Change management in information systems projects for public organizations

Abstract

It can be argued, that public organization, in order to provide sufficient service for the public in a present highly competitive and continuously evolving environment, requires changes. The changes are often related to the implementation of information systems (IS) and they should be the result of change management (CM). However, theories and approaches to CM currently available to practitioners and academics are often contradictory, mostly lacking empirical evidence and are supported by unchallenged hypotheses concerning the nature of contemporary CM. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to identify critical success factors (CFSs) for CM in IS projects. In order to reach this aim an explanation of changes in public organizations and nature of CM is presented. Following this, a framework of CFSs for CM in IS projects has been identified based on the literature review. Then, the paper examines two IS projects and uses them to demonstrate CFSs influencing CM in IS projects. Next, the discussion of the research findings is provided. The paper concludes with a presentation of the study’s contributions and limitations as well as the stream of future work. A revised version of the this paper was published in Interdisciplinary Journal of Information, Knowledge, and Management, Volume 10, 2015