Positive Psychology at Work:

Organizational Change

Let's turn now to the question of change: how is it best led or managed? The traditional answer has been that change should stem from the development of a strategy, and that strategy is ‘a central, integrated plan for achieving objectives that define approaches for managing resources, customers, competition, and growth’ (Wooten and Cameron, 2010, p. 53). From this generic definition we might note the words ‘central’, ‘integrated’ and ‘plan’. At its heart it contains the metaphor of the organization as a machine. Lewis et al. (2007) explore this metaphor and its meaning for organizational change in depth, suggesting that it facilitates a belief in the power of naming problems to produce change; belief in the power of instruction to achieve change; belief that emotions are problematic in organizational life; belief in the power of criticism and fear to motivate change; belief in the split between the leaders and the rest of the organization; belief in the power of separating elements to reduce organizational complexity; and a belief in a right answer to the problem of design.

From these beliefs about the nature of organization there follows a set of assumptions about the role of leaders in change, as articulated by Stacey (1996), for example, that leaders can successfully choose the adaptive shape of their organization before the environment has changed. This suggests a highly desirable omniscience and that change is a linear process and that organizations tend ...