Article Critique

Executive Summary of the Article

Practice theories for implementing organizational change and management are lagging behind the process theories of organizational development and change. For addressing this gap, this research paper examines breakdowns that are common in the implementation of 4 process models related to organizational change: Planned change (Teleology), regulated change (life cycle), conflictive change (dialectics), and competitive change (evolution). Change agents in organizations normally act in response to these common breakdowns through taking actions for correcting organizational processes and people in order to bring their conformity to the model of change. Even though considerable attentions is commanded by this strategy in the literature, this article argues that in many situations, scholars and managers may do better if they revise and reflect upon their mental model in order to fit the journey of organizational change which is unfolding in the organization.

Article Critique

This article scrutinizes breakdowns which are perceived gaps and discrepancies between the process of change which is usually observed in an organization and the mental model which change agents (organizational managers who manage and direct the change process in an organization) spearheading the change process have regarding how the process of change should unfold. Based on the study of different organizations that have initiated change process in their organization as the technology or market condition changes, this article has rightly suggested two types of strategies which successful change agents have taken, one is action strategy and the other one is reflection. In some situations, change agents attempt to correct the processes and people in their organization which prevent the conceived change model from unfolding as expected. The other strategy, the reflection strategy, calls for an attempt on the part of change agents to revise the mental model to one that fits better to the change process and the people who undertake the change unfolding in their organization (Burke, 2009).

Vast body of literature on organizational change is focused on two questions and attempts to answer them. (1) What produces change and how it is produced? (2) How organizational change can be managed in a constructive and sustainable way in short term as well as in long term? This research article attempts to answer both of the questions. For doing so, this research article has used a typology of four distinct process models of organizational development and change proposed by Van de Ven and Poole in 1995 which are widely regarded as reference model for understanding the change process for understanding the change process in any given organization. The interaction among these 4 models gives a clear picture related to what produces change and how it is produced (the first question on which much of the literature on organizational change is focuses on) and considered a major step towards the development of a repertoire of models for the management of change.

This research article attempts to answer the second question (How organizational change can be managed in a constructive and sustainable way in short term as well as in long term?) through ...