Abstract
Organizational readiness to change may be a key determinant of implementation success and a mediator of the effectiveness of implementation interventions. If organizational readiness can be reliably and validly assessed at the outset of a change initiative, it could be used to assess the effectiveness of implementation-support activities by measuring changes in readiness factors over time. We analyzed two waves of readiness-to-change survey data collected as part of a three-arm, randomized controlled trial to implement evidence-based health promotion practices in small worksites in low-wage industries. We measured five readiness factors: context (favorable broader conditions); change valence (valuing health promotion); information assessment (demands and resources to implement health promotion); change commitment (an intention to implement health promotion); and change efficacy (a belief in shared ability to implement health promotion). We expected commitment and efficacy to increase at intervention sites along with their self-reported effort to implement health promotion practices, termed wellness-program effort. We compared means between baseline and 15 months, and between intervention and control sites. We used linear regression to test whether intervention and control sites differed in their change-readiness scores over time. Only context and change commitment met reliability thresholds. Change commitment declined significantly for both control (-0.39) and interventions sites (-0.29) from baseline to 15 months, while context did not change for either. Only wellness program effort at 15 months, but not at baseline, differed significantly between control and intervention sites (1.20 controls, 2.02 intervention). Regression analyses resulted in two significant differences between intervention and control sites in changes from baseline to 15 months: (1) intervention sites exhibited significantly smaller change in context scores relative to control sites over time and (2) intervention sites exhibited significantly higher changes in wellness program effort relative to control sites. Contrary to our hypothesis, change commitment declined significantly at both Healthlinks and control sites, even as wellness-program effort increased significantly at HealthLinks sites. Regression to the mean may explain the decline in change commitment. Future research needs to assess whether baseline commitment is an independent predictor of wellness-program effort or an effect modifier of the HealthLinks intervention.
Highlights
Organizational readiness to change is the psychological and behavioral preparedness of organizational members tasked with implementation of a new practice, policy, or technology [1]
Organizational readiness could be used in workplace health promotion efforts to target worksites for dissemination; to diagnose and address worksite-specific deficits in readiness; and to assess the effectiveness of implementation-support activities by measuring changes in readiness factors over time
Many of our current implementation models and measures focus on attitudinal constructs, such as commitment, efficacy, and motivation, but this study suggests that more instrumental constructs, such as the planning and technical support that was provided by HealthLinks, may be more important variables in ensuring effective implementation
Summary
Organizational readiness to change is the psychological and behavioral preparedness of organizational members tasked with implementation of a new practice, policy, or technology [1]. Organizational readiness is thought to be a key determinant of implementation success and a mediator of the effectiveness of implementation interventions [1,2,3]. If organizational readiness can be reliably and validly assessed at the outset of a change initiative, measures of readiness could be used prognostically to gain an accurate prediction of the likelihood of change success and diagnostically to identify specific weaknesses or deficits in readiness. Organizational readiness could be used in workplace health promotion efforts to target worksites for dissemination; to diagnose and address worksite-specific deficits in readiness; and to assess the effectiveness of implementation-support activities by measuring changes in readiness factors over time. Accurate organizational readiness could be considered or intervened upon with implementation-support activities, such as information, training, and marketing materials
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