Conclusions
The culture in many organizations, however, is not success oriented. Rather, the culture supports conservatism with regard to risk-taking behavior. To advance, an employee need not ever have a “smashing success”, but he or she must never be party to a failure. In a failure-avoidant organization such as this, one is likely to find a preponderance of disjointed incrementalism, as leaders make small changes geared toward short-term gain. Under such conditions, stabilization strategies are often appropriate, as a way of counteracting the negative effects of incrementalism: long-term planning perspectives must override short-term changes and high but realistic goals must be established to overcome the inertia of failure-avoidance.
Any effective organizational consultant should allow for the potential of both change and stabilization when working with her client. Almost any successful development–whether personal or organizational–moves through periods of change and periods of stability. A developmental effort that provides only for change will be ineffective during those periods when stability is warranted. The choice between strategies that encourage change and strategies that encourage stabilization is often more critical than is the choice among a variety of specific change or stabilization strategies.
