Introductory description

This module aims to introduce students to an interdisciplinary, cross-national and historically informed understanding of the idea of change and its significance for organisations in the contemporary period.

Module web page

Module aims

Outline syllabus

This is an indicative module outline only to give an indication of the sort of topics that may be covered. Actual sessions held may differ.

Section 1: Understanding Change: concepts and perspectives

• The meaning of change: interdisciplinary perspectives on identifying, controlling and assessing the impact of change
• Organisations in an age of uncertainty and change? Historical comparisons and contemporary debates
  Section 2: Organisational change: frameworks and models
• Images and approaches to managing change
• Identifying and diagnosing change
• Models for managing change: issues of process, organisation and communication
  Section 3: Understanding Change processes: key issues and debates
• Power, Politics and Resistance in the management of change
• The use of language, discourse and culture in the management of change
• Senior managers and the leadership of change: pressures and processes
• Middle managers in the change process
• The Change Revolution / Change Fatigue: The dynamics of continuous change in the public and private sectors and its impact
  Section 4: Understanding Change processes: key issues and debates
• Changing in contexts of ambiguity and uncertainty
• designing for wickedness (polivocality) and for resilience in face of extreme ambiguity and uncertainty?
• The relevance of time in change: history and the future
• Change in light of Grand-Challenges

Learning outcomes

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

• Demonstrate a comprehensive understanding of the major perspectives for analysing the idea of change and how it is relevant to contemporary organisations.
• Demonstrate a comprehensive understanding of the way in which senior managers lead change initiatives and the institutional constraints under which they work
• Critically analyse how managers exercise power and engage in politics to influence other employees in order to achieve outcomes.
• Identify and evaluate the distinctive tensions faced by middle managers in change processes and recognise ways of overcoming these problems, including issues of language, culture and discourse
• Identify and evaluate ways in which the underlying assumptions of the change discourse create their own self-sustaining dynamic and are a force for isomorphic processes across different types of organisation initiatives and the institutional constraints under which they work.
• Critically assess a variety of perspectives on the management of organisational change.
• Recognise and critically engage with assumptions underpinning the assumptions of the management of organisational change.

Indicative reading list

The set textbook for this module is:

Myers, P.; Hulks, S. and Wiggins, L. (2012)
Organisational Change: Perspectives on Theory and Practice
Oxford: OUP Oxford

Further reading
Buchanan, D. and Badham, R. (1999) Power, Politics and Organizational Change London: Sage

Kotter, J. and Cohen, D.S. (2002) The Heart of Change Harvard, MA: Harvard Business School Press

Kotter, J. P. (2012 Leading Change Boston: Harvard Business Review Press

Palmer, I;, Dunford, R. and Buchanan, D.A. (2017) Managing organizational change: A multiple perspectives approach McGraw Hill

Subject specific skills

Analyse and synthesise organisational change, its problems and dilemmas
Diagnose change pressures and identify and evaluate appropriate management responses
Identify and evaluate resistances to change.

Transferable skills

Demonstrate developed academic communication skills.