Managing Change Enquiry and Action

□ Introduction

Having the right people in the right place at the right time is important for the effective enactment of change. Whilst this might sound simple, in practice there are several potential pitfalls, and the process of effective selection decision-making is a core skill of the change manager. For Kotter (1996), the ability to secure the right people for the coalition that will drive change is a foundational step in deciding the limits to the way the change will go. Marshak's (2009) metaphors of ‘move and relocate’ and ‘liberate and recreate’ (see Chapter 2) are pertinent here, as stopping doing things one way and moving to another can entail a change in the people; equally, the idea of liberation is that the people who are liberated will be able to move the company in a new and interesting direction. Accordingly, it is important for the people who are chosen to have both the right capabilities and the motivation for working towards the agreed goals. This can involve establishing a ‘psychological contract’ (Conway & Briner, 2005), or informal and unwritten agreement, over the direction of change and the willingness to exert effort towards the goals.

The processes of selection can be a one-way street, in which the manager decides about team or organisation membership without consultation; or, in other circumstances, it can be a two-way process, in which the manager and the potential member are both involved in information exchange and decision-making (McKenna & Beech, 2008). This depends to some extent on the nature of the role and the organisational circumstances. Open, two-way processes are more common when roles are flexible and can be developed in line with the attributes and aspirations of individuals (Taylor, 2010). On other occasions, particularly when there are very specific demands in a role or when the selection decision is about downsizing and possible redundancy, the process can be more managerially led. Either way, there is a need to make the best decisions possible, and in the second part of this chapter we explore some of the approaches to achieving this. Before that we discuss the nature and establishment of the psychological contract.