No full-text available
To read the full-text of this research,
you can request a copy directly from the author.
Do 70 Per Cent of All Organizational Change Initiatives Really Fail?
Journal of Change Management
Abstract
A 70 per cent failure rate is frequently attributed to organizational-change initiatives, raising questions about the origins and supporting evidence for this very specific statistic. This article critically reviews five separate published instances identifying a 70 per cent organizational-change failure rate. In each instance, the review highlights the absence of valid and reliable empirical evidence in support of the espoused 70 per cent failure rate. Organizational-change research and scholarship now exists which enables us to question the belief in inherent organizational-change failure rates. Inherent failure rates are critically questioned in terms of the ambiguities of change, the context-dependent nature of change, competing perceptions, temporal aspects and measurability. In conclusion, whilst the existence of a popular narrative of 70 per cent organizational-change failure is acknowledged, there is no valid and reliable empirical evidence to support such a narrative.
... Kuipers et al. (2014) also note that change management theories belong to the rational-managerial perspective and find such literature to have relatively limited capacity in terms of providing details regarding how contexts and processes affect the change. Hughes (2011) adds that the belief that organisation change is a code which once cracked misrepresents the ambiguous and dynamic practice of managing change and the process of changing. It is argued that unless we have an image of change as an ongoing process and as a stream of situated actions, it will be difficult to overcome the implementation problems of change programmes (Thoukas & Chia, 2002). ...
... However, Dowson (2003b) reminds us that the essential unforeseeable nature of change means that the process cannot be predicted, and the outcomes are often understood in retrospect. Hughes (2011) argues that outcome determination will always be incomplete since they are often measured against espoused and publicised rationale for change, whereas organisation change results in many unintended outcomes (Jian, 2007;MacKay & Chia, 2013) which are never taken into consideration during the planning stage. Clegg & Walsh (2004) also find it oversimplistic just to focus on the apparent manifest goals as other goals will always be present. ...
... He finds absences of the less powerful in the presentation of the story of change remains a major flaw and a common weakness in much of the change management literature. Competing and erroneous perceptions of organisation change outcomes may simultaneously exist within organisations (Hughes, 2011). Multiple realities of the actors involved in organisation change implies that understanding of change can only stem from an appreciation of 'competing definitions of organisational effectiveness and organisational needs' (Collins, 1998, p.194). ...
... The study also explores the underlying factors that can lead to resistance or promote participation willingness in organizational allyship initiatives. Considering the importance and the discouraging rate of success of many organizational DEI initiatives (Al-Gharbi, 2020; Dobbin & Kalev, 2016;Gubler et al., 2022) as well as change efforts more broadly (Beer et al., 1990;Hughes, 2011;Knight et al., 2017), organizational leaders, change agents and scholars could benefit from a better understanding of the factors that contribute to the success or failure of their initiatives and interventions. This study aims to demonstrate that with the right communication approach, allyship can be reimagined as a core strategy for building inclusive, resilient organizational cultures that support organizational success as well as long-term employee engagement and retention. ...
... The challenges of designing successful organizational interventions can be greater than many organizational change agents appreciate. Failure rates of organizational change interventions are often estimated at 70% and higher (Bashein & Markus, 1994;Beer et al., 1990;Hughes, 2011;Kotter, 1995). Bashein and Markus (1994) suggest the reasons for failure often appear to be similar to the reasons the interventions were initiated in the first place, for example, problematic management styles, poor planning, competing priorities, fear, lack of optimism, and hostilities among colleagues. ...
In an era of intense competition for talent, turnover among organizational newcomers—particularly from underrepresented groups—remains a persistent challenge. While organizational allyship programs are known to reduce turnover, their frequent association with diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts has led to implementation resistance. This study addresses gaps in the research regarding allyship by testing communication-based strategies for promoting participation in allyship and examining factors contributing to freedom threat or participation willingness. Participants ( N = 312) were randomly exposed to one of four experimental conditions: a control message, a narrative advocacy message, a directive advocacy message, or a combination of both. Results showed that both the narrative message and the combined message positively influenced attitudes toward allyship through transportation. Additionally, a second-stage moderation analysis showed that participants’ political identification influenced the impact of narrative transportation on allyship attitudes, with stronger effects for more conservative participants. Greater levels of psychological safety were also linked to more positive relationships between narrative messages and attitudes toward allyship. Overall, the study provides insights into the potential use of narrative persuasion as a tool to support allyship advocacy as well as a range of other organizational initiatives that might need to overcome resistance due to perceptions of freedom threat.
... Although percentages can be disputedand some healthy skepticism about the accuracy of percentages that hit the 70 mark seems warranted (Hughes, 2011), broad consensus exists that many organizational change initiatives fail (e.g., Burnes, 2004;Hughes, 2011;Palmer et al., 2016;Smith, 2002). It is safe to conclude this is no different for the sub-category of organizational "culture" change (e.g., Martin, 1985: Smith, 2003Tatton, 2015). ...
... Although percentages can be disputedand some healthy skepticism about the accuracy of percentages that hit the 70 mark seems warranted (Hughes, 2011), broad consensus exists that many organizational change initiatives fail (e.g., Burnes, 2004;Hughes, 2011;Palmer et al., 2016;Smith, 2002). It is safe to conclude this is no different for the sub-category of organizational "culture" change (e.g., Martin, 1985: Smith, 2003Tatton, 2015). ...
In popular management literature corporations are sometimes loosely compared to cults. The comparison is a severe allegation as it implies the transgression of subordinate employees’ integrity. This paper explores to what extent such comparisons with cults are warranted as well as the implications this has for the practice of corporate culture management. On grounds of the author’s unique, first-hand experience in both corporate and cultic environments a retrospective autoethnographic (RAE) approach was chosen to further explore the supposed resemblance. The comparison is structured along Lifton’s eight criteria of thought reform and reveals that although akin to cults in all aspects corporations also fundamentally differ due to the infeasibility, at least for now, of controlling the corporate environment in totalist fashion. This might explain why so many attempts to change corporate cultures fail as these initiatives are based on the anachronistic idea that culture change can be “implemented” by somehow “inculcating” employees with “company values.” A sanitized form of brainwashing that fails in the corporate environment.
... A large portion of attempted change initiatives never reach their goals. In the literature, the figure of 70% often appears as the share of failed change initiatives [1,17,18,22,23]. The figure has been discussed, criticized, and problematized [17,23], but the realization that many change efforts fail has been found among both researchers and practitioners [1]. ...
... In the literature, the figure of 70% often appears as the share of failed change initiatives [1,17,18,22,23]. The figure has been discussed, criticized, and problematized [17,23], but the realization that many change efforts fail has been found among both researchers and practitioners [1]. The reasons for failure are a palette of possible contributing reasons: ...
Background: Digitalization is one of the drivers of change in both public and private organizations. It is therefore relevant to understand how a government agency like the Swedish Transport Administration manage and experience change. Methods: In this qualitative study, interviews (n = 15) with respondents with insight and connection to digitalization and change highlight factors related to digitalization and change-capacity within the agency. Results: The results of the interviews are presented in a thematic analysis. Five themes were identified: Digitalization, management control, stability requirements, organizational culture, and lack of a comprehensive view. The research literature in the field of change creates a fund for a discussion about the Administration’s situation regarding digitalization, development, and transformational change. Conclusions: The results indicate that the Transport Administration still has a long way to travel in terms of organizational readiness for change. To address this issue, the Transport Administration should prioritize the development and implementation of a comprehensive change management strategy including clear communication, active engagement, and participation from all employees, and a focus on building a culture of adaptability and continuous improvement.
... the change involves a variation of the normal situation (Zabid, et al., 2004). In this regard, Hughes (2011) points out that the context of change is always important and studies show that change often releases negative emotions and resistance, so the frequency of changes can be a problem (Smollan et al., 2010). ...
The development of Organizational Transformation Post-Pandemic for Competitiveness is a book aimed at those who are interested in border research topics. It is integrated by ten chapters where twenty-four researchers from seven universities in Mexico participated: Universidad Autónoma de Aguascalientes, Universidad Autónoma de Coahuila, Universidad de Guadalajara, Universidad de Guanajuato, Universidad Michoacana San Nicolás de Hidalgo, Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León & la Universidad Autónoma de Querétaro, whose contributions reflect the state of the art and empirical evidence of various public and private organizations.
Each chapter contributes transversely to various objectives of the National Strategic Programs in Mexico as well as to the SDGs. The authors address various problems regarding the transformation of organizations, which reflect the gender perspective used
as part of organizational studies; the consequences faced by cooperatives after the pandemic; as well as optimization strategies and techniques in both the energy industry and agro-industrial sectors; in addition to delving into the role of emotional intelligence,
organizational culture and brands in organizational competitiveness.
... In their widely cited article, Nohria and Beer [11] state that approximately 70% of change initiatives fail to achieve their objectives. However, other researchers, such as Hughes [12], argue that there is insufficient empirical evidence to substantiate this claim. While many transformation initiatives do fall short of their goals, determining a precise success rate is challenging, as targets often need to be adjusted during the course of the initiative. ...
This paper aims to highlight effective change management practices in AI-related change initiatives. Through 15 expert interviews, we conducted an in-depth case study on the incorporation of an AI coding assistant tool into a global telecommunications company’s software testing process. The tool is intended to aid with test automation development. The study highlights how the ADKAR model was utilized for developing a change management plan tailored to a technology context. Our findings suggest that while the ADKAR model provides a flexible framework that addresses key aspects of AI-related change, its emphasis on a bottom-up approach may limit its applicability for large-scale transformations.
... Often consultancy firms have very little health expertise and many of them increasingly push for expensive and ineffective organizational changes which have very little basis in evidence (Mazzucato and Collington 2023). The Change Management Policy promoted in the Ugandan Health Plan by McKinsey has been critiqued for its methodology and yet it has been ubiquitous as a model despite the low evidence base for many of the fundamental claims it makes (Hughes 2011). The involvement of consultants can be reduced through greater transparency about the different stakeholders involved in digital health. ...
The rise of digital health in Sub-Saharan Africa has fuelled enthusiasm about the potential benefits of digitalization. However, current literature has not paid sufficient attention to the ways in which digitization of health may be entrenching structural problems within health systems. In this paper, we illustrate the ways in which digital health has led to increased commercialization of health in Sub-Saharan Africa through the financing of digital health, innovative delivery of diagnostics and pharmaceuticals products, and the management of government information systems and services in the health sector. Using Kenya, Uganda and South Africa as illustrative cases, we undertook a comparative analysis of legal and policy landscapes to critically explore these dynamics. We found that the unregulated involvement of commercial actors in the digital health agenda is distorting already fragile health systems and is increasingly occurring in a governance vacuum.
... Even worse, improvement efforts are likely to regress to the previous state or fail to sustain improvement efforts over time (Keating et al. 1999;Holweg et al. 2018a, b;Henrique et al. 2021). Some researchers have reported a failure rate of about 70% for successful implementation (Hughes 2011;Cândido and Santos 2015) and about 66-90% failure rate for sustaining improvement efforts (Henrique et al. 2021). It is also more challenging in an increasingly complex environment (Harding and Soble 2010;Fujimoto 2010;Henrique et al. 2021). ...
Drawing on contingency theory, this study empirically investigates how psychological safety enhances improvement capability (including its maintenance and improvement dimensions) across different levels of manufacturing complexity (product complexity and process complexity). Using a cross-sectional dataset of 330 manufacturing plants from the 4th round of the High-Performance Manufacturing Project, we tested the proposed relationships through moderation analysis. The results indicate that psychological safety has a strong positive impact on improvement capability, particularly in the improvement dimension. Unexpectedly, the findings do not support the moderating effect of manufacturing complexity on the relationship between psychological safety and improvement capability. However, a post hoc analysis reveals that product complexity negatively moderates the relationship between psychological safety and the improvement dimension, suggesting that the effect of psychological safety on the improvement dimension is less salient under conditions of high product complexity. Our findings contribute to continuous improvement and psychological safety literature in two ways: (1) by integrating continuous improvement literature and positive organizational scholarship to empirically examine the facilitating role of psychological safety on improvement capability, and (2) by empirically investigating the efficacious of psychological safety in facilitating improvement capability across different levels of manufacturing complexity.
... However, the process of restructuring is not always successful, with some literature suggesting a 60-70% failure rate, though this figure is debated (Hughes, 2011). Girod and Karim (2017) emphasize the need for strategic precision in restructuring, noting that its outcomes are not universally applicable and must be tailored to the firm's dynamic capabilities (Eisenhardt and Martin, 2000). ...
Purpose
This study investigates how integrating advanced digital technologies through organizational restructuring enhances customer-centricity and decision-making processes. The research also explores the resulting improvements in operational efficiency and organizational performance within the competitive manufacturing sector.
Design/methodology/approach
Adopting a qualitative approach, this study employs a single case study methodology to provide an in-depth analysis of a leading manufacturing company that has effectively integrated advanced digital technologies. This approach allows for a detailed, context-specific examination of the company’s strategic restructuring and its impact on enhancing dynamic capabilities.
Findings
The study reveals that organizational restructuring, when combined with the integration of advanced digital technologies, significantly enhances a firm’s ability to sense and respond to market changes, seize emerging opportunities and reconfigure resources effectively. This results in improved decision-making processes, customer-centric solutions and strengthened competitiveness. Key technologies such as digital twins, have played a pivotal role in driving these improvements.
Research limitations/implications
This study is limited by its focus on a single case study within the manufacturing industry, which may constrain the generalizability of the findings to other sectors or regions. Additionally, the integration of advanced digital technologies may encounter varying degrees of employee resistance and cultural challenges, which were not fully explored in this study. Future research should consider comparative studies across multiple industries to validate the findings and address ethical considerations associated with digital transformation and organizational restructuring.
Practical implications
The case study of Company ABC illustrates the significant benefits of integrating advanced digital technologies with organizational restructuring, resulting in enhanced operational efficiency, customer-centricity and decision-making processes. The findings provide valuable insights for similar organizations in the manufacturing sector, offering a practical roadmap for implementing digital transformation initiatives. Companies considering such transformations can leverage these best practices to achieve competitive advantages, optimize resource allocation and improve overall performance.
Social implications
Bridging the digital divide and promoting equal access to digital advancements in manufacturing are imperative for a digitally advanced and sustainable future, emphasizing the importance of fair distribution of digital benefits.
Originality/value
In an era of rapid technological advancement, the intersection of digital transformation and organizational restructuring is crucial for maintaining competitiveness. This study provides valuable insights into how these strategic initiatives can be effectively implemented in the manufacturing industry, offering a roadmap for other firms navigating similar transitions in the digital age. Its originality derived from being based on data from a globally recognized leader in the manufacturing sector.
... In change management practice, it is often asserted that 70% of change initiatives fail. Although scientific debates question this failure rate (Hughes, 2011), the challenge of organizational change is evident, with leadership consistently recognized as a crucial success factor (Burnes, 2011;Da Ros et al., 2023;Oreg et al., 2011;Rafferty et al., 2013). One research stream has focused on specific change leadership behaviours. ...
... these take place in hospitals which consumes about 50% of health expenditures within developed and even over 50% within developing countries i.e., Iran, annually (2). On the other hand, majority of change initiatives (over 70% in some cases) fail (3). The failures are surprisingly due to un-readiness to adapt changes, or the partial implementation of initiatives rather than not being aligned with organizations' strategic direction and goals (4). ...
Background: We aimed to investigate Tehran’s University of Medical Sciences (TUMS) affiliated hospitals organizational readiness toward implementing the ‘Autonomous Hospitals’ program as a change initiative from a managerial perspective in 2020. Methods: A census covering all eligible managers working in TUMS affiliated hospitals, Tehran, Iran (350 individuals) was carried out. Overall, 281 questionnaires were returned (a 30% non-responsiveness rate). A standard construct was adopted for data collection which was validated through a process of translation- back translation, face validity, and content validity (CVI=0.86, CVR=0.76). The reliability was acquired using Cronbach’s alpha coefficient (0.87 and over 0.7). Both descriptive and inferential statistics were employed to draw conclusions .SPSS 26 was used for data analysis. Result: Total organizational readiness for change (TORC) in hospitals was 60.75%±10.11 showing a state of medium to upper-medium readiness status. Also, the 'Clear mandate and centralized leadership' theme scored the lowest mean (53.02%±15.78) for ORC. 'Hospital accreditation level' (r=-0.14, P≤0.05), ‘bed occupancy rate’ (r=-0.19, P ≤0.05), and 'leadership status' (r=0.26, P≤0.001), also showed significant association with TORC. In addition, 'standardized bed occuPancy rate' (P≤0.05, B=-2.41), a 'male' leader (P ≤0.05, B=3.42), and 'academic affiliation' (P≤0. 1, B=-9.52), were good Predictors of TORC based on ‘Backward Multiple Linear Regression’ analysis. Conclusion: Full support from hospital and headquarters executives, delegation of sufficient decision-making authority to hospital managers, and implementation of comprehensive performance evaluation criteria were prerequisites for robust hospital autonomy in TUMS-affiliated hospitals.
... This involves modifications to policies, strategies, operations, structures, infrastructure, and culture. The importance of successful organizational change is underscored by industry data indicating that approximately 70% of change initiatives fail to achieve their intended outcomes [1]. In today's rapidly changing business environment, driven by technological advancements and shifting consumer preferences, the ability to manage change effectively is essential for long-term success. ...
This research explores the key factors influencing successful organizational change through case studies of Netflix and FinoTechno. With the development of science and technology, enterprises should consider the continuous updating of organizational change to maintain their innovation and competitiveness while pursuing benefits throughout the process of expending. It utilizes the SWOT analysis, McKinsey 7-S Framework, Kotters Eight-Step Change Model, and Lewin's Three-Stage Change Management Model to analyze technological advancements, integration of diverse teams, and maintaining a competitive edge. The analysis found that the development strategies of FinoTechno and Netflix should emphasize common values, communication networks and leadership commitment, enhance corporate reputation, and require significant investment in technology infrastructure and customer education. The findings highlight the importance of leadership, communication, and strategic alignment in managing change. Recommendations offer actionable strategies for enhancing technological infrastructure, fostering a unified organizational culture, and driving innovation. These insights provide valuable lessons for organizations navigating complex change processes.
... There are a number of themes emerging from research that characterize misconduct (and/or change failure) through a kaleidoscope of causes, including structure and content of reform agenda, tension between organizational focus and the people focus, role of senior managers and conflict of interest, limited focus on the center, and more. While the accuracy of organizational failure statistics caused by misconduct has been questioned by scholars (Durnes 2011;Hughes 2011;Mcfillen et al 2013). ...
Query remains the most effective corrective measure in the public sector for monitoring employee wrongdoing, as it aims to enhance performance and service delivery. Without a doubt, the query method has become ineffective in Nigerian public service and there is glaring lack of scholarly research in this area. This study aims to identify the reasons behind the ineffectiveness of query procedures in Nigerian public services and to propose constructive measures to address the issue. Through this research, we hope to contribute to the development of more efficient and fair processes that can enhance the overall performance of public services in Nigeria. To better understand the reasons why the power of query has diminished in the Nigerian public service, we utilized the McGregor theory as a theoretical framework and reviewed current literature on public misconduct. We found that certain factors have contributed to the decline in the use of query, including employee collusion, a weak institutional framework, a weak corporate governance mechanism, nepotism, and demonization. By identifying these factors, we can create a more constructive and effective approach to addressing the issue of public misconduct in Nigeria. This study suggests that senior officers must use the threat of harsh punishment to correct misbehaving subordinates without fear or favor by drawing on the reasoning from Douglas McGregor's Theory of X.
... An average failure rate of 70% has been the widely accepted norm since the landmark study by Hammer and Champy (1993): of every three large projects, two will fail to deliver. This is a shocking statistic, albeit one that has been challenged (Hughes, 2011;Barends et al. 2014). Whatever the actual failure rate, it is high and that is equally true in the developed world as in the developing world. ...
This chapter explains how to decide on concrete actions, drawing on the broad framing and detailed measures outlined in Chaps. 6 and 7 . It introduces the SFRA Matrix to provide guidance on selecting options and offers a range of different ‘lenses’ that can help determine the most feasible choices.
... Organizational change is an integral component of the organizational life cycle (Gelaidan et al., 2018). Unfortunately, large-scale organizational change tends to fail (Hughes, 2011). Organizations must develop organizational change capabilities to survive, successfully implement change (Meyer and Stensaker, 2006) and improve their performance (Heckmann et al., 2016). ...
Purpose
Based on Resource Conservation (COR) theory, this study explores the antecedent of team change capability, which consists of the dimensions of learning, process and context and examines how, under the empowering leadership (EL) of middle managers, team change capability (TCC) may be built through team psychological capital (TPSyCap).
Design/methodology/approach
The study was conducted with 853 respondents and 55 teams from 11 leading autonomous higher education institutions (AHEIs) in Indonesia.
Findings
The results show that EL is positively related to TPsyCap, which mediates the relationship between EL and TCC, particularly for TCC learning capability. However, TPsyCap does not mediate the effect of EL on TCC process capability and TCC- context capability.
Originality/value
This study enriches existing leadership literature, which is considered relevant in building organizational change capabilities, particularly on a team level. Furthermore, the findings reveal TPsyCap is an important intervention mechanism in catalyzing the relationship between EL and TCC.
... This phenomenon is exacerbated by the harsh reality that approximately 70% of all change initiatives fail (Beer & Nohria, 2001). Magazine articles and practitioner books have significantly shaped the 70% organizational-change failure narrative; however, such articles lacked a discussion of methods, epistemologies, and references in relation to organizational-change research and academia (Hughes, 2011). Although previous studies have questioned the accuracy of this failure rate, organizations' ability to successfully implement change remains critical for achieving success (Gigliotti et al., 2019). ...
Background
Leadership changes within public organizations are often associated with achieving the organization’s vision. This exploratory study examines critical incidents and the anxiety experienced by the head of the department at the local government in the context of leadership change in the public organization. It explores anxiety, which has rarely been explored in connection with leadership change, especially with regard to public organizations and countries with a high-power distance culture. Thus, it comprehensively describes the sources, course, and consequences of anxiety due to leadership change.
Methods
Critical incident technique (CIT) was used to conduct analysis because of its suitability as a theoretical framework for the exploratory nature of this research. Data were obtained through in-depth interviews from 26 informants who served as heads of departments in cities.
Results
The findings revealed the causes, course, and consequence of the anxiety experienced in response to leadership change. Political choice, culture change, policy change, fear of loss, and unaccountable financing were identified as sources of anxiety. Anxiety manifested through negative, cognitive, and behavioral reactions. The consequences were divided into in-circle, out-circle, and ambivalence-circle participation.
Conclusions
High-power distance culture causes leaders to portray hegemony with boundaries that are difficult to access as well as appear more directive to strengthen control within the organization. The integrated model presented here (causes, course, and consequences of anxiety) is expected to enrich the integrated, modern, and emotional science through a functional account of the emotional approach. Cognitive and affective reactions have a two-way relationship, wherein emotion influences cognition and cognition elicits emotion.
... Although this view is challenged (e.g. Hughes, 2011) there is nevertheless a strong sense that it is difficult for interventions to achieve all they set out to do in the face of a range of challenges. This is particularly true of the type of interventions that are the focus of this articleones that require behavioural change -such as leadership development, team development or organisation development. ...
Performance improvement interventions undertaken by management consultants, like many others, can experience difficulty in ensuring that the bulk of the effort put into the intervention translates into the desired change. While consultants themselves are limited in what they can control once their work is completed, there are nevertheless activities they can carry out or at least initiate to improve the chances of change being brought about. Goal setting, self-management and action planning have demonstrated positive effects, particularly where behavioural change is required. Similarly, based on a tested model of learning transfer, other activities relating to peer support, manager support and external coaching can be encouraged and set in train.
... 4). The limited evidence of DEI training effectiveness may be attributed to the resistance encountered in nearly all organizational change endeavors (Beer et al., 1990;Hughes, 2011), a challenge that is particularly pronounced within DEI training programs (Dobbin & Kalev, 2016;Gubler et al., 2022). ...
Despite annual investments of $8 billion by U.S. organizations on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) training, many DEI programs are derailed by resistance from members whose attitudes and behaviors the programs are intended to address. The current study tested the effectiveness of a narrative-based inoculation strategy designed to mitigate resistance attributable to psychological reactance. Participants (N = 273) were randomly exposed to either a single-message assignment-to-DEI-training notification or a dual-message inoculation condition in which they received a pro-DEI-training message before receiving the assignment-to-DEI-training notification. The inoculation condition produced lower levels of reactance and greater positive attitude change in favor of DEI training, with reactance mediating the effects of the message conditions on change in attitude toward DEI training and political ideology moderating the effects of reactance. The results contribute to the field by demonstrating the potential utility of inoculation strategies for promoting DEI training and other organizational initiatives.
... Hughes [16] states that after 30 years of studies on OC, there is no empirical support for polarized concerns with the best way to manage change (success) or the worst way to manage change (failure). Therefore, it is recommended to understand how EOCs are implemented in the software industry or within your company to identify areas for improvement in the effectiveness and efficiency of this process. ...
... The challenge of being able to adapt to change is a problem that must be accepted by leaders of multinational companies. Literature studies explain the role of leaders for successful change is very important because organizational change is not always successful, according to research results 70% of organizational changes are unsuccessful (Hughes, 2011). This poor success rate indicates that the underlying framework for implementing and managing change in an organization is not yet valid. ...
Globalization of management is a fact of life. Global management is the performance of management activities that cross national boundaries. Global management helps to solve problems that cannot be solved alone in international cooperation. The growth and development of multinational companies requires quality management. The complexity in handling companies across countries spurs the resources in it to continue to be creative and innovative. The method used in this study is descriptive analytics, by conducting a literature search related to performance management challenges in the context of multinational companies, with a conceptual approach and a historical approach. The results of this study show that management challenges always exist in building a multinational organization, performance management is needed in building a change mentality. To face performance challenges in miltnational organizations there are several steps or strategies that can anticipate them, including: Creating the availability of skilled personnel, Improving the company's ability to adopt and use progress, Building a more effective, efficient, and highly motivated team, which is able to improve the company's competitive position, Ensuring adequate human resources for expansion into new programs. Training, Increased productivity. Reduce employee turnover. Increased efficiency.
... Furthermore, there is a lack of empirical research on change-management (By 2005) and change models (Burnes and Jackson 2011). Therefore, Hughes (2011) doubts the validity of the failure rates. This leads to increased interest in research in this field in order to make the change successful by identifying positive factors (Rafferty et al. 2013). ...
The continuous changes in the business environment require transformation processes and innovation in organizational structures to maintain competitiveness. Innovation is required for future orientation and need an appropriate leadership style to be implemented in the company successfully. Various studies in the literature examine the topic of change models and the requirements for effective implementation of changes. Based on the constant change in the labor market, which is due to ongoing digitalization, the need for research of transformation, change-management and radical or disruptive innovation remains topical. A new challenge arises with a transformation in the entire company which affects all essential business processes. Because several levels are simultaneously affected by the transformation process, a more complex concept is required for the implementation than it could be found in the literature. There is a lack of empirical research in general for innovation-driven transformation processes and a missing connection to the implementation of radical or disruptive innovation in company. The aim of this paper is to investigate the need for new research in change theory. The focus is on the importance of innovation leadership for a radical or disruptive innovation change process, what is to be classified under a comprehensive transformation process in the company. In addition, the need for an innovation transformation model is established.
... Organizational change often faces resistance from employees and seldom leads to a positive outcome: popular narrative affirms the large majority of organizational change endeavours result in failure (e.g. Pasmore, 2011; for a critical discussion of the failure rate, see Hughes, 2011). The literature highlights that organizations and their leaders often underestimate the importance of employee reactions to the change process, thus facilitating its failure (Choi & Ruona, 2011;Gigliotti et al., 2019;Self et al., 2007;van Gilst et al., 2020). ...
During M&A (mergers and acquisitions), a frequent outcome is the negative reactions of workers, who demonstrate psychological distress and resistance to change. This paper presents an empirical research study carried out in a large Italian university hospital during an organizational restructuring, which led to the merger of several organizational units. The research involved a sample of healthcare operators as change recipients (N = 130), and investigated the relationship between Readiness to Change and change recipients’ reactions. By adopting a Structural Equation Model approach, this study suggests that the relationship between Readiness To Change and Change Cynicism, Change Anxiety and Intention To Quit, is complex and not always direct and linear. Furthermore, this paper shows the role that Change Cynicism plays in mediating the relationship between Readiness To Change and Change Anxiety and between Readiness To Change and Intention To Quit. This study highlights the importance of investigating and systemically addressing the relationship between these factors.
... The transition sometimes fails because of the inherent aspects of innovation connected to organisational issues. On the one hand, lack of entrepreneurial spirit, insufficient management, low knowledge of the product, sourcing and manufacturing capabilities, failure to allocate resources and reconfigure processes are critical internal barriers for converting into a more SBM, because this conversion implies new actions and ideas (Chesbrough, 2010;Hughes, 2011;Álvarez et al., 2019). On the other hand, external relationships fail because the transition needs greater interaction with stakeholders and stronger customer relationships (Boons & Lüdeke-Freund, 2013). ...
The circular economy (CE) is a new paradigm that helps create convergence into a more sustainable society. This chapter shows the main findings of a systematic literature review examining the state of the art of the business concept of sustainability and CE and how scholars have focused on the implementation of circular and sustainable principles in sectors and firms. The main findings show a lack of consensus on definitions related to CE, creating confusion among firms. Final findings also show the challenges that businesses face and the main obstacles that explain why some organisations fail in the transition. Additionally, this review helps to highlight the main research gaps on the topic to encourage sustainability and circularity among firms. Whilst there are an increasing number of papers related to circularity and supply chains, few papers concern with dematerialising products and services. Another gap is the lack of quantitative studies measuring the impact of transitioning to sustainable and circular economies.
... Over decades, studies have analyzed the causes of change and transformation initiatives' successes and failures (Cleary, 1911;Ginzberg & Reilley, 1957;McClintock, 1937), characteristically observing high failure rates (Parker, 1980;Pasmore, 1976;Waters, Salipante Jr., & Notz, 1978). Yet, over the years, the risk of failure from a motivational and emotional standpoint remains high (De Keyser, Guiette, & Vandenbempt, 2021;Hughes, 2011Hughes, , 2022. ...
... Over decades, studies have identified several factors for the failure and success of change and transformation projects (Cleary, 1911;Ginzberg & Reilley, 1957;McClintock, 1937), typically noting high failure rates (Parker, 1980;Pasmore, 1976;Waters, Salipante Jr., & Notz, 1978). The risk of failure rates for organizational change has not improved substantially (De Keyser, Guiette, & Vandenbempt, 2021;Hughes, 2011Hughes, , 2022. ...
... Researchers argue that only organizations with proper change strategies, structures, processes, and technologies can undergo a smooth and efficient change effort, and as a result, reduce resource utilization, adapt to shifting market trends, and maintain their competitiveness (Burnes and Jackson, 2011;Burke, 2018;Errida and Lotfi, 2021). In fact, it is commonly known that change efforts have a 30% success rate, a percentage that has both been ascertained and debunked over the years (Hughes, 2011;Tobias, 2015;Heracleous and Bartunek, 2021). Whether this percentage overestimates or underestimates the reality of change efforts for the capital projects industry, the success rate will increase when the organization properly understands the factors that affect the changing environment and drive its change efforts (Isaksson et al., 2011). ...
In a volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous environment, organizational change has been a central concern for capital project organizations, that continue to suffer from poor project performance in a growing industry. As such, capital project organizations must understand the changing environment and the factors driving change within their organizations to remain successful in a changing environment and adapt to change. To help the capital projects industry achieve successful organizational change efforts, this paper aims to 1) identify the external factors that are pushing capital project organizations to change and 2) investigate whether these factors impact organizations differently. To achieve the desired objective, a total of 22 PESTEL (political, economic, social, technological, environmental, and legal) factors were identified and validated with a group of 14 subject matter experts and defined via the context of literature. Then, the factors were evaluated via an online survey to understand whether they impact organizations differently based on their age maturity (including contemporary, transitional, and legacy organizations) and type of work (including owners, contractors, and service providers). Findings from this study can provide capital project practitioners and researchers with valuable insights needed to understand the external factors shaping change within the industry.
... However, the soft stuff found within a company's values, behaviors, and climate holds the greatest power for cultivating and shaping an innovation culture. As a result, many organizational change initiatives on this front do not deliver the expected results (Hughes, 2011). ...
To survive and thrive in today’s business environments, companies must embrace innovation. Why, then, can it be so hard for some companies to do so? A corporate change management approach may exclude the critical psychospiritual transition that carries employees from their current state to a company’s desired future state. Awareness of the psychospiritual journey that accompanies organizational change, and the conscious facilitation of this journey, may help smooth out the bumps and enhance the adoption of the desired state. What becomes possible when we shift our mindset as leaders from managing change to facilitating this transition? One way to find out is to live the change, even as one builds it. This paper shares my experience of, and an emerging model for, doing just that. I introduce the TUAI Bridges Model for Facilitating Organizational Transition as an emergent alternative for organizational change management. Developed from equal parts collaboration, serendipity, and intuition, this model synthesizes Theory U, Appreciative Inquiry, and the Bridges Transition Model to offer a novel path applying elevated consciousness to achieve a specific business need. Practical insights and lessons learned from the first three years of real-world application are also offered.KeywordsOrganizational changeChange agentryInnovationConscious leadershipTUAI Bridges modelOrganizational cultureAction researchConsciousnessInterconnectednessCreativity
... Termin opór wobec zmian jest często używany w literaturze dotyczącej zmian organizacyjnych, zwykle jako wyjaśnienie, dlaczego wysiłki mające na celu wprowadzenie zmian nie spełniają oczekiwań lub całkowicie się nie udają. Badania te skupiają się głównie się na efektach zmian, a nie na wdrażaniu zmian, a opór wobec zmian traktowany jest jako czynnik uniemożliwiający osiągnięcie założonych efektów zmian (Hughes, 2011). Przykładowo Sandy Kristin Piderit (2000) zdefiniowała opór jako trójwymiarową, negatywną postawę wobec zmian. ...
Zmiana jest zjawiskiem nieodłącznie związanym z funkcjonowaniem wszystkich organizacji, w tym także organizacji publicznych. Wprowadzanie zmian wiąże się z niechęcią i oporem ze strony pracowników. Na użytek badań zawartych w niniejszym artykule przyjęto, że opór należy postrzegać jako wielowymiarową postawę wobec zmiany, obejmującą komponenty afektywne, poznawcze i behawioralne. Celem przeprowadzonych badań jest identyfikacja stwierdzeń opisujących postawy wobec zmian i ich ocena przez pracowników organizacji publicznych. Kwestionariusz ankiety zawierał 14 stwierdzeń, które oceniane były przez pracowników różnych organizacji publicznych. Uzyskane wyniki badań w większości przypadków wskazują na pesymistyczne postawy pracowników wobec wprowadzonych zmian wynikające przede wszystkim ze zmęczenia wprowadzanymi zmianami, nieuwzględniania przez organizacje faktu, że ciągłe zmiany niszczą relacje między ludźmi, oraz obawy przed utratą pracowników na skutek przeprowadzanych zmian. Ocena postaw jest istotnie zróżnicowane w szczególności poprzez rodzaj instytucji oraz poziom zaangażowania pracowników w implementację zmian, będący wynikiem pełnionych funkcji czy kwalifikacji.
... Every organization experiences frequent organizational change, which is an inescapable requirement for its continued growth and survival in an increasingly volatile environment. Despite this, studies consistently show that between 50% and 70% of planned change efforts fail (Hughes, 2011). The fact that organizational structure and information systems are given priority over human resources during the change process is one factor in these change failures (Cooke et al., 2021). ...
Abstract
Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of transformational and transactional leadership styles on
organizational readiness for change among health professionals in the case of selected public hospitals in the North Showa
Zone, Oromia Region, Ethiopia.
Methods: The institutional-based cross-sectional study design was employed for one month in April 2021. The data were
collected from a sample of 212 subordinate health professional staffs. Multi-factor leadership surveys and organizational readiness
for change questionnaires were used for data collection. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and exploratory
factor analysis, run on the SPSS 23 version. Pearson correlation and multiple regressions were used. Multiple regression
results were expressed using the statistical values R2 and β-coefficient. Statistical significance was declared at a P-value of <.05.
Result: The Pearson product correlation of organizational readiness for change was found to be low positive and statistically
significant for both transformational leadership behavior (r=.49, P < .01) and transactional leadership behavior (r=.39, P < .01).
Both transformational leadership behavior (t=5.32, P=.00) and transactional leadership behavior (t=2.08, P=.034) were found
to be significant contributors to the variance of organizational readiness for change among health professionals, according to the
findings. However, transformational leadership behavior style appears to make a more significant contribution (β=0.39) than
transactional leadership style (β=0.15) in predicting organizational readiness for change among health professionals.
Conclusion: The study revealed that whenever transformational and/or transactional leadership behaviors are exhibited by the
administrative staff, readiness for organizational change (commitment and efficacy) increases among health professionals. The
study also concluded that a quarter of the readiness for organizational change can be affected by the two leadership styles.
Keywords
change, organizational readiness, health professionals, Ethiopia, transformational leadership, transactional leadership
Received 7 December 2022; Revised 14 June 2023; accepted 17 June 2023
... Findings on success and failure rates of change projects are mixed (Cândido & Santos, 2015;Gilley et al., 2009;Hughes, 2011). ...
Organizational change often fails due to employees' resistance to change resulting in unforeseen expenses, delays, or other disruptions in organizations. In our experiment, we compare behavioral interventions-a pro-change default rule and a pro-change recommendation-with a costly pay raise to foster supportive behavior. In regard to the pure nudge used (default), we support its effectiveness in enhancing change-related success. In line with our model and based on the assumption of low decision confidence in change settings, we find that a preference nudge (recommendation) lacks a corresponding effect. In addition, we find that a pay raise has a positive effect that is likely to be triggered by positive reciprocity. If this pay raise fails to materialize, we report supporting evidence for negative reciprocity. We compare the effect sizes for these nudges and the pay raise and provide insights for the relative cost-effectiveness of such nudges compared to a pay raise for organizational change. We conclude with managerial implications.
... O mundo dos negócios em constante mudança afeta as organizações, que também necessitam se adaptar para sobreviver em mercados de concorrência acirrada. Muitos esforços de gestão da mudança são inefi cazes porque não são planejados a partir de um conjunto de informações para tomadas de decisão que gerem ações necessárias à superação de resistências à mudança e dos complexos problemas organizacionais (BEER;EISENSTAT;SPECTOR, 2011;HUGHES, 2011;KOTTER, 2011;BURKE, 2017;ANDERSON, 2019). ...
O mundo dos negócios em constante mudança afeta as organizações, que também necessitam se adaptar para sobreviver em mercados de concorrência acirrada. Muitos esforços de mudança organizacional são ineficazes porque não são planejados a partir de informações relevantes para tomadas de decisão necessárias à superação de resistências à mudança e à superação de problemas. O diagnóstico é um método utilizado para analisar a organização e identificar suas lacunas de operação e resultados para que sejam neutralizadas por mudanças planejadas. Esta pesquisa, de natureza qualitativa, propõe um framework para diagnóstico organizacional que pode ser utilizado em projetos de consultoria de gestão da mudança. O framework proposto foi desenvolvido a partir da revisão narrativa da literatura sobre aspectos relevantes que são diagnosticados em modelos de excelência da gestão, subsidiando o trabalho de consultores e o aprendizado dos executivos envolvidos na mudança. A principal contribuição desta pesquisa é de natureza teórico-gerencial e trata da identificação dos fatores de diagnóstico que podem interferir na realização da mudança proposta, os quais devem ser analisados para embasar recomendações em projetos de consultoria. Como sugestões de estudos futuros indica-se a operacionalização do framework proposto em um modelo e sua aplicação às organizações em projetos de consultoria organizacional.
... Furthermore, contemporary literature is evident that organizations have to swallow various detrimental effects if miscarry to retort desired organizational changes, such as turnover of valued customers (Agote et al., 2016), decrease in market share (Oreg, 2003), lowering the stakeholders' interest (Fatima et al., 2020) and demise of the entire organization (Chan, 2018). Despite the vigorous effects of organizational change on the overall well-being of organizations, according to contemporary literature, around two-thirds of the change initiatives failed to reap the required objectives (Hughes, 2011;. There are many reasons for this condensed ratio of successful organizational change, such as leadership inability, reduced employee support, resource deficiency, cultural aspects, change cynicism, ineffective communication, job insecurity and poor processes (Burnes and Jackson, 2011;Erwin and Garman, 2010). ...
Purpose
In the current dynamic world, organizations required rapid changes to meet the increasing demands of their customers. On the other hand, the practice side claims that the majority of the organizational change attempts fail due to resistance from the employee side. Based on the behavioral theory of leadership, the authors examined the relationship between ethical leadership and organizational change with moderated mediation effect of behavioral resistance to change and commitment to change on the stated relationship.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were obtained from 333 employees, selected at random, in three waves (i.e. pre-change, during change and post-change) using survey methods from services sector organizations operating in Pakistan.
Findings
The authors found that ethical leadership was positively linked to organizational change and this relation was partially mediated by the commitment to change. Further, behavioral resistance to change weakened the relationship between ethical leadership and commitment to change.
Practical implications
The current study illuminates the importance of ethical leaders in the organizational change process, and empirical findings also gave an important direction to build change commitment in employees to reach positive results. Further, change leaders should use ethical practices in the workplace during organizational change initiatives to deal with behavioral resistance to change.
Originality/value
This study links ethical leadership with organizational change using the behavioral theory of leadership, an unexplored area in the existing literature that gives a new insight to academia and practice side officials to successfully implement any organizational change initiative.
Trauma-informed principles and strategies are increasingly being used to support youth mental health in schools. Yet, despite the approach's rising popularity, there exists a paucity of examples in the literature of implementation designs, guidelines, or change frameworks for schools to model or actualize a trauma-informed approach on a systematic level. Addressing this gap, the following chapter presents an organizational change framework that integrates trauma-informed practices to guide the implementation of a professional learning community (PLC), supported by positive psychological principles, to improve student mental health and well-being. Attention is also given to strategic implementation considerations to leave readers with both a strategy and method to guide school improvement.
In our ever-changing VUCA world, organizations that do not develop agility capabilities are likely to have difficulty surviving. This article examines two intervention research perspectives of system-wide planned change that emerged in the field of organization development and investigates how each change process establishes enhanced organizational learning mechanisms and agility. This article captures the key features of two intervention research approaches: the socio-economic approach to management (SEAM) and intervention research in management (IRM). Following a systematic comparison, we present a conceptual framework that captures the impact of intervention research on learning mechanisms, organizational agility, and organizational outcomes. Directions for future research and practice are identified and explored.
Purpose. The main purpose of this research is to summarise the descriptive analysis of change impact and evaluate the impact of change adaptability on employee performance in state-owned enterprises (SOE) in Indonesian agriculture. Methodology / approach. This study integrates theoretical perspectives on change management, adaptability, organisational learning, and employee performance. The model was tested at Indonesian agricultural state-owned enterprise which consists of 14 companies around Indonesia. The sample comprised 373 employees in middle management. Descriptive analysis and probability sampling were used with a disproportionate stratified random sampling technique, Likert questionnaire scale, and indexing with three box methods and Structural Equation Model in Analysis of the Moment Structure program used for the research model. Results. The findings suggest that learning from past change has a positive and significant effect on employee performance, but the adaptability of change and memories of change have a non-significant effect on employee performance. The models fit the Goodness of Fit Criteria (GFI = 0.934; AGFI = 0.911; CMIN/DF = 1.918; RMSEA = 0.050; TLI = 0.982; CFI = 0.985; NFI = 0.969; p-Bollen-Stine Bootstrap = 0.058); and also based on the descriptive analysis, changes in technology is the most significant changes that affect on company. Originality / scientific novelty. Several studies in the literature include the relationship between change readiness, and adaptability on employee performance, nevertheless, this study further builds and examines the construct of adaptability of change, memories of change, learning from the last change, identifying employee performance scales that should be paid more attention to and the significance among them. Practical value / implications. Based on the study’s findings, the role of learning from past changes in affecting employee performance in Indonesian agricultural state-owned enterprise provides a new and significant insight into the research literature on change adaptability and the challenges facing these companies. It has practical implications for managers and leaders confronting organisational change management in Indonesia, enhancing employee performance, and realising sustainable agriculture.
Nursing practice includes delivering high-quality evidence-based interventions that promote patient safety and optimal outcomes, yet changing practice is not easy, often quite delayed if it occurs at all, and hard to sustain. Using systematic approaches and models to change can promote effective adoption, uptake, and sustainment of a new practice in healthcare settings. Implementation science is a field that has emerged to help reduce the knowledge to practice gap and accelerate the uptake of research findings and other practice evidence.
Applying TMF and implementation strategies can help nurses adopt evidence-based practices that can promote patient safety and optimal patient outcomes.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to assess the success factors in a large organization that contributed to the success of organizational transformation (OT) through business diversification using a complex adaptive systems (CAS) framework. This assessment is done to determine how well the CAS framework can explain the success factors that contribute to the success of large-scale organizational change in complex organizations. If the CAS framework is capable of explaining the organizational factors that lead to the success of change implementation, the managers can employ this framework to increase the likelihood of success while implementing change.
Design/methodology/approach
This study uses qualitative research methodology. The data were collected from the case study organization (CSO) through 40 in-depth semi-structured interviews and analyzed using thematic deductive analysis approach.
Findings
The CAS framework explains the success factors that contribute to the success of OT through business diversification.
Practical implications
This paper provides a comprehensive guide for change implementation by combining the insights from the CAS framework with identified success factors (for change implementation) from the case organization.
Originality/value
The originality of this paper lies in extending the principles of existing change models, for successful change implementation by using the CAS framework. The prescribed change models and the CAS framework/complexity theory are two distinct sets of literature; this paper successfully merges the two to develop a comprehensive set of guidelines for change implementation. By doing so, this paper highlights the fact that alternative, non-linear, change approaches, instead of conventional multistep change models, can be effective in implementing large-scale organizational change successfully given the complexities of current organizational environments.
This chapter provides brief final thoughts, emphasising the role of leadership and the importance of building integrity into the DNA of an organisation.
The recent years have seen a surge in development and utilization of AI in different industries and functionalities. Companies are looking to integrate AI into their operations to gain benefits such as increased efficiency, productivity, and further usage of data for decision-making. Incorporating AI requires adopting new ways of working in the organization, and therefore change management efforts are required for successful implementation.
The purpose of this thesis is to examine how AI can be effectively incorporated into an R&D department’s software testing process. The research was conducted as a qualitative case study with interviews as the data source. Interviews with the department’s testing community were used for identifying use cases for AI and assessing employees’ attitudes and experiences with AI and change initiatives. Ultimately, this research identifies use cases for AI in the testing process, selects a suitable AI solution for addressing them, and creates a change management plan for implementing the AI solution into the department’s ways of working.
In total 18 use cases for AI were identified. These can be grouped into four categories which are optimization, troubleshooting, information collection, and content generation. The selected AI tool for implementation is a coding assistant, which can deliver benefits such as enhanced learning, faster troubleshooting, higher efficiency and productivity, better code quality, and increased job satisfaction through automating repetitive tasks.
The created change management plan follows the ADKAR model, which defines that achieving Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability, and Reinforcement in corresponding order is essential for successful change. A five-month roadmap of change management actions was created to foster these elements at the R&D department, with the goal of establishing usage of the AI tool as the new normal way of working in the testing process.
This study aims to investigate the impact of organizational change in a public sector high- reliability context. Drawing on conservation of resources theory, our theoretical model posits that change can be stressful and cause negative affective reactions toward the change, which undermine adjustment and post-change functioning. A quantitative case study was carried out on a Dutch air force squadron undergoing a significant organizational change, including the collection of three waves of survey data from squadron members. The data underwent analysis through a process of moderated mediation. Consistently with the theoretically derived hypotheses, results show that negative affect towards the change predicted important adjustment indicators, i.e., higher levels of work role overload and work errors. Furthermore, we found that the detrimental effects of negative affect were mitigated by the level of normative commitment to change, i.e., the felt obligation to provide support for the change. Overall, the study's intended contribution lies in its detailed examination of change dynamics in the specific context of public high-reliability organizations and its potential to inform theory and practice in that area.
Leaders initiate changes to increase competitive advantage and drive organizational sustainability, agility, and flexibility in their respective hypercompetitive industries. While organizational change is inevitable, uncertainty perpetually accompanies organizational change management processes. Uncertainty often breeds resistance; hence the organizational change process must be managed effectively using the requisite change management model. Despite the availability of more than 40 recognized organizational change management models, and even using the appropriate change management model, obstacles and resistance predominantly punctuate change management initiatives, subsequently igniting debates that more than 75% of all organizational change processes fail. The key reason associated with failed organizational change initiatives is (the seemingly) poor management of the human capital aspect of the change process. Poor communication of the change process leads to employees' resistance to change, as employees often believe that they will lose something in the process.
This volume brings together recent insights about the psychology of organizational change. The authors are leading scholars in the study of organizational change, taking on a micro-perspective for understanding the process through which responses to change emerge and impact work-related outcomes. Each chapter approaches the topic from a different perspective, highlighting a different aspect of the phenomenon. The book includes review chapters, chapters with new theoretical developments, and descriptions of empirical studies and their findings. It is intended for both academic and practitioners who wish to keep up to date about the mechanisms that explain how recipients of organizational change respond to and cope with change.
Penerapan kebijakan diversitas dan inklusi dalam manejemen sumber daya manusia (SDM) dan dampaknya suatu kinerja sebuah organisasi menunjukan bahwaq evaluasi akan di lakukan terhadap implementasi yang bertujuan untuk mempromosikan keragaman dan inklusi dalam pengelolahan sumber daya manusia suatu organisasi. Evaluasi ini akan melibatkan penilaian terhadao bagaimana kebijakan tersebut mempengaruhi keterlibatan, pertisipasi, dan kesejahtraan karyawan yang beragam. Kemudian, dampak dari penerapan kebijakan ini pada kinerja organisasi juga akan di amati dan diukur, termasuk hal-hal seperti, kemampuan untuk menarik dan mempertahankan talenta yang beragam, peningkatan inovasi kreativitas, meningkatnya kepuasan karyawan dan loyalitas, peningkatan reputasi perusahaan dan citra merek, dan peningkatan bottom line melalui peningkatan dan efisiensi.
Traditional approaches to organizational change have been dominated by assumptions privileging stability, routine, and order. As a result, organizational change has been reified and treated as exceptional rather than natural. In this paper, we set out to offer an account of organizational change on its own terms--to treat change as the normal condition of organizational life. The central question we address is as follows: What must organization(s) be like if change is constitutive of reality? Wishing to highlight the pervasiveness of change in organizations, we talk about organizational becoming. Change, we argue, is the reweaving of actors' webs of beliefs and habits of action to accommodate new experiences obtained through interactions. Insofar as this is an ongoing process, that is to the extent actors try to make sense of and act coherently in the world, change is inherent in human action, and organizations are sites of continuously evolving human action. In this view, organization is a secondary accomplishment, in a double sense. Firstly, organization is the attempt to order the intrinsic flux of human action, to channel it towards certain ends by generalizing and institutionalizing particular cognitive representations. Secondly, organization is a pattern that is constituted, shaped, and emerging from change. Organization aims at stemming change but, in the process of doing so, it is generated by it. These claims are illustrated by drawing on the work of several organizational ethnographers. The implications of this view for theory and practice are outlined.
This article examines the research methods used by Peters and Waterman in their book, In Search of Excellence (1982), and describes the results of empirical tests done to assess whether their exemplary firms are actually excellent. Peters and Waterman's "excellent" firms were compared with 1,000firms evaluated by Forbes in its annual report on American industry. Four measures offinancial performance were used: return on assets (ROA), return on equity (ROE), market valuation, and sales growth. A series of difference-of-means tests and direct tests were used to analyze the data. Results indicate that the excellent firms are not as superior as Peters and Waterman have suggested. The implications of these findings for culturelperformance research are discussed.
Observes that the published literature on resistance to organisational change has focused more on organisational issues rather than individual psychological factors. The present study investigated the role of both adaptive and maladaptive defence mechanisms in individual resistance. Surveys were conducted in nine organisations undergoing major change and responses were obtained from 615 employees. The results indicate that five maladaptive defence mechanisms are positively correlated with behavioural intention to resist change, namely, projection, acting out, isolation of affect, dissociation and denial. The adaptive defence mechanism of humour was found to be negatively correlated with resistance intention. Identifies two intervention strategies which can be used by management to address the effects of defence mechanisms on resistance during periods of change in organisations.
Purpose
– This paper offers a reanalysis or “re‐view” of a celebrated tale of corporate transformation – the turnaround of Sears, Roebuck and Company – which was discussed in the Harvard Business Review. Noting that “contextual” and “processual” attempts to revise the tale of Sears and its transformation would tend to exchange one monological rendering for another, albeit more critical account, the paper “re‐views” the case in an attempt to make space for perspectives and narratives normally edited out of narratives of change management.
Design/methodology/approach
– Building upon a critical review of the literature concerned with organizational storytelling the paper “re‐views” the Harvard rendering of the Sears case as an epic tale. The paper then supplements this epic rendering of the Sears case with another two accounts of the case, which recast and review the tale first as a tragedy and then as a comedy.
Findings
– The paper reveals the polysemic nature of organization and change and suggests the need for approaches to the narration of change that can give voice to perspectives denied by both celebratory and critical accounts of change management.
Originality/value
– The paper offers an innovative “re‐view” of a celebrated account of change management and invites the reader to make room for voices and perspectives normally lost within narratives of change.
Scholars hold different views about whether organizations consist of things or processes and about variance or process methods for conducting research. By combining these two dimensions, we develop a typology of four approaches for studying organizational change. Although the four approaches may be viewed as opposing or competing views, we see them as being complementary. Each approach focuses on different questions and provides a different —but partial— understanding of organizational change. We argue that coordinating the pluralistic insights from the four approaches provides a richer understanding of organization change than any one approach provides by itself. Most scholars agree that organizational change is a topic that is central and important to organization studies. However, they disagree on the meaning of organization change and how to study it. This paper traces these disagreements to different ontological views that scholars hold about whether organizations consist of things or processes, and different epistemologies about variance or process methods for conducting research. By combining these two dimensions, we develop a typology of four approaches for studying organizational change. Although the four approaches have been treated as opposing or competing views, we see them as being complementary. Each approach provides a differ- ent — but partial — understanding of organizational change. We argue that coordinating the pluralistic insights from the four approaches provides a richer understanding of organization change than any one approach provides by itself.
Why do some organizational changes persist, while others decay? The sustainability of change can be defined broadly as the process through which new working methods, performance goals and improvement trajectories are maintained for a period appropriate to a given context. However, sustainability has received limited attention, although the concept reflects Lewin's concern with ‘refreezing’ (Lewin. K. 1951. Field Theory in Social Science: Selected Theoretical Papers by Kurt Lewin, UK edition published 1952, ed. D. Cartwright, London: Tavistock). In an uncertain environment, working practices that fail to adapt are targets for change, and stability has been regarded not as a condition to be achieved, but as a symptom of inertia, a problem to be solved. This paper reviews the emerging literature, seeking to develop a provisional model of the processes influencing change sustainability and decay, as a platform for further research. This review suggests that sustainability is dependent on multiple factors, at different levels of analysis: substantial, individual, managerial, financial, leadership, organizational, cultural, political, processual, contextual and temporal. The relative significance of those factors cannot be determined a priori, raising questions concerning the properties of the sustainability process with regard to different types of change in different contexts.
This paper reveals the author's theory of method for conducting longitudinal field research on change. The paper also discusses a range of practical problems in carrying out time-series research in organisational settings. The practical problems include dealing with time in longitudinal research; issues of site selection, choices about data collection and degrees of involvement the importance of clarifying research outputs. audience and presentation; and finally handling problems of complexity and simplicity associated with longitudinal comparative case study research on change. The paper concludes by discussing some ethical issues of longitudinal research field research, and managing a community of researchers.
Purpose
Occupational stress and organizational change are now widely accepted as two major issues in organizational life. The current study explores the linkage between employees’ attitudes towards organizational change and two of the most significant constructs in organizational behaviour; occupational stress and organizational commitment.
Design/methodology/approach
A total of 292 participants completed ASSET, a new “Organizational Screening Tool”, which, among other things, measures workplace stress and organizational commitment and a measure assessing attitudes towards organizational change.
Findings
The results were in the expected direction showing negative correlations between occupational stressors and attitudes to change, indicating that highly stressed individuals demonstrate decreased commitment and increased reluctance to accept organizational change interventions. The most significant impact on attitudes to change was coming from bad work relationships emphasizing the importance of that occupational stressor on employees’ attitudes towards change. The results did not support the role of organizational commitment as a moderator in the relationship between occupational stress and attitudes to change.
Research limitations/implications
A limitation of the research design could be that all measures originated from the same source resulting in possible contamination from common method variance. Further, the cross‐sectional research design adopted in the present study, as opposed to a longitudinal or experimental methodology, does not allow affirmative causal explanations.
Originality/value
The present study showed that good and effective work relationships are very important in organizational change. Handling conflicts, building supportive work relationships and communicating effectively all contribute to the formulation of positive attitudes to change and, therefore, to the success of a change programme. In addition, organizations need to examine the extra workload which organizational change may create. Increase in workload is not only easily attributable to the change but it also makes change unattractive and problematic leading to non‐supportive attitudes.
This book, part professional biography and part narrative analysis offers a critical, analytical review of perhaps the leading management guru, Tom Peters. The text offers an analysis of the manner in which Tom Peters represents the contemporary problems of managing and an analysis of his storytelling practice.
It is no longer news that over the past five years, Sears, Roebuck and Company has radically changed the way it does business and dramatically improved its financial results. But the Sears transformation was more than a change in marketing strategy. It was also a change in the logic and culture of the business. Led by CEO Arthur Martinet, a group of more than 100 top-level Sears executives spent three years rebuilding the company around its customers. In rethinking what Sears was and what it wanted to become, these managers developed a business model of the company - the employee-customer-profit model - and an accompanying measurement system that tracks success from management behavior through employee attitudes to customer satisfaction and financial performance. The basic elements of the model are not difficult to grasp. In retailing, there is a chain of cause and effect running from employees' behavior to customers' behavior to profits, and it is not hard to see that behavior depends primarily on attitude. Still, implementing the model is not easy. One problem is measuring such soft data as customer and employee "satisfaction." Not surprisingly, many companies do not have a realistic grasp of what their customers and employees actually think and do. By means of an ongoing process of data collection, analysis, modeling, and experimentation, Sears does. Moreover, the work of creating the model and the measures has made such demands on managers that it has changed the way they think and behave. And now that cultural change is spreading throughout the company.
David Collins, a well respected scholar of management gurus proves a critical reappraisal of the very influential work of Tom Peters. This volume examines his key works and reviews his detractors, offering an analysis of his contributions to the field of management that goes beyond the simple chronological model that has previously been used. Collins focuses on the changing narratives of Tom Peters and proposes a four-fold narrative typlogy to explore this guru's evolving account of the business of management. The book argues that Peters' success as a guru derives from his abilities as a storyteller. The author notes a decline in Peters' storytelling and an increasing reliance on certain story types. Furthermore he observes that this guru now tends to place himself at the centre of his narratives of business and change. On the strength of this analysis Collins concludes that Peters has 'lost the plot' and argues that new and more appropriate, narratives must be sought and developed. Critical and compelling, this excellent book is a must read for all students and instructors working across the management spectrum, especially in the areas of management, organizational behaviour, change management and corporate strategy.
The change management discourse has appropriated central ideas of action research, group dynamics, and the management of attitude change from the political left. This has been concealed by the way that that discourse has written its own history, that is, its historiography. Managerialist accounts of the lives of Kurt Lewin and John Collier (in relation to group dynamics and action research), and of the work of Edgar Schein (in relation to the management of attitude change), are compared with those found in non-managerialist sources. The latter alone reveal Lewin's left activism, his working relationship with the radical John Collier, and the likelihood that Collier invented action research before Lewin. They also show how Schein's theory of attitude change was derived from the Chinese Communist Party. Change management's very construction has been a political process which has written the left out, and shaped an understanding of the field as technocratic and ideologically neutral. However, it is not only managerialist historiographies, but also supposedly more critical approaches to organizational theory which have a historiographical shaping effect.
This study examined how chief executive and top management team characteristics interact with organizational performance to influence strategic change. Results indicate that poor performance, long chief executive and top management team tenures, and high diversity in top management team tenure are associated with greater levels of strategic change. In addition, poor performance moderated the relationship between managerial characteristics and strategic change, increasing the likelihood of the latter.
Businesses hoping to survive over the long term will have to remake themselves into better competitors at least once along the way. These efforts have gone under many banners: total quality management, reengineering, rightsizing, restructuring, cultural change, and turnarounds, to name a few. In almost every case, the goal has been to cope with a new, more challenging market by changing the way business is conducted. A few of these endeavors have been very successful. A few have been utter failures. Most fall somewhere in between, with a distinct tilt toward the lower end of the scale. John P. Kotter is renowned for his work on leading organizational change. In 1995, when this article was first published, he had just completed a ten-year study of more than 100 companies that attempted such a transformation. Here he shares the results of his observations, outlining the eight largest errors that can doom these efforts and explaining the general lessons that encourage success. Unsuccessful transitions almost always founder during at least one of the following phases: generating a sense of urgency, establishing a powerful guiding coalition, developing a vision, communicating the vision clearly and often, removing obstacles, planning for and creating short-term wins, avoiding premature declarations of victory, and embedding changes in the corporate culture Realizing that change usually takes a long time, says Kotter, can improve the chances of success.
This paper suggests that, when viewed dynamically, organizational change can be both adaptive and disruptive. Similarly, when viewed over time, the same forces that make organizations inert also make them more malleable. These ideas are supported by dynamic models of organizational failure and change estimated on a population of 1,011 Finnish newspaper organizations over 193 years. Organizational changes are found to have two consequences: The first is an immediate increase in the hazard of organizational failure, and the second is an immediate increase in the likelihood of additional changes of the same type. In both cases, however, the immediate effect declines over time. Finally, the effects of change also depend on timing within the organization's life cycle.
What organizational conditions set the stage for business process reengineering success or failure? Line managers and IS executives can assess their organizations against the positive and negative preconditions identified in this article.
The failure rate of TQM interventions exceeds 75 per cent. Contends that
it is missteps in the implementation of TQM – and other associated change
efforts such as process re-engineering – that undermine the likelihood
that the intervention will contribute in a significant and lasting way
to the competitive effectiveness of the organization. Using three case
examples of TQM efforts, suggests that the implementation process must
succeed in unhooking the organization from its traditional hierarchical
and functional moorings and reattach it to horizontal, cross-functional
processes. To do this, the intervention process must address six
distinct but interconnected stages of unhooking and reattachment and do
so in a logical, sequential way.
Across the UK organisations are experiencing high-velocity, discontinuous, radical change scenarios. As part of their strategic response, many are introducing more flexible and empowering structures and cultures. One outcome of this strategy has been the dispersal of change agency to a more diverse “cast of characters”. Traditional models of the singular, mandated change agent are now juxtaposed with the notion that “everybody is/can be a change agent”. Reveals some of the wider issues associated with change agency dispersal. Argues that the dispersal of change agency to a wider “cast of characters” creates strategic risk for organisations and has implications for strategic leadership and the way change agents are managed in the future. Discusses some of the dilemmas facing those seeking to control and manage change agents. Concludes with a discussion of the theoretical and practical implications facing those who have responsibility for managing those who find themselves cast in the role of “change agent”.
Over the past decade, many hospitals have invested in major restructuring and/or reengineering efforts designed to enhance their competitiveness by improving product quality and/or reducing costs. For a variety of reasons, these significant changes have not been systematically evaluated. This research provides an objective look at the results of restructuring/reengineering hospitals and an examination of the influences on employee perceptions of reengineering's outcomes. This research demonstrates that employees, including upper management, had little or no objective knowledge of the outcomes of their change efforts. However, perceptions of all employees involved in a major change effort are critical if their full participation is to be sustained. The ultimate sustainability of many hospital strategic change efforts may rest largely on subjective assessments of its outcomes. The research reported here suggests that such perceptions vary significantly by organizational level and may not be stable over time. While the passage of time sees improvements in managers' perceptions of reengineering results, line personnel become increasingly skeptical and less positive. Further objective research is encouraged to more definitely distinguish the impact of employee perceptions on change efforts' outcomes and sustainability.
This article introduces four basic theories that may serve as building blocks for explaining processes of change in organizations: life cycle, teleology, dialectics, and evolution. These four theories represent different sequences of change events that are driven by different conceptual motors and operate at different organizational levels. This article identifies the circumstances when each theory applies and proposes how interplay among the theories produces a wide variety of more complex theories of change and development in organizational life.
The "Greatest Business Book of All Time" (Bloomsbury UK), In Search of Excellence has long been a must-have for the boardroom, business school, and bedside table. Based on a study of forty-three of America's best-run companies from a diverse array of business sectors, In Search of Excellence describes eight basic principles of management -- action-stimulating, people-oriented, profit-maximizing practices -- that made these organizations successful. Joining the HarperBusiness Essentials series, this phenomenal bestseller features a new Authors' Note, and reintroduces these vital principles in an accessible and practical way for today's management reader.
This paper reports the findings of a survey of 92 managers, from 14 public and 14 private-sector organizations. The aim was to explore the experience of change, extending the findings of a previous study (Buchanan, Claydon and Doyle, 1999). The survey addressed six themes: communication, evaluation, learning, attitudes and relationships, implementation and change and continuity. Overall, the results present a bleak picture of the process and outcomes of contemporary change. Most managers claim that change responsibility affords valuable personal learning. However, recent change has also been accompanied by stress, work intensification, command and control and management–employee distrust. A comparison of public and private–sector responses suggests that the experience of change in the public sector has been more pressured than in the private sector. Comparison of responses by management level indicates that senior managers are more likely to hold positive views of the change process and its outcomes. Explanations for these differences in experience and perception are considered, along with the implications. It is concluded that an adequate theory of organizational change must address the contradictions and tensions in the lived experience of those implicated, and that effective practice should consider the linkage of change implementation with organizational learning mechanisms which, on this evidence, are absent.
Although time has been included in theory and theory building as a boundary condition, this paper argues that time can and should play a more important role because it can change the ontological description and meaning of a theoretical construct and of the relationships between constructs. We suggest that theorists explicitly incorporate multiple aspects of temporality into the “what, how, and why” building blocks of their theories. First, we describe six important time dimensions that we propose are especially relevant to theory building about people, groups, and organizations: the past, future, and present and the subjective experience of time; time aggregations; duration of steady states and rates of change; incremental versus discontinuous change; frequency, rhythms, and cycles; and spirals and intensity. Second, we put forward a series of time-related questions that can serve as a guide or template for improving theory building through the incorporation of temporality into the what, how, and why of theories. Third, we propose how temporality can be incorporated into theorizing, viewed from a process standpoint. Lastly, we demonstrate how the explicit incorporation of time into theoretical analyses may not only lead to better theorizing and theories but also shed light on ongoing debates in the organizational literature.
The validity of social science theories changes with advances in research methods and tools, with additions to the cumulative body of empirical findings, and with changes in the multiple environments of humankind. Thus social science theories are temporally bounded .S imilarly, and of particular interest to organizational change researchers, the ever-changing nature of organizational adaptations to ever-changing organizational environments (Brown and Eisenhardt, 1998; Huber, 2004) causes the validity of specific organizational change theories to change, usually downward. In contrast to the need for scientists to recognize the changed validity of specific theories, psychologists remind us that changing one’s beliefs is difficult and discomforting, and Kuhn (1996) and Clegg and Hardy (1996) remind us that strong scientific paradigms inhibit development of new theory. Together, these ideas prompted us to propose a Special Issue of this journal that would provide organizational change researchers with (1) a challenge to think about the state of the field and the adequacy of current theories, and (2) a forum in which to challenge the state of the field or the adequacy of current organizational change theories.
It is well known that managed change within an organisation can result in unpredictable outcomes. In this paper a sensemaking framework is developed to demonstrate how both intended and unintended outcomes can result from the way middle managers – who are usually the recipients of a change strategy devised at the top – make sense of the senior management initiatives. This framework highlights the significant impact of change recipients on the outcomes achieved and suggests we need to reconsider both what we mean by “managing” change, and the way senior managers lead change. A case study that looks at a privatised utility undergoing strategic change from a middle manager perspective illustrates how the framework can account for the phenomenon of unintended outcomes. As the implementation largely follows what could be described as a textbook, top-down approach to change, it illustrates the problems many organisations face when implementing such change programmes. The paper also draws out the implications for the practice of change management.
There is a growing awareness of the need for designers of organisational change to develop context sensitive approaches to implementation if change is to be successful. Existing change literature indicates that there are many aspects of an organisation's change context that need to be considered, and a wide range of different implementation options open to those designing change. However, these contextual aspects and design options are not currently pulled together in a comprehensive manner, or in a form that makes them easily accessible to practitioners. This paper builds a framework, called the 'change kaleidoscope,' which aims to achieve this. It illustrates the applicability of this framework in practice as an aid to managers in the development of context sensitive implementation approaches via a case study on the changes undertaken at Glaxo Wellcome UK since the early 1990s. This is an interesting case of a successful organisation that managed to change in a pro-active manner rather than in a crisis driven re-active manner. The paper concludes with the lessons for practitioners on the impact of certain contextual features and design choices during change as illustrated by the Glaxo Wellcome case, and a discussion on the use of the kaleidoscope in practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Long Range Planning is the property of Elsevier Science Publishing Company, Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)
Success in today's competitive and complex world depends upon the ability to bring about effective strategic change. Much of the business literature has been preoccupied with finding more sophisticated techniques to formulate better strategies. But business success depends not only on finding the right strategy, but also ensuring it materializes in the form of a pattern of appropriate strategic actions. We know relatively little about this part of the strategy-making process. This article shows how a better understanding of the use of power can provide the energy to ensure strategic action by driving the organization and its members through the strategy-making process.
Today's fast-paced economy demands that businesses change or die. But few companies manage corporate transformations as well as they would like. The brutal fact is that about 70% of all change initiatives fail. In this article, authors Michael Beer and Nitin Nohria describe two archetypes--or theories--of corporate transformation that may help executives crack the code of change. Theory E is change based on economic value: shareholder value is the only legitimate measure of success, and change often involves heavy use of economic incentives, layoffs, downsizing, and restructuring. Theory O is change based on organizational capability: the goal is to build and strengthen corporate culture. Most companies focus purely on one theory or the other, or haphazardly use a mix of both, the authors say. Combining E and O is directionally correct, they contend, but it requires a careful, conscious integration plan. Beer and Nohria present the examples of two companies, Scott Paper and Champion International, that used a purely E or purely O strategy to create change--and met with limited levels of success. They contrast those corporate transformations with that of UK-based retailer ASDA, which has successfully embraced the paradox between the opposing theories of change and integrated E and O. The lesson from ASDA? To thrive and adapt in the new economy, companies must make sure the E and O theories of business change are in sync at their own organizations.
Recent analyses of organizational change suggest a growing concern with the tempo of change, understood as the characteristic rate, rhythm, or pattern of work or activity. Episodic change is contrasted with continuous change on the basis of implied metaphors of organizing, analytic frameworks, ideal organizations, intervention theories, and roles for change agents. Episodic change follows the sequence unfreeze-transition-refreeze, whereas continuous change follows the sequence freeze-rebalance-unfreeze. Conceptualizations of inertia are seen to underlie the choice to view change as episodic or continuous.
The Reengineering Revolution: a Handbook
- M Hammer
- S A Stanton
Hammer, M. and Stanton, S.A. (1995) The Reengineering Revolution: a Handbook (New York, NY: Harper Collins).
Research that will break the code of change: the role of useful normal science and usable action science, a commentary on Van de Ven and Argyris
- M Beer
Beer, M. (2000) Research that will break the code of change: the role of useful normal science and usable action science, a commentary on Van de Ven and Argyris, in: M. Beer, and N. Nohria (eds), Breaking the Code of Change, pp. 429–446 (Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press), (2000b).
Leaning into the Future: Changing the way People Change Organisations
- G Binney
- C And Williams
Binney, G. and Williams, C. (1995) Leaning into the Future: Changing the way People Change Organisations (London: Nicholas Brealey Publishing).
Excellence sought – and found, Forbes
- D Ackman
Ackman, D. (2002) Excellence sought – and found, Forbes, April 10 2002, pp. 1– 2 Available at http://www. forbes.com/2002/10/04/1004excellent.html (accessed 27 June 2011).