Mitigating the Chaos of Change

Title Student’s name Name of institution Course name and number Instructor’s name Due date Introduction Organizational change can be disruptive and complex, which is why it is handled and managed correctly. Reducing this turbulence calls for defensive mechanisms that provide directions to employees as they facilitate them to make sense of change. This essay examines two distinct approaches to managing change. First, the organizational development approach and its associations with the use of the ''coach image” and how it supports the implementation of formal and planned change initiatives. Next, this paper will also discuss the sensemaking approach, which uses the “interpreter image,” which helps to make sense of the chaos and uncertainty of change (Palmer et al., 2022). Finally, this paper will compare the steps within each framework to reveal how these two approaches can help tackle organizational change issues. This work shall demonstrate how these approaches might be used to assess and compare ways to help organizations develop effective dynamic leadership to deal with change and prevent disruption. Evaluating the Organizational Development Approach and Its Association with the Coach Image The organizational development approach focuses on the systematic, planned attempts to introduce organizational change to achieve sustainable alterations in organizational culture, activities, and structures. This process involves what is referred to as the “coach,” a role that will be instrumental in overseeing change in employees while at the same time aligning with the organizational goals. To aid this process, the coach employs processes such as reinforcing teamwork, which improves togetherness, constantly emphasizing platforms for learning that ensure the workers gain more skills, and setting methods of providing feedback to ensure progress and change. By so doing, the coach not only enables but also encourages the change effort of employees to realize the planned change outcomes within the organization. This would mean a growing organizational culture encouraging change in the contemporary working environment (Palmer et al., 2022). Lastly, the processes within each of the approaches clarify their different orientations. The organizational development approach typically follows a linear process consisting of clear phases: diagnosis, planning, and implementation. Implementation of this step-by-step methodology is aimed at ensuring that each phase succeeds the previous one systematically. However, sensemaking is not linear but iterative and flexible as new perspectives are learned. It is not a linear process, which goes through well-defined steps, but a cyclical one, in which interpretations and evaluations of specific circumstances continue while keeping organizations adaptable to change (Palmer et al., 2022). Evaluating the Sensemaking Approach and Its Association with the Interpreter Image The sensemaking approach is critical when managing change, especially in organizations facing ...