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Senior and Fleming, Organizational Change, 3rd edition © Pearson Education Limited 2006

Slide 7.1 Session Seven

hard systems models of changeLearning objectives:

• Recognize change situations (problems/opportunities)characterized mainly by hard complexity, where the use of hard

systems methodologies are appropriate

• Describe the main features of hard systems methodologies for

defining, planning and implementing change

• Explain the hard systems model of change (HSMC) as

representative of hard systems methodologies of change

• Discuss the limitations of hard systems methodologies of

change and, therefore, the need for other change

methodologies more suited to situations of soft complexity

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Senior and Fleming, Organizational Change, 3rd edition © Pearson Education Limited 2006

Slide 7.2

Situations of change• There are a variety of ways of categorizing

organizational change

• Change of hard complexity is more likely to be enacted

easily and speedily than situations that show soft

complexity

• Situations of hard complexity are also described as

‘difficulties’

• HSMC is best applied in relatively bounded situationsdescribed variously as difficulties, simple/unitarist

systems or ‘hard’ situations

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Senior and Fleming, Organizational Change, 3rd edition © Pearson Education Limited 2006

Slide 7.3 Characteristics of unitary, pluralist

and coercive relationshipsUnitary: people share common interests, have values and beliefs that

are highly compatible, largely agree upon ends and means, all

participate in decision making and act in accordance with agreedobjectives.

Pluralist: people have a basic compatibility of interest, have values

and beliefs that diverge to some extent, do not necessarily agreeupon ends and means, but compromise is possible, all participate indecision making and act in accordance with agreed objectives.

Coercive: people do not share common interests, have values andbeliefs that are likely to conflict, do not agree upon ends and meansand ‘genuine’ compromise is not possible and coerce others toaccept decisions.

Flood and Jackson 1991 p. 34-5

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Slide 7.4

Systematic approaches to change• HSMC is derived from earlier methods of problem

solving and decision making, such as systems

engineering methods and operational research

• Hard approaches rely on the assumption that clearchange objectives can be identified in order to work out

the best way in achieving them

• Objectives should be such that that it is possible to

quantify them, or be sufficiently concrete so that one can

know when they have been achieved

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Senior and Fleming, Organizational Change, 3rd edition © Pearson Education Limited 2006

Slide 7.5

The hard systems model of change1. The description phase – describing and

diagnosing the situation, understanding what isinvolved, setting the objectives for the change

2. The options phase – generating options forchange, selecting the most appropriate option,thinking about what might be done

3. The implementation phase – putting feasible

plans into practice and monitoring the results

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Senior and Fleming, Organizational Change, 3rd edition © Pearson Education Limited 2006

Slide 7.6 Stages within the hard systems

methodology for changePhase 1 Stages Actions appropriate for each stage

Description

1. Situation Summary (a) Recognize the need for change(b) Test out others’ views on the need

for change

(c) Using appropriate diagnostictechniques, confirm hard complexity

2. Identify objectives (d) Set up objectives for systems of

and constraints interest(e) Identify constraints on the

achievements of objectives

3. Identify performance (f) Decide how the achievement of themeasures objectives can be measured

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Senior and Fleming, Organizational Change, 3rd edition © Pearson Education Limited 2006

Slide 7.7

Phase 2 Stages Actions appropriate for each stage

Options

4. Generate Options (g) Develop ideas for change into clearoptions for achievement of theobjectives

(h) Consider a range of possibilities

5. Edit options and (i) Describe the most promisingdetail selected options options in some detail

(j) Decide, for each option, what isinvolved, who is involved and howit would work 

6. Evaluate options against (k) Evaluate performance of chosenmeasures option against criteria set in Stage 3

Stages within the hard systems

methodology for change (continued)

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Senior and Fleming, Organizational Change, 3rd edition © Pearson Education Limited 2006

Slide 7.9

 An evaluation matrix

Objective 3

Measure 3

Objective 2

Measure 2

Objective 1

Measure 1

Option DOption COption BOption A

Objectives &

Related

Measures

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Senior and Fleming, Organizational Change, 3rd edition © Pearson Education Limited 2006

Slide 7.10

Using the HSMC – Activity1. Use example used in text to go through the stages and

identify issues that might arise form this.

2. Can you think of an example that would be considered

‘bounded’ or ‘hard’ that you or a group could try to followthe stages identified in the model.

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Senior and Fleming, Organizational Change, 3rd edition © Pearson Education Limited 2006

Slide 7.11

Comment and conclusions• The hard systems model provides a practical approach to

change that has been designed to apply to situations of

low-medium complexity

• The HSMC can also be effective to begin to diagnose achange situation before categorizing it into more simple or

complex change

• What this methodology is less good at doing is identifying

the political and moral issues surrounding types of change