Organizational Change Programs Research Articles

Development & psychometrics of the SOLID-S – An inventory assessing software security culture in software development companies

Software security is a crucial requirement for most of the software used nowadays. Besides specialized knowledge of engineers and developers, organizational culture can contribute to software security to a great extent if specific cultural dimensions are in alignment with security. The purpose of this study is to develop and evaluate the SOLID-S, a six-dimensional inventory assessing this type of software security culture in software development companies. We present the iterative test development process of the inventory and examine its psychometric properties in an empirical study with N=327 participants by means of Item Response Theory. We identify the SOLID-S to have appropriate measurement qualities in terms of accuracy, fairness across subgroups, item fit and dimensionality. Results suggest that the inventory's subscales comply with the Partial Credit Model and, hence, raw sum scores of the subscales can be interpreted reliably. The SOLID-S can therefore be used for research, as a starting point for organizational change programs, or to evaluate the effectiveness of interventions aiming to improve security culture.

Re-orientating agricultural research to address complex challenges: Legitimacy dynamics of a hybrid research organisation

Agricultural research organisations play a critical role in the agri-food system; not only through the provision of research and technologies, but also by brokering relationships with stakeholders throughout the research process to create impact. Yet over the past decade, as the focus has shifted towards such multi-actor innovation processes, the role and legitimacy of the agricultural research organisations world-wide has been challenged. Occupying an intermediary position in agricultural innovation systems means that agricultural research institute legitimacy is constantly under pressure from the rural community, academics, policy makers, industry, and general society as the institute attempts to be all things to all people. Here we present the outcomes of an organisational change programme within an applied agricultural research organisation, in response to a government-led agenda to increase impact for research users. By using institutional theory of hybrid organisation legitimacy, we shed light on the multiple institutional logics that co-exist within an agricultural research institute, and how these align with the external institutional environment. We show that with the introduction of a new multi-actor innovation logic, attempts were made to legitimise, externally and internally, knowledge co-production. Yet agricultural research organisations, and those who work within them, need dedicated time for learning and reflecting on the values, beliefs, and practices of the different actors in the innovation system, otherwise they only selectively adopt practices that maintain existing institutional logics. The main theoretical implications show how that change towards an impact culture is influenced by the existing logics, and how organisational legitimacy provides a framing for understanding the success (or otherwise) of introducing new modes of innovation in hybrid research organisations. Practically, space and resourcing are needed to experiment with new logics and deliberate strategies are required to increase the repertoire of research roles while maintaining internal and external legitimacy. The practical implications demonstrate the barriers and opportunities of re-orientating hybrid agricultural research institutes, agricultural innovation systems, and the roles of the researchers that work in them, to deliver to the complex societal challenges facing the agri-food sector.

Leveraging socio-technical processes to support researchers

Purpose The purpose of this project was to develop research support services that address local and external research data management (RDM) support drivers within the existing organizational culture at the University of Florida. The goal was to prompt organization change to support a campus-wide electronic lab notebook. Design/methodology/approach This project used a mixed-methods research approach to cultivate an organizational change program that support technological infrastructure to benefit researchers. The mixed-methods research involved participation action research integrated with a stakeholder approach. Findings The development of the grant proposal which was unfunded led to development of continued project goals. This project confirmed the development for support for an institution-wide electronic research notebook (ERN) solution requires adherence to the summary of five key actions for developing RDM services. Failure to complete all of the key actions engenders fragmentation culture. Research limitations/implications This project includes implications for institutions to develop grant proposals with integrated budgets for research support services of funded projects; and to use the summary of key actions for developing RDM services articulated by Jones et al. (2013) in “How to Develop RDM Services – a guide for HEIs.” Both are need to support findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable data for researchers. Practical implications This project has practical implications for higher education institutions interested in leveraging socio-technical processes to advance the role of libraries as collaborator, partner and stakeholder in developing institution-wide adoption, support and training for ERN as a research support service to RDM. Social implications This paper contributes to the body of developing literature on ERN as support services to RDM lead by academic research libraries. Originality/value This project contributed to the change in organization culture resulting in the successful collaboration between the Research Office and College of Medicine to support an institution-wide ERN technological infrastructure for one year as a pilot at a large academic research institution in the southeast USA.

Narrativas del liderazgo y cambio organizacional

This paper focuses on the narrative of leadership as it relates to organizational change. Two theoretical positions are taken into consideration: The Evolutionary and Behavioral perspectives. After they are presented, and their respective ideas related to leadership are described, a proposal is developed which highlights the idea of narrative as a behavioral phenomenon and in doing so this proposal reinterprets the leadership cognitive frames in evolutionary approach and outlines them as an integrated functional verbal component of the Behavioral Systems Engineering Model. A specific hypothetical case is reconstructed from a professional experience of the author in order to show how such an understanding of leadership narratives reduces possible resistances to the design and implementation of an organizational change program.

Does change agent selection procedure matter? A strategic decision-making toward a more objective selection approach

PurposeWhile studies have established the important role of change agents throughout organizational change programs and emphasized the change agents’ impact on outcomes of change efforts, it could be argued that the decision-making procedure for the selection of change agents may also influence the success of organizational change programs in several ways. This research aims to explore and compare the potential influence of a traditional change agent selection procedure with a more systematic and objective approach.Design/methodology/approachA qualitative case study has been conducted, before and after testing a group decision support system for the selection of change agents in an organization that was on the verge of a major rebranding.FindingsThe main findings suggest the importance of objectivity, transparency and attention to competency in the selection procedure for the role, while providing evidence for using a systematic participative decision-support process for the selection of change agents, leading to several desirable organizational outcomes, including improvements in perception of objectivity, trust, transparency, fairness and competency related to the selection process.Originality/valueDrawing from the previous studies and the presented findings, this study offers evidence on the importance of paying attention to the selection procedure for the change agent role as it could potentially have an influence on the employees across organizations and, consequently, the success of change programs.

U.S. Women Faculty in the Social Sciences Also Face Gender Inequalities.

There is a national interest in United States women’s underrepresentation in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM); however, gender inequality in the social sciences has not received similar attention. Although women increasingly earn postgraduate degrees in the social sciences, women faculty still experience gender inequities. Consistent gender inequities include slower career advancement, blunted salaries, unequal workloads, work-life conflict, systemic gender biases, underrepresentation in positions of power, and hostile work environments. Cultural biases suggest that once women have achieved parity, gender bias no longer exists. This review challenges that notion by providing evidence from social science domains in which women are well-represented but continue to face systemic gender biases. We examine cultural influences on gender representation and career advancement in psychology, economics, political science, sociology, and anthropology. We make interdisciplinary comparisons of career trajectories and salaries using national data, documenting patterns across the social sciences. For example, women economists face gendered standards in publishing, and women political scientists are less likely to have their work cited than men. Furthermore, data show that salaries become stagnant as the representation of women in these fields increases. These disparities reflect cultural biases in perceptions of women’s competence stemming from social role theory. We discuss best practices to address these problems, focusing on the ADVANCE organizational change programs funded by the National Science Foundation that target (a) improving academic climate, (b) providing professional development, and (c) fostering social networking. Federally supported interventions can reveal systemic gender biases in academia and reduce gender disparities for women academics in the social sciences.

Reframing the Problem of Practice: Transitions in Baylor University’s Ed.D. in Learning and Organizational Change Program

This article reports on the program changes that emerged from the Baylor University Ed.D. in Learning and Organizational Change program development team as we engaged as a community of practice in the organizational change process to reframe our conceptualization of the Problem of Practice dissertation. This process led to logical implications for the program course offerings and student support systems. The following article, therefore, traces these changes as they emanate out from the Problem of Practice dissertation reconfiguration, into the course sequence, and finally the student support systems. This article concludes by offering the perspective gained about this work as we engaged in the same organizational change process through which we guide our students.

Organizational-Level Moderators Impacting Tobacco-Related Knowledge Change after Tobacco Education Training in Substance Use Treatment Centers.

Tobacco use is disproportionately elevated among patients with substance use disorders relative to the general U.S. population. Tobacco interventions are lacking within substance use treatment centers (SUTCs) due to lack of knowledge and training. This study examined knowledge gain and the organizational factors that might moderate knowledge gains following tobacco education training provided to employees (N = 580) within 15 SUTCs that were participating in a tobacco-free workplace program. The number of total annual patient visits, unique annual patient visits, number of full-time employees, and organizational readiness for implementing change (ORIC) as assessed prior to implementation were examined as potential moderators. Results demonstrated significant knowledge gain (p < 0.001) after training overall; individually, 13 SUTCs had significant knowledge gain (p’s < 0.014). SUTCs with fewer total annual patient visits and fewer full-time employees showed greater knowledge gains. The ORIC total score and all but one of its subscales (Resource Availability) moderated knowledge gain. SUTCs with greater initial Change Efficacy (p = 0.029), Valence (p = 0.027), and Commitment (p < 0.001) had greater knowledge gain than SUTCs with lower scores on these constructs; SUTCs with greater Task Knowledge (p < 0.001) regarding requirements for change exhibited less knowledge gain. Understanding the organizational-level factors impacting training effectiveness can inform efforts in organizational change and tobacco control program implementation.

Implementation of participatory organizational change in long term care to improve safety

Introduction: Long Term Care (LTC) facilities are fast-paced, demanding environments placing workers at significant risk for injuries. Health and safety interventions to address hazards in LTC are challenging to implement. The study assessed a participatory organizational change intervention implementation and impacts. Methods: This was a mixed methods implementation study with a concurrent control, conducted from 2017 to 2019 in four non-profit LTC facilities in Ontario, Canada. Study participants were managers and frontline staff. Intervention sites implemented a participatory organizational change program, control sites distributed one-page health and safety pamphlets. Program impact data were collected via Survey (self-efficacy, control over work, pain and general health) and observation (Quick Exposure Checklist). Interviews/focus groups were used to collect program implementation data. Results: Participants described program impacts (hazard controls through equipment purchase/modification, practice changes, and education/training) and positive changes in culture, communication and collaboration. There was a statistically significant difference in manager self-efficacy for musculoskeletal disorder (MSD) hazards between the control and intervention sites over time but no other statistical differences were found. Key program implementation challenges included LTC hazards, staff shortage/turnover, safety culture, staff time to participate, and communication. Facilitators included frontline staff involvement during implementation, management support, focusing on a single unit, training, and involving an external program facilitator. Conclusion: A participatory program can have positive impacts on identifying and reducing MSD hazards. Key to success is involving frontline staff in identifying hazards and creating solutions and management encouragement on a unit working together. High turnover rates, staffing shortages, and time constraints were barriers as they are for all organizational change efforts in LTC. The implementation findings are likely applicable in any jurisdiction. Practical Application: Implementing a participatory organizational change program to reduce MSD hazards is feasible in LTC and can improve communication and aid in identification and control of hazards.

Contributors

Contributors

Changing Organizational Culture to Establish Sustainability

There is still no unilateral understanding of corporate sustainability and its practical implementation. Organizational culture is among the main reasons for the failure of the implementation of corporate sustainability efforts and organizational change programs. The behaviour and decision-making of managers and thus the strategic direction of the company and attitudes towards sustainability, change and innovation are influenced by organizational culture.

Erasmus Syllogisms in Cognition and Facilitation of Organizational Innovation

By use of an empirical example from a planned organizational change program within an international company, we examine how specific characteristics of objects (forms) used to represent ideas – in interaction with “hard-wired” aspects of human cognition – may contribute to explain outcomes of translation processes and the extent of alteration of the design of the future organization. We argue that a type of syllogism judged as invalid by criteria of formal logics – denoted as Erasmus syllogism – could be rather common in reasoning, and that these logically invalid interferences may contribute to significant innovations. Situations where syllogisms are not recognized as invalid by the involved actors seem to be more prevalent when e.g. the actors are unfamiliar with the semantic content (as e.g. abstract symbols). We argue that understanding of semiotic conditions for occurrence of formal logically invalid syllogism, as well as of the neglect of their invalidity by involved actors in ongoing discourses and reasoning, may contribute to a better understanding of how ideas and objects are translated, within organizations as well as in general. The discussion is a contribution to better understanding of why and how ideas are altered as part of ongoing sense making processes within organizations.

Changing Pay Systems in Organizations: Using Behavioral Reasoning Theory to Understand Employee Support for Pay-for-Performance (or Not)

Recently, the use of pay-for-performance systems has rapidly expanded into new industries. However, many employees resist these changes, mitigating effectiveness. Unfortunately, little scientific research has examined underlying reasons for the support or nonsupport of such systems, informed by theory. Grounded in behavioral reasoning theory and organizational change frameworks, this study examined antecedents and consequences of employees’ reasoning process to support or not support pay-for-performance systems. Structural equation results on 245 employees demonstrated that reasons for and reasons against supporting pay-for-performance systems predicted attitudes and intentions to support the systems. Significant antecedents of the reasoning included pay valence, top management support, and coworker support. Top reasons for supporting the systems included increased opportunities to make money and being recognized for high performance. Top reasons against supporting the systems included the political nature of pay-for-performance and concerns that performance would not be measured accurately. Implications for organizational change programs are highlighted.

Adaptive capabilities for road agencies in emerging economies

Organisations internationally are embracing asset management (AM) as a capability with significant levels of investment in infrastructure assets. The paper’s perspective is rooted in the concept of organisational capabilities. A model for an enhanced AM capability is presented, which includes portfolio, programme and project management and the intelligent client function. The research methodology is qualitative and iterative and builds theory and organisational models from case study data. To reflect the authors’ reasoning, cases are grounded in relevant literature. Four case studies are presented sequentially. Two are from emerging economies; one presents a longitudinal model using the enhanced AM capability. Two are from the UK, demonstrating complementary transformation programmes for building AM capabilities in road agencies. The intention is subsequently to combine these models into an organisational archetype for emerging economies, encompassing enhanced AM capability, whole-life value and whole-life asset investment. The paper concludes that for emerging economies, systemic long-term funding is necessary to support transformation initiatives in AM, which inevitably encompasses institutional and organisational change programmes. To ensure sustainable implementation of these initiatives, project-driven investment to create or tap into organisational capabilities based on a primary investment in physical infrastructure is insufficient.

The Adaptation of Individuals with Organizational Changes: Explore the Factors Reflecting the Individual Readiness for Change

This study aims to explore components of the construct readiness for change with individual level. The ANOVA analytic was conducted to exam whether differences between groups of response in gender, job position and number of dependents. The results show that the individual readiness for organizational change is reflected in the five components: personal affective, appropriateness; management support; change efficacy; personal benefit. In which, the affective factor is a new finding. This study may support the management and practitioners of change management in assessing and evaluating organisational change programmes, particularly in the developing country.

The Influence of Organizational Justice and Psychological Capital Toward Readiness for Change among Employees of PT. Perkebunan Nusantara IV Head Office Medan

Change has become a primary need for the organization. One of the reasons that led to the failure of change is the lack of readiness to change. This study aims to determine the influence of organizational justice and psychological capital toward readiness for change. This study involved 321 employees of PT.Perkebunan Nusantara IV Head Office Medan. Data were collected using readiness for change scale, organizational justice and psychological capital scale. The result of multiple regression analysis showed that organizational justice and psychological capital positively influence to readiness for change. Organizational justice and psychological capital contributes to readiness for change. The implications of this study is that it does contribute to understand how to prepare the employees in the face of change with attention to the rights of employees and keep evaluating organizational change programmes.

Managing organizational culture as a factor in organizational change

The relevance of the research is manifested in the fact that organizational culture is an important and penetrating everywhere concept with regards to influence on organizational change programmes. Literature analysis shows that there is ambiguity in the assessment of organizational culture. A certain outcome of a cultural variable may have not the same effect on all organizational processes associated with management activity. (O'Donnell and Boyle, 2008). According to Melnick (2008), in order to gain a deeper understanding of the processes of management and management culture changes hapenning in the modern world, it is appropriate to evaluate contemporary management practices that reflect the effects of historically composed life modes and stereotypes that manifest themselves in management activities. The research aim: to discuss the factors and stages forming organizational culture development. Analysis of recent research and publications. Organizational culture is analyzed in various contexts. Organizational culture models and their components have been defined by Schein (2010; 2000), Ostroff et al., (2003) et al., the significance of organizational culture is analyzed (Zain et al., 2012; Owoyemi and Ekwoaba (2014); McLoughlin and Miura (2018); Di Pietro and Di Virgilio (2013) et al. The issues of forming/changing organizational culture remain of topical significance. Researches on this topic were carried out and the summarized results were submitted in their scientific papers by Bititci et al (2004); Gibbons and Kaplan (2015), Mungiu-Pupăzan (2016); Hogan et al (2014) et al. In the study Hogan et al(2014) a key result is how layers of organizational culture, particularly norms, artifacts, and innovative behaviors, partially mediate the effects of values that support innovation on measures of firm performance. The objectives of the research: to define the organizational culture components and importance for the results of organizational performance; to identify the main factors of business culture that influence the results of the performance; to discuss the stages of implementation of the organizational culture development management plan. Research methodology. To achieve the goal, scientific literature analysis and synthesis methods are used

Pengaruh Organizational Trust terhadap Kesiapan Individu untuk Menjalankan Perubahan Sistem Manajemen SDM di PT “X” Bandung

The aim of this study was to analyze the roles of organizational trust on the individual readiness for HR management system change at PT "X" Bandung. High level of individual readiness for change will increase the effectiveness of organizational change program. Population of this study was employees of PT "X" Bandung. Sampling was done by using purposive sampling technique with the criteria of being a permanent employee and having worked at least 1 year at PT “X”Bandung. A total of 100 respondents participated in this study. Data collection methods using individual readiness for change scale and organizational trust scale. Reliability score for individual readiness for is 0.919 and reliability score of organizational trust is 0.844. Simple linear regression analysis was used to test the hypotesis. Result indicated a significant effect organizational trust on the individual readiness for HR management system change at PT "X" Bandung. Data analysis showed that organizational trust play a role in improving individual readiness for changes (R2 = 0.085; p &lt;0.05). This means that contribution of individual readiness changes is 8.5% and 91.5% is influenced by other factors not measured in this study.

Process evaluation of a participatory organizational change program to reduce musculoskeletal and slip, trip and fall injuries

BackgroundLong-term care (LTC) workers are at significant risk for occupational-related injuries. Our objective was to evaluate the implementation process of a participatory change program to reduce risk. MethodsA process evaluation was conducted in three LTC sites using a qualitative approach employing structured interviews, consultant logs and a focus group. ResultsFindings revealed recruitment/reach themes of being “voluntold”, using established methods, and challenges related to work schedules. Additional themes about dose were related to communication, iterative solution development, participation and engagement. For program fidelity and satisfaction, themes emerged around engagement, capacity building and time demands. ConclusionProcess evaluation revealed idiosyncratic approaches to recruitment and related challenges of reaching staff. Solutions to prioritized hazards were developed and implemented, despite time challenges. The iterative solution development approach was embraced. Program fidelity was considered good despite early program time demands. Post implementation reports revealed sustained hazard identification and solution development.

Outcomes of a Provincial Pilot Program to Reduce Unnecessary Urine Culturing and Antibiotic Overuse in Long-term Care

Abstract Background Antibiotics are frequently prescribed for long-term care residents with asymptomatic bacteriuria, for which there is no indication. In order to help reduce unnecessary urine culturing and concomitant antibiotic use, C. difficile infection, and antibiotic resistance, Public Health Ontario (PHO) developed a multi-component organizational change program. The program focuses on five practice changes, recommends nine implementation strategies that have been linked to barriers, and includes an implementation planning process. Methods A purposive sampling strategy was used to recruit 12 long-term care homes (LTCHs) in the province of Ontario, Canada. LTCHs worked with PHO staff to implement the program over a 4-month period in mid-2016. The outcome evaluation compared rates of urine cultures sent, total antibiotics, and urinary antibiotics (ciprofloxacin, nitrofurantoin, TMP/SMX, and fosfomycin) per 1,000 resident days before and after the implementation phase. A Poisson regression model adjusting for time-trends, seasonality and controlling for autocorrelation, was used. Results Of the 12 LTCHs recruited, as of May 2017, 9 LTCHs provided data, totaling 106 facility-months. During the pre-implementation phase, inter-facility variation in urine culturing rates (mean = 2.4, inter-decile range [IDR] = 4.3), total antibiotic use (median = 3.2, IDR = 5.5), and urinary antibiotic use (median = 1.2, IDR = 2.2), were large (Figure 1). Comparing the post-implementation period to the pre-implementation period, we observed a 31% adjusted decline in urine culturing (incidence rate ration [IRR] = 0.69, 95% CI: 0.51 to 0.94, Figure 2), a 65% adjusted decline in total antibiotic use (IRR = 0.35, 95% CI: 0.13 to 0.92), and a 38% adjusted decline in urinary antibiotic use (IRR = 0.62, 95% CI: 0.23 to 1.68) across the participating facilities. Conclusion While there was variation in baseline urine culturing rates and antibiotic use across LTCHs, preliminary data indicate that these outcomes declined in a relatively short time period following implementation of an organizational change program. Plans to expand the program to the provinces 600 LTCHs could prioritize facilities with high baseline urine culturing rates. Disclosures All authors: No reported disclosures.