Success rates for different typesof organizational change

Coaching as a Buffer for Organisational Change

When introducing changes to an organisation, it is crucial to know how a given change will affect the company’s success. It is easy to forget or, more frequently, fail to appreciate the importance of the feelings and thoughts of the people who experience such changes. The distinction between objective change and subjective change is helpful in understanding the psychological consequences of changes and how they may affect the effectiveness of introducing changes in organisations. Results of studies on the psychological costs of changes for an individual indicate that there are differences in the way people experience objective and subjective changes, and that the way a change is perceived by an individual (i.e., subjective change) is crucial for the consequences of change. Studies have also identified factors which can buffer the negative consequences that changes may have on an individual. For changes in an organisation, coaching is one method to nurture these buffering factors in affected individuals, and, most of all, in those who are responsible for planning and introducing the changes, so that the employees of a company can experience the change in the most constructive way possible.

Against the current: Cultural psychology and culture change management

Since the 1980s, psychologists and management scholars have contributed significantly to the popularity of the idea of culture in organizations. A common and tenacious pitfall surrounding this idea, at times pointed out by these scholars themselves, is that culture is too often hypostatized and superimposed upon people. In doing so, this can have harmful consequences for employees at every level of organization. In this article, we reiterate this critique, challenge familiar managerial notions used to address “shared” behavior among employees, and answer to an old but neglected call to bring back real people to the forefront of our analyses. Based upon our adaptation of the enactive approach to the social tuning of behavior developed by Paul Voestermans and Theo Verheggen—made applicable in empirical studies on culture change conducted by the first author of this article—and inspired by principles of Gestalt, we propose a novel heuristic model to address organizational culture change. We attempt to do so both from an analytical and interventionist standpoint, while avoiding attributing causality to the idea of culture.

Leading Change Processes for Success: A Dynamic Application of Diagnostic and Dialogic Organization Development

Change processes, the activities that enable change, and change leadership, meaning how to lead change processes, both influence the success of change. However, a surprising omission from this knowledge is: how do leaders choose between change processes? This article explores leaders’ choices between two orientations of change processes—illustrated by dialogic and diagnostic organizational development—in 79 cases of organizational change. It identifies that change is successful when leaders choose to oscillate between these two processes as change unfolds. Developing a model that explains this evolution, the article describes how the change leadership practice of concurrent inquiry interacts with the two representations of knowledge described by diagnostic and dialogic theories to inform a choice to oscillate. For scholars, this model further integrates the theoretical perspectives of dialogic and diagnostic theories. For practitioners, it provides a means to navigate between extant theories and, as such, ameliorate outcomes.

Stagewise Overview of Issues Influencing Organizational Technology Adoption and Use

This paper provides a stagewise overview of the important issues that play a role in technology adoption and use in organizations. In the current literature, there is a lack of consistency and clarity about the different stages of the technology adoption process, the important issues at each stage, and the differentiation between antecedents, after-effects, enablers, and barriers to technology adoption. This paper collected the relevant issues in technology adoption and use, mentioned dispersedly and under various terminologies, in the recent literature. The qualitative literature review was followed by thematic analysis of the data. The resulting themes were organized into a thematic map depicting three stages of the technology adoption process: pre-change, change, and post-change. The relevant themes and subthemes at each stage were identified and their significance discussed. The themes at each stage are antecedents to the next stage. All the themes of the pre-change and change stages are neutral, but the way they are managed and executed makes them enablers or barriers in effect. The thematic map is a continuous cycle where every round of technology adoption provides input for the subsequent rounds. Based on how themes have been addressed and executed in practice, they can either enhance or impair the subsequent technology adoption. This thematic map can be used as a qualitative framework by academics and practitioners in the field to evaluate technological changes.

Business Intelligence Agility, Informing Agility and Organizational Agility: Research Agenda

In assuring organizational agility, informing activities play a key role by sensing the environment for important changes. A special part has to be assigned to business intelligence (BI) activities, since their exact task is to monitor the environment and detect important issues to provide ground for well-informed responses. In turbulent business environment, BI function has to adjust dynamically to maintain the quality of produced insights. A survey on published research has shown that many sources stress the importance of agile BI on organizational agility in general. However, the importance of managerial and especially cultural factors for the role of informing in building up agility competencies is under-researched. The technology factors of agile informing that create preconditions for organizational agility are much better researched and evaluated than their human and managerial counterparts. There appears to be a need for consistent research approach in favor of the less researched human and managerial factors. The goal of this paper is to define research framework by addressing agility issues at three levels: organizational, information and BI agility. This framework is going to serve as a foundation for planned research on the factors of BI agility.

Improving evidence quality for organisational change management through open science

Purpose

Popular contingency approaches to organisational change management imply that it is known what and when practices are most appropriate and effective to manage change. The current work aims to question this assumption.

Design/methodology/approach

The current work critically reviews the quality of current evidence supporting organisational change management and considers the role of open science practices for the field.

Findings

First, evidence informing organisational change management is poor, heavily reliant upon unquestioned theoretical models and low-quality cross-sectional or case-study designs. Greater adoption of an evidence-based approach to practice could facilitate organisational change management, but only once a higher quality of evidence is available to inform more robust practical guidance. Second, open science practices look well placed to drive a higher quality of evidence suitable for informing future change management.

Originality/value

The current work highlights the problematic nature of the quality and application of current evidence to inform organisational change and raises a number of recommendations to support future evidence development using an open science approach.

Fighting organizational decline: a risk-based approach to organizational anti-aging

Purpose

Most mature organizations face a major decline in performance at some time during their existence. For more than three decades, it has been suggested that the management practices that could cure a troubled company could have also kept it well. Inspired by this concept, this paper is proposing a preventive approach to early implementation of turnaround strategies as an alternative for otherwise traumatic rescue efforts, further along the downward spiral.

Design/methodology/approach

Corporate turnaround strategies and associated risks are integrated with a risk-based approach, along with a proactive decision-making process. The link between turnaround research, resource-based view, the sources of organizational decline, and the governance of organizational-decline-related risks – is explained.

Findings

The integrated model streamlines a preventive organizational process for considering the suitability of commonly used turnaround practices – for the non-crisis business routine of a mature company. By considering and adjusting the risks associated with such practices, it addresses risk aversion at the early stages of decline and determines the optimal sequence and timing of retrenchment and recovery activities. As such, it encourages mature companies to take actions for reducing their exposure to organizational decline. Accordingly, the model is named the “Anti-Aging” framework.

Research limitations/implications

Empirical testing of the suitability of turnaround strategies for non-crisis situations is proposed as a direction for future research.

Practical implications

The Anti-Aging framework opens an opportunity for the senior management of a mature organization to respond earlier to organizational decline and avoid the trauma associated with otherwise more challenging conditions, for the benefit of all stakeholders.

Originality/value

The Anti-Aging framework proposes an innovative way of bridging the gap between the benefits of early implementation of turnaround strategies, and major obstacles faced by willing, traditional management teams of mature organizations.

Disruption as opportunity: Impacts of an organizational health equity intervention in primary care clinics

BACKGROUND

The health care sector has a significant role to play in fostering equity in the context of widening global social and health inequities. The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the process and impacts of implementing an organizational-level health equity intervention aimed at enhancing capacity to provide equity-oriented health care.

METHODS

The theoretically-informed and evidence-based intervention known as 'EQUIP' included educational components for staff, and the integration of three key dimensions of equity-oriented care: cultural safety, trauma- and violence-informed care, and tailoring to context. The intervention was implemented at four Canadian primary health care clinics committed to serving marginalized populations including people living in poverty, those facing homelessness, and people living with high levels of trauma, including Indigenous peoples, recent immigrants and refugees. A mixed methods design was used to examine the impacts of the intervention on the clinics' organizational processes and priorities, and on staff.

RESULTS

Engagement with the EQUIP intervention prompted increased awareness and confidence related to equity-oriented health care among staff. Importantly, the EQUIP intervention surfaced tensions that mirrored those in the wider community, including those related to racism, the impacts of violence and trauma, and substance use issues. Surfacing these tensions was disruptive but led to focused organizational strategies, for example: working to address structural and interpersonal racism; improving waiting room environments; and changing organizational policies and practices to support harm reduction. The impact of the intervention was enhanced by involving staff from all job categories, developing narratives about the socio-historical context of the communities and populations served, and feeding data back to the clinics about key health issues in the patient population (e.g., levels of depression, trauma symptoms, and chronic pain). However, in line with critiques of complex interventions, EQUIP may not have been maximally disruptive. Organizational characteristics (e.g., funding and leadership) and characteristics of intervention delivery (e.g., timeframe and who delivered the intervention components) shaped the process and impact.

CONCLUSIONS

This analysis suggests that organizations should anticipate and plan for various types of disruptions, while maximizing opportunities for ownership of the intervention by those within the organization. Our findings further suggest that equity-oriented interventions be paced for intense delivery over a relatively short time frame, be evaluated, particularly with data that can be made available on an ongoing basis, and explicitly include a harm reduction lens.

Leadership, trust in management and acceptance of change in Hong Kong’s Civil Service Bureau

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine whether trust in management mediates the relationships between two types of leadership (transactional and transformational) and acceptance of change in the Hong Kong public sector.

Design/methodology/approach

Data from 68 civil servants in the Hong Kong SAR Government were used in the partial least squares analysis.

Findings

The findings from civil servants show that although trust in management mediates the relationship between both types of leadership and acceptance of change, transformational leadership is more effective in increasing both trust and acceptance of change.

Research limitations/implications

The strong support for the mediation hypotheses highlights the need for leaders to be trusted by their followers if followers are to accept and support the change process. Trust in management is what ultimately reduces resistance to change.

Practical implications

The findings from this study have demonstrated that one strategy available to leaders in the Hong Kong public sector is to concentrate on developing perceptions of trustworthiness by utilising both transactional leadership and transformational leadership but especially transformational leadership.

Originality/value

This paper provides a unique and nuanced view of leadership and trust, and their effect on the acceptance of change in Hong Kong’s civil service bureau that operates in a turbulent environment. Public sector organisations in Hong Kong are unique in that they contend with pressures from Hong Kong nationals and also with pressures from the Government of Mainland China.

The role of organisational climate in readiness for change to Lean Six Sigma

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of organisational climate in readiness for change (RFC) with particular focus on Lean Six Sigma (LSS) and to develop and operationalise an instrument to measure organisational climate to determine the organisational readiness of the Kenya Institute of Management (KIM) to progress to the next stage of the LSS implementation lifecycle.

Design/methodology/approach

A case study outlining the KIM journey to LSS is described. A quantitative survey was developed based on the ten organisational climate dimensions discovered by Ekvall (1983) and redefined by Lauer (1994). This was then used to measure the climate of the case study organisation. Data were analysed to determine individual perceptions of the climate dimensions within KIM. The average score for each dimension was used to determine overall organisational performance and hence RFC.

Findings

The generally positive scores across each dimension of the survey indicate that the KIM climate is ready for the next stage of its LSS implementation lifecycle although there may be some isolated pockets (individuals or groups) of resistance to change. However, the range of scores on each dimension indicates that there is disagreement within the survey group about the overall organisational climate.

Research limitations/implications

The response rate to the climate survey questionnaire was only two-thirds of the total staff at KIM Headquarters and approximately one-fifth of all staff. The views of non-respondents are therefore not known and this may bias the results.

Practical implications

Since climate influences RFC it is essential that an organisation can measure it to ensure its environment is conducive to the implementation of change generally and LSS particularly. The developed questionnaire is easy to use, easy to analyse and easy to interpret making it an ideal climate measurement instrument.

Originality/value

Previous papers on LSS concentrate on organisational culture rather that climate as a success factor for LSS implementation. This paper addresses that omission.

The role of organisational climate in readiness for change to Lean Six Sigma

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of organisational climate in readiness for change (RFC) with particular focus on Lean Six Sigma (LSS) and to develop and operationalise an instrument to measure organisational climate to determine the organisational readiness of the Kenya Institute of Management (KIM) to progress to the next stage of the LSS implementation lifecycle.

Design/methodology/approach

A case study outlining the KIM journey to LSS is described. A quantitative survey was developed based on the ten organisational climate dimensions discovered by Ekvall (1983) and redefined by Lauer (1994). This was then used to measure the climate of the case study organisation. Data were analysed to determine individual perceptions of the climate dimensions within KIM. The average score for each dimension was used to determine overall organisational performance and hence RFC.

Findings

The generally positive scores across each dimension of the survey indicate that the KIM climate is ready for the next stage of its LSS implementation lifecycle although there may be some isolated pockets (individuals or groups) of resistance to change. However, the range of scores on each dimension indicates that there is disagreement within the survey group about the overall organisational climate.

Research limitations/implications

The response rate to the climate survey questionnaire was only two-thirds of the total staff at KIM Headquarters and approximately one-fifth of all staff. The views of non-respondents are therefore not known and this may bias the results.

Practical implications

Since climate influences RFC it is essential that an organisation can measure it to ensure its environment is conducive to the implementation of change generally and LSS particularly. The developed questionnaire is easy to use, easy to analyse and easy to interpret making it an ideal climate measurement instrument.

Originality/value

Previous papers on LSS concentrate on organisational culture rather that climate as a success factor for LSS implementation. This paper addresses that omission.

Is There a Downside of Job Accommodations? An Employee Perspective on Individual Change Processes

By modifying the work environments, work routines, and work tasks of employees with health restrictions, organizations can effectively help them continue to perform their jobs successfully. As such, job accommodations are an effective tool to secure the continued employment of aging workers who develop disabilities across their life span. However, while accommodations tackle health-related performance problems, they might create new challenges on the part of the affected employee. Building on the organizational change and accommodations literatures, we propose a theoretical framework of negative experiences during accommodation processes and apply it to qualitative data from group interviews with 73 manufacturing workers at a German industrial company who were part of the company's job accommodation program. Although problems associated with health-related impairments were mostly solved by accommodation, affected employees with disabilities reported about interpersonal problems and conflicts similar to those that typically occur during organizational change. Lack of social support as well as poor communication and information were raised as criticisms. Furthermore, our findings indicate that discrimination, bullying, and maltreatment appear to be common during accommodation processes. To make accommodation processes more successful, we derive recommendations from the organizational change literature and apply it to the accommodation context. We also emphasize unique characteristics of the accommodation setting and translate these into practical implications.

Detrimental effects of cynicism on organizational change

Purpose

– The purpose of this research is to investigate the detrimental effects of cynicism on organizational change. It presents an interactive and novel theoretical research model based on organizational cynicism. The study aims to determine the causes of cynicism and suggests remedies for it so that change may be implemented with the consensus of all stakeholders.

Design/methodology/approach

– This is an associational study that aims to test the hypotheses of linear relationships among the variables used in the proposed model. Data have been collected from 417 employees, working for three public sector organizations, by using self-administrated questionnaires. The model proposed in this research has been tested by using regression analysis in Amos 22. The interactive effects have been examined by using Aguinis’s (2004) multiple moderated regression.

Findings

– The results reveal that dispositional resistance increases the intention of an employee to exhibit withdrawal behavior and that organizational contextual factors have statistically significant relationships with employees’ withdrawal behavior and their job satisfaction. Moreover, the results of interactive effects are partially significant.

Practical implications

– The Government of Pakistan, the managements of public sector organizations and workplace unions can resolve the issues of cynicism and job insecurity by involving employees in decision making and by building trust in change leaders. Employees’ participation and their trust in change leaders can decrease their intentions to exhibit withdrawal behavior and lessen the occurrences of organizational cynicism. In addition, trust in change leaders can raise job satisfaction, while job insecurity can decrease the job satisfaction levels of employees.

Originality/value

– This research presents and examines a unique multiple interactive model of organizational cynicism. Until recently, a scant number of studies particular to Asian culture, have investigated the detrimental and interactive effects of cynicism on organizational change.

Excessive change and coping in the working population

Purpose

– Two complementary objectives are addressed in this paper. First, several studies are introduced based on the assumption that organizational change is now excessive. The purpose of this paper is to propose an operational definition to change excessiveness, and the authors assess whether it is a generalized phenomenon at a societal level. Second, these studies are habitually mobilizing coping theories to address their purpose. However, an integrated model of coping, including appraisals and coping reactions towards change is still to be tested. Thus, the assessment is anchored in an application of the Stimulus-Response Theory of Coping (SRTC).

Design/methodology/approach

– A quantitative study is conducted by administering questionnaires to a nationwide representative sample (n=1,002). Anderson and Gerbing (1991) two-step approach is used to validate the study and tests its hypothesized model. Change excessiveness is measured in order to observe if it is a generalized phenomenon in the working population. Its effects on coping are modelled through the fully mediated SRTC. Therefore, the hypothetical model predicted that the relationships between the perception of excessive change contexts and negative coping reactions is fully mediated by negative appraisals towards change contexts.

Findings

– Perceptions of excessive change is a normally distributed and a statistically centralized phenomenon. As hypothesized, an structural equation modelling test of the SRTC shows a full mediation effect of negative appraisal between change intensity and negative coping to change.

Originality/value

– This paper empirically tests a nationwide sample where organizational change may be too excessive for individuals’ positive coping. It is the first to generalize the observation of change excessiveness as perceived by employees to a nationwide level. Moreover, it addresses the gap between change excessiveness and coping theories in modelling the SRTC through its three components: event, appraisals, and coping reactions. Finally, it presents managerial discussions towards the strategic necessity for organizational change and its potential “too-much-of-a-good-thing” effects.

Steps for implementing delayed cord clamping in a hospital setting

Background

Delayed umbilical cord clamping (DCC) permits placental-to-newborn transfusion and results in an increased neonatal blood volume at birth. Despite endorsement by numerous medical governing bodies, DCC in preterm newborns has been slow to be adopted into practice. The purpose of this article is to provide a framework to guide medical providers interested in implementing DCC in a hospital setting. A descriptive implementation guideline is presented based on the author’s personal experiences and the steps taken at the University of Washington (UW) to implement DCC in premature newborns <37 weeks’ gestational age. Quality improvement data was obtained to assess compliance with DCC performance over the initial six months following initiation of the treatment protocol in July 2014. An anonymous electronic survey was administered to obstetrical providers in January 2015 to assess DCC policy awareness and adherence.

Results

Important steps to consider regarding implementation of DCC in a hospital settings include applying a multidisciplinary educational approach aimed at motivating potential stakeholders potentially impacted by DCC, addressing safety concerns regarding DCC, and developing a standardized DCC treatment protocol. In the first month following DCC protocol implementation at UW, 79.2% (19/24) of premature newborns admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit received DCC, but compliance decreased over time, with DCC documented in only 40.1% (61/150) of newborns during the 6-month period following implementation. The majority of obstetrician survey respondents (90.9%, 20/22) were aware of the UW DCC policy for preterm deliveries, had performed DCC in the past 6 months (95.5%, 21/22), felt that they had sufficient understanding of the risks and benefits of DCC (90.9%, 20/22) and cited concerns for maternal hemorrhage and the need to resuscitate the baby as the main reasons to perform immediate cord clamping instead of DCC.

Conclusion

Healthcare providers interested in implementing DCC may benefit from a procedural practice plan that includes an assessment of organizational readiness to adopt a DCC protocol, methods to measure and encourage staff compliance, and ways to track outcome data of infants who underwent DCC. Strategies to improve protocol awareness after DCC has been implemented are recommended since compliance may decrease over time.

The project management office: transforming healthcare in the context of a hospital redevelopment project

It has been shown that classifying projects into a typology allows improved allocation of resources and promotes project success. However, a typology of healthcare projects has yet to be developed. The projects encountered by the Transition Support Office at the McGill University Health Centre in Montreal, Quebec, where a major redevelopment project is under way, were classified into a typology unique to the healthcare context. Examples of the 3 project types, Process, People, and Practice, are provided to clarify the specific support strategies and context-adapted interventions that were instrumental to their success.

Effects of Change Interventions

Despite the popularity of organizational change management, the question arises whether its prescriptions are based on solid and convergent evidence. To answer this question, a systematic review was conducted of organizational change management research published in scholarly journals during the past 30 years. The databases ABI/INFORM, Business Source Premier, ERIC, and PsycINFO were searched for relevant studies. A total of 563 studies met the review’s criteria. Assessment shows a predominance of one-shot studies with a low internal validity. Replication studies are rare. Findings suggest that scholars and practitioners should be sceptical regarding the body of research results in the field of organizational change management published to date. Prescriptions are offered for researchers, editors, and educators to develop a more solid body of evidence on organizational change management.

Predicting implementation from organizational readiness for change: a study protocol

Background

There is widespread interest in measuring organizational readiness to implement evidence-based practices in clinical care. However, there are a number of challenges to validating organizational measures, including inferential bias arising from the halo effect and method bias - two threats to validity that, while well-documented by organizational scholars, are often ignored in health services research. We describe a protocol to comprehensively assess the psychometric properties of a previously developed survey, the Organizational Readiness to Change Assessment.

Objectives

Our objective is to conduct a comprehensive assessment of the psychometric properties of the Organizational Readiness to Change Assessment incorporating methods specifically to address threats from halo effect and method bias.

Methods and Design

We will conduct three sets of analyses using longitudinal, secondary data from four partner projects, each testing interventions to improve the implementation of an evidence-based clinical practice. Partner projects field the Organizational Readiness to Change Assessment at baseline (n = 208 respondents; 53 facilities), and prospectively assesses the degree to which the evidence-based practice is implemented. We will conduct predictive and concurrent validities using hierarchical linear modeling and multivariate regression, respectively. For predictive validity, the outcome is the change from baseline to follow-up in the use of the evidence-based practice. We will use intra-class correlations derived from hierarchical linear models to assess inter-rater reliability. Two partner projects will also field measures of job satisfaction for convergent and discriminant validity analyses, and will field Organizational Readiness to Change Assessment measures at follow-up for concurrent validity (n = 158 respondents; 33 facilities). Convergent and discriminant validities will test associations between organizational readiness and different aspects of job satisfaction: satisfaction with leadership, which should be highly correlated with readiness, versus satisfaction with salary, which should be less correlated with readiness. Content validity will be assessed using an expert panel and modified Delphi technique.

Discussion

We propose a comprehensive protocol for validating a survey instrument for assessing organizational readiness to change that specifically addresses key threats of bias related to halo effect, method bias and questions of construct validity that often go unexplored in research using measures of organizational constructs.

Review: Conceptualization and Measurement of Organizational Readiness for Change

Health care practitioners and change experts contend that organizational readiness for change is a critical precursor to successful change implementation. This article assesses how organizational readiness for change has been defined and measured in health services research and other fields. Analysis of 106 peer-reviewed articles reveals conceptual ambiguities and disagreements in current thinking and writing about organizational readiness for change. Inspection of 43 instruments for measuring organizational readiness for change reveals limited evidence of reliability or validity for most publicly available measures. Several conceptual and methodological issues that need to be addressed to generate knowledge useful for practice are identified and discussed.