National level intentional change: a story of two countries

Howard, Anita; Coombe, Duncan

doi:10.1108/02621710610678526

Cited by 17 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…Smith (2006) examines ICT at the level of formation and development of social capital. Howard and Coombe (2006) examine ICT at the country or culture level (all in this issue). But a primary feature of a complex system is that there is an interaction among the levels and that interaction produces adaptive or emergent behavior.…”

Section: The Fourth Discovery: Metamorphosismentioning

confidence: 99%

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An overview of intentional change from a complexity perspective

Boyatzis

2006

Journal of Mgmt Development

227

247

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Purpose -Change, and in particular intentional or desired change, has not been understood nor systematically studied. By applying concepts from complexity theory to intentional change theory, the purpose of this paper is to provide a new level of insight into why and how sustainable desired change can occur at all levels of human/social interaction, from individual to teams to organizations to communities, countries and the globe. Design/methodology/approach -Using research from over 30 years of longitudinal studies of individual and organizational change, the concepts are explored and implications proposed. Findings -Sustainable, intentional change is on the whole discontinuous. It occurs through a series of five discoveries or emergence conditions. It is driven by the interplay of the positive and negative emotional attractor. It follows the described process at all fractals of human organization.Research limitations/implications -Extensive empirical research has been done at the individual level, but only case studies at the organization and country levels. Practical implications -Every person seeking to explore, understand, or facilitate sustainable, desired change can be helped by the model and understanding how it functions. Originality/value -The theory of intentional change is relatively new to the literature, as is the use of complexity theory.Keywords Change management, Complexity theory, Individual development Paper type Conceptual paperFor all of the time, effort, and money invested in attempts to help individuals develop through education, training, and coaching, there are few theories that help us to understand the change process. Other than Prochaska et al. (1992) and McClelland (1965), the actual process of change is left like a mysterious black box. Theories or models of how teams, organizations, communities, countries or even global change occur are more frequent but are often a post hoc description of how the consultants or change agents went about the process. As a result they lack the depth and utility of sound theory. Each new framework has the potential of being a new "change fad", but seldom are they put to the empirical test of demonstrating sustainable results.One of the reasons for this paucity of good theory is that the underlying paradigm on which they are conceptualized is lacking in credibility. The idea of smooth, continuous change does not fit with the reality most of us experience. In this paper and this entire Special Issue of this journal, we will describe a theory of change that has produced demonstrable results at the individual level, and, we believe, explains change at other levels of human and social organization. We also go on to explain that it requires the use of complexity theory to understand the process of change. Once concepts from complexity theory are applied, it then becomes a distinct possibility that this theory of change helps to explain sustainable change at all levels of human and social organization.The current issue and full text archive of this j...

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Section: The Fourth Discovery: Metamorphosismentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Smith (2006) examines ICT at the level of formation and development of social capital. Howard and Coombe (2006) examine ICT at the country or culture level (all in this issue).…”

Section: Fractals and Interaction Among The Levelsmentioning

confidence: 99%

An overview of intentional change from a complexity perspective

Boyatzis

2006

Journal of Mgmt Development

227

247

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“…The approaches described by the leaders suggest that leading change requires a focus on both hard systems and soft system changes, which is thus consistent with theories propounding the value of both these approaches in leading change (Nohria & Beer, 2000). The leaders’ accounts also provide insight into how radical national change influences the leadership of change in organizations (Howard & Coombe, 2006). All the leaders articulated and conveyed a vision for the changes they wanted to institute in their organizations, but also implemented changes in systems.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This is the type of change South African organizations confronted in 1994. Theorists suggest this type of change is more likely to occur when organizational structures and patterns of behaviour have become entrenched (Howard & Coombe, 2006; Street & Gallupe, 2009). This was the case in South Africa on both a national level and an organizational level, since the apartheid system was omnipotent and institutionalized in both government and organizational policies, practices, processes, and structures (Mangaliso & Nkomo, 2001).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Leading organizational change in the ‘new’ South Africa

Nkomo

Kriek

2011

J Occupat & Organ Psyc

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This paper reports on a two-pronged qualitative research study that used leaders' life stories and the case research method to understand the leadership of change in 14 South African organizations. We describe how leaders led the changes required to balance the imperatives emanating from South Africa's socio-political changes and return the country to the international business arena, as well as the challenges created by years of inequality and neglect of the socio-economic development of the majority of its population. We found that the leaders' life stories played a significant role in how they perceived and responded to the change situation. Four themes summarizing the actions of the leaders -namely, their efforts to embrace change, to provide hope, to connect change to African values and culture, and to champion diversity -are described. The results of the study suggest that leaders' life stories can be an important source of information about how they perceive, interpret, and respond to change.

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“…Since it is a multilevel theory, ICT also describes SDC at other levels (Boyatzis, 2008), such as dyads (Boyatzis, Smith, & Beveridge, 2013), teams (Boyatzis, 2010), organizations (Boyatzis, Smith, Van Oosten, & Woolford, 2013; Van Oosten, 2006), communities, and countries (Howard & Coombe, 2006). Boyatzis (2008) has described this as follows:Sustainable change within a family, team or small group occurs through the cyclical “group level definition”of the five discoveries.…”

Section: Intentional Change Theorymentioning

confidence: 99%

How Dr. Akhtar Hameed Khan Led a Change Process That Started a Movement

Boyatzis

Khawaja

2014

The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science

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In 1956, Akhtar Khan began a project in rural East Pakistan that inspired new approaches to community and organization development. A quarter century later, he replicated the developmental process in impoverished neighborhoods of Karachi. The techniques of shared decision making, building cooperatives, training the master trainers, and encouraging self-sufficiency were pivotal to the approach. The effect transformed the two communities and helped inspire microfinance. Using the lens of intentional change theory in a post hoc analysis, we explain why this approach worked. The article allows us to honor a social innovator while affirming our commitment to practices like participation to create and reinforce a shared vision, creating new resonant relationships, building a multilevel intervention with distributed leadership, inclusiveness in training for empowerment, and continuous attention to cycling through the process iteratively. These are offered as insights in the design of organization and community development efforts.

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National level intentional change: a story of two countries

Cited by 17 publications

References 3 publications

An overview of intentional change from a complexity perspective

An overview of intentional change from a complexity perspective

Leading organizational change in the ‘new’ South Africa

How Dr. Akhtar Hameed Khan Led a Change Process That Started a Movement

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