"Avoiding Repetitive Change Syndrome"
MIT Sloan Management Review
Winter 2004, pp. 93-95
The author of this article says that change is not always constructive, and organizations need to constantly monitor for symptoms of what he called "Repetitive Change Syndrome." This syndrome has three components:
- Initiative overload—This symptom "manifests itself when organizations launch more change initiatives than anyone could ever reasonably handle."
- Change-related chaos—This symptom is defined as "the state of upheaval that results when so many waves of initiatives have washed through the organization that hardly anyone knows what change he or she is implementing or why. Such chaos leads not only to anxiety and political infighting; it also makes it difficult for employees and customers to find out what procedures to follow, who has responsibility for what tasks, and who to turn to when they cannot find the answers to those questions."
- Employee burnout—This symptom is often expressed as cynicism in the employees.
Repetitive change syndrome harms a company's capacity to make further needed changes, and it also starts taking time away from routine operations.
The author of this article recommends surveying small samples of employees at regular intervals, in order to measure the current rate of organizational change, the degree of organizational stability, and the damage that excessive change might have inflicted upon the organization.
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