Managing Change 7e by Burnes

Managing Change 7e by Burnes is the 7th edition of the textbook authored by Bernard Burnes and published by Pearson Education Limited, Harlow, United Kingdom in 2017.

• Action Learning. This approach to management development was devised in the 1940s in the United Kingdom by Reg Revans and involves small groups of managers tackling a set problem or case study. The aim is not only that managers learn how to approach problems together but also that they learn about themselves and challenge the appropriateness of their own attitudes and behaviours.
• Action Research. This is an approach to change which, first, emphasises that change requires action and is directed at achieving this; and second, recognises that successful action is based on analysing the situation correctly, identifying all the possible alternative solutions and choosing the one most appropriate to the situation at hand. It is one of the four elements of Lewin's Planned approach to change (see Planned change).
• Activity planning. This involves constructing a schedule or 'road map' for a change programme, citing the main activities and events that must occur if the change is to be successful.
• Adaptation–Innovation theory. This maintains not only that people exhibit different degrees of creativity but also that they express their creativity in different ways, along a spectrum which runs from adaptors to innovators. Those who tend towards the adaptor end of the spectrum prefer to work within the existing system to improve things. Innovators tend to ignore or challenge the system and to come up with radical proposals for change.
• Analytical stream. This phrase is used to describe writers on strategy and change who are more interested in understanding how organisations actually formulate strategy and manage change than prescribing how they should conduct these activities (see Prescriptive stream).
• Artifacts. At the highest level of cultural awareness are the artifacts and creations that are visible manifestations of the other levels of culture. These include observable behaviours of members as well as the structures, systems, procedures, rules and physical aspects of the organisation (see Organisational culture).
• Aston Group. The work of this group constitutes one of the key building blocks of Contingency Theory. Working in the 1960s, they found that size was the most powerful predictor of specialisation, use of procedures and reliance on paperwork. In effect, what they found was that the larger the organisation, the more likely it was to adopt (and need) a mechanistic (bureaucratic) structure. The reverse was also found: the smaller the organisation, the more likely it was to adopt (and need) an organic (flexible) structure.
• Audits and post-audits. During and after a change initiative, an audit or a post-audit should be carried out (a) to establish that the objectives have really been met, and (b) to ascertain what lessons can be learned for future projects.
• Authority. In organisational terms, authority is the right to act, or command others to act, towards the attainment of organisational goals. The right to act is given legitimacy by the authority figure's position in the organisation. Therefore, the level of authority a person possesses is related to their job.
• Autonomy. This is the ability or requirement of individuals, groups and organisations to act independently and proactively, and without seeking the permission of higher authority, when pursuing organisational goals. Peters and Waterman link it to entrepreneurship and it is seen as an essential attribute of excellent organisations (see Culture-Excellence approach).
• Backstaging. This is concerned with the exercise of power skills during the change process. In particular, it involves influencing the recipients of change to accept it. Buchanan and Boddy (1992) see this as being an essential skill of a change agent.
• Basic assumptions. These are seen as one of the core components of organisational culture. They operate at the deepest level of cultural awareness and are unconscious, taken-for-granted assumptions about how organisational problems should be solved, as well as about the nature of human beings, human activity and human relationships.
• Behaviourist psychology. This maintains that all human behaviour is learned and that the individual is the passive recipient of external and objective data. One of the basic principles of the Behaviourists is that human actions are conditioned by their expected consequences. Behaviour that is rewarded tends to be repeated, and behaviour that is ignored tends not to be. Therefore, in order to change behaviour, it is necessary to change the conditions that cause it.
• Benchmarking. This is the term given to the process of comparing an organisation's performance, or the performance of part of an organisation, e.g. a product or service, against a range of internal and external comparators.
• Bias for action. This is one of Peters and Waterman's eight key attributes of excellent companies. Even though such companies may have an analytical approach to problems, they are predisposed towards taking rapid and appropriate action rather than getting bogged down in analysis (see Culture-Excellence approach).
• Bold Strokes. These are major strategic or economic initiatives, e.g. restructuring an organisation. They can have a clear and rapid impact on an organisation's performance, but they rarely lead to any long-term change in habits or culture. Bold Strokes are initiatives taken by a few senior managers, sometimes only one; they do not rely on the support of the rest of the organisation for their success (see Long Marches; Culture-Excellence approach).
• Boston Consulting Group. See Growth-Share Matrix.
• Bottom-up change. This is the opposite of top-down change. Instead of change being driven by a few senior managers from the top, this approach sees change as coming from bottom-up initiatives which emerge from local responses to issues, threats or opportunities in the environment. The size of such responses will vary but, because they are local responses, they can never be large-scale responses (see Emergent change).
• BPR. See Business Process Re-engineering (BPR).
• Bureaucracy. This form of organisational structure is characterised by the division of labour, a clear hierarchical authority structure, formal and unbiased selection procedures, employment decisions based on merit, career tracks for employees, detailed rules and regulations, impersonal relationships, and a distinct separation of members' organisational and personal lives. It is one of the core elements of the Classical approach to organisations and corresponds with the mechanistic structure identified by Contingency theorists (see Contingency Theory).
• Business ethics. These are moral principles or beliefs about what is right or wrong. These beliefs guide managers and others in organisations in their dealings with other individuals, groups and organisations, and provide a basis for deciding whether behaviour is socially responsible.
• Business Process Re-engineering (BPR). This is an approach that aims to achieve a radical rethinking and redesign of organisational processes in order to significantly improve key performance measures, such as quality, cost and delivery.
• Cash-cows. These are companies whose rate of market growth is in decline but which still achieve significant cash surpluses. They became market leaders, during the early days when the market was rapidly growing, and have maintained that position as the growth tapered off. They are regarded as businesses with low growth but high market share (see GrowthShare Matrix).
• Causal mechanisms. According to the realist perspective, these are the (usually hidden) processes or pathways through which an outcome is caused to be brought about. An example of a causal mechanism is the process by which a rise in interest rates leads to a fall in house prices. In this case, the causal mechanism linking cause to effect involves decisions by each individual house purchaser about the mortgage repayments they can and cannot afford. It is the aggregate behaviour of these individuals that leads to the overall fall in house prices (see realism).
• Causal powers. These are the capabilities or potential for systems and mechanisms to act in a particular way, or to be capable of acting in a particular way (see realism).
• Change agents. These are the people responsible for directing, organising and facilitating change in organisations (see backstaging).
• Chaordic. This term was coined by Hock (1999) to describe organisations which are poised between order and chaos (see complexity theories; edge of chaos).
• Chaos. For complexity theorists, chaos describes a complex, unpredictable and orderly disorder in which patterns of behaviour unfold in irregular but similar forms (see complexity theories; edge of chaos).
• Chaos theory. This is one of the main complexity theories. It seeks to construct mathematical models of systems at the macro level (i.e. whole systems and populations). It portrays natural systems as both non-linear and self-organising.
• Classical approach to organisations. This approach to organisations is characterised by the horizontal and hierarchical division of labour, the minimisation of human skills and discretion and the attempt to construe organisations as rational–scientific entities. It comprises the work of Frederick Taylor (see Scientific Management), Henri Fayol (see Principles of Organisation) and Max Weber (see Bureaucracy).
• Classical approach to strategy. This is the oldest and most influential approach to strategy. It portrays strategy as a rational process, based on analysis and quantification and aimed at achieving the maximum level of profit for an organisation.
• Closed systems. This is a view of organisations which sees them as being relatively unaffected by events outside their boundaries. It considers organisations to be closed, changeless entities. Once organisations have structured themselves in accordance with the correct precepts, then, regardless of external or even internal developments, no further changes are necessary or desirable (see Open Systems school).
• Coercive power. The use of threats, sanctions or force to gain compliance.
• Cognitive dissonance. This theory states that people try to be consistent in both their attitudes and behaviour. When they sense an inconsistency either between two or more attitudes or between their attitudes and behaviour, people experience dissonance; that is, they feel frustrated and uncomfortable with the situation, sometimes extremely so.
• Competitive Forces model. This is an approach to strategy which stresses the need to align the organisation with its environment, the key aspect of which is the industry or industries in which it competes. Proponents of this view believe that industry structure strongly influences the competitive rules of the game as well as the range of strategies open to the organisation. This model is most closely associated with the work of Michael Porter (1980, 1985).
• Complexity theories. These are concerned with how order is created in dynamic non-linear systems. In particular, those applying this approach to organisations maintain that successful organisations need to operate at the 'edge of chaos' and can maintain this position only by the presence of appropriate order-generating rules.
• Contextual approach to leadership. This is an approach which argues that effective leadership is situation-dependent, i.e. a manager's performance will depend on his or her personal characteristics and the overall context within which they operate (see convergent state; divergent state; transactional management; transformational leadership).
• Confirmation bias. This is a predisposition to seek out and give credence to information that supports one's favoured course of action or beliefs whilst ignoring or giving less consideration to information that does not.
• Contingency Theory. This maintains that the structures and practices of an organisation, and therefore its performance, are dependent (i.e. contingent) on the circumstances it faces. The main contingencies – situational variables – identified by its proponents are environmental uncertainty and dependence, technology and organisation size (see environment).
• Continuous change. This model of change, also referred to as the continuous transformation model, is based on the assertion that the environment in which organisations operate is changing and will continue to change, rapidly, radically and unpredictably. Consequently, only by continuous transformation will organisations be able to keep aligned with their environment and thus survive.
• Contracting out. See outsourcing.
• Control. The ability to impose a desired pattern of activity or behaviour on processes and people (see authority; power).
• Convergent state. This occurs when an organisation is operating under stable conditions, where there are established and accepted goals, and a predictable external and internal environment (see transactional management).
• Creativity. The ability to produce new, novel or original ideas and solutions.
• Culture. See Organisational culture.
• Culture-Excellence approach. Based on the work of Peters and Waterman, Kanter and Handy, this maintains that an organisation's performance (excellence) is determined by the possession of an appropriate, strong and clearly articulated culture. It is culture that ensures that the members of the organisation focus on those activities which lead to effective performance.
• Design school. The proponents of this approach to strategy emphasise the need to achieve a fit between the internal capabilities of an organisation and the external possibilities it faces. Flowing from this, they place primary emphasis on the appraisal of an organisation's external and internal situations.
• Dissipative structures. These are systems that exist in far-from-equilibrium conditions (i.e. are in a state of constant fluctuation) and which, therefore, use (dissipate) energy. The concept of dissipative structures is one of the core ideas in complexity theories. They are most closely associated with the work of the Nobel Prize-winning physicist, Ilya Prigogine (Prigogine, 1997; Prigogine and Stengers, 1984).
• Divergent state. This situation occurs when environmental changes challenge the efficiency and appropriateness of an organisation's established goals, structures and ways of working (see contextual approach to leadership; transformational leadership).
• Diversity. See workforce diversity.
• Division of labour. The hierarchical and horizontal separation of tasks and responsibilities into their component parts so that individuals are responsible only for a limited set of activities instead of the whole task.
• Dogs. These are businesses that have low market share and which operate in markets with low growth potential (see Growth-Share Matrix).
• Double-loop learning. This process involves challenging the appropriateness of an organisation's basic norms, values, policies and operating procedures (see single-loop learning; triple-loop learning).
• Edge of chaos. This is a state where systems are constantly poised between order and disorder (see complexity theories).
• Emergence. This describes one of the defining properties of complex physical and social systems. In essence, Emergence is the process by which patterns of behaviour or global-level structures arise from the interaction of local-level processes and agents interacting according to their own local order-generating rules.
• Emergent change. This approach to change is based on the assumption that change is a continuous, open-ended and unpredictable process of aligning and realigning an organisation to its changing environment.
• Empowerment. The delegation of power and responsibility to subordinates.
• Entrepreneurship. The encouragement and pursuit of innovative ideas, products and services (see Culture-Excellence approach).
• Environment. Those forces external to an organisation, such as markets, customers, the economy, etc., which influence its decisions and internal operations.
• Equifinality. This concept, coined by Child (1972), states that different sorts of internal arrangements and structures can be perfectly compatible with identical contextual or environmental states. Put simply, this means that there is more than one way for organisations to structure themselves in order to achieve their goals.
• Esteem needs. These reflect a person's desire to be respected – esteemed – for their achievements (see hierarchy of needs).
• Excellence. See Culture-Excellence approach.
• Extrinsic motivators. These are material rewards, such as money and promotion, provided by others (see intrinsic motivators; physiological needs).
• Felt-need. This is an individual's inner realisation that change is necessary. If felt-need is low in a group or organisation, introducing change becomes problematic.
• Field Theory. This is an approach to understanding group behaviour by trying to map out the totality and complexity of the field in which the behaviour takes place. It is one of the four elements of Lewin's Planned approach to change (see Planned change).
• Firm-in-sector perspective. This view of strategy, developed by Child and Smith (1987), maintains that the conditions operating in a sector shape and constrain the strategies which organisations in that sector can pursue (see also institutional theory).
• Fordism. This is named after Henry Ford's approach to car assembly. Fordism is seen as the application of Scientific Management to mass production industries through the utilisation of automation, e.g. the moving assembly line.
• Generative structures. See causal mechanisms.
• Gestalt-Field psychology. This sees an individual's behaviour as the product of their environment and reason. Behaviour arises from the way in which an individual uses reason to interpret external stimuli. Consequently, to change behaviour, individuals must be helped to change their understanding of themselves and the situation in question.
• Globalisation. There is a great deal of dispute as to what this term means. However, at its most basic, it refers to the worldwide integration of markets and cultures, the removal of legal and political barriers to trade, the 'death of distance' as a factor limiting material and cultural exchanges.
• Group Dynamics. This concept refers to the forces operating in groups. It is concerned with what gives rise to these forces, their consequence and how to modify them. Group Dynamics stresses that group behaviour, rather than that of individuals, should be the main focus of change. It is one of the four elements of Lewin's Planned approach to change (see Planned change).
• Group Dynamics school. As a component of change theory, this school originated with the work of Kurt Lewin and has the longest history. Its emphasis is on bringing about organisational change through teams or work groups, rather than individuals.
• Growth-Share Matrix. This is a strategic planning tool developed by the Boston Consulting Group. Using pictorial analogies, it posits that businesses in an organisation's portfolio can be classified into stars, cash-cows, dogs and problem children.
• Hawthorne Experiments. These were carried out at Western Electric's Hawthorne Works in Chicago in the 1920s and 1930s. As a result of this work, two major propositions were put forward: that work is a collective, cooperative activity which is influenced by formal and informal aspects of an organisation; and that humans have a deep need for recognition, security and belonging, rather than being purely economic beings (see Human Relations approach).
• Hierarchy of needs. Developed by Maslow (1943), this sees human motivation as based on an ascending order of needs: physiological needs; safety needs; social needs; esteem needs and self-actualisation needs. Only when a lower-order need has been met does the next level of need begin to motivate an individual.
• Hoshin Kanri. Also known as policy deployment, this is a Japanese approach to communicating a company's policy, goals and objectives throughout its hierarchy in a structured and consistent fashion in order to ensure that its strategic priorities inform decision-making at all levels in the organisation.
• Human Relations approach. This was a reaction against the mechanistic view of organisations and the pessimistic view of human nature put forward in the Classical approach to organisations. It reintroduces the human element into organisational life by contending that people have emotional as well as economic needs, and that organisations are cooperative systems which comprise informal structures and norms as well as formal ones (see Hawthorne Experiments; hierarchy of needs).
• Incremental model of change. Advocates of this view see change as being a process whereby individual parts of an organisation deal incrementally and separately with one problem and one goal at a time.
• Individual Perspective school. This school of thought is concerned with understanding and promoting behaviour change in individuals. It is split into two camps: the Behaviourists and the Gestalt-Field psychologists.
• Informal structures. See Human Relations approach.
• Institutional theory. This seeks to explain why important elements of organisations, such as social structure, norms, rules and routine, become established and endure over long periods of time. Institutional theorists argue that there are powerful institutions, external to individual organisations, which exert a significant influence on the decision organisations take. In effect, in order to survive, organisations need to align themselves with the belief systems and norms prevalent in their environment (see also firm-in-sector perspective).
• Intrinsic motivators. These are non-material rewards, such as praise, satisfaction and recognition, which are internal to the individual (see esteem needs; extrinsic motivators; social needs).
• Japanese approach. Pascale and Athos (1982) argue that the effectiveness and uniqueness of the Japanese approach to management comes from their ability to combine 'soft' (personnel/industrial relations) elements and 'hard' (business/manufacturing) practices (see 7 S Framework).
• Job Design. Also called work humanisation, and arising from the work of the Human Relations approach, proponents of this view argue that the fragmentation of jobs promoted by the Classical approach to organisations creates boring, monotonous, meaningless and demotivating jobs. To reverse this, and to make jobs interesting and intrinsically motivating, they should be designed to provide variety, task completeness and, above all, autonomy.
• Kaizen. This is a Japanese process of incremental, systematic, gradual, orderly and continuous improvement which utilises a range of techniques, tools and concepts, such as quality circles.
• Knowledge power. This is power based on the control of unique information that is necessary for decision-making.
• Leadership. The process of establishing goals and motivating others to pursue and achieve these goals.
• Long Marches. The Long March approach to change favours relatively small-scale and operationally focused initiatives, which are slow to implement and whose full benefits are achieved in the long term rather than the short term. The Long March approach can impact on culture over time, but it does require the involvement and commitment of most of the organisation (see Bold Strokes).
• Long-range planning. This is an approach to strategy based on plotting trends and planning the actions required to achieve the identified growth targets. It is heavily biased towards financial targets and budgetary controls.
• Management. The process of planning, organising and controlling resources and people in order to produce goods or provide services.
• Management development. This is concerned with the training and education of managers so as to equip them with the competences and skills necessary to carry out their duties effectively.
• Mechanistic structure. This forms one end of the structure continuum identified by Contingency theorists, the other end being Organic structure. A mechanistic structure equates to the bureaucratic-type structure advocated by the Classical approach to organisations (see bureaucracy).
• Metaphor. This is a linguistic device for describing or seeing one type of experience by suggestion that it is similar to something else, e.g. using the metaphor of a machine to describe a bureaucratic type of organisational structure.
• Mission statement. This states an organisation's major strategic purpose or reason for existing. It can indicate such factors as the organisation's products, markets and core competences. It is part of an organisation's vision.
• Modernism. This is a term used to describe the values, rationale and institutions that have dominated Western societies since the Age of Enlightenment in the eighteenth century. The essence of modernism is a strong belief in progress, economic and scientific rationality, a search for the fundamental rules and laws which govern both the natural world and human nature, and a commitment to a secular, rationalist and progressive individualism (see postmodernism; realism).
• Moving. This is the second step in Lewin's Three-Step model of change. It involves identifying and evaluating the various types of change on offer, and implementing the chosen one (see refreezing; unfreezing).
• Neoliberalism. This has been the predominant economic philosophy since the 1970s and it has strongly influenced the thinking and practice of governments, international institutions and businesses, especially in the West. Its defining characteristics are a belief in free market competition, minimum state regulations and taxation, the privatisation of state assets and services and the unrestricted pursuit of profit.
• Non-linear systems. This is a term used by complexity theorists to describe constantly changing systems where the laws of cause and effect appear not to apply. Order in such systems is seen as manifesting itself in a largely unpredictable fashion, in which patterns of behaviour emerge in irregular but similar forms through a process of self-organisation, which is governed by a small number of simple order-generating rules.
• Normative power. This describes the allocation and manipulation of symbolic rewards, such as status symbols, as inducements to obey.
• Norms. These are one of the key components of culture. They represent unwritten rules of behaviour which guide how members of an organisation should behave in particular situations (see organisational culture).
• OD (organization development). This is an approach to change developed in the United States. It is based on the work of Kurt Lewin and, originally at least, was concerned with improving the effectiveness of the human side of the organisation through participative change programmes.
• 'one best way' approach. This is a term used to describe any theory or approach which claims to be universally superior to all others on offer, e.g. the Classical approach to organisations.
• Open-ended change. This is a term used especially by proponents of Emergent change to indicate that change is a continuous and unpredictable process which does not have a beginning, middle and end.
• Open Systems school. Proponents of this view see organisations as systems composed of a number of interconnected sub-systems, where any change to one part of the system will have an impact on other parts of the system and, in turn, on its overall performance. Organisations are seen as open systems in that they are open to, and interact with, their external environment (see closed systems).
• Order. From a complexity perspective, order refers to the patterns of behaviour which emerge in irregular but similar forms in non-linear systems through a process of self-organisation.
• Order-generating rules. In complex systems, the emergence of order is seen as being based on the operation of simple order-generating rules which permit limited chaos while providing relative order (see complexity theories).
• Organic structure. This forms one end of the structure continuum identified by Contingency theorists, the other end being mechanistic structure. An organic structure is seen as being flat, informal, flexible and highly adaptable, i.e. the reverse of a bureaucratic structure.
• Organisational culture. This is the name given to the collection of basic assumptions, values, norms and artifacts that are shared by and influence the behaviour of an organisation's members.
• Organisational learning. This term describes the process of collective, as opposed to individual, learning in an organisation. Its aim is to improve the performance of the organisation by involving everyone in collecting, studying, learning from and acting on information.
• Organization development. See OD.
• Outsourcing. This is the practice of seeking outside organisations to take over activities and services previously carried out within an organisation, e.g. catering, security and IT.
• Paradigm. This is a way of looking at and interpreting the world, a framework of basic assumptions, theories and models that are commonly and strongly accepted and shared within a particular field of activity at a particular point in time.
• Participation. This is the process of involving people in decision-making and change activities within organisations.
• Person culture. The individual and his or her wishes are the central focus of this form of culture. It is associated with a minimalistic structure, the purpose of which is to assist those individuals who choose to work together (see organisational culture).
• Phases of change. This is an elaboration of Planned change based on a four-phase model which describes change in terms of two major dimensions: change phases, which are distinct states through which an organisation moves as it undertakes Planned change; and change processes, which are the methods used to move an organisation from one state to another.
• Physiological needs. These relate to hunger, thirst, sleep, etc. (see hierarchy of needs).
• PIMS (Profit Impact on Marketing Strategy). This is a quantitative strategic planning tool based upon the belief that three major factors determine a business unit's performance: its strategy, its competitive position, and the market/industry characteristics of the field in which it competes.
• Planned change. This term was coined by Kurt Lewin in the 1940s to distinguish change that was consciously embarked upon and planned by an organisation, as opposed to types of change that might come about by accident or by impulse or that might be forced on an organisation.
• Lewin's. Planned approach to change consists of four interrelated elements: Field Theory, Group Dynamics, Action Research and the Three-Step model of change.
• Planning school. The proponents of this approach, chiefly Igor Ansoff, argue that strategy is a formal, almost mechanistic procedure based on the collection and analysis of data by highly educated strategic planners who report directly to the chief executive. Based on their quantitative analysis, these planners construct a strategic plan for their organisation comprising a set of fixed objectives and actions that must be rigorously adhered to if the organisation is to be successful.
• Politics. This describes the efforts of people in organisations to gain support for or against policies, rules, goals, or other decisions where the outcome will have some effect on them. Politics is seen as the exercise of power.
• Population ecology. This concept is borrowed from the life sciences. It is a Darwinist-type approach that focuses on how organisations adapt and evolve in order to survive within the general population of organisations to which they belong.
• Positioning school. This approach to strategy is based on the argument that organisations which enjoy higher profits than their competitors do so because they have achieved advantageous and easily defended positions in their markets.
• Postmodernism. This is a loosely defined philosophical movement which, though originally based in the arts, has become increasingly influential in the social sciences over the last 20 years. It is a way of looking at the world that rejects the rationality of modernism and concentrates on the ways in which human beings attempt to shape reality and invent their world (see realism).
• Power. An individual's capacity to influence decisions, to exert their will and achieve outcomes consistent with their goals and priorities.
• Power culture. This is frequently found in small entrepreneurial organisations such as some property, trading and finance companies. It is associated with a web structure with one or more powerful figures at the centre, wielding control (see organisational culture).
• Prescriptive stream. This phrase is used to describe writers on strategy and change who are interested in developing prescriptions for telling organisations what they should do rather than analysing what they actually do (see Analytical stream).
• Principles of organisation. These are a set of rules governing the running of organisations developed by Fayol (1949). He claimed that they were universally applicable to all organisations. The principles of organisation form one of the core elements of the Classical approach to organisations.
• Privatisation. The process of transferring state assets from the public to the private sector.
• Problem children. Also known as question marks, these are units or businesses which have a high growth rate and low market share. They have high cash requirements to keep them on course, but their profitability is low because of their low market share. They are so named because, most of the time, the appropriate strategy to adopt is not clear (see Growth-Share Matrix).
• Processual approach to change. This approach sees change as a complex and dynamic process which cannot be solidified or treated as a series of linear events. In particular, it focuses on the need to analyse the politics of managing change.
• Processual approach to strategy. This perspective concentrates on the nature of organisational and market processes. It views organisations and their members as shifting coalitions of individuals and groups with different interests, imperfect knowledge and short attention spans.
• Profit Impact on Marketing Strategy. See PIMS (Profit Impact on Marketing Strategy).
• Psychological contract. This concept is based on the assertion that there is an unwritten set of expectations operating at all times between every member of an organisation and the various managers and others in that organisation.
• Punctuated equilibrium model. This view of change sees organisations as evolving through relatively long periods of stability (equilibrium periods) in their basic patterns of activity that are punctuated by relatively short bursts of fundamental change (revolutionary periods).
• Question marks. See problem children.
• Rationality. The use of scientific reasoning and logical arguments to arrive at decisions.
• Realism. This philosophical perspective asserts that social entities, such as markets, class relations, gender relations, ethnic groupings, social rules, etc., exist, are real and can be discovered. However, while it rejects the notion of multiple realities, it still acknowledges that social entities arise through a process of social construction. This distinguishes it from both modernism and postmodernism.
• Refreezing. This is the third step in Lewin's Three-Step model of change. It seeks to stabilise new behaviours in order to ensure that they are relatively safe from regression (see moving; unfreezing).
• Remunerative power. This is the use or promise of material rewards as inducements in order to gain people's cooperation.
• Resource-Based View (RBV). This approach to strategy sees competitiveness as coming from the effective deployment of superior or unique resources, such as equipment, patents, brands and competences, which allow firms to have lower costs or better products than their competitors.
• Ringi system. This is a Japanese approach to decision-making which promotes extensive and open debate over decisions, in order to ensure that they fit in with the company's objectives rather than those of sectional interests.
• Role. A set of observable behaviours associated with, and expected of, an identifiable position or job in an organisation.
• Role culture. This type of organisational culture is appropriate to bureaucracies, and organisations with mechanistic, rigid structures and narrow jobs. Such cultures stress the importance of procedures and rules, hierarchical position and authority, security and predictability. In essence, role cultures create situations in which those in the organisation stick rigidly to their role.
• Safety needs. The desire for security and protection against danger (see hierarchy of needs).
• Scenario-building. This is an approach to strategy development that allows organisations to construct and test pictures of possible futures and to select the one which is most likely to meet their needs. It is based on the assumption that, if you cannot predict the future, then by considering a range of possible futures, an organisation's strategic horizons can be broadened, and managers can be receptive to new ideas (see vision-building).
• Scientific Management. This is an approach to work organisation developed by Frederick Taylor in the early twentieth century. He claimed that this approach to designing jobs and supervising workers is based on the scientific study of work. It emphasises the division of labour, the removal of workers' discretion and the right of management to make what changes it thinks are necessary for efficient working. It is one of the core elements of the Classical approach to organisations.
• Scientific–Rational approach. This is an alternative title used to describe the Classical approach to organisations.
• Self-actualisation needs. These constitute the need to achieve one's full potential. According to Maslow (1943), this will vary from person to person, and it may differ over time as a person reaches a level of potential previously considered unattainable and so goes on to strive for new heights (see hierarchy of needs).
• Self-organisation. This is a term used by complexity theorists to describe how order emerges and is maintained in complex systems (see order-generating rules).
• Semistructures. This is a term used by complexity theorists to describe structures which are sufficiently rigid that change can be organised to happen, but not so rigid that it cannot occur.
• 7 S Framework. This is a tool for analysing organisational performance and was developed by Tom Peters, Robert Waterman, Richard Pascale and Anthony Athos when they all worked at McKinsey in the late 1970s. The seven Ss comprise four 'soft' Ss (staff, style, shared values and skills) and three 'hard' Ss (strategy, structure and systems) (see Japanese approach).
• Simple order-generating rules. See order-generating rules.
• Single-loop learning. This is adaptive learning which involves detecting and rectifying errors or exceptions within the scope of the organisation's existing practices, policies and norms of behaviour (see double-loop learning; triple-loop learning; organisational learning).
• Situational variables. See Contingency Theory.
• Size. See Contingency Theory.
• Social construction. This is an approach concerned with the processes by which people construct, maintain and change social and organisational reality. It is a term used in both postmodernism and realism. For postmodernists, social construction is seen as creating a number of competing 'realities', none of which possesses ultimate truth or reality. Realists, on the other hand, believe in just one socially constructed reality which does exist.
• Social needs. The need to belong, to gain love and affection; to be in the company of others, especially friends (see hierarchy of needs).
• Socio-Technical Systems theory. This is a variant on Job Design which involves a shift of focus from the individual job to the organisation as a whole. It sees organisations as being composed of interdependent social and technical systems.
• Stars. These are business units, industries or products with high growth and high market share. Because of this, stars are assumed to use and generate large amounts of cash. However, they are also likely to be very profitable (see Growth-Share Matrix).
• Strategic Conflict model. This is an approach to strategy which harks back to the military metaphor and portrays competition as war between rival firms. In particular, this model draws on the work of military strategists and attempts to apply their military aphorisms to modern business organisations.
• Strategic intent. This is a term which was originally coined to describe the commitment of Japanese managers to create and pursue a vision of their desired future.
• Strategic management. Though often used as a generic term to describe the process by which managers identify and implement their organisation's strategy, it was originally applied only to quantitative, mathematical approaches to strategy.
• Strategy. This is a plan of action stating how an organisation will achieve its long-term objectives.
• Sustainability. This term was originally coined by environmental and ecological campaigners to describe the development of economic, social and industrial practices which would contribute to sustaining the natural environment. It has been extended to include the promotion of organisational practices that contribute to the health of the planet, the survival of humans and other species, the development of a just and humane society and the creation of work that brings dignity and self-fulfilment (Dunphy et al, 2007).
• SWOT analysis. This is a strategic planning tool which assesses the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats possessed and faced by an organisation.
• Systems theory. See closed systems; Open Systems school.
• Task culture. This type of organisational culture is job or project-orientated; the onus is on getting the job in hand (the task) done rather than prescribing how it should be done. Such types of culture are appropriate to organisations with organic structures where flexibility and teamworking are encouraged.
• Taylorism. See Scientific Management.
• Technology. See Contingency Theory.
• Theory X. This is a management theory expounded by Douglas McGregor (1960) which states that the average person dislikes work and will avoid it wherever possible, unless coerced to do so (see Theory Y).
• Theory Y. This is a management theory expounded by Douglas McGregor (1960) which states that most people can view work as being as natural as rest or play, they are willing to take responsibility and are capable of exercising self-direction and self-control (see Theory X).
• Three-Step model. This model of change was developed by Kurt Lewin and sees change as going through three stages: unfreezing, moving and refreezing. It is one of the four elements of Lewin's Planned approach to change (see Planned change).
• Total Quality Management (TQM). This was developed in Japan and is the systematic application of quality management principles to all aspects of an organisation's activities, including customers and suppliers, and their integration with key business processes.
• Transactional management. This approach stems from the notion that the manager–subordinate relationship is based on a transaction between the two, whereby managers exchange rewards for subordinates' performance. Transactional managers focus on task completion, goal clarification and optimising the performance of the organisation through incremental changes within the confines of existing policy, structures and practices – basically, they seek to work within and maintain the status quo. This approach to management is seen as being appropriate in convergent states (see contextual approach to leadership; transformational leadership).
• Transformational leadership. This approach portrays leaders as charismatic or visionary individuals who seek to overturn the status quo and bring about radical change. Such leaders use the force of their personality to motivate followers to identify with the leader's vision and to sacrifice their self-interest in favour of that of the group or organisation. Transformational leadership is seen as being appropriate to divergent states (see contextual approach to leadership; transactional management).
• Triple-loop learning. This involves questioning the rationale for the organisation and, in the light of this, radically transforming it (see double-loop learning; single-loop learning; organisational learning).
• Uncertainty. This relates to the degree of doubt, unpredictability and ambiguity that exists in any situation.
• Unfreezing. This is the first step in Lewin's Three-Step model of change. It seeks to destabilise (unfreeze) the complex field of driving and restraining forces which prevent human behaviour from changing (see moving; refreezing).
• Values. These are one of the key components of culture. They relate to how things ought to be done in an organisation; they tell members what is important in the organisation (see organisational culture).
• Vision. This is a view of an organisation's desired future state. It generally has two components: a description of the organisation's core values and purpose; and a strong and bold picture of the organisation's future which identifies specific goals and actions (see visionbuilding).
• Vision-building. This is the process of creating a vision. It is an iterative process which involves the conception by a company's senior management team of an 'ideal' future state for their organisation; the identification of the organisation's mission, its rationale for existence; and a clear statement of desired outcomes and the desired conditions and competences needed to achieve these.
• Work humanisation. See Job Design.
• Workforce diversity. This term refers to the dissimilarities – differences – among an organisation's workforce owing to age, gender, race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, nationality, socio-economic background, capabilities/disabilities, etc. It draws attention to the need to take account of these differences when seeking to recruit, retain and motivate staff. In particular, it identifies the need to treat different groups differently if an organisation is to treat all its employees in an ethical and fair manner.