Large-scale Organizational Change Research Articles

An Examination of the Processes by which Social Accounts Influence Change

Effective social accounts can impact on how organisational members respond to change. Current literature has largely focused on the design of managerial accounts and associated behavioural and affective responses to them. However, in order to understand how social accounts influence behaviour we need to understand the previously under-theorised individual processes of the recipient as an active participant in the ability of social accounts to influence schema change about an event. Using an example of large-scale organisational change, moving from one hospital facility to another, we focus on how the social accounts of top management impact on organisational members and their responses to change. Our findings expand theory by explaining how social accounts come to be relevant, create imperative for action and are deemed credible thereby influencing a recipient’s schema about an event. We highlight the importance of visualisation in the recipient processing of accounts.

Self-Determination and Employees' Responses to a Large-Scale Organizational Change

I use the self-determination theory to conceptualize employees various attitudes toward organizational change (AOCs), which can be autonomous, introjected, or purely external. According to this framework, I expect that employees perceived organizational support and work passion prior to a change have substantial effects on employees AOCs beyond the effect of the perceived change implementation during the change process. I also predict that AOCs relate to important employee outcomes after the change is implemented. To test my research hypotheses, I designed three studies with a Taiwanese company that was undergoing some large-scale organizational change. The results obtained from these studies indicate that employees AOCs, which can predict their willingness to be transferred and turnover after the change implementation, are related to factors prior to the proposed change, such as perceived organizational support and work passion.

Keeping promises: A case study of escalating commitment leading to organizational change collapse

Political pressures behind promises made during large-scale organizational change often lead to a general reluctance by top leaders to modify plans, even when critical assumptions change. Despite the recognition of the need for flexibility and emergence in planned strategies, some leaders feel that an accepted plan constitutes a formal “promise” between the organization and the major stakeholders to carry out the plan as originally presented - even in the face of conflicting information. There is broad agreement that the capacity of organizations to change strategies, systems and structures, is crucial for organizational survival and success. Yet, there is little evidence that the failure rate is decreasing in response to the availability of normative models of how to implement change, or of research-based evidence on the causes of change success and failure. In the present research, we employ a theoretical lens – the one of escalation of commitment to a failing course of action (Staw, 1976; Sleesman et al., 2012) - that so far is not sufficiently reflected in the academic literature for analyzing organizational change under real-time conditions. In doing so, we highlight aspects of complex change processes that are less visible than other theoretical perspectives. Using longitudinal process data from the failed attempt at strategic reorientation of a national air traffic control organization (AVINOR), we show that some new variables emerge as determinants of change failure. These factors are partly under leadership control, however, other factors are not, and their management involves paradoxes and difficult trade-offs that must be made when they are considered in concert with previously established determinants of change success

Assessment on the Relation between Individual Difference with Dispositional Resistance to Change and Re-Engineering the Organizational Structure in Order to Access on Technology in Guilan Province Gas Company

The purpose of this study is Evaluation the relationship between the individual components of employee resistance to change and organizational re-engineering technologies in order to achieve Gas Company of Guilan. This is a descriptive-analysis study and is a survey; also it has an applied goal. The article proposes and tests a model of resistance to organizational change. Contrary to most works on resistance, resistance was conceptualized here as a multifaceted construct. Relationships among resistance components and employees’ personalities, the organizational context, and several work-related outcomes were examined. The study population consisted of 196 of customers of dairy products industry focused on Guilan. They are selected in random sampling. Content validity of the questionnaire was approved by faculty advisors and the reliability of the questionnaire was confirmed by using Cronbach's alpha coefficient. The collected data are analyzed by the Lisrel software. So in order to test this hypothesis we use Confirmatory factor analysis test and path analysis. Findings show that the both personality and context have been found to significantly associate with employees’ attitudes towards a large-scale organizational change. These attitudes were, in turn, significantly associated with employees’ job-satisfaction, organizational commitment, and intention to leave the organization.

Making Corporate Social Responsibility Work: Recommendations for Utilizing the Power of a Shared Purpose

Aguinis and Glavas (2013) provide a framework for understanding corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs and their outcomes. They suggest that embedding CSR within the strategy and everyday practices of an organization will help employees find meaning and purpose in their work. However, successfully implementing a large-scale organizational change—such as embedding CSR in all aspects of strategy and day-to-day business practices—brings many challenges. For example, in order for organizational change initiatives to succeed, organizational members must buy into the change, those at the top must drive the change, organizational members must be held accountable for implementing the change, and rewards should be tied to the behaviors that align with the change (Austin & Bartunek, 2003). In this article, we will expand upon Aguinis and Glavas to provide recommendations of how to uncover a shared purpose to inform CSR initiatives. Herein we provide recommendations for how to increase the likelihood of success when embedding CSR by first achieving the necessary understanding of what drives the organizational members' purpose and meaning before implementing the change.

Communicating During Organizational Change Using Social Accounts

One way to improve trust in management during large-scale organization changes is with effective communications. This article looks at three types of social accounts (causal, ideological, and referential accounts) to see which are effective at improving trust during major organizational changes. A field study method explored two organizations and found that ideological accounts were best at improving trust in management. The relationship between ideological accounts and trust was mediated by the success of the social account (i.e., the perceived understanding of the change decision). These findings indicate the benefits of highlighting long-term motives for large-scale organizational change.

The Role of Sensemaking in Constructing Agents of Change

The use of agents to facilitate change in healthcare organisations is widely advocated. Organisational literature distinguishes between a variety of different types of agents (champions, opinion leaders and change agents), but we know little about how this distinction is implemented in practice and how different organisational members make sense of the role. Using sensemaking theories we study a case of large-scale organisational change and consider how senior managers, middle managers, and agents sensemake and enact change facilitating roles. We examine how this process determines successful organisational outcomes. We found that when new agent roles are accompanied by ambiguous managerial sensegiving, the accompanying sensemaking was dispersed and subsequently front-line role enactment was less effective. This suggests that for successful change senior management need to clearly distinguish the definitions and boundaries of this role.

Barriers and facilitators to integrating care: experiences from the English Integrated Care Pilots.

In 2008, the English Department of Health appointed 16 'Integrated Care Pilots' which used a range of approaches to provide better integrated care. We report qualitative analyses from a three-year multi-method evaluation to identify barriers and facilitators to successful integration of care. Data were analysed from transcripts of 213 in-depth staff interviews, and from semi-structured questionnaires (the 'Living Document') completed by staff in pilot sites at six points over a two-year period. Emerging findings were therefore built from 'bottom up' and grounded in the data. However, we were then interested in how these findings compared and contrasted with more generic analyses. Therefore after our analyses were complete we then systematically compared and contrasted the findings with the analysis of barriers and facilitators to quality improvement identified in a systematic review by Kaplan et al. (2010) and the analysis of more micro-level shapers of behaviour found in Normalisation Process Theory (May et al. 2007). Neither of these approaches claims to be full blown theories but both claim to provide mid-range theoretical arguments which may be used to structure existing data and which can be undercut or reinforced by new data. Many barriers and facilitators to integrating care are those of any large-scale organisational change. These include issues relating to leadership, organisational culture, information technology, physician involvement, and availability of resources. However, activities which appear particularly important for delivering integrated care include personal relationships between leaders in different organisations, the scale of planned activities, governance and finance arrangements, support for staff in new roles, and organisational and staff stability. We illustrate our analyses with a 'routemap' which identifies questions that providers may wish to consider when planning interventions to improve the integration of care.

Does a Large-Scale Organizational Transformation Toward Patient-Centered Access Change the Utilization and Costs of Care for Patients With Diabetes?

The authors examined whether Group Health's Access Initiative changed the utilization and costs of care among enrollees with diabetes. Using a single (one-group) interrupted time series design, repeated-measures generalized estimating equation models were used to estimate changes in utilization and costs during the Initiative rollout (2002-2003) and to compare the slopes (annual rates of change) for utilization and costs during the Pre-Initiative period (1998-2002) to the slopes during Full-Implementation (2003-2006) among 9,871 members continuously enrolled from 1997 to 2006 with type 1 or 2 diabetes. Total costs increased in Full-Implementation, but the annual change in total costs did not change. Primary care visits declined, but primary care contacts grew, largely from the Initiative's introduction of secure messaging. Specialty visits did not change; however, the Initiative may have increased emergency visits. To reduce emergency visits, future access initiatives should include proactive and comprehensive outpatient care for patients with diabetes.

The delicate balance: mass customisation for large-scale organisational change

Headquarters and local work units almost always approach change initiatives from different perspectives. This can create substantial challenges for organisation leaders, managers and workers. Principles of mass customisation, along with the latest science, can now be applied to these change initiatives, providing a direct and effective way to maintain the balance between headquarters and local requirements. Recent research and technology advances provide a scientific approach to organisational transformations based on mass customisation. Using this approach, almost any organisation can achieve rapid, repeatable transformational results.

Construing Organizational Identity: The Role of Embodied Cognition

This paper presents a theory of organizational identity based on embodied cognition. Embodied cognitive science focuses on developing theories that reveal how humans’ capacities to process information and gain knowledge are functions of bodily experiences. What members come to know about an organization is a function of what they physically experience, as well as what is in their heads. We propose and examine four embodied capacities that members use to construe what they believe is central, distinctive, and enduring about their organizations. We suggest this approach reveals an important fourth dimension of OI: that an individual’s construal of organizational identity must also be ‘substantiated’ or verified by a member’s embodied experiences. We consider how an embodied construal of OI might add to three dominant perspectives on OI, and discuss how it might expand our understanding of six OI-related topics, ranging from individual organizational identification to large-scale organizational change. We close with suggestions for future research, including new empirical methods and perhaps a reexamination of organizational cognition as a whole.

A New Role for Place Identity in Managing Organizational Change

In an extension of organizational identity research, we draw on place identity theory (PIT) to argue that employees’ identification with their place of work influences their perceptions of large-scale organizational change. To determine how different types of employees respond to threats to their sense of place identity, we conducted 34 interviews with senior and middle managers, supervisory and nonsupervisory staff, and external stakeholders at a public hospital undergoing change. Groups of employees at lower levels of the organizational hierarchy experienced a stronger sense of place and belongingness and greater disruption to their place identity than those at higher levels. We discuss how place identity operates as a component of social identity as well as the responses managers can make to ways in which employees with different place identifications deal with change.

Virginia Department of Transportation: Trying to Keep Virginia Moving (B)

What makes a good change agent? How does an outsider gain credibility inside a large and traditional organization? This undisguised case offers students an opportunity to design and explore a large-scale organizational change initiative and develop a comprehensive action plan for managing it. After winning the 2001 election, the new governor of Virginia, Mark Warner, named Phillip Shucet to head the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT). Shucet was eager to bring his private sector experience and management expertise to VDOT, and he knew it would be a challenge. VDOT was renowned for its engineering innovation and cutting edge research. More recently though, the departments public reputation had become damaged and employee morale had hit rock bottom. The A case describes the situation at the time the Commissioner takes over and offers a glimpse into the workings of a large governmental agency. Shucets efforts to implement change suggest required capabilities that effective change agents must possess. Students have an opportunity to examine Shucets change action plan in the B case. Extensive video clips on CD-ROM disk format accompany the case and feature Phillip Shucet and several members of the VDOT senior executive team, for both student preparation and faculty use in class.

Sources of well-being and commitment of staff in the Australian Disability Employment Services

This study examined the role of working conditions in predicting the psychological health, job satisfaction and organisational commitment of personnel responsible for helping people with disabilities gain employment in the mainstream Australian labour market. The working conditions were assessed using two theories: the Job Strain Model (job demand, social support and job control) and Psychological Contract Theory (unwritten reciprocal obligations between employers and employees). In the case of the Job Strain Model, the generic dimensions had been augmented by industry-specific sources of stress. A cross-sectional survey was undertaken in June and July 2005 with 514 staff returning completed questionnaires (representing a response rate of 30%). Comparisons between respondents and non-respondents revealed that on the basis of age, gender and tenure, the sample was broadly representative of employees working in the Australian disability employment sector at that time. The results of regression analyses indicate that social support was predictive of all of the outcome measures. Job control and the honouring of psychological contracts were both predictive of job satisfaction and commitment, while the more situation-specific stressors--treatment and workload stressors--were inversely related to psychological health (i.e. as concern regarding the treatment and workload stressors increased, psychological health decreased). Collectively, these findings suggest that strategies aimed at combating the negative effects of large-scale organisational change could be enhanced by addressing several variables represented in the models--particularly social support, job control, psychological contracts and sector-specific stressors.

THE ROLE OF AFFECT AND LEADERSHIP DURING RADICAL ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE.

In this paper, we integrate emotion, leadership and organizational change research. Based on longitudinal, multi-level data collected from an organization implementing large-scale radical organizational change, we show how employees' affect influences their attitudinal and behavioral reactions to change. We also find that managers' leadership behaviors shape their employees' reactions to change.

Toxic Politics, Organizational Change, and the “Greening” of the U.S. Military

Despite the practical, normative, and theoretical import of large-scale organizational change in public organizations, scant research exists on this topic by political science, public administration, or public management scholars. Moreover, scholars have classified the broader literature on this topic as rife with complexities, competing theoretical pressures, and inconclusiveness. This article returns to basics by using a grounded theory approach to develop and illustrate an empirically informed and theoretically integrated “politycentered” framework for studying large-scale organizational change in public organizations. Informing the framework are the patterns of politics driving, and driven by, efforts in the post—Cold War era to “green” the U.S. military by incorporating environmental and natural resource protection values into the services' core missions.

Managing Change through Networks and Values

Executives today must implement large-scale organizational change initiatives in evertighter time frames with fewer resources. Yet, anticipated performance outcomes often do not materialize as internal resistance slows or derails their change initiatives. A combined assessment of culture and informal structure can help identify barriers to change and facilitate change initiatives. Based on work with ten organizations, this article demonstrates how this approach can help drive change through people and values in certain network positions; diagnose cultural drivers of network fragmentation; identify dominant beliefs or paradigms impeding cultural change; and intervene with a balanced emphasis on instrumental and expressive relationships.

Do total smoking bans affect the recruitment and retention of adolescents in inpatient substance abuse treatment programs?: A 5-year medical chart review, 2001–2005

Adolescents engaged in substance abuse treatment manifest a rate of cigarette smoking approximately four times higher than that of youth in the general population (∼80% vs. 20%) and a high rate of smoking persistence into adulthood. Although there has been a shift toward the implementation of no-smoking policies in substance abuse treatment programs, few studies have examined the relation between cigarette-smoking bans and key clinical outcomes. The current study examined the medical charts of all adolescents ( N = 520) admitted to the only adolescent hospital-based substance abuse treatment program in the northern two thirds of the province of British Columbia, Canada. During the span of the study period (March 2001–December 2005), the treatment site moved from a partial smoking ban to a total smoking ban, and then retreated to partial smoking ban. The total smoking ban was not associated with a lower proportion of adolescent smokers seeking treatment at the facility or a lower treatment completion rate among smokers. Total smoking bans do not appear to be an obstacle for adolescent smokers seeking residential substance abuse treatment, nor do total smoking bans appear to compromise the treatment completion rates of smokers in comparison to nonsmokers. Despite these null findings, the effective implementation of smoke-free policies in adolescent substance abuse treatment programs requires not only large-scale organizational change but also the transformation of current commonly held beliefs about tobacco dependence in addictions treatment and recovery communities.

Engaging health care workers in improving their work environment

This study describes the perceptions of health care workers who were involved in a participatory approach for the reorganization of care and work, aimed at creating an optimum work environment. Quebec's health network has undertaken large-scale organizational changes to ensure the quality of health care and services for the population. This participatory research was carried out by means of interviews. The sample consisted of 20 participants involved in the participatory approach for making changes to the organization of care and work in two pilot units. Four main perspectives emerged from the analysis: (1) views on the legitimacy of change, (2) commitment, indifference and resistance, (3) day-to-day concrete changes as signs of hope and (4) the elements of the success of the participatory approach. The management team's support and leadership and the participatory approach were significant factors in the success of the project.

Using a Design Approach to Assist Large-Scale Organizational Change

A team of practitioners, university researchers, and health care policy makers has been working to develop and apply “design sciences” thinking within the challenging context of a national system aiming to bring about a “revolution in health care.” As members of that team, the authors share that thinking and early findings with those interested in the concept, theory, and practice of design as an approach to large-scale organizational change. The article builds on what to date has been a somewhat abstract debate around the design sciences, its aim being to forge stronger links between the concept and the practice of design. Using empirical data from the English National Health Service as a case study, the article seeks to demonstrate how design sciences may first, expand our thinking around organizational theory and practice and second, offer organization development some new methods, approaches, and processes around the “doing” of large-scale change.