Managing Organizational Change: Change Agent Strategies and Techniques to Successfully Managing the Dynamics of Stability and Change in Organizations

Jonathan H. Westover, Utah Valley University

Abstract

In our turbulent world, there is nothing more permanent than change. Organizations face the continuous prospect of change as they fight to stay afloat and compete in an increasingly competitive and globalized economy. The question is, how do organizations manage this change? This article provides a brief overview of the history of change theory, followed by a discussion on differing change agent strategies and techniques to managing change and stability in organizations, including an introduction into the emergence of role of the change agent, a discussion of the implications for agents of change or stability, and a discussion of the need for anticipating how people will be affected by change. Finally, I provide some specific tools for change agents, and discuss how to be an effective change agent in organizations.