Managers use various strategies for getting other persons to adopt a desired change. These are as follows:
Force-Coercion Strategy:
This strategy uses power bases of legitimacy, rewards and punishments as primary inducements to change. The change agent acts unilaterally to “command” change through the formal authority of his/her position, induce change via an offer of special rewards or bring people comply with this strategy out of fear of punishment or desire for rewards.
This compliance with the change agent’s desires is usually temporary and continues only so long as the opportunity for rewards and punishments remain obvious. For this reason, force-coercion is most useful as an unfreezing device that helps people break old patterns of behaviour and gain initial impetus to try new ones.
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Empirical-Rational Strategy:
Change agents using an empirical-rational strategy attempt to bring about change through persuasion backed by special knowledge and rational argument. Use of this strategy assumes that rational people will be guided by reason and self-interest in deciding whether or not to support a change.
Expert power is mobilized convince others that the cost-benefit value of a proposed change is high and that the change will leave people better off than before.
Expertise can be brought to bear by the manager’s personal credibility as an “expert”, by bringing in “outside experts” to give testimony or by a demonstration project.
When successful, this strategy helps unfreeze and refreeze a changed situation. It results in a more longer-lasting and internalized change than does force-coercion.
Normative-Re-educative Strategy:
A normative-re-educative strategy identifies or establishes values and assumptions from which support for a proposed change will naturally emerge.
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This strategy focuses on building of essential foundations in personal values, group norms and shared goals to support change in all of its phases.
Managers using normative-re-educative approaches emphasize reference power and willingness to allow other persons to participate in the decisions through which changes are planned and implemented. Given this high level of involvement, the strategy is expected to result in a long-lasting and internalized change.