Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Theory of Organizational Change'

In both academic and management literature it has been often stated that 70% of change efforts are not successful (Kotter, 1995; Smith, 2002). And while this failure rate may not be empirically tested, it points to a reality that most change efforts are not only difficult, but they are often unsuccessful (Hughes, 2011). When an organization undergoes a major organizational change process, the expected impacts include increased employee stress and overall productivity dips in the midst of the change (Dahl, 2011; Elrod II & Tippett, 2002). Measuring the impacts of change on employees and on organizational effectiveness during the change can add value and help increase the chances for change initiative success by allowing necessary adjustments and identifying and leveraging additional business improvement predictors along the way.

In this dissertation, I answer the question “What is the impact of going through a major organizational change on business outcomes and employee and organizational health?” My results suggest that an organization can transform the expected negative effects of a major change effort to positive effects by focusing on three things: 1) Improving employee mental health; 2) Increasing positive practices, including leadership’s impact on the organization; and 3) Improving employee involvement, communication, and teamwork. Finally, the results also show that improved employee mental health and improved positive practices are significantly related to improved business outcomes. Organizational change outcomes can be successfully informed by linking business outcomes with change impact measures.

The field of Organizational Change has seen a proliferation of publications of all sorts over the past two decades. In view of the emerging breadth of the field, it is becoming increasingly difficult for practitioners and researchers alike to separate the wheat from the chaff. At the same time, research suggests the majority of Organizational Change efforts are not successful. It is therefore my intent to map the nomological structure of the field of Organizational Change, determine the most dominating concepts, and identify any patterns or trends.

For that purpose I have collected bibliometric data from 1948 to 2016 and conduct a network analysis based on co-occurrence of keywords of Organizational Change.

My network analysis suggests five major findings. First, the field of Organizational Change has reached a level of maturity, which reduces the likelihood of breakthrough innovations. Second, only five concepts are dominating the field of Organizational Change today, which I label the “Top Five”: Change management, leadership, organizational culture, organizational learning, and innovation. Third, we are barking up the wrong tree, which means there is an inherent inconsistency between the topicality of the field, i.e. the dominance of very few topics, and the low success rate of Organizational Change projects. Fourth, it is still unclear how to exactly define and reliably measure change. Finally fifth, there seems to be too much focus on the paradigm that change is always preferably over an equilibrium.

I therefore propose three suggestions for further research. First, look beyond the Top Five concepts and create more dissonant discussion within the field, including a critical review of established paradigms. Second, revisit the established definitions and measurements of change, which includes questioning the widespread assumption that the majority of change efforts are failing. Finally third, conduct a network analysis based on a network of social actors of the field of organizational change, i.e. authors of organizational change.

Organizational agility represents a new field of organizational study that is not well examined. In the past organizations had an unmatched competitive advantage due to low competition and higher barriers to entry into their markets. As a result, many organizations dominated their industries. However, in the era of globalization, individuals with an internet connection and the right skills can start new organizations that can compete on a global level. Consequently, organizations now are facing more competition that they experienced in the past. Another reason for increase competition is new technology. Technology is improving increasingly faster than any time in history. Therefore, organizations that are not agile could not survive in the current environment.

Agile entities realize that they have to become flexible and nimble to withstand competition. Accordingly, the researcher in this study proposes an organizational agility model and this proposed model is the focus of the study. The proposed model significant arises from the fact that currently there are limited numbers of models that help organizations in becoming agile entities. The characteristics in this study were based on Worley and Lawler (2010) “Agility and Organization Design: A Diagnostic Framework”. The study conducted a survey utilizing an instrument developed by Dr. Worley and Dr. Lawler that contains 15 agility characteristics. The survey uses all 15 characteristics to determine if the organization is agile. In addition, the study utilizes three of the 15 agility characteristics to determent if a relationship occurs between the study variables.

This quantitative study examined the relationship between change capability, learning capability, shared leadership and organizational agility. Moreover, understanding these relationships could assist scholars and practitioners in producing change programs that emphasize certain behaviors that make an organization agile. The study surveyed 116 participants and found that focusing on change capability, learning capability and shared leadership could contribute in creating agile organizations. Consequently, after evaluating the study results, a new agility model emerged. This model shows that organizations can achieve agility by developing change capability, learning capability, shared leadership, shared purpose and flexible resources. Ultimately, achieving agility could help organizations compete and endure now and the future.

This study examined the relationships between affective commitment to change (desire), normative commitment to change (obligation), and continuance commitment to change (cost), as predictors of behavioral support for change. Affective commitment to change and normative commitment to change both demonstrated curvilinear relationships with behavioral support. Continuance commitment to change did not. This study also used residualized relative importance analyses, techniques for a full decomposition of the variance in nonlinear regression models. The nonlinear models accounted for more of a change in variance than did the linear regression models. The discussion section includes a scatterplot diagram intended to bridge the gap between scholars and practitioners in that the figure illustrates a range of resistant to commitment behaviors that cause organizational change initiatives to fail. The conclusion provides recommendations for researchers regarding the inclusion of a nonlinear frame when designing organizational change studies, and recommendations for practitioners regarding the damage that compliance is responsible for in organizational change initiatives.

Keywords: commitment to change, resistance to change, organizational change

The purpose of the research study was to predict managerial resistance to status quo bias given the presence of dissatisfaction, vision, and a process outlined for change in the environment. According to the 79 participants surveyed in the study, dissatisfaction, vision, and a process outlined for change provided a statistically significant model for predicting manager resistance to status quo bias for the sample studied. Leaders may be able to use the results of the study to determine manager readiness for change. However, at best the study found only 45.3% of the reasons that predict managerial resistance to status quo bias, providing an opportunity for future researchers to validate empirically other factors that may predict manager resistance to status quo bias.

Leadership found the best form of communication and behaviors challenging and elusive during all phases of Merger and Acquisitions, (M&A). The majority of M&A resulted in lower than expected shareholder value as measured by yearly profits. A qualitative Delphi design was used to identify the key descriptors of leadership communication and behaviors witnessed that influenced motivation, morale, and productivity during mergers and acquisitions. The participants engaged by email in two rounds of behavior and communication key descriptor creation, and a telephonic interview that presented the witnessed M&A. The 25 participants were experts because of their knowledge of the PLM and software industry, knowledge of the industry’s history of mergers and acquisitions, and witnessed leadership communication and behavior during merger and acquisitions. In addition, the majority of the participants experienced multiple mergers and acquisitions under change leaders. This positioned the participants as experts that identified the successful leadership communication and behavior in a merger and acquisition. The Delphi results introduced the criticality in regard to knowledge in the art of leadership regarding adaptability to change and appropriate application of communication and behaviors during M&A. NVivo 10 a qualitative analysis tool helped produce organization, and broader meaning to the key descriptors. Once the key descriptors were categorized as leadership qualities, behaviors, and processes themes were extracted from the collected data that produced consensus in regard to best communication and behaviors, which positively influenced motivation, morale, and productivity of employees.

All over the globe, nonprofit organizations aim to strengthen communities while struggling with the restraints of limited resources. This research study involved Participatory Action Research (PAR) to examine how to build internal capacity in one such organization in Bagamoyo, Tanzania. This study was a partnership between me (the academic researcher) and organizational members and stakeholders of the Baobab Home. Through interviews and meetings, the project focus involved creating written contracts. Over the course of five meetings, contracts were researched, policies and procedures were discussed, and formal contracts were created in Swahili. Findings include a discussion of the role of the outside researcher in the PAR process, as well as the value of partnering with a cultural guide. This study also provides a look at how to use PAR to build capacity within organizations. Finally, there is a review of the project itself, its successes, and its lessons learned.

Ensuring all residents in Southern California have access to healthy food is one of many examples of an issue too complex and challenging for any one organization to change on its own. More and more, organizations work in collaboration and designate individuals to manage these collaborative change initiatives. This research uncovers the specific influence managers of collaborative change initiatives have in shaping positive outcomes for the collaborations they serve. Based on interviewing 11 managers and funders from six leading collaborative change initiatives, there are two contextual ways in which managers influence collaboration: their position itself carries influence and their ability to navigate the collaborative context they operate in. The main findings of this research share five key ways in which managers influence the collaborations they serve: their own personal characteristics and skills, the relationships they cultivate, the membership they support and empower, the processes they manage, and the culture they shape.

Much has been written in academic and popular publications about organizational change. Topics have ranged from case studies to anecdotal stories of how leaders can change an organization. There is little written on changing the culture and vision of a profession at the macro level.

This dissertation shows that one key to effecting change within a profession is to educate those at the entrant level and thereby effect change with the profession. Over time, these new entrants to the profession will rise to senior positions and be able to effect greater change through the hiring, training, and mentoring processes inherent in the professions and the organizations for which they work. One way to effect change in these entrants is through education in college and professional schools. This study is specifically focused on effecting change in the interdisciplinary field of engineering and public policy. Public policy involves countless infrastructure issues at all levels of government. Engineers are well-versed in dealing with the technical issues of infrastructure but their voice is often lacking at the policy level. Similarly, political scientists are well-versed in policy but are often lacking in a thorough understanding of the technical aspects of the policy.

Through an introductory course in engineering and public policy, undergraduate students from the seemingly disparate fields of engineering and political science were placed in a common classroom and through lectures, writings, presentations, and guided discussions their attitudes on key areas were changed. Areas studied were professional interest, legitimacy, deference, the public policy process, and education outside of a specific field. Through the process of education, changes in each of these areas was possible. Further, the movement was towards making students in each discipline more open to the input, opinions, and attitudes of others, and specifically in shifting engineers toward a more positive view of the public policy process. Being exposed to these topics and to each other’s thought processes, changes in professional attitudes were made.

While there is not a specific profession for which any research has been done, the military is used, in places, as an analog to the profession of engineering.

The purpose of this qualitative, single case study was to understand leadership behaviors that motivate internal stakeholders to trust a leader’s vision, embrace change, facilitate employee willingness to passionately implement actions needed for an organizational change initiative and willingly sustain a change initiative. A sample of 20 internal stakeholders was studied, five leaders and 15 followers within an organization of 800+ employees, located in the southwestern region of the United States, which is currently undergoing a change initiative. The research questions were based upon Kurt Lewin’s three-step model of change: unfreezing, transitioning, and refreezing. This research asked how leadership behaviors facilitated employee willingness to trust a leader’s vision and embrace change, passionately implement actions needed for a change, and sustain a change initiative, making an implemented initiative the new normal for the organization. Three themes emerged to address the research questions: 1) know your audience and walk your talk; 2) communication, vision, trust, and buy-in; and 3) residual passion and perseverance. Findings suggested that leadership behaviors influence internal stakeholders in relation to a change initiative and that leaders who are hands-on, consistent, and demonstrate a clear vision increased the possibility of gleaning passion and trust to increase the potential for success during an organizational change initiative.

The concept of implementing organizational learning principles in an organization to help individuals and groups ?learn to learn? (Schein, 2017), thereby making the ongoing adaptation and change that inevitably occurs in organizations more successful, is an interesting problem to explore. While interesting, there are very few studies that examine the sustainability of change in any context. Several theoretical models incorporate the idea of sustaining, or institutionalizing, change. But, very few empirical studies actually explore that concept. The purpose of this qualitative, descriptive, embedded case study was to explore how a government agency developed and sustained organizational learning, using the Organizational Learning Systems Model (OLSM) as a lens. To fulfill the purpose of this study, the following research question was addressed: How did a government agency introduce and sustain organizational learning during and after a planned change? The results from this study contributed to the literature and to the practitioner community by showing that (1) the organization introduced and implemented organizational learning by centrally managing the learning subsystems during the change itself; (2) the organization introduced and sustained organizational learning by involving, encouraging, and empowering employees and middle managers during the change; (3) the organization introduced and implemented organizational learning by aligning all messaging from senior leadership to front-line employees during the change; (4) the organization implemented and sustained organizational learning by encouraging practice to learn the new behaviors and to iterate the change plan based on lessons learned; (5) the organization sustained organizational learning by counting on middle managers to sustain sensemaking and organizational learning post-change; and, (6) the organization was challenged in sustaining organizational learning because the specific change to a dispersed work environment has several unintended consequences that make it a tricky change. A conceptual model to augment the OLSM was proposed. Future studies could: (1) test the conceptual model proposed; (2) explore the impacts of a dispersed work environment using OLSM or social network analysis; and, (3) examine the relationship between open office design and a dispersed work environment.

Most companies lack the ability to implement organizational change; over 70% of Organization Change Initiatives (OCIs) fail. This inability has negative economic and survival implications for companies. OCIs must be effective and rapid to match the high pace of change in the business environment. Transformational leadership (TL) has been linked to successful OCIs through its positive influence on employee commitment and reduced resistance to change, yet little research has been done to identify its association with OCI implementation speed. This study tested TL and change theory and their association with change implementation. It sought to determine if a relationship exists between TL behavior and OCI implementation time. Archival survey and change data from 98 domestic and international manufacturing plants were used to examine relationships between employees' perceptions of leadership communication and trustworthiness and the speed of change. Hierarchical linear regression was used to determine if these behaviors could predict the change speed of an OCI. The study confirmed the association between effective leadership communication and employee trust in leadership, but it found no significant relationship between TL behavior and the speed of change. This finding is inconsistent with the majority of TL literature; however, companies may still benefit from exploring the potential of the study's theoretical concepts to help them improve the speed of organizational change. The limitations of the study were also noted as a potential contributor to the lack of significant findings, and recommendations are offered to reduce validity risk for similar studies in the future.

The pastoral care ministry in one Catholic parish recently experienced transitional leadership changes. The assignment of a different parish priest and new coordinators of the Pastoral Care Ministry presented the opportunity to explore new and diverse ideas for improvement in process, faith formation, and sustainable change. Implementing an action research inquiry (AIM) was a perfect opportunity to create synergy and cohesion for all involved and to explore what additional resources and support are needed with the ministry. Our results identified many improvements to continue to work on, but more importantly, through cycles of action and reflection we built relationships and developed a community of practice (COP) with the coordinators and the pastoral care ministers. Trust was established, allowing for vulnerability, new ideas, and confidence in our efforts to seek improvement, training, and faith formation within the group.

      Organizational change and game theory were separately investigated over time. Due to lack of scientific research on the relationships of those two fields of knowledge, an investigation of the game theoretic applications in managing change was performed in this research. Game theoretic applications were structured concerning the analytical use of game theory, strategic formulation with game theory and equilibrium analysis. By a qualitative flexible research method, main problematic areas of organizational change were identified with suitable game theoretic applications. Those problem areas are: making cooperation and coalition in change, group dynamic difficulties and the problem of incentive rewards. In each problem area, game theoretic solutions were discussed to help managers to make better decisions. Four mechanisms were inferred to support the game theoretic analysis of change management problems. Those mechanisms are: sub games, practical games, specific modeling and behavioral studies of games. Finally, an instructional framework was developed to conclude findings and illuminate the game theoretic approach in organizational change.

Since 2010, 2,000 U. S. leaders spent $150 billion on return on investment (ROI) training, yet questions still exist on how to measure the benefits of organizational change. The purpose of this embedded single-case study was to explore how business leaders could use ROI to characterize the benefit of intervention strategies for organizational change. Stakeholder theory and Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory formed the conceptual framework for this study. A purposive sample of 20 civilian personnel managers located at a medical facility for veterans in central Texas participated in semistructured interviews. The 5 primary themes that emerged using thematic analysis were (a) training, (b) leadership, (c) communication, (d) recognition, and (e) consistency. Implications for positive social change include the possibility of organizational leaders applying these findings to develop better intervention strategies. Such interventions could improve processes for stakeholders and create an open dialogue with business leaders within the government sector.

According to a review of the literature, Christian churches are divided because of constant rejection of change. In spite of the 70% failure rate of all organizational change efforts, successful change initiatives are achievable. Senior pastors assume the primary role of leadership within the church, and were tasked with the responsibility of leading God’s people through change and guiding the evolution of the church. Parishioners rely on senior pastors to provide the vision, as many parishioners continue to hinder the change efforts of the senior pastor. The hermeneutical phenomenological research design was used in the qualitative study to investigate the phenomenon of change through the challenges experienced by senior pastors of Missionary Baptist Churches of Greater Minneapolis during change. Seventeen senior pastors of Missionary Baptist Churches of Greater Minneapolis participated in audio taped face-to-face interviews. During the analysis five themes emerged: (a) mixed emotions; (b) servant of the Lord; (c) relationships; (d) organizational culture; and (e) communication is the key. Recommendations for senior pastors, organizational leaders, and Seminary and Bible Colleges were developed from the results of the qualitative hermeneutical phenomenological study.

The current state of the global economy is in constant transformation. This transformation results in new industries, technologies, and markets. In order to effectively maintain relevance throughout these transformations, organizations must be equipped with the ability to manage change and foster innovation. An organization that is unable to adapt to the rapid changes taking place in this economy will be at greater risk for failure. Context, whether it be cultural, geographic, social or a mix of several overlapping dynamics, is the silent decider of organizational paradigms. The process of transferring organizational assets, such as strategy or culture, from one context to another, is known as recontextualization. This thesis seeks to address the significance of recontextualized organizational assets within a Multinational Corporation (MNC) and the impact on its employees and management structures. The case study will examine how recontextualization shapes a French Headquarter (HQ) - US subsidiary relationship, and more specifically how this contextual dynamic impacts the reception of a HQled change management mission. The conclusion of this thesis will provide perspective for future attempts at collaborative change must integrate greater awareness of recontextualization, particularly during their planned strategic organizational transformation. The supporting research presented throughout this work encompasses interviews with organizational development leaders, cross-cultural management and recontextualization experts, as well as employee testimonials and an autoethnography illustrating the complexities of the HQ-subsidiary relationship.