Organizational Behavior

Fifteen

Leading Organizational Change

Like the view a traveler sees when looking back on the journey, this chapter will show how many of the concepts such as motivation and leadership that we visited in earlier chapters can help us understand the basic four-step change process. It is in times of change that we see most clearly the differences between the approaches to OB. The conventional view is characterized by a top-down approach to organizational change, in which change and its implementation are controlled by top managers. In contrast, the sustainable view takes a bottom-up approach, in which change and its implementation involves more stakeholders.

Brio Technology was in free-fall when Craig Brennan took on the role of CEO. Brennan quickly realized that the crisis at the database software company required an altogether different response from the command and control approach he had experienced in other technology companies. Brennan put in a call to Kathleen Dannemiller to help him take a “whole-scale change” approach to solving the problem. Dannemiller's system-wide method to facilitate change was developed in her consulting with Ford Motor Company to transform its culture ...