Changing the Way We Manage Change

(Hardback)

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Examines and reappraises the need to manage change in today's chaotic business environment, and offers new strategies and tactics to solve the ever-changing problems posed by change itself. To cope with the chaotic new business environment, organizations must find ways to manage the problems of change, but also the process of change itself. Yesterday's solutions are old today. Truly new solutions to the ongoing problem of managing change are rare, yet even the best ones require for their implementation not only the efforts of individuals, charasmatic though they may be, but of other "agents" as well. Sims sees change agents throughout any organization and at all levels--a blend of practitioners that includes line and staff people, human resources specialists, and others who until now have had little reason to take on such tasks and thus have never been held accountable for their outcomes. He also includes consultants and academics that management often works with. Not only do Sims and the contributors to this far-ranging, provocative new book provide unique models for change interventions, they also prescribe techniques and tools that executives will need to accomplish them, and without overlooking ways to adapt other, older strategies to present needs. The result is a book that experienced executives will understand and be able to work with, but also a book that will bring the novice up to speed, providing new ways to use their own instincts and capabilities for innovation to good, necessary advantage. Sims and his contributors challenge the traditional prescription for creating change, and also offer new ways to think about it. They provide a compelling critique of traditional approaches to change management, highlight the strengths of these approaches, and emphasize what can still be extracted to bring change about. They see new interventions that change agents can use to make the old ways work. Each of the authors provides insights into the competencies, skills, and values required for the rapid and successful creation of lasting change. In doing so, however, they reemphasize that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to change management, and that the need for innovation, flexibility, and adaptibility remains dominant.

Author Bio

RONALD R. SIMS is the Floyd Dewey Gottwald Senior Professor of Business Administration in the Graduate School of Business at the College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia.