Leadership, Management and Change

This research critiques the article identified below this paragraph. The critique considers the relevance of the article to leadership and management, the logic and completeness of the author's argument, the reviewer's perception of the weaknesses and strengths of the article, and the reviewer's disagreement or agreement with the key points stated in the article.

Duck, Jeanie D. (1993, NovemberDecember). Managing change: The art of balancing. Harvard Business Review, 71(6), 109118.

The relevance of this article to leadership and management is demonstrated by Duck (1993, pp. 109118) through an illustration of how effective change implementation in the contemporary organization is highly dependent upon the provision of equal recognition and emphasis on the human and the technological systems within the organizational environment. Change in this context is implemented through application of the sociotechnical system (STS) concept.

The STS concept assumes that every organization is comprised of three subsystems (Shani, Grant, Krishnan, and Thompson, 1992, p. 93). The organization's human resources are the social subsystem, while the techniques and knowledge used by the organization are the technical subsystem, and the entities external to the organization (including customers) with which the

organization interacts are the environmental subsystem. The

. . .
to both. Maton (1988, p. 870) went on the state that the STS approach lacks conceptual substance, so it is unable to maintain a consistent direction or application. To meet with success, according to Maton (1988, p. 883), the STS approach must place human needs over technology, while at the same time persuading management that the benefits of the STS approach are greater that those of other alternatives available to the organization. This approach is the one described by Duck (1993, pp. 109118). The major strength of the Duck (1993, pp. 109118) article is description of a transition management team concept that can be used effectively to implement change through the application of the STS approach. The weakness of the Duck (1993, pp. 109118) article, and it is not a major weakness, is that the illustrations cited did not provide a link to known organizations to assist the reader in evaluating the message of the author. Duck's (1993, pp. 109118) major arguments are reasonable. Importantly, it also appears that the ideas presented in the article are applicable to a wide variety of organizational environments. Primary Reference Duck, Jeanie D. (1993, NovemberDecember). Managing change: The art of balancing. Harvard
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1556
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)