Organizational Politics and Planned Organization Change

Since the late 1960s, the political aspect of planned organizational change has received considerable attention. But despite the increasing acceptance of the fact that organizational change is inextricably linked with organizational politics, organization development (OD) professionals have continued to be cautious in grappling with the political realities involved in the implementation of planned organizational change. This article conceptualizes planned organizational change as a continuum of relationships with three degrees or levels of change. A sequential approach to the political involvement of OD professionals has been developed and an analytical framework has been presented that calls for matching degrees of political involvement to the level of change desired.