Week Two Assignment
Effective Change
William C. Bradley, Jr.
MGT 466
Professor Dorothea L. Terry
July 18, 2012 Effective Change
Review of Effective Change Theories
The early theories of change held by management scientists centered on defining the problem accurately, using the best analytic techniques, and finding an optimal solution. It was assumed that managers would readily understand, accept, and implement the solutions of the scientists. Some observers contended, however, that the management scientists were proposing changes with insufficient regard for relevance, timeliness, acceptance, or implementation (Zand, 1975).
Identifying the Characteristics of Effective Organizational Change
Psychologist Kurt Lewin theory on organizational change conceptualized the present condition or level of activity of a system as a dynamic social equilibrium, that is a state of balance maintained by active driving and resisting social forces. Change then consisted of altering the driving and resisting forces thereby facilitating the movement of the system to a new level of equilibrium (Zand, 1975).
Lewin conceptualized change as a process with three phases: (1) unfreezing—behavior that increases the receptivity of the client system to a possible change in the distribution and balance of social forces; (2) moving—altering the magnitude, direction, or number of driving and resisting forces, consequently shifting the equilibrium to a new level; and (3) refreezing—reinforcing the new distribution of forces, thereby maintaining and stabilizing the new social equilibrium. Lewin also suggested that although common sense might lean toward increasing driving forces to induce change, in many instances this might arouse an equal and opposite increase in resisting forces, the net effect being no change and greater tension than before (Spector, 2010).
The Situation at Asda Markets The situation when Archie Norman was asked to take over as chief executive officer of Asda Markets was dismal. According to an article written by Anita van deVliet on the Management Today website, customers were leaving and making their grocery purchases at competitors’ stores, the share price for the company was falling, and many of the stores were in disrepair. It was believed that the Asda would find it very difficult to bring someone in that could turn the situation around. Some of the barriers to implement effective change at Asda that Archie Norman faced included a demoralized work force, a politicized central headquarters, employees not intercommunicating between departments, and a company with no idea of what direction it was heading to. Archie Norman himself was a barrier due to the fact that he personally had no experience in the grocery business and no general manager experience other then his graduate school training (Spector, 2010).
Archie Norman and the First Six Months Archie Norman from the onset of correcting the situation at Asda was to work with the existing employees and convince them that there was a problem at Asda. A lot of ‘head in the sand’ was taking place at Asda with many hard working employees not willing to accept that they were part of the problem. Norman understood that change needed to happen and that it would need to wholesale – everything would need to change, which in turn would revitalized the entire organization. The strategic renewal that Norman envisioned included the making of a strategic statement which was: “We will supply the weekly shopping needs of ordinary working families.” This strategic statement would allow Norman to promote his ground up renewal of change which would allow Norman to change the old culture at Asda. The new culture at Asda would be built around a new statement of company values along with a set of operational concepts that would become known as the Asda Way of Working (van deVliet, 1995).
Recommendations for Norman Norman and his new team of managers realized that with the culture change that they were creating at Asda would take a lot of promoting to be able to get existing employees to buy on to the new culture. The other changes that Norman and the managers need to implement would be in the way people work together and communicate with each other which are more complex than writing a new company statement to follow. The company's goal is to become a genuine leader in fresh foods and also to create an organization which is the preferred place to work and offering customer service with a personality derived from the heart of the company. One change has, accordingly, been in the approach to recruitment, which now aims to seek out people for the stores who really do want to serve the customers and who genuinely like selling.
There is no point, he remarks, in employing people who won't like the 'Asda Way of Working'. This is the name given to the new approach, intended to transform the old culture, which had grown autocratic and slow-moving, to one where all members of Asda feel involved in improving the business, who run their own show, and who engage actively with their customers (van deVliet, 1995).

Works Cited
Spector, B. (2010). Implementing organizational change : theory into practice. New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall. van deVliet, A. (1995, December 1). UK: Asda's open plan. Retrieved from Management Today: F:\WIU Homework\MGT 466\UK ASDA'S OPEN PLAN_ - Management Today.mht
Zand, D. E. (1975). Theory of change and the effective use of management science. Administrative Science Quarterly, Vol. 20 Issue 4, p532-545, 14p.