Change is an inevitable feature of any company, organization, or institution. The purpose of this report is to examine the current literature on organizational change. This brief review examines theory and research related to sources of organizational change and various factors involved in organizational change.
Vecchio (1991) has discussed sources of organizational change as being either external or internal. External sources of change are those that originate in the company's or institution's external environment. The external environment is said to include such variables as competitors, suppliers, customers, the economic climate, and the labor force. In an educational institution, this external environment would include parents, community members, textbook suppliers, etc.
Internal sources of change are defined by Vecchio as sources existing within the organization or institution. These internal sources might include factors such as employee attitudes, company benefits, productivity rate, and organizational structure.
Vecchio reports that in most instances, organizations deal with internal sources of change and that, usually, these are changes initiated by the organization itself in response to the company's pattern of growth and decline. Hamel (1994) has discussed this kind of organizational change (company/institution initiated) in business, noting that currently self-initiated change (commonly termed restructuring or reengineering of an organization) has more to do with shoring up today's businesses than with building tomorrow's industries.
Hamel (1994) feels that organizational change must be conceptualized as a business effort to create the future and companies need to realize that successfully creating the future requires industry foresight. In other words, organization is not only present-oriented but future-oriented.
Hamel states that since change is inevitable, company executives and managers...