Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #27428 in Books
• Published on: 2006-11-23
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 432 pages

Synopsis
"The Theory and Practice of Change Management, 2nd Edition" is a core textbook for all modules in change management. It examines all of the key theories on organizational change and applies them to organizational settings to demonstrate how strategies can be devised and employed to help manage organizational change and the issues arising from such change. Taking quite a practical approach, students are helped to apply theoretical modules to real-world scenarios, through the use of experiential learning and cases.

Customer Reviews

A practical and pragmatic approach
Change fails over 90% of the time according to Fortune magazine. In October 2007 the Hay Group published research that showed 97% of M&As in the UK and 91% in the EU fail to deliver on the strategic objectives expected. Often the failure comes from a less than ideal focus on leadership and the people aspects of change.

These figures suggest that people and organisations need all the help they can get. So could this book help?

John Hayes is Professor of Management at Leeds University Business School where he teaches change and organisation behaviour. The title immediately overcomes the potential barrier of an academic textbook in that the "practice" aspects are much more widespread than the 2002 edition. It includes material on practical interventions which engage people across the organisation rather than just the change initiator or their team. The other "growth area" is around the "soft skills for hard results" in terms of the stakeholder and leadership aspects together with managing relationships during the process of change.

Throughout the book there is a blend of the academic models, many of which will be familiar to MBAs together with illustrative case studies from Asda, BBC, etc as well as the public sector. These are complemented by reflective exercises which enable the practitioner and the commissioning manager/leader to take a holistic approach to the design of any intervention. All of these will help fill the gaps and abysses into which many change programmes fall.

So, who is the book for?

The immediate answer is for anyone who takes the process and success of change seriously, in that it addresses both the surface and deeper aspects - the latter often given insufficient attention hence the low success rate.

For the change and OD practitioner who wants a comprehensive reference in one place it is an everyday resource to have to hand. Certainly this is "must have" book for the corporate library.

For the practicing manager, whilst very readable, at 400 pages, it is perhaps too long to use in its entirety and is best used accessed by the relevant chapters.

For those of us who, as consultants, are helping organisations and teams through change this is a more accessible and practical book than many of the alternatives. I have certainly found the book a beneficial reminder and refresher of the do's and don'ts for success.

Excellent book
Having studied under John at the Leeds University Business School, this review could seem somewhat biased, but the actual fact is that now I'm in business his theories can really be put into practice and I believe that anyone would find his work interesting and implementable.

The theory of punctuated equilibriums is especially interesting. I highly recommend this book as one to read end-to-end or as a tool/reference.

Comprehensive textbook on change management
The preface to this book says it was "originally written for practicing managers and for M.B.A. students and others who have considerable experience of working in organizations." That is a great goal, but make no mistake: this is a textbook, with all the good and bad that term implies. On the positive side, it means that author John Hayes is extremely expert, complete and methodical. He defines all the terms, summarizes all the research, and breaks all the chapters into units complete with case studies, diagrams and concluding summaries. On the negative side, it means this book can be very slow-going in spots, the style is sometimes academic and, especially in the early chapters, the author tends to emphasize broad theoretical frameworks rather than tools you can apply immediately. Hayes does get to specific suggestions later in the book and they are quite useful, but getAbstract recommends his comprehensive tome primarily to students of change management and to patient practitioners. Those who want to learn change management will come away far better informed, but not without working at it.