Committing to Organizational Change in IT Industry

Abstract

In the current competitive environment, managing organizational change successfully requires comprehensive understanding of change management concepts and processes as well as the implied drivers behind them. Information technology (IT) field is not an exception; growing interest exists for understanding organizational change and change management in the IT industry. Fast-paced changes in today’s IT and business environments are inevitable and the challenges associated with organizational changes are becoming more complex. This study aims to find at least partial answers to the question how employees’ commitment to change and the implementation quality of a change process affect achieving the goals and succeeding in an organizational change initiative. The study is conducted in two parts in a Finnish IT company providing complex IT solutions and services. The first part, the pilot study, identifies factors hindering employees’ commitment to change. The pilot study is followed by a quantitative main study, which investigates the relationships between employees’ level of commitment during the different phases of a change project, the change process quality, the importance and realization level of the different goals set for the change project, and the final success of the change initiative. The results indicate that a strong, positive relationship exists between the change process quality and the level of employees’ commitment to change.