Organizational Change as a Process of Death, Dying, and Rebirth

Bringing about change is difficult in any organization, but especially so in professional bureaucracies such as hospitals and universities in which highly trained and autonomous professionals, rather than administrators, largely control the core processes. Lacking in most models used to bring about change in organizations is understanding of how individuals and groups actually work through their resistance to change, which is key to whether change in a professional bureaucracy actually occurs. Interview data from professors in the physics department of a large, public university revealed that the department's change process closely resembled that of death and dying identified by Kubler-Ross in her study of terminally ill patients. Theories from psychoanalysis and group dynamics are used to explain both individual and group-level change. The article concludes by discussing implications for helping professionals and their organizations undergo change and by suggesting areas for future research.