This paper will attempt to make a distinction between why companies change and the catalysts used in an organization to bring about that change. According to Ian Palmer, Richard Dunford, and Gib Akin (2009), “Whether the change is reactive or anticipatory gives rise to four categories: tuning, reorientation, adaptation, and re-creation”
What Causes Organization Change Management?
Change is required in today 's business environment to stay profitable but to stay competitive. It is the daily watch for many whose job it is to forecast the futures of their companies. “Managers think about today. Leaders think about tomorrow.” Dan McCreary (2004)
There are many types of change, the first one could be described as ‘tuning’ this is where an organization needs to streamline processes and cut spending costs making the organization more efficient and pro-active. Another type of change is called ‘reorientation’; this involves planning ahead and making the changes needed for future strengths by using past strengths and history as your guide. “Adaptation: this is a reactive mode where the business climate has changed without being anticipated. And finally “re-creation” also a reactive type of change but requires the business to totally reinvent itself. (Ian Palmer, 2009)
Catalysts that Cause Change
As discussed in the first sections of this paper there types of change for business, but catalysts that cause them. When doing 8th grade science with my daughter, we needed to define a catalyst or catalysis and it is defined as: “the change in rate of a chemical reaction due to the participation of a substance called a catalyst. Although catalysts are not consumed by the reaction itself, they may be inhibited, deactivated or destroyed by secondary processes” (Wikipedia, 2010) this was something that was of interest while thinking about the term catalyst in change management. Business catalysts causing change often involve some
Cited: Darwin, C. (2010, Aug 28). Think Exit.com. Retrieved October 10, 2010, from http://thinkexist.com/quotes/with/keyword/organizational/ Ian Palmer, r. D. (2009). University of Phoenix Custom EdititionManagement 380- Organizational Change (2009). Managing organizational change. A multiple prespectives approach. McGraw-Hill Company. McCreary, D. (2004). Why Organizational Change is so Hard. Chicago: Random House. Wikipedia. (2010, 10 2). Wikipedia. Retrieved Oct 11, 2010, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catalysis