MGT2382 Week 13 Learning Journal: Organizational Change and the Difference Between Movement and Repair

Date: Calendar week: August 4-August 10, 2026

Category: Field Lab Learning Journals > MGT2382 Learning Journal

Course link: MGT2382 Organizational Behaviour – Week 13: Organizational Change; McShane Chapter 15.

Lens: Critical lens: change is not automatically progress; it becomes progress only when it is honest, supported, and connected to real repair.

Opening reflection

This week’s material on organizational change is important because change is one of the easiest workplace words to misuse.

Organizations can call something change, innovation, restructuring, modernization, optimization, or transformation. Sometimes those words are accurate. Sometimes they are a cleaner label for disruption that has not been honestly explained.

The real question is not whether something is changing. The real question is whether the change is necessary, truthful, humane, and likely to make the system better.

Change has a human cost

Change is not only technical. It is emotional, social, political, and practical. People have to understand what is happening, why it is happening, what it means for them, and whether they can trust the people leading it.

A leader may see a change as a strategy. A worker may experience the same change as uncertainty, loss of competence, loss of routine, fear of replacement, or proof that past effort is being discarded.

That does not mean change should be avoided. It means change should be led with more honesty than slogans.

Resistance is not always the enemy

Resistance to change is often treated as a worker problem. That is too simple.

People may resist because they are afraid, tired, poorly informed, or attached to old habits. But they may also resist because the plan is weak, the trust is gone, previous changes failed, or leadership has not explained the real reason for the change.

Resistance can be useful data. It may reveal risks the plan has missed. It may show where communication is unclear. It may identify the parts of the organization that have been carrying too much strain for too long.

Force Field Analysis as a reality check

Lewin’s Force Field Analysis is useful because it asks what is driving change and what is restraining it.

That prevents lazy explanations. Instead of saying, “People do not like change,” the organization has to ask what forces are actually in play. Trust, workload, incentives, culture, leadership credibility, training, communication, and timing can all affect whether change succeeds.

A change effort becomes more realistic when it reduces restraining forces instead of simply pushing harder.

The change curve and uneven processing

The change curve is useful because people do not process change at the same speed. One person may be ready to act while another is still trying to understand what has been lost.

That difference should not automatically be judged as weakness. Some people need information. Some need reassurance. Some need training. Some need proof that the new direction is not just another temporary announcement.

Good change leadership helps people orient themselves. It does not shame people for needing time to catch up to a decision they did not make.

Working application

My working test for change is simple: what is being changed, what is being repaired, and what is being avoided?

If the change names the real problem, involves the right people, supports the transition, and creates feedback loops, it has a better chance of becoming progress. If it hides the real problem, rushes the people affected, or protects leadership from accountability, it may only move the damage around.

A change plan should include more than a destination. It needs a critical path: sequence, responsibility, communication, risk management, training, milestones, and correction points.

Closing reflection

The main lesson this week is that change should not be confused with progress. Movement is not repair. Disruption is not improvement. New language is not a new system.

A healthy organization can change because it is honest enough to learn. An unhealthy organization changes the surface while protecting the habits that caused the problem.

Real change begins with truth, but it succeeds through structure, trust, support, and accountability.

Field card

• One receipt: Change is not automatically progress; movement and repair are different things.
• One next step: When change is proposed, identify the driving forces, restraining forces, and the real problem being addressed.
• One boundary sentence: “I can support change, but I need the change to be honest about what it is fixing.”