a meeting. It is a process. For instance, your people will not just change because they attended a seminar or a conference. So, if they experience change, they move from what they were used to or had been doing through a certain time into a new way of doing their job or a desired way of behaving. 

It’s where change management occurs. It refers to the transitioning of people, projects, or organizations from an old state into a new one.

If change management is applied to a project, it involves a process of changing its scope so that it meets changing objectives, goals, or requirement.

Change States and Processes

The current state is the present state. It is how things are done currently and is a collection of behaviours, processes, technologies, tools, job roles, and organizational structures comprising how things are done.  It sets expectations of success that is measured and evaluated in the process.,

The transition state can be disorganized and unpredictable because it’s constantly changing.  It requires people to accept new ways of working and behaving. Thus, it is a challenging state of change because productivity is expected to decline.

The future state is the direction where an organization wants to get to.  It can shift while the people are undergoing the transition state. But then, this state is said to be better than the present state, even if it may not match professional and personal goals. Among all other things, the future state is the unseen or the unknown.

These three states of change give an insight on how change will occur in your organization.  Nevertheless, the current, the transition and the future state are always a part of change.

Change Process Theories

Regulated change or lifecycle theories:  They involve the analogy or metaphor of an organic growth looking through the organizational context. A few theories framed under the lifecycle theories include metamorphosis, ontogenesis and developmentalism. Under a scenario model, for instance, it assumes the old development sequence, but it is modified by introducing varying phases on which a manager decides.

Nevertheless, lifecycle theories focus on unavoidable and defined stages wherein one of the states are based on different outputs framed in past stages.  So, without even saying, these theories are associated with a deterministic component.

Change due to competition or evolutionary theories

Using this process, the change is accumulative, recurrent, and are explained by Variation-Selection-Retention processes. It understands evolution being a set of changes, which are accumulated in community, organization, society, or business’ structural forms.  Nevertheless, evolutionary theories focus on the change originating from a multiple-entity perspective. 

Change due to conflict or dialectical theories

Conflicts or oppositions can be treated by considering the external and internal forces existing in an organization, according to these theories.   Both the change and stability exist and are explained by balancing opposing forces and power.   However, changes are produced when one of the opposing forces excels, as explained by these theories.

Under these theories are two approaches.  One is the Bakhtinian process, which explains that current dualism will exist at the same time and remain constant. A change will then be produced due to negative reactions, such as segmentation and negation, of strains.  Second is the Hegelian permanent conflict perspective that occurs between the thesis or antithesis as well as the achievement of a synthesis being the result.

Intentional change or teleological theories

Represented as an organization directed toward objectives, it is adaptive and determined. Here, an organization also structures actions directed to a result. However, the objectives are constantly reformulated using a feedback cycle, which is based on an organizational problem’s perception. But then, the change reality tends to be complex.

Stages of Change

Individual change level:  Each person involved undergoes through personal change processes. So, if the change will affect 100 people, each of them will go through the current, transition and future states individually.  Change management, in this case, will support the individuals undergoing the shifts to improve overall performance.

Once an organization starts viewing and managing the individual change processes for a project’s improvement, it becomes more successful at allowing the individual transitions that result to a successful organizational change.

Organization change level:   It will help an organization determine the content and overall sequencing of the entire change management plan. An example is the three-phase change process – preparing for the change, managing the change, and reinforcing the change.

Change Trajectories

The predetermined change trajectory claims that both the evolutionary and lifecycle theories are predetermined processes. They take place over a time period in a pre-set direction. This trajectory of change involves adapting organizational forms incrementally and in predictable ways. It may also be described by a set of limits, which are imposed by a broader system.   However, an organization’s context can limit the change possibilities because an organization is entrenched or embedded in a broad system composed of coupled relationships.

The constructed change trajectory, on the other hand, are in dialectical and teleological theories. Both view the change trajectories being constructed.  The reason is that the steps to reach the goals are ever-changing. They are based on the will of the people involved. 

Based on this perspective, the change process isn’t also unduly constrained by the external factors to the immediate system or the inherent code.   The change managers, in this context, can intervene or act to make a difference. Both theories are highlighting the human agency’s role as well as claim that the change agents can function to affect the change either to undermine or promote the effectiveness of an organization.

Impact of Sequence

Outcome: The outcome may be hard to achieve even if the system members can change trajectories or construct trajectories (dialectical or teleological theories).  In this case, the change sequence’s nature affects the scope.

Reactive sequence: The next events challenge, not reinforce the previous or earlier events. The negative reactions involved will lead to minor deviations or will transform/delay/block the change.

Self-reinforcing sequence: It involves positive feedback, which supports or strengthens previous or earlier events. Thus, it is supportive of the change direction. Drivers of this sequence are increasing returns, cognitive biases, and psychological commitment to a past decision.

Path dependence:  It involves the dependence of the economic results or outcomes on the direction or path of the previous outcomes. It is not based on current conditions alone.  The path dependent processes are positive feedback. Increasing the returns is the primary driving force of path dependent processes. However, the impact on path dependence of change is affected by degrees of complexity and other context factors.

Final Thoughts

Of all these things mentioned, change management is needed.   It aims at increasing the chances of reaching a goal and applying a pre-planned framework and structured methods to steer a business from its current to a desired state. 

However, it takes expertise, time, effort, and dedication to run, so knowing the impact of sequence on path dependence, reactive sequence, outcomes, and self-reinforcing sequence is crucial.   If you’re a change manager, you must also consider change states and processes, among other things about the process models of change discussed earlier.