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02/15 PERSONALquarterly
long term organisational success, focus on culture and the
people within your organisation.
PERSONALquarterly:
Employees involved in frequent change pro-
cesses report tiredness, exhaustion, nervousness, irritability,
insomnia and headaches. Why do you think that frequent
changes have a negative impact on employees?
Rune Todnem By:
Learning from Kübler-Ross‘ model of five
stages of grief, we know that change is a very challenging
and stressful process to many individuals. We also know
that change often happens on top of the day-to-day job. So, I
would argue we need less change and that the change we do
implement actually deals with the challenges faced by the
organisation. We need to put an end to unjustified change
for the sake of change which is nothing more than a waste
of resources with considerable opportunity cost.
Speaking in general terms, organisations are initiating too
many changes, many of which are based on trends. Just
because ‘everyone else is doing it’ doesn’t make it right.
We should also bear in mind that many successful organi-
sations are not doing what everyone else is doing. Taking
risks and daring to be different are very often success fac-
tors. When we make a decision about change it is often the
wrong one influenced by a political process focused on not
upsetting influential individuals and groups of individuals.
I would argue that we need less change, but the changes
we do initiate have to be real. Putting a new label on an old
bottle of wine is not change. Changing a structure without
enabling people to do their job is token rather than real
change. Today’s situation in many organisations is similar
to that of doctors prescribing too much antibiotics to pa
tients when it is in fact not required. The result being that
when you do need the antibiotics, it won’t work.
PERSONALquarterly:
Based on your experience, how do organi-
sations differ in handling change-related issues? Do you see
industry or culture-related differences?
Rune Todnem By:
There are of course industry and culture-
related differences in how we handle change, but these dif-
ferences are becoming diluted as we are working in a more
PROFESSOR RUNE TODNEM BY
Staffordshire University Business School, UK
E-Mail:
Professor Rune Todnem By plays a leading international role in the
development of organisational change management and leadership.
Being the editor-in-chief of Routledge’s Journal of Change Manage-
ment and co-author of the book Managing Change in Organizations
(Carnall & By, 6th edition, 2014) his focus is on leadership and the
task of facilitating for direction and cooperation towards shared suc-
cess and fulfilment of potential.
Professor By is co-editor of the books The Psychology of Organizatio-
nal Change (Oreg, Michel & By, 2013), Organizational Change, Lea-
dership and Ethics (By & Burnes, 2013) and Managing Organizational
Change in Public Services (By & Macleod, 2009). He is consistently
management: a critical review (2009). Professor By delivers the
module Change Leadership on MBA and Executive MBA programmes,
and is a sought after keynote speaker.
