Strategic change Book reviews and the people factor

The book review article I wrote for the first issue prompted my friend Ralph Lewis to suggest some of the books I had missed. He changed the rules slightly, and did not keep to books published in the last 5 years, but his opinion is nevertheless welcome.

Editor

Addendum to David Hussey ’s

book suggestion article Ralph Lewis

One of the most insightful books on managing change, or rather the mismanagement of change, is by Dixon (1979). At first sight being about the failings of military commanders, it may appear to be remote from business and commercial organizational change. The shortcomings that Dixon identifies in military leaders, however, apply equally to those who fail in managing strategic change in organizations. He identifies factors such as the lack of information-gathering networks, underestimation of competitors, indecisiveness in decision-making because of a lack of a clear vision, ignoring new technology and refusal to accept responsibility for the management of the organization- it’s always someone else’s fault. It certainly brings into focus the difficulties that people at all levels have in implementing strategic change.

Other authors concentrate on the symbolic side of change in organizations and move away from the rational side to explore people’s needs for meaning systems that they can emotionally invest in. Morgan (1986) looks at the images of organizations,

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the metaphors that people use to make sense out of organizational complexity. If you have a view of an organization as a clockwork machine, then strategic change has an engineering focus. Many of the metaphors are organic, however-growing your own future managers, for example-arid strategic change then becomes a matter of cultivating the fertile soil-very much the way that the Japanese handle change.

Continuing with this theme, Deal arid Kennedy (1982) examine the steps that a symbolic manager must take in managing change. This book, together with that of Hickman et al. (1985), provides practical concrete techniques in dealing with the people side of strategy, which I find very helpful. For example, both emphasize the importance of networks of contacts at an informal level in both getting information and testing out views on the way forward.

Kakabadse et al. (1984) is also one of my favourite texts. The authors remind us of the reality of political life in all organizations. This leads to bitter and acrimonious conflict at times between those who espouse one vision of strategic change and those who oppose it. The arguments make sense if we remember that, again as the other authors remind us, people's egos and emotional investments in ways of doing things are totally and necessarily bound up with the way they operate in organizations. I have always found it salutary to be reminded that ideas, no matter how good, need to be sold and resold to people who will be affected by them. Like the definition of genius, implementation of strategy can be said to be one part inspiration and 99 parts perspiratio'n, with most of the latter coming from dealing with the people side.

Two very different books, finally. Rose (1989) looks at what went on in Apple Computers between Steve Jobs and John Scully. He takes a neutral view but the sheer complexities, the politicking, the clashes of personality at all levels and the world of innovation and change for its own sake, without reference to business realities, provide a vivid demonstration of what all the authors I have mentioned cautiion us to take account of. Handy (1989) is not based so much on current reality but on what might be: For example, different forms of organization and managing. Essential for thinking about new ways of dealing with strategic change, although speculative. It has the merit of forcing us to re-examine our own fixities which, if clung to, as Dixon shows, will lead to failures of strategic change.

References

Deal, T. and Kennedy, A. (1982). Corporute Cultures. Addison Wesley,

Dixon, N. F. (1979). On the PsychoZogy of Military Incompetence. London.

Futura, London. ~~ - -

Journal of Strategic Change, August 1992

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Handy, C. (1989). The Age of Unreason. Business Books, London. Hickman, C . et al. (1985). Creating Excellence: Managing Corporate

Culture: Strategy and Change in the New Age. Allen and Unwin, London.

Kakabadse, A. et al. (1984). Power, Politics and Organizations. Wiley, London.

Morgan, G. (1986). Images of Organizations. Sage, London. Rose, F. (1989). West of Eden-The End of Innocence a t Apple

Computer. Arrow, London.

Journal of Strategic Change, August 1 9 2 0 1992 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.