Organizational Change Agents Research Articles

LEADERSHIP BEHAVIORAL DEVELOPMENT OF MILLENNIAL LEADERS AS A CHANGE AGENT IN THE DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION ORGANIZATION

<p>The digital transformation era and Industry 4.0 provide ample opportunities for this generation to thrive with their rapid technological adaptation and openness to new ideas. This research examines millennial leadership behavioral development to enable them to effectively become change agents in digital organizations, using the case study of William Tanuwijaya at Tokopedia. Through a review of literature from international sources during 2020–2023, this study discusses millennial leadership theories and change management, highlighting the urgency and importance of adaptive leadership capable of managing change in the face of digital organizational challenges. The research findings indicate that millennial leadership styles vary according to organizational contexts. Millennials are confronted with change management, where organizational readiness to adapt is critical to success. Adaptive leadership, a key strategy in managing change, is crucial. Through William Tanuwijaya's leadership at Tokopedia, millennial leadership characteristics prioritizing social and environmental issues, sustainability, and the implementation of sustainable values are evident, alongside collaboration with the government to create an inclusive environment and focus on innovation and digital transformation in the economy. Leaders like William Tanuwijaya start by building teams consisting of celebrities or public figures in Indonesia to promote Tokopedia and strengthen the company's image while formulating the company's vision and initiatives, motivating employees, overcoming obstacles such as improving work efficiency, implementing successful minor changes, ensuring smooth change integration, and making change an integral part of the organizational culture and system.<strong></strong></p>

Is Charismatic Leadership Effective?

Most times, charismatic leaders have a distinct relationship with employees. Charismatic leaders can be powerful agents of organizational change, especially during difficult times. Many theories of charismatic leadership have stressed the traits and demeanor of leaders and their effects on employees, the company, and profits. However, many research studies do not fully explain how this leadership style can initiate a process of innovation that will result in higher profits and a more engaged workforce. In this study, the author will outline different styles that charismatic leaders process that may explain the phenomenon.

Learning Organization as A Way to Create Change Agents in Bojonegoro Regency

Purpose: This research explores the development of change agents within the public sector of Bojonegoro Regency, a region that has undergone significant transformation from one of the poorest regencies in Jawa Timur Province to being recognized for its Sustainable Development Initiative by The United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network in 2013. The study aims to understand the process of cultivating change agents in the district government of Bojonegoro. Theoretical Reference: The research adopts a qualitative methodology with a phenomenological paradigm to capture the universal essences of the individual experiences of change agent phenomena. The focus is on identifying key themes such as willingness to learn, distribution of authority/duties/roles, willingness to improve, and attention to the younger generation. A foundational aspect is emphasized— the role of a learning organization cultivated through a holistic leadership approach. Method: The research utilizes NVivo coding to analyze qualitative data, uncovering themes related to the development of change agents. The qualitative methodology and phenomenological paradigm are chosen to provide a deeper understanding of the unique experiences and essential elements in fostering change agents within public sector organizations. Results and Conclusion: Contrary to expectations, the findings reveal that change agents are not developed directly; instead, a prerequisite is the establishment of a fertile ground through holistic leadership. The emphasis on themes such as willingness to learn, distribution of authority, commitment to improvement, and attention to the younger generation underscores the importance of a conducive environment for change agent development. Implications of Research: The research suggests that the success of developing change agents in public sector organizations is intricately linked to the establishment of a learning organization nurtured by a holistic leadership approach. The findings highlight the need for tailoring strategies to the unique context and environmental factors of each district, recognizing that the success of Bojonegoro may not be directly replicable elsewhere. Originality/Value: This study contributes to the understanding of change agent development in public sector organizations, emphasizing the significance of a learning organization and holistic leadership. The uniqueness of Bojonegoro's case underscores the importance of considering environmental specialties and district-specific factors in crafting strategies for change agent cultivation across diverse regions in Indonesia.

B - 27 Philadelphia Neuropsychology Society's Equity Forum: Efforts to Address Local Level Needs for Equity in Neuropsychology.

While there are growing national advocacy efforts to advance equity in neuropsychology, fewer initiatives exist at local and regional levels. The Philadelphia Neuropsychology Society's (PNS) Equity Forum was created to provide diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI)-related support, advocacy, and resources to local trainees, professionals, and communities. We describe the Forum's efforts to promote policies, educate, and offer support at a local level. We conducted an archival review of activities of the PNS Equity Forum from January 2021 to April 2023, including a PNS needs assessment survey (NAS), the southeastern PA Regional Community Health Needs Assessment (rCHNA), electronic correspondence, and website traffic. Results identified the need to increase access to resources for 1) culturally responsive research, 2) bilingual providers, 3) low-cost care, and 4) brain health education for the local public. In response, the Forum implemented the following initiatives: monthly ce seminars and journal club, quarterly newsletter, and a resource repository for culturally, linguistically, and socioeconomically diverse communities in the Philadelphia region. The Forum provided DEI-related education to monthly PNS speakers and created safe discussion spaces after national tragedies. The PNS Forum website page saw a 114% increase in views, the list of bilingual and culturally-aware providers received 25% more views, and the quarterly newsletter saw a 100% increase in views in the last month. Neuropsychologists can serve as social change agents in local and regional neuropsychology organizations, and create transformational spaces for accessible, equitable, and sustainable neuropsychology practices and training environments.

A process for converting an in-person training to increase church capacity to implement physical activity and healthy eating practices and policies to an online format.

The implementation of evidence-based public health programs into practice is critical for improving health, but trainings for organizational change agents are often not scalable. To describe the process of converting a training that targets faith-based organizational capacity development from an in-person to an online format. We engaged in an iterative process to convert the training delivery mode from in-person to online that included assessing stakeholder support, consulting the literature on best practices, seeking a design team, consolidating content, designing engaging lessons, and building an online site. Feedback from end-users and other audiences was incorporated throughout. Pilot participants with characteristics like intended training users were then recruited via community and faith-based partner networks. They rated their agreement with statements about the effectiveness as well as design and functionality of each lesson and the overall training (1 = strongly disagree, 5 = strongly agree) and participated in a structured follow-up interview. Nine pilot participants (representing 9 churches in 7 states; 6 African American, 5 with health ministries) rated the online lessons favorably (all ratings ≥ 4.5). Most (90.4%) perceived the lesson duration to be "just right" and spent 52.5 ± 9.9 minutes/lesson. Participants evaluated the overall training positively (all ratings ≥ 4.7). Lesson content, resources, multimedia, and program ideas were most-liked aspects of lessons, while content, staff responsiveness, discussion board, and pace were most-liked aspects of the overall training in open-ended and interview responses. This paper shares a replicable process for converting training modalities from in-person to online with the goal of increased scalability.

New fathers, ideal workers? New players in the field of father‐friendly work organizations

AbstractThis article explores novel forms of proactive support for fathers in organizations and analyzes how newly instituted organizational promoters of father‐friendliness in Germany (organizational consultants, fathers' representatives, and fathers' networks) legitimize and strengthen organizational acceptance of fathers' use of family‐friendly workplace arrangements. Bringing together the notions of organizational masculinity, the ideal worker norm, and postfeminism, the paper focuses on caring formations of postfeminist masculinity at work and how they contribute to gender change in organizations. The analysis shows that organizational promoters construct father‐friendliness in three ways (I) by constructing a new, “caring” organizational masculinity, (II) by creating organizational value for care‐related practices, (III) by framing father‐friendliness as a prerequisite for gender equality. Our theoretical argument is that configurations of positive masculinities are possible within a postfeminist culture, and they produce incremental yet limited gender change through a reshaped organizational masculinity and a reframed “ideal worker” within organizations. The study of a rather unique group of change agents in organizations shows how additional offerings for fathers might contribute to changing gendered assumptions about care in organizations.

Allies as organizational change agents to promote equity and inclusion: a case study

PurposeThe current case study investigated how intentional, systematic planning can help organizations harness the energy of these willing allies who may be motivated to support change. The focus of the study is the development of a peer-to-peer approach, involving “Equity Leaders (ELs),” that was part of a larger, multi-level organization change initiative that addressed personal, interpersonal and structural considerations at a mid-sized public university in northeastern USA.Design/methodology/approachThe authors used multiple methods to collect data for the current study, including observations and interviews. Over the course of four years, the authors attended more than 50 EL meetings. In these meetings, the authors took notes regarding ELs' discussions on workshop development and planning, debates on workshop substances and ELs' personal reflections on these workshops. Following the fourth year of the program, the first two authors invited all current ELs to participate in semi-structured, open-ended interviews about their experience.FindingsThe case study shows that through careful planning, peer change can play multiple roles in pushing organizational changes. By embracing their formal responsibilities and yielding their informal power, change agents are able to cause radiating impact across as organizations. Organizations can also capitalize on the fact that employees are more likely to be engaged in the change effort when it is promoted by peers. Finally, the support and resources from the organizational leaders is important because these inputs not only legitimize change agents' roles but they also signify the importance of the actions.Research limitations/implicationsThis study has limitations. First, the authors recognize that this was a qualitative study grounded in a single context. Although the study explored a novel context for understanding change agents—a deliberately planned initiative targeting social norms through addressing subtle biases like microaggressions—the authors recognize that additional examination would be necessary to understand how implementation may work in different contexts or organization types. Second, the authors also acknowledge that the authors’ positionality, as females studying a change initiative targeting gendered and intersectional microaggressions, may have shaped the role as researchers.Originality/valueThe findings underscore the notion that allies can serve as organized peer change agents to affect organizational culture. In alignment with the principles in the social ecological framework, the approach involved selecting change agents who are internal to the organization, have informal influence or power and can broaden the impact to other parts of the organization. Moreover, the results underscore the need for organizations to provide essential support and resources that can assist change agents to bridge organizational goals and individual actions.

Who steps up after a merger? The effects of boundary-spanning on post-merger taking charge behavior

Although prior research on mergers and acquisitions (M&As) has suggested that cross-legacy boundary-spanners serve as organizational change agents, an emerging line of research highlights the costs of developing and maintaining boundary-spanning ties. Building on the social networks and organizational identification literatures, we develop a social network model and explore the influence of boundary-spanning on post-merger taking charge behavior. More specifically, we argue that employees without boundary-spanning ties are more likely to engage in taking charge behavior when they are closely connected to the boundary-spanners of their legacy organizations. Our analysis of the social network of a post-merger organization shows that cross-legacy boundary-spanning has a negative effect on taking charge behavior, while proximity to boundary-spanners has a positive effect. Our study also reveals that the positive effect of proximity on taking charge behavior is strongest for employees who weakly identify with the new organization.

Preparing an Organization for Sustainability Transitions—The Making of Boundary Spanners through Design Training

Organizations today need to adapt their operations for a more sustainable future, and the transition management literature has highlighted the need for individuals who can collaborate with others to find new paths forward. Essentially, these individuals are boundary spanners with specific skills and competences to bridge diverging perspectives and facilitate knowledge dissemination and integration. Such individuals become critical change agents in organizations and essential in preparing the organization for sustainability transitions. The purpose of this study is to explore how organizations can enable and encourage individuals to take on this role and develop the skills and competences needed to become boundary spanners. Based on a case study set in a large Canadian energy corporation striving to shift towards more sustainable operations, our paper explores the emergence of boundary spanners, focusing on the effects of a design training program in supporting such roles in the organization. Our findings outline essential characteristics of boundary spanners; through illustrative career trajectories of four individuals participating in the training program, we show how the training program contributed to the emergence of boundary spanners.

Psychological ownership of a team of change agents during second-order change in schools and its implications for school culture

PurposeTaking ownership is considered vital for sustaining change in organizations, particularly when second-order changes are the goal. Yet, few studies explored psychological ownership of change agents in educational organizations. Moreover, no knowledge exists on how agents' individual psychological ownership augments psychological ownership in schools and on how collective psychological ownership of change relates to school culture. The present study aims to address these two lacunae.Design/methodology/approachA case study method was adopted to investigate the psychological ownership of teams of change agents in schools. Six Israeli secondary state religious schools adopting a new liberal curricular program were studied. Thirty one interviews were conducted with principals, program coordinators, mid-level teacher leaders and teachers who were active change agents in the promotion of the program. The interviews were complemented by quantitative data on students' perceptions of school discipline and tolerance of diversity based on the national school culture survey.FindingsThe analyses revealed the prevalence of three types of psychological ownership in the sample of schools. The analyses also showed how key components of psychological ownership, i.e. responsibility and territoriality in relation to change manifest in the schools that were explored. Institution-level analysis shed light on the different effects psychological ownership of the change team had on sharing within the faculty. In addition, analyses showed how the scope of agreement between two key change agents, the program initiator and the principal, on psychological ownership affected various psychological ownership aspects of the team. Last, the analysis shows that two types of collective psychological ownership emerged in the course of a liberal school change, and that types were differently related to school outcomes.Originality/valueThe study offers an innovative typology of collective psychological ownership during second-order change in schools, mapping two ideal types: cooperative and fragmented collective psychological ownership. The new types provide a better understanding of the dynamic of collective psychological ownership and its outcomes in organizations in general and schools in particular.

Surgical Patient Safety Officers in the United States: Negotiating Contradictions Between Compliance and Workplace Transformation

A largely uncoordinated patient safety movement arose in response to the Institute of Medicine’s 1999 report on patient safety, To Err Is Human. Two key outcomes have resulted from that movement: (a) new guidelines that enlarge requirements for documenting compliance with patient safety data and (b) a new obligation for health care organizations to create a “safety culture” based on the “science” of safety. The organizational title patient safety officer (PSO) designates a member of an emerging occupation charged with assuming these enlarged responsibilities. This article seeks, first, to describe the emergence of this new organizational role, the PSO; second, to identify the new tensions that task and mission inflation have created for PSOs; and third, to examine how PSOs manage the tensions between their increased core work task and their new professional mission as agents of organizational change. Drawing on interviews conducted with 32 PSOs, 127 nurses, and 36 physicians in 17 surgical departments across 5 states in the United States from 2012 to 2015, the authors find that PSOs most commonly resolve the tension between core work activity and professional mission by focusing on their task as agents of audit and compliance. The authors find, as well, that when PSOs attempt to use their expanded role as social reformers to change behaviors in surgery, they must overcome the resistance of frontline workers. They require cooperation from executives and surgeons to effect change. When this support is unavailable, PSOs lose their voice and may abandon efforts to improve safety.

A Contingent Approach to Facilitating Conflict Resolution in Software Development Outsourcing Projects

With the wide spread of IT outsourcing, internal IT personnel have been required to change their roles from system development to organizational change agents such as securing software development outsourcing (SDO) success. Conflict resolution is critical to secure the SDO success, but the understanding of how IT personnel facilitate conflict resolution as change agents is limited. The purpose of this study is to understand the negative impact of conflicts on SDO outcomes and to investigate the moderating effect of IT personnel's conflict resolution facilitation (process facilitation, content facilitation) between conflicts and two SDO outcome dimensions (project efficiency and system effectiveness). In order to test the model, data was collected through a cross-sectional field survey using questionnaires, and a total of 144 SDO projects were used in the final analysis. Research results show that conflicts have a negative impact on both of the SDO outcome dimensions, and the effect of conflict resolution facilitation by IT personnel is contingent on the dimensions of SDO outcomes.

Audience analysis as organizational change agent: A project management methodology approach

Survival is number one motive of companies today; therefore the majority of necessary changes and related projects within the organizations aim to secure this. However, failing to use a project management methodology may jeopardize an organization’s project management efforts and overall effectiveness, where number one reason of failures with implementing a project management methodology is related to change domain in different audience groups. This paper contributes to name the audience characteristics and relying strategies accordingly.

Protests, Rallies, Marches, and Social Movements as Organizational Change Agents

The ProblemSocial movements can impact organizations and employees through changes in policies and procedures in the workplace. Measuring the degree to which collective protests, rallies, and marches have influenced organizational actions can be complex due to the variance in activist practices and the resistance or amiableness of organizations to change.The SolutionProtests, rallies, and marches can create a disruptive stage for challenging and confronting organizational policies and practices that maintain power structures. Through the examination of the literature and the review of recent worldwide events, this article illustrates how social movements have affected organizations and led to organizational changes, illuminating change processes in established fields such as business. Specifically, we aim to answer how protests, rallies, and marches influence organizational policies and practices attributed to human resource development (HRD). We conclude by discussing how a recent social movement is applicable to the field of HRD and suggest areas for future research.The StakeholdersThis article may be of interest to employees at all levels of the organization, researchers, and practitioners in the field of HRD.

Data culture as a change agent for organizations serving families and children experiencing homelessness

Over the past decade there have been considerable developments in the use of data in the field of child and family homelessness. The development of high-quality data collection processes—including Housing Management Information Systems (HMIS), community point-in-time counts, and school district data and evaluation infrastructure—has given nonprofit and social sector leaders unprecedented access to client-level data. However, it remains a challenge for nonprofits and community-based organizations to engage in work with families experiencing homelessness and demonstrate meaningful impact across a variety of outcomes. In this policy brief, the authors discuss (1) challenges facing the field of child and family homelessness with respect to data use, (2) recent advancements in the use of data, and (3) strategies to create an organizational culture of data that makes use of recent advancements in data use and addresses current challenges facing the field. The brief makes the argument that fostering a data culture at the organizational level has the capacity to operate as an organizational change agent that improves programs.

Gender and relationship differences in the perceptions of male and female leadership

PurposeThis research aims to investigate the differences in evaluations of job performance between male and female managers by those managers’ immediate bosses and peers.Design/methodology/approachDrawing on gender structure theory, along with ideas about status characteristics, the authors use hierarchical regression to test the hypotheses that male and female bosses and peers deferentially evaluate the male and female manager’s global job performance. The authors hypothesize significant two-way interactions (gender of the manager by gender of evaluator) in predicting a manager’s job performance.FindingsThe results suggest that while male peers rate female managers’ job performance significantly lower than that of male managers, female peers do not discriminate between genders in their performance evaluations. Also, managers’ bosses were found not to discriminate between genders of their subordinates.Research limitations/implicationsThe limitations of this study have to do primarily with the data. While the data are rich on some dimensions, they are weak on others, especially with regard to the detail about the jobs the respondents did, detailed level of familiarity with the evaluated managers, as well as racial background. The data also do not provide information on the different facets of job performance, the evaluation of which could potentially be impacted by managerial gender; this study is focused exclusively on global job performance.Practical implicationsThe authors discuss various theoretical explanations of this pattern of results, as well as its possible influence on female managers’ careers. Although the effect size of the negative bias that male peers exhibit toward female managers is relatively small, it may be argued that lower performance assessments can accumulate over years in multiple job evaluations, negatively affecting the career of female leaders.Originality/valueThe evaluations supplied by different organizational members gain importance with the increased use of 360-degree feedback instruments not just for developmental but also for the job performance appraisal purposes. While the job evaluations of managers’ bosses have been investigated in the past with regard to the possible gender bias, this study provides the first known to the authors’, evidence. Also, this study points to a direct bias in performance assessments, rather than a potentially more subtle, non-performance-based bias that affects the disparities in wages and promotions of female managers. Thus, this study helps to fill a significant gap in the literature on organizations and it may have practical implications for the advancement of female managers. In addition to this contribution, this study also provides data that may be useful in resolving the ongoing debate whether female bosses act more as cogs in the machine or as change agents in organizations.

Leading From Below: Low-Power Actors as Organizational Change Agents

ABSTRACTThis article focuses on the low-power actor as a facilitator of organizational change. While most research on organizational change documents the role of elites as leaders, findings presented here highlight the role of low-power actors as change agents and offer new insights into change initiatives that emerge from the bottom up. By way of illustration, this analysis focuses on 18 human service practitioners, identified as low-power actors, who led multicultural organizational development efforts in their agencies. Study findings convey a more multifaceted understanding of who leads organizational change and the organizational properties that differentially shape these transformations.

Empowering Issue Sellers through EDF Climate Corps

The efforts of midlevel employees to focus organizational attention on particular initiatives are central to organizational change. Accordingly, researchers have investigated the political and discursive tactics that enable such issue sellers to succeed. However, little attention has been paid to organizational structures that promote issue selling or to external actors with an interest in encouraging changes, such as social movements. Likewise, research on social movements as agents of organizational change has largely not attended to the role of internal change agents at targeted organizations. In this paper, we contribute to filling these gaps by investigating the consequences of a network spanning issue sellers and external activists on organizations’ climate change reforms. We combine survey, interview, and archival data on the EDF Climate Corps program to show that internal organizational contexts and external ties cumulatively shape the ambitions of issue sellers at participating organizations. The results strengthen research on issue selling, organizational change, and social movements, as well as contribute to the urgent problem of understanding how organizations can adapt to mitigate climate change.

How to Select Change Agents in Organizations? A Comparison of the Classical and Network Approaches

How to Select Change Agents in Organizations? A Comparison of the Classical and Network Approaches

Organizational Change Agent Influence: A Conditional Process Model of Key Individual Psychological Resources

ABSTRACTOrganizational change is a system-wide process that begins at the individual level. Individuals who act as catalysts for change are often referred to as “change agents” and are lower level employees rather than designated leaders. In the current study Conservation of Resources Theory (COR) is utilized to construct a conditional process model of key resources and change agent influence. Specifically, this model tests the direct effects of General Cognitive Ability (GCA), Five Factor Model (FFM) personality facets, and Psychological Capital (PsyCap) – as well as the mediating role of PsyCap – on simulated change agent performance. Results suggest PsyCap positively correlates with performance, and, mediates the relationship between GCA and performance. Related narrow FFM facets moderate both stages of the mediation. These findings provide theoretical implication for COR as well as practical implications for human resource development interventions geared towards identification and development of change agents.