The Dynamics of Business Behavior

1Managing Organizational Change

WHAT IS ORGANIZATIONAL change management? How did it evolve over time? Which models and frameworks have impacted the field most? How does organizational change come about? What is the current standard approach to organizational change management (OCM)? What are recurring challenges when driving organizational change? These are some of the questions we answer in this chapter before embarking on the journey of applying insights from behavioral psychology and neuroscience to organizational change management.

A History of Organizational Change Management (OCM)

This is a simplified and nonexhaustive history, but it should provide you with context on how the field was formed, both through research and in practice.

Pre-1960s: “What Do You Mean Change Management?”

You could reasonably argue that change has always inspired people to manage the change. Think of the formation and organization of towns, armies, kingdoms, or religions throughout history. These are no small projects and require a group of people to stand behind a common vision, take on a form of shared identity, and coordinate their behavior. Yet on Wikipedia, the history of change management barely starts until the 1960s, when theorists and practitioners began to lay the groundwork for the field of change management that we know today.

By now, there is a plethora of change models one can ascribe to, so let's explore some of the most influential ones over time. It's worth emphasizing that ...