[ Literature Review ]

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Chapter 2: Literature Review

The six articles take into account the management of organizations, employees, and the psychology, behaviors and attitudes of people in a more generalized view. They also look into journals of management and present a reasonable viewpoint on the issue of stress and resistance when implementing some organizational change. The critical analysis of the articles explains the initial literature which is normally considered by the organizations for the sake of providing a direction and further crucial guidance to its leaders and employees.

In the article, Understanding failure to change: a pluralistic approach and five patterns written by Renate A. Werkman, the writer explains the settings as to why and how the organizations fail to change by taking in view the linking structure in the organization experiencing the resilience in some of its particular sectors. According to the numerous studies, the rate of failure of the organizations in such contexts has been exceeding 70 per cent over the last decade (Ford and Ford, 1995). After performing the research study by the writer, he found out that there are five trends which assume different positions on the issue capacity and control of organizational change. All those patterns are represented by a particular context, process, characteristics, and goals and operations of the change management in the organization.

The innovative pattern indicates that the significant conditions for the organizational change are provided by the pleasant characteristics of work and leadership and culture. Through this pattern, the interactive approach is reinforced and there is a high outcome of expectations. The second pattern identified was systematic pattern which suggests that despite the employees being positive regarding the change implementation, still some political behavior exists. This tendency is experienced mostly in the medium-sized or arena-organizations. Thirdly, the unclear change process indicates that the employees lack the understanding and the clarity on the purpose of change management, this, causing the limited generation of coordination and support regarding the change experience. However, this factor does not invoke any sort of tension or the pressure in the organization. It only accounts for the fact that either people do not take any interest in the change being implemented or they are not aware of where to contribute in the process of the implementation of change. Then, the skeptical pattern represents a blend of the high orientation of control with the capacity of low change. The large-scale organizations, which posses a bureaucratic leadership style and machine-driven structure, manage a systematic change approach which conforms to the power approaches which work in combination with the mechanistic structure. Then, there exist the cynical patterns which suggest that the employees carry with them a negative attitude and wrong perspectives regarding the changed characteristics of the organization (Folger and Skarlicki, 1999).

In the article, Employee Commitment in Times of Change: Assessing the Importance of Attitudes toward Organizational Change written by Steven M. Elias, Organizations move towards the constant changes in a regular style and these changes possess a strong capability to heighten up ...