Discuss the nature of planned and unplanned organizational change. What are the characteristics of each? What are some targets of planned change?

UNPLANNED AND PLANNED ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE

Organizational change is either unplanned or planned. Unplanned change occurs when pressures for change overwhelm the efforts to resist change. Management may not have expected such change. Because management and the organization were not ready for change, the pressures can result in uncontrolled, if not chaotic, change effects on the organization.

Planned change is a systematic management effort to move an organization, or a subsystem, to a new state. It includes deliberately changing the organization’s design, technology, tasks, people, information systems, and the like. Although managers try to follow a plan for change, it does not always move forward smoothly. The change effort is often blocked, causing managers to rethink their goals and plans.

Planned change defines the organization’s future, diagnoses the organization’s present state, and manages the process that moves the organization from its present state to the desired future state. A change agent guides the change process, helping managers bring about planned organizational change. The change agent is a consultant, who may be external to the organization or part of a staff function that specializes in helping managers carry out planned organizational change.