Managing the politics of organisational change: a retrospective case study

Abstract

Business leaders and managers are constantly being advised to change their organisations and the way they work in order to survive. In the past decade or so, a substantial body of literature has emerged which champions the cause of change management. However, this literature has been criticised because it ignores a number of important dimensions. A crucial missing dimension is that of the political dimension in change management. In particular, there have been very few empirical accounts of politics in action within organisations that are undergoing change. This study represents an attempt to add to this much needed effort. The study is a retrospective qualitative case study which was conducted in a department of a state-owned airline company in Indonesia. It is a department which the author worked for four years before leaving for New Zealand to undertake graduate studies. The focus of the study is a former department head, Sujono, who was deposed whilst carrying out several change initiatives. This study attempts to understand how and why a leader who was doing everything right according to mainstream change management literature could be ousted. Twenty five semi-structured face-to-face interviews were conducted with Sujono and former employees and managers who worked closely with Sujono. They were asked to look back and make sense of their experience in the past with regard to Sujono's change initiatives which include the recruitment strategy and the establishment of Master of Air Transportation program. In each interview, the subject was guaranteed their confidentiality. With the permission of the interview subjects, the interview was taped. It was then transcribed, translated into English and eventually coded for analysis purposes. This study reveals that politics is a prevalent and necessary component of change management. Though Sujono was a very capable manager and had obtained a lot of respect because of his expertise, he was still deposed and failed to bring about the changes he desired. The study suggests that Sujono relied on his expert power base too heavily whereas his primary protagonist, Dambudi, was able to draw on several bases for his power. Therefore, it is essential to diversify power base to deal with political issues. The study also suggests that in managing change initiatives, support from top management is crucial. Both diversifying power bases and obtaining top management's support can be achieved by making alliances with powerful individuals. In this context, they could be the most powerful member of the top management team or external parties who have strong influence over top management's decision such as high ranking government officials or members of the President's family.