Key Points
Change management is the intentional process of transitioning an organization (or part of it) from its current state to a desired future state to achieve meaningful results.
Most change management methods fall into one of three categories—psychological, leadership/management, or technical—and each offers unique strengths and limitations.
To address the complexity of organizational change, an integrated approach that blends these perspectives and leverages evidence-based practices is most effective.
What is Change Management?
Change management involves intentionally transitioning an organization—or specific parts of it—from where it is now to where it wants to be. While the concept seems straightforward, it encompasses a range of activities, perspectives, and disciplines that support this transformation.
The Association of Change Management Professionals (ACMP) defines change management as:
"[The] practice of applying a structured approach to transition an organization from a current state to a future state to achieve expected benefits."
This definition highlights three key aspects of change management:
First, it reinforces that change is about moving intentionally from the current to a desired future state.
Second, it clarifies that this movement is purposeful—aimed at realizing meaningful results, not just making progress for progress's sake.
And finally, it emphasizes that change management requires a structured, though not prescriptive, process. It’s wise to ensure your choice of approach is appropriate for the type of change you are implementing and your business environment.
Three Perspectives on Change Management
There are countless approaches and change management models outlined in academic literature and the popular business press. Below, we review three major categories or perspectives to which many of these change management approaches align. Different approaches tend to emphasize one of these perspectives more than others, rather than being exclusive to a single perspective. In my experience it’s useful to leverage all three, which is why I have integrated them in my change implementation framework.
Psychological Perspective: Influencing and Motivating People to Change
What Psychological Change Management Focuses On
Change management approaches informed by psychology, or organizational development theory, tend to focus on human dynamics, such as changing an individual's behaviors and beliefs or overcoming resistance to change.
There are many theories that inform these approaches, which are generally similar. They can help us to understand what's going on when employees resist change and what it takes to motivate staff to adopt an organizational change.
For example, the ability, motivation, and opportunity framework helps us to understand that we can't simply increase people's knowledge about the change and skills to do it (ability). Although training to build relevant capability is important, we also need to understand how the change aligns with individuals’ goals and beliefs (motivation) and ensure they have the resources necessary to undertake the change (opportunity).
Why Psychology Alone Isn’t Enough
Supporting behavior change and influencing beliefs are essential parts of any change and can be overlooked if we simply focus on developing and delivering the solution on time and on budget. However, while attending to individual or group motivations is important, it's not sufficient. The change needs to be developed, resourced, managed, and sustained competently. We need a more holistic approach to effectively implement change in organizations.
Examples of Psychology-based Approaches to Change
AMO — Ability, Motivation, Opportunity
Kurt Lewin Model — Unfreeze, Move, Refreeze
PROSCI ADKAR Method — Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability, Reinforcement
Management & Leadership: Planning, Mobilizing, and Resourcing Change
What Management and Leadership Perspectives Focus On
Change management approaches that draw on management and leadership scholarship focus on things such as planning, organizing, directing, and resourcing change. These approaches tend to focus more on the organization's perspective as a whole rather than that of the individual within the organization. They highlight the required change skills for leadership and top management and often focus on transformational change.
To make change happen and create results, it does need to be competently managed. Such competence ensures that the change effort is on time, on schedule, and on budget — and that there are clarity, alignment, and commitment across the organization about the purpose and priority of the change.
Why Management & Leadership Alone Isn’t Enough
Some of the most popular change management methods in this category are not backed by strong academic evidence. In addition, they may emphasize the role of leaders so much that they leave a false impression that leadership from the top is all it takes to successfully bring about sustained change. It's necessary, but not in itself sufficient. There are other resources needed to create and maintain organizational change.
Successful change is a team effort that cuts across all levels of the organization. To be successful, we must often draw on the expertise of a skilled change management team, as well as contributions from managers at all levels, in addition to the input and support of impacted staff members.
Examples of Management & Leadership Change Approaches
John Kotter — 8 Steps
Heifitz — Adaptive Change
Kanter, Jick and Stein — 10 Steps
Industrial Engineering: Systematic approaches to change
What Systematic Change Management Focuses On
Technical approaches drawn from industrial engineering provide detailed and consistent methods for organizational change management. They are often systematic approaches or continuous improvement efforts focused on improving the quality or efficiency of current processes.
Many of these methods focus on "defining the problem" as an initial step. This sets these apart from other organizational change approaches, which do not address that essential aspect of change explicitly.
These methods are also grounded in the idea that organizational change requires continuous effort and incremental improvements over time. Regardless of the type of change we are implementing, iterative improvement is almost always part of successful change efforts. Therefore, to some degree, the mindset and some of the tools designed for use in more methodical change management approaches have broad applicability.
Why Systematic Approaches Alone Aren’t Enough
Not all organizational changes are planned or involve predictable or controllable processes. Some organizational changes demand more flexible and creative approaches to managing change.
Examples of Systematic Approaches to Change
Lean Six Sigma
Plan, Do, Check, Act
Total Quality Management
Benefits of an Integrated Approach
While each of these perspectives is useful, in reality, none by itself will help us meet the complexity we face in most periods of organizational change. To navigate that complexity demands an integrated change management approach that brings the best of many disciplines to the table.
When managing organizational change, you should expect that you, or more likely your broader change management team, will be called on to demonstrate competence in all of the following areas:
Stakeholder engagement
Leadership & General Management
Training and Coaching
Teaming (High functioning temporary change management teams)
Technical expertise related to change solution being implemented
What the Research Says
It can be helpful to think of change management as not so much a separate, unique discipline but more as an expert ability to apply and adapt tools and methods from various disciplines. In fact, research indicates successful change management processes include elements that are:
Complementary — Suggests that all disciplines are necessary, and none by itself is sufficient — they complement one another.
Compensatory — Strengths in some change competencies can make up for weaknesses in others (but not their complete absence.)
Scalable — Approaches should be adaptive to meet the needs of the specific changes you are implementing (scale, type, impact).
Do Change Management Approaches Work?
Rather than asking whether change management as a whole works, it's more effective to evaluate the specific practices within it. Evidence consistently supports the efficacy of change practices when they are applied thoughtfully and in alignment with the organization’s goals and context.
For instance, management research indicates that:
Goal Clarity & Monitoring Increase Performance: Clarity of vision and goals, as well as ongoing goal monitoring, are linked with improved performance, but it matters that you use the right type of goals for your situation.
Fair Processes Matter: Fair processes are linked with more openness and acceptance of the change and can mitigate, to an extent, negative outcomes of change experienced by staff.
Communication Influences Perceptions: Explanations, engagement, and communication influence how people perceive the organization, leaders, and organizational changes.
Trust as a Performance Driver: Trust between team members and leadership is linked to productive risk-taking, going above and beyond, and overall task performance. So it's important to use change practices that support trust building (e.g., engagement, communication, walking the talk.)
Training + Coaching = Results: Training supports more effective adoption of a change than providing written materials alone. When training is matched with coaching, it supports even better learning outcomes.
Power of Cross-Functional Teams: Creating teams to develop, lead, and manage change is an effective strategy because only through a team can you deliver the diversity of skills and perspectives necessary to competently and legitimately lead a change.
Perceived Change Competence & Commitment: People's perceptions of change are linked to their belief that the organization can competently manage the change and the demonstrated commitment of the organization to the change and supporting staff to navigate it.
The evidence outlined above, and much more, indicates that using an intentional approach that leverages evidence-based practices that support learning, engagement, effective management of resources, and performance is effective. In addition to the change management process used, it's also important to recognize that change success is impacted by two other factors: the quality of the change solution (content), as well as the environment in which the change is implemented (context).
Key Takeaways
Change management is about moving from a current state to a future state, intentionally and effectively.
Three major perspectives—psychological, leadership/management, and technical—each provide value.
A successful change strategy often requires integrating insights and practices from all three.
Evidence supports using a blended, evidence-based approach tailored to your unique situation.
Want to learn more about our integrated change management framework? Click here to explore.
References
Fixsen, D., Naoom, S., Blase, K., Friedman, R., Wallace, F. (2005). Implementation Research: A Synthesis of the Literature. Tamps, FL: University of South Florida, Louis de la Parte Florida Mental Health Institute, National Implementation Research Network.
Haddad, S., & Kotnour, T. (2015). Integrating the organizational change literature: a model for successful change. Journal of Organizational Change Management, 28(2), 234-262.