‘How Do We Make Sure They Don't Get Fat and Lazy?’ Utopian Change and the Erosion of Compassion

The notion that organizational change hurts, and is supposed to, is deeply ingrained in management literature from both academics and practitioners. Classical views of organizational change are based on the assumption that people naturally seek stability in their organizations (Schein, 1985). In effect, the role of change agents is to begin their task by ‘unfreezing the organization’ (Lewin, 1951) and undermining the sense of predictability and control experienced by organizational members. This is expected to be uncomfortable to organizational members, as the process of unfreezing causes distress and anxiety (see Mantere et al., 2007). Schein's classic work on change is founded on his studies of ‘brainwashing’, i.e. coercive persuasion experienced by war defectors (Schein, 1960). In this chapter, we explore and elaborate how radical change in the pursuit of utopian strategy can lead to the erosion of compassion, with detrimental implications for the top management team's ability to influence and involve the middle management.