Program/Project Management Resource List #44

Revised Oct. 2006

Provided by the NASA Headquarters Library

The following books and articles cover the problems change agents face in bringing change to an organization. William Hitt, in The Leader-Manager, provides a list of attributes for effective change agents he derived from several other writers which is paraphrased below:

1. They view change as a friend; 2. They have power tools and know how to use them; 3. They are able to deal with both logical and psychological aspects of change; 4. They are able to establish a climate for change; 5. They start the change process with themselves rather than with others; 6. They do not force change, they facilitate it; 7. They create their own enthusiasm; 8. They are able to let go of old ideas and experiment with alternatives; 9. They seek out and accept criticism of their ideas; 10. They are able to get others to "buy into" their ideas for change.

These are certainly not easy tasks. Please refer to Organizational Change and Change Management for additonal references. Research in this area may improve your chances at bringing about organizational changes, for as Machiavelli wrote in The Prince:

There is nothing more difficult to carry out, nor more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to handle, than to initiate a new order of things.

All items are available at the Headquarters Library. NASA Headquarters employees and contractors: call (358-0172) or email Library@hq.nasa.gov for information on borrowing or in-library use of any of these items. Members of the public, contact your Local Library for the availability of these items.

Books

Bennet, Alex and David Bennet. Organizational Survival in the New World: The Intelligent Complex Adaptive System. Amsterdam; Boston: Butterworth-Heinemann, 2004.

HD58.8 .B46 O74 2004 PPM-STACKS

 

Dunphy, Dexter C. Organizational Change for Corporate Sustainability: A Guide for Leaders and Change Agents of the Future. London; New York: Routledge, 2003.

HD58.8 .D86 2003 PPM-STACKS

 

Holton, Elwood F. and Timothy T. Baldwin (eds.) Improving Learning Transfer in Organizations. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2003.

HD58.82 .I47 2003 PPM-STACKS

 

Hutton, David W. The Change Agents' Handbook: A Survival Guide for Quality Improvement Champions. Milwaukee, WI: ASQC Quality Press, 1994.

HD58.8 .H88 1994 PPM-STACKS

Articles

Anonymous. "Claiming Your Courage", Strategic Finance, vol. LXXXVIII, no. 4, (Oct. 2006): p. 41-47

Available through FirstSearch

 

Brodsky, Norm. "The Path to the Top: Are You an Agent of Change, or Will You be a Victim of Change?", Inc., vol. XXV, no. 2 (2003): p. 44-45.

 

Coplin, William D. "Performance Measurement: The Professional Researcher as Change Agent in the Government-Performance Movement", Public Administration Review, vol. LXII, no. 6 (2002): p. 699-711.

 

Dover, Philip A. "Change agents at Work: Lessons from Siemens Nixdorf", Journal of Change Management, vol. III, no. 3 (Feb. 2003): p. 243-257

Available through FirstSearch

 

Doyle, Mike. "Dispersing Change Agency in High Velocity Change Organisations: Issues and Implications", Leadership and Organization Development Journal, vol. XXII, no. 7/8 (2001): p. 321-329

Available through FirstSearch

 

__________. "Selecting Managers for Transformational Change", Human Resource Management Journal, vol. XII, no. 1 (2002): p. 3-16

Available through FirstSearch

 

McLagin, Pat. "Claim Your Change Power", Training and Development, vol. LV, no. 10 (Oct. 2001): p. 58-62

Available through FirstSearch

 

Miller, Brad D. "Making Managers More Effective Agents of Change", Quality Progress, vol. XXXIV, no. 5 (May 2001): p. 53-57

Available through FirstSearch

 

Pascale, Richard Tanner, and Jerry Sternin. "Your Company's Secret Change Agents", Harvard Business Review, vol. LXXXIII, no. 5 (May 2005): p. 72-81

 

Robinson, Christine. "The Battle of the Toolbooks", Journal for Quality and Participation, vol. XXVI, no. 3 (Fall 2003): 4-19

Available through FirstSearch

 

Valentino, Caterina Lucia, and Brunelle, Francis. "The Role of Middle Managers in the Transmission and Integration of Organizational Culture", Journal of Healthcare Management, vol. IL, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 2004): p. 393-404

Available through FirstSearch

Internet Resources

Boehringer, Robert D. "Implementing Organizational Change: The Role of the Change Agent". Orion Development Group. 2006 [cited 27 Sept. 2006]

http://www.odgroup.com/articles/change.html

 

Hugos, Mike. "How to Become a Change Agent". CIO.com 15 Oct. 2005 [cited 27 Sept. 2006]

http://www.cio.com/archive/101505/leadership.html

 

JPC Training and Consulting. "Organizational Change: An Ethical, Means Based, Approach to Organizational Change". JPC Training & Consulting 5 Aug. 2002 [cited 27 Sept. 2006]

http://www.jpc-training.com/change/index.htm

 

New Paradigm Consulting. 30 April 2005 [cited 27 Sept. 2006]

http://www.new-paradigm.co.uk/index.htm

 

Packard, Thomas. "TQM And Organizational Change And Development". Robin Reid and Associates. 4 Nov. 2002 [cited 27 Sept. 2006]

http://www.improve.org/tqm.html

 

Sapient Corporation. GovernmentChangeAgents.com. 27 Sept. 2006 [cited 27 Sept. 2006]

http://www.governmentchangeagents.com/

 

The Society for Leadership of Change. 2006. [cited 27 Sept. 2006]

http://www.theslc.org/