Listmembers,
Thanks so much to those of you who responded to my query regarding MBA
Organization Change texts. My colleagues and I are actively pursuing
many of these leads.
I had several requests for a summary. So, here it is! Several
responses included not only titles, but comments regarding experiences
with the text. These comments were so "rich" with information that I
included them in the summary as well.
SUMMARY OF RESPONSES
**************
(three suggestions/comments for Jick...as follows)
1) I don't know whether it could be fit into 8 weeks of class time, but
I
had good luck in a semester-long course with Todd Jick, Managing Change:
Cases and Concepts. It's Irwin/McGraw-Hill 1993. The cases, by the
way, are all Harvard as is Mr. Jick.
2) Todd Jick's Managing Change (Irwin) is usually well received by MBA
students.
3) The textbook consists of five modules, including the Challenge of
Change, Envisioning Change, Implementing Change, the Recipients of
Change, Change Agents. Each module is a collection of classic readings
and cases, all from HBR and HBSP. The textbook was designed in such a
way that you can easily update each module with recent development in
the area.
***************
KOTTER, JOHN P., (1995), "Leading Change: Why Transformation Efforts
fail", Harvard Business Review, March-April, pp. 59-67
While I was doing research on change management, that was definitely one
of the best articles I found. Don't know if you'll assess as being a
handy, MBA-level model, but just have a look...
Or:
CONNER, DARYL R., (1993a), "Managing at the speed of change", Villard
Books, New York
Conner, Daryl R., (1993b), "Managing Change: A Business Imperative",
Business Quarterly, Vol. 58, Iss. 1, pp. 88-92
Popular writing style, but gets to the point, parts of it can be used
for setting up a framework (especially concerning control seeking
behaviour). I only remember the book version.
*******************
(3 suggestions/comments received for Block's Flawless Consulting)
1) Is "Flawless Consulting" too elementary for this group? You might
consider it, if you already haven't
2) The greatest book is Flawless Consulting by Peter Block. Colorful,
practical, almost zen-like in its approach to client-consultant
partnership.
3)... "Flawless Consulting" (I forget the author's name) but was again,
very practical about issues such as how to do contracting, dealing with
political issues etc.
*********************
A shorter book on org change (but not "short") is:
Organization development : a normative view / W. Warner Burke.
Series:The Addison-Wesley series on organization development
Authors:Burke, W. Warner (Wyatt Warner), 1935-
Publisher:Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley, 1987.
I believe there is also a second edition, 1994, which is probably
preferable. It does a nice job of covering diagnostic models.
And the predecessor, by Burke in about 1982 published by
Little, Brown, is worthwhile but longer and only slightly dated.
A longer one is:
Organization development and change, Thomas G. Cummings, Christopher G.
Worley (1993)
*****************
Title: Integrated strategic change : how OD builds competitive
advantage / Christopher G. Worley, David E. Hitchin,Walter L. Ross.
Series: Addison-Wesley series on organization development.
Authors: Worley, Christopher G. Hitchin, David Edward, Ross, Walter L.
Publisher: Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley Pub., c1996.
*****************************
For either a regular MBA course or for a shorter module (9 weeks) in an
Executive MBA program, I found the following very useful:
Schlesinger, P.F., V.Sathe, L.A. Schlesinger, & J.P. Kotter,
ORGANIZATION: Text, cases, & readings on the Management of Organization
Design and Change; 3rd Edition. Homewood, IL, Irwin: 1992. I would
guess there have been one or two newer editions published; obviously,
the publisher now would be Irwin/McGraw-Hill.
This book worked well in shorter courses; in fact, for a full 14 week
course it was necessary to add to it. It's full of current readings,
short text sections, and Harvard and Babson cases, with rather complete
teaching notes available in the Instructors' Manual. In the third
edition most of the well-known shortcomings of some HBS teaching notes
had been eliminated. These cases do teach well, and rather easily.
****************
(a recommendation and response for French & Bell)
1) You might try French & Bell's text: Organization Development:
Behavioural Science interventions for organizational improvement, 5th
ed., Prentice Hall.
This was one of several texts used for an OD course I took last year.
It
is short, applied and generally useful.
2) I teach an extension course for the University of California, Santa
Cruz in Organizational Development & Change. We use French and Bell,
and the feedback from students is mixed, to marginal... very difficult
to follow and very dry. Granted, the audience for an extension program
is very different than a MBA program.... thought I'd throw in my two
cents. Personally, I think it is an adequate text, but being in the
field (both professionally and as a part-time instructor) the material
as presented is more familiar. To the uninitiated, it might be less
palatable.
*******************
I've recently come across Barbara Senior's book called Organisational
Change - publisher is Pitman. ISBN 0 273 62491 1. No chance to use it
with students yet - but seems excellent to me for Diploma or MBA level.
Shortish, clear models, eclectic, innovative, may however not be as
practice-oriented as you would like.
*******************
Use an experiential OB/OT type of book for in-class group exercises.
Something like: Bowen, Lewicki, Hall, & Hall (1997) Experiences in
Management and Organizational Behavior, John Wiley & Sons, New York.
For the more theory oriented part, I would put together a selection of
HBR and AME selections dealing with change typologies, stages of change,
case studies, individual and organizational reactions to change, and the
role of an external change agent.
**************************
Practicing Organization Development
A Guide For Consultants
Rothwell, Sullivan, McLean
Jossey-Bass Pfeiffer
ISBN 0-88390-379-2
From the forward "This book provides a solid, practical preparation for
facilitating a change process and supporting those who
make change happen."
The book contains very useful information for practical application of
OD interventions.
It's structured in four sections:
1. Introduction -- background info about OD and planned change
2. Steps in OD -- the intervention process
3. International Competencies and Ethics in OD -- competencies needed
by internal and external OD consultants
4. OD and the Future -- address competencies that may be need in the
future by OD consultants
A friend of mine used this text last year for a course doctorate level
course she taught at the Univ of N. Texas.
********************
This may seem a little different than the responses you expect, but the
book Rausch, Erwin and Washbush, John B. 1998. High Quality Leadership:
Practical Guidelines to Becoming a More Effective Manager. Milwaukee,
WI: ASQ Quality Press might be excellent for you. It is highly
practical and addresses the skills that your students should acquire,
evaluate, and counsel on during their project. These decision making
and other skills are illustrated in the book with a number of scenarios
from different types of organizations which are analyzed in depth. The
issues raised in the scenarios are exactly the ones that should be
considered when evaluating an organization's ability to effectively
initiate and manage change and then helping the organization to
strengthen them.
It is als a short book (large font, 290 pages). Your students can get
almost full benefit by reading only two of the four chapters, and use
most of the Additional Insights primarily as reference, reducing the
pages that are essential to less than 150 pages)
To give you more information about the book, I am copying, below, the
features and key points of the book. [NOT included in the summary -
write me if you want the details - NM]
*************************
Succeeding with Change, Tony Eccles, McGraw-Hill International (UK)
Ltd.,
0-07-709266-X
For change models, I often dig into the Fifth Discipline Fieldbook based
on the "Senge stuff" - packed with ideas/suggestions, though many very
conceptual. 1-85788-060-9.
It's business oriented, full of good practical tips rather than lots of
models, and appropriate for existing or aspiring middle/senior managers.
Tony teaches at London Business School, and uses much of the book's
content on his courses - I don't know him but he's well received by
students.
*******************
Other texts we used in the course included, Schwarz, "The Skilled
Facilitator" which is practical and "hands-on" approach to process
consultation ....
********************
For my MBA course in Organizational Excellence (which is 1/3 OB), I use
Ralph Kilmann's "Managing beyond the quick fix." It is very
managerially
oriented, conceptually friendly, application oriented, etc.
I supplement it with current readings.
***************************
I highly recommend the book by Moore, Carl M. (1994) Group techniques
for idea building. by Sage. He presents in very brief form four very
usable and hands on techniques to help groups solve problems. I studied
with Carl and this book is a great one. I would also look at Frey,
Lawrence (1995 ?) I think the title is Studying groups in naturalistic
settings. It is a great book for seeing groups that solve problems.
***********************
The Org-B text used for the University of Colorado MBA program is:
Organizational Behavior, by Hellriegel, Slocum, and Woodman, Eight
Edition.
***************************
For the last four years at Brock University in Canada, I taught an
advanced undergrad course (4th year honours, capstone in a 3-year
sequence in Entrepreneurship) that focused on Change Management. A
couple of years ago, Karl Vesper (Washington) went hunting for such
courses. Mine was apparently the only he found that went right at the
idea of Entrepreneurial change management. Incidentally, I defined the
subject as the four corners of extreme management situations: rapid
growth, downsizing (including shut-down), re-engineering, and
turn-around.
I never found a suitable textbook, although I tried many trade books.
Among the ones the students liked best were:
W. Keith Schilit (1994) Rising Stars and Fast Fades ISBN:
0-02-927892-9
(Lexington (Macmillan)) (see my review on Amazon.com) I think this one
is still the one the students got the most from, even if it is not
academically benchmarked.
They've also liked NUTS! the story of southwest airlines.
There's a new HBS book out On Change -- I haven't had a chance to review
it, but the collection of HBR articles looks pretty good.
Stoffman (1997) Masters of Change (McGraw-Hill) is a pretty good
collection of change management stories, and parallels
Rick Spence's (1997) Secrets of Success from Canada's Fastest Growing
Companies (Wiley)
I've also had students entranced by:
Eliyahu Goldratt's The Goal and
Ricardo Semler's Maverick
**************************