Bottom-up Approach Towards Organizational Change



Bottom-up Approach
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Anneke Zwart
Student (University), Netherlands

Bottom-up Approach Towards Organizational Change

THE IDEA
According to Cable (2012), successful organizational changes are not large organizational changes. A more successful way of organizational change is to bring about small changes in human behavior. How does this work?
According to Cable, we need to establish small changes in each employee’s individual behavior so that all those individuals together act in new ways and realize organizational change that consumers can see and react on. In other words, successful changes are those with a bottom-up approach rather than a top-down approach.

CHALLENGES OF THIS IDEA
First of all, it is challenging to realize small changes into each individual’s behavior to leading to substantial and successful changes, as the diversity in today's workforce is large. And next to diversity, people are more critical, knowledgeable, skilled and aware about past, current and future processes mainly as a result of access to Internet and social media.
This poses a challenge for leaders to implement a different way of management. Instead of the leader creating a new idea and convincing the employees that the change is needed, ideas should come from the employees themselves. They best know the basic facts of the organization and the day-to-day operations of the organization. In this way, change comes from the bottom up.

DISCUSSION
What do you think about this bottom-up approach towards organizational change? Is it possible to bring about small changes in individual behavior that together add up to one coherent idea instead of leading to even more confusion? What possible advantages and benefits could such an approach have?

Source: Cable, D. M. (2012) “The New Path to Organizational Change” Business Strategy Review vol. 23 Iss. 3 pp. 45-47
 

Rating
 
0
Felix
Consultant
 

Change the Person to Change the Organisation?

Anneke, in all practical purposes the ideology of bottom-up approach towards organisational change s... Sign up

 
2
Francisco Encarnado
Management Consultant, Philippines
 

Organizational Change Through Bottom-up Approaches

This has been done in the past through the Quality Control Circle implementation in some company in ... Sign up

 
6
Adrian Groeneveld, Netherlands
 

Conditions for Effecting Change via the Bottom-up Approach

I my opinion the bottom-up approach is still the one with the best chance of success, but a conditio... Sign up

 
3
Lens
Manager, Netherlands
 

Bottom Up or Still Top Down?

Can we talk about a bottom up change if we try to influence people who are in the “bottom” of the or... Sign up

 
3
Kosmas Michail
Business Consultant, Greece
 

The Chances of Bottom Up Approach to Change

The "bottom-up" notion is not deployed in a clear way here. If we assume it means to bring about - ... Sign up

 
0
Jaap de Jonge
Editor, Netherlands
 

This Discussion has 2 Layers

Let's distinguish 2 questions: Can bottom-up approaches to organizational change work IN GENERAL? I... Sign up

 
1
Reijling
Business Consultant, Netherlands
 

Bottom Up AND Top Down Strategizing Process

I just finished a PhD study on the governance of the NL Ministry of Defence. Especially in a politic... Sign up

 
-1
Michael Huss
Director
 

Success Depends on Including the ENTIRE Organization

One important limiter to any bottom up change is the business acumen of those implementing the chang... Sign up

 
1
Akintunde Olusegun
Consultant, Nigeria
 

Bottom Up Approach to Organisational Changes

In this part of the world, a bottom-up approach to changes and/or to decision making is critical to ... Sign up

 
2
J Entrekin
Analyst, United States
 

A Single Method is not Effective in a Large Organization

I agree with @Reijling, organizational change must be both bottom-up AND top-down for change to be r... Sign up

 
1
Martin Lekoski, Slovakia
 

Bottom Up Approach and what Not

It depends. In Japan you have similar concept called the ringi system which uses the bottom-up appro... Sign up

 
1
Jay Watson
CxO / Board, United States
 

Bottom-up is Half the Equation

All, many of you have hit the nail on the head regarding this (in my understanding of the) topic. F... Sign up

 
3
Jaime Fernandez V.
Professor, Chile
 

Difficult to Propose Bottom Up Change Nowadays

3 observations: Systemic thinking says: people change the organization BUT the organization also ch... Sign up

 
0
j.a. karman
ICT Consultant, Netherlands
 

The New Path to Organisational Change = One Often Practized in our Long Human History

We all agree on the www.theToyotasystem.com/lean_concepts/Kaizen.php The weaknessed are mentioned i... Sign up

 
2
Brett E Holdeman
Student (University), United States
 

Championing Bottom Up Change

Bottom up change is possible, and as we all know, buy-in must be gained, as well as identifying cham... Sign up

 
1
Avedzi, James
Student (MBA), Ghana
 

Bottom Up Versus Top Down Approach to Organizational Change

In my humble opinion, when employees feel as part of the change process, they embrace it more and ow... Sign up

 
0
ernest agbenohevi
Consultant, Ghana
 

Bottom Down Versus Top Down Approach to OD

The bottom-up approach to Org. Development places greater focus at the base (departmental / subunits... Sign up

 
2
Brett E Holdeman
Student (University), United States
 

Duty versus Inherent Knowledge and Capability to Assess

@Avedzi, James: I agree, James, that management is responsible for identifying if and what change i... Sign up

 
1
J Entrekin
Analyst, United States
 

Public Administration Organizational Change

Colleagues, in public administration Bottom Up change is most likely the only hope for positive orga... Sign up

 
2
Rebecca Roe
United States
 

Bottom Up Best in Some Situations

As many experts on leadership and management have stated many times, there is no one perfect style. ... Sign up

 
1
Gautam Mahajan
CEO, India
 

Bottom Up? Try Customer Circles

We started Customer Circles, consisting of the frontline people with a few staff people to allow imp... Sign up

 
0
Graham Williams
Management Consultant, South Africa
 

Bottom Up Approach

Marcella Bremer's "Organizational Culture Change" is a proven methodology for bottom-up change. Mar... Sign up

 
2
Vidyut chandra Patange
Management Consultant, India
 

Dealing with Bottom Up Resistance in a Pro-active Way

When employees are newly joining the organization, they can be flexibly molded through induction tra... Sign up

 
3
Anders Nystrom
Management Consultant, Sweden
 

Organisational Development Tradition

Organizational Development (OD) is a tradition in organizational change which combines bottom up wit... Sign up

 
1
Frank Nguni
Director, Zambia
 

Communication is the Key

Bottom up interaction ensures everyone is aboard and usually involves a lot of face-to-face and othe... Sign up

 
2
Bernhard Keim
Business Consultant, Germany
 

Asking for Change

There is always a good reason why people behave as they do and there must be a very compelling reaso... Sign up

 
0
Sibusiso Ndaba
Business Consultant, South Africa
 

Theory of an Integrated Organisation

Just as I ponder about this question. I am reminded of Max Weber Theory of organisation. Aren't we s... Sign up

 
1
KTyler
Director, United States
 

Bottom-up Approach to Organization Change

The bottom - up approach can be effective only if the culture change begins at the top, and employee... Sign up

 
1
Bhavesh Sodagar
Manager, India
 

Bottom-up, Top-down Approaches versus Organizational Change

Everyone in the above discussion agrees on the effectiveness of bottom up approaches. For the bottom... Sign up

 
0
Sibusiso Ndaba
Business Consultant, South Africa
 

Triggers for Organisational Change

Organisational changes are triggered by many factors, these may be technological advances, the polit... Sign up

 
1
Pieter van der Hammen
Business Consultant, Netherlands
 

Bottom-up Approach Depends on Top-down Culture

We all know that we need the bottom up approach to get the required support for changes. However it ... Sign up

 
1
FREDDY VILLAVICENCIO
Business Consultant, Venezuela
 

Bottom Up is THE Fuel to Drive Any Sort of Change

I think we all are agree the bottom up approach is feasible and I would like to add it is the fuel t... Sign up

 
1
James Benedict
Management Consultant, United States
 

Top-down AND Bottom-Up Change Must Go Hand-in-hand

Everyone agrees that change in individuals (at the bottom) will influence change in the organization... Sign up

 
0
Manik Sood
Consultant, India
 

Change Management Must Start from the Top Management

A change must start with the commitment of top management. A good idea or culture cannot be develope... Sign up

 
0
ernest agbenohevi
Consultant, Ghana
 

Bottom Up Approach and Change Management

I believe the bottom up approach emphasizes a broader participation and decentralization. Just as th... Sign up

 
0
Jaime Fernandez V.
Professor, Chile
 

The Inmediate Future of Organizations

I wonder how close we are to the discussion held by manufacturers on how to improve horse-driven car... Sign up

 
0
jorge anibal hoyos hoyos
Manager, Colombia
 

Top-Down Plus Bottom-up = Success; it is a Mandatory Combination

All which is coming top-down, cascading, and rolling out across the components concerned, involved, ... Sign up

 
3
Gary Wong
Consultant, Canada
 

It's not Bottom-up Nor Top-down - It's Inside-Out

In today's world of complexity, I suggest it's time that we leave behind the concepts of Top-down an... Sign up

 
1
Jaime Fernandez V.
Professor, Chile
 

BUp or TDown Get us Caught in Hierarchical Thinking

@Gary Wong: I appreciate your insight. It´s important to discover when language gets us caught in ol... Sign up

 
0
Brett E Holdeman
Student (University), United States
 

Individual Change for Organizational Change

@Jaap de Jonge: I believe incremental changes in people can indeed facilitate organizational change.... Sign up

 
2
Brett E Holdeman
Student (University), United States
 

Lessons from the Recent American Election

First, I'd like to thank everyone who has weighed in on this crucial discussion. Your varying insigh... Sign up

   

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