Process of Planned Organisational Change 

Many researchers advocate the use of a planned change programme, comprising of a series of sequential steps. Although there is a lot of value in using the planned change approach, we should be careful not to overlook the context within which change is about to take place. In the first Learning Unit, mention has been made of Balogun & Hailey’s argument that organisational change has three components:

• The change context, which refers to the why of change;
• The change content, referring to the what of change; and
• The change process that refers to the how of change.

Their argument is that one cannot apply a formulaic approach to change, because a variety of organisational features need to be analysed in order to understand the context within which the change process should be designed and implemented.

They mention features such as the scope of change required, the time frame, the power of the change agent to effect change, the diversity within the workforce and the capability for change within the organisation. It is beneficial, however, to consider the traditional approaches to planned change.