Realizing major organisational
change and innovation is a complex process and many organisations
do not obtain the outcomes they desire. The purpose of this study
is to investigate which factors hinder or contribute to
far-reaching change. These factors are sought in characteristics of
organisations, and in the design and management of change
processes. Altogether, we evaluate 16 aspects when assessing the
change capacity of organisations. In addition, we explore
underlying patterns in the change capacity of organisations.
General results suggest that the change capacity of organisations
is neither low nor high. This is counterintuitive and opposite to
what we know about differences between changing organisations.
Additional cluster analyses revealed a limited number of
configurations in the change capacity of organisations. Five
configurations show distinct patterns in factors that frustrate or
contribute to change. We interpreted the configurations as the
innovative organisation, the longing organisation, the organisation
with aged technology, the organisation with a clumsy change
approach, and the cynical organisation. The configurations
demonstrate that focusing on multiple aspects of organisations and
change processes is important to fully comprehend what hinders and
helps organisations change. Furthermore, results from this study
suggest that a sense of urgency is not needed for change to take
place, that resistance to change is related to the management of
the change process, that each configuration requires specific
interventions, and that configurations may be related to
organisational variables as sector and size.
Authors: Kilian M. Bennebroek
Gravenhorst, Renate A. Werkman and Jaap J. Boonstra,
2003
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