The rational perspective
Where organisational change theorists have embraced the biological perspective with enthusiasm, their counterparts in practice tend to view change from the rational perspective. Also described as strategic change, the rational perspective is concerned with the alignment between an organisation’s structure/competencies with its environment. Importantly, this alignment is within the power of managers to manipulate because they are charged with the best use of resources to achieve organisational objective. Furthermore, as soon as objectives have been specified, the process of organisational change is simply the by-product of sound planning and execution. This process explains the popularity of the perspective with management practitioners and consultants. Change is held firmly in the hands of organisational leaders, its success a reflection of their capacity to translate objectives into piecemeal actions, while circumventing environmental boundaries.
In addition to strategic change, the rational perspective is sometimes more formally referred to as a teleological theory because, like the branch of philosophy it is named for, it is focused on purpose or meaning. As a result, the rational perspective assumes that the intended final destination of an organisation is the guiding power behind change attempts. This assumption presupposes that the strategy process is central to organizational change and that organisations themselves are purposeful and adaptive. Ration also assumes that change makes is causal. It comes about in a linear and straightforward way, the predictable result of the planned interventions of change managers. Strategic choice theorists belong to the rational perspective camp as do the voluminous number of self-declared change management experts and gurus, who write books explaining their own interpretation of a rational change intervention, invariably involving a sequence of key steps.
The obvious strength of the rational perspective is that it is prescriptive and logical. Change comes about for a reason, and the purpose of the change manager is to make sure that they provide the right reasons in the right order. This way, bringing about change is just a matter of planning carefully for its introductions. To some extent, of course, this is axiomatic. If an organisation’s leaders have any chance of changing their organisation the way they want, without relying on luck, they must take a rational perspective of some type. As a result, it is difficult for anyone commenting on change to be helpful unless they can offer some prescriptive and rational action that flows from their advice. The other side of rational change, however, is that it seldom recognises the complexities of change and the impact that external, unplanned circumstances can have on an organization. Reality has a way of diverging rather quickly from idealised plans.
The rational perspective
Where organisational change theorists have embraced the biological perspective with enthusiasm, their counterparts in practice tend to view change from the rational perspective. Also described as strategic change, the rational perspective is concerned with the alignment between an organisation’s structure/competencies with its environment. Importantly, this alignment is within the power of managers to manipulate because they are charged with the best use of resources to achieve organisational objective. Furthermore, as soon as objectives have been specified, the process of organisational change is simply the by-product of sound planning and execution. This process explains the popularity of the perspective with management practitioners and consultants. Change is held firmly in the hands of organisational leaders, its success a reflection of their capacity to translate objectives into piecemeal actions, while circumventing environmental boundaries.
In addition to strategic change, the rational perspective is sometimes more formally referred to as a teleological theory because, like the branch of philosophy it is named for, it is focused on purpose or meaning. As a result, the rational perspective assumes that the intended final destination of an organisation is the guiding power behind change attempts. This assumption presupposes that the strategy process is central to organizational change and that organisations themselves are purposeful and adaptive. Ration also assumes that change makes is causal. It comes about in a linear and straightforward way, the predictable result of the planned interventions of change managers. Strategic choice theorists belong to the rational perspective camp as do the voluminous number of self-declared change management experts and gurus, who write books explaining their own interpretation of a rational change intervention, invariably involving a sequence of key steps.
The obvious strength of the rational perspective is that it is prescriptive and logical. Change comes about for a reason, and the purpose of the change manager is to make sure that they provide the right reasons in the right order. This way, bringing about change is just a matter of planning carefully for its introductions. To some extent, of course, this is axiomatic. If an organisation’s leaders have any chance of changing their organisation the way they want, without relying on luck, they must take a rational perspective of some type. As a result, it is difficult for anyone commenting on change to be helpful unless they can offer some prescriptive and rational action that flows from their advice. The other side of rational change, however, is that it seldom recognises the complexities of change and the impact that external, unplanned circumstances can have on an organization. Reality has a way of diverging rather quickly from idealised plans.
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