The Demands of Transformational Change
Mohrman and Cummings developed the self-design strategy in response to a number of demands facing organizations engaged in change. These demands strongly suggest the need for self-design, contrast to more traditional approaches to organization change that emphasize ready-made programs and quick fixes. Although organizations prefer the control and certainty in programmed change, thefive requirements for organizational transformation viewed below argue against this strategy:
1. Transformational change generally involves altering most features of the organization and achieving a fit among them and with the firm's strategy. This suggests the need for a systemic change process that accounts for these multiple features and relationships.
2. Transformational change generally occurs in situations experiencing heavy change and uncertainty. This means that changing is never totally finished, as new structures and processes will continually have to be modified to fit changing conditions. Thus, the change process needs to be dynamic and iterative, with organizations continually changing themselves