Conflict and Failure in Planned Change

Abstract

Reports of social conflict and failure within organizational planned change are few. This study, based on 15 months of participant observation, historical analyses, and informal interviews, depicts a three-year intervention into a commercial enterprise. The state of the organization and the strategies by which change was introduced are analyzed. Conflict avoidance, both by organization members and the two consultants involved in the change process, are demonstrated, and their conflicting philosophies of induced social change contrasted. Outcomes based on a prescriptive model of change are compared to a model of change providing a guide for choice among behaviors. Lastly, a theory of development based on Kohlberg's notions of conventional and principled morality is imposed on these two approaches to planned change and its implications discussed.

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