Successful Organizational Change Research Articles

The Relationship Between Leadership Styles and Organizational Identification: A Meta-Analysis

Organizational changes such as service integration, mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures and strategic alliances, are often only partially implemented. Failure of fully implemented change is often attributed to leadership and lack of integration between organizational cultures. Therefore, understanding the role of leadership style in influencing employee organizational identification may be critical in successful organizational change. This study aimed to provide a meta-analytic estimate of relationship between a range of leadership styles and follower organizational identification. A meta-analytic review examined the correlation between followers’ perceptions of leadership styles and their organizational identification across eight leadership styles. The meta-analytic estimate of the correlation between perceptions of leadership styles and organizational identification was r = 0.47 (k = 62, N = 22,893). While all but passive leadership showed positive correlations with organizational identification, some styles yielded stronger correlations than others. In particular, transactional (r = .60), ethical (r = .54) and transformational (r = .51,) leadership yielded the largest correlations with organizational identification. Results suggest that various leadership styles can be used to foster a positive connection to their organization in employees. This research presents the first known meta-analysis examining a range of leadership styles and their relationship to followers’ organizational identification.

Leading Between the Lines: How Leaders Use Political Behavior During Organizational Change

This is an exploration of how leaders utilize political behavior to direct successful organizational change in a highly politicized environment. Despite the ubiquity of politics in organizations, the construct of political behavior remains ill-defined and understudied. Using an inductive, qualitative approach, leaders of high-poverty, preK-12 public schools in a large Midwestern state were interviewed. Findings are contrary to the prevailing narrative in the scholarly literature. They suggest that leaders in highly politicized environments use political behavior as an essential tool in strategically managing work relationships and recognize it as a positive and necessary tool for change leadership.

Research on Change Implementation Interventions – An Integrative Review

Change implementation interventions (CIIs), i.e., systematic activities aimed at facilitating successful organizational change, are of high relevance for change research and practice. Scholars from different fields have generated a large body of change implementation research drawing from diverging perspectives and methods. Thus, the current state of the CII-relevant literature remains fragmented and difficult to synthesize. This makes it challenging to infer what we know about interventions and establish a coherent research stream that allows cumulative knowledge development on CIIs. To address this shortcoming, this paper provides a review of research in the fields of organizational behavior (OB), strategy, healthcare management, and information systems (IS) research that informs CIIs. Drawing from 155 empirical studies published from 2000-2019, we integrate our findings into three main categories of CII approaches (ability-, motivation-, and opportunity-enhancing interventions) that have been studied to facilitate change implementation. We then summarize relevant research and critically discuss how it informs the CII approaches. Based on this discussion, we point out unresolved questions and propose pathways for advancing future research to enhance our understanding of evidence-based change interventions.

The Development of Implicit Followership Theories in Organizational Change Processes

Successful organizational change requires substantial efforts from both change leaders and followers. After a long tradition of focusing on change leadership, academics increasingly focus on the role of followership. However, understanding the diverse responses of followers in change processes is complex, as a clear understanding of the underlying mechanisms that trigger followers’ heterogeneous interpretations seems missing. Using a standardized process interview protocol, we content-analyzed 60 individual experience narrations of major organizational changes in eight different organizations and industries. These narrations appeared to map in six prototypical stories (i.e. the ‘Warrior Story’) that are proposed to explicate yet uncharted temporal pathways of change followership. We highlight several similarities and differences between those stories and interpret them as reflections of Implicit Followership Theories in change context. By adding to the understanding of interpretive processes grounded in mental schemas, this study could help leaders of change to anticipate their followers’ diverse responses to supposedly similar experiences.

Using social networking applications to facilitate change implementation processes: insights from organizational change stakeholders

PurposeThe failure rate of change is high amongst countries and cultures where collectivism, destructive politics and resistance are high. Therefore, change leaders are more focused on exploring how they can create networking and socialization amongst major organizational stakeholders that can minimize detrimental cynicism and lobbying during change implementation. This study is an attempt to shed light on how Social Networking Applications (henceforth SNAs) can facilitate change implementation processes in the insurance sector.Design/methodology/approachThe individual reaction and interaction realities during the change process cannot be discovered once and for all as there are varied perspectives on the same subjects. Therefore, a social constructionist position was used to understand the different realties of change managers and change recipients using the context of insurance sector.FindingsThe study documented how SNAs can play an active role in addressing the concerns of employees as well as managing and protecting knowledge sharing to facilitate the change implementation process. The collaborative and interactive nature of SNAs can enhance richness in knowledge sharing and can facilitate the participation of employees. Therefore, management should monitor these platforms as a means to improve the change process and to address the concerns of employees. These networking channels which include WhatsApp and Facebook can enhance social interactions, support and acceptance at individual and organizational levels.Research limitations/implicationsSocial media has become a familiar tool for employees to use to discuss internal changes and policies within their organizations. Social media enhances the richness, reach, knowledge exchange and effective internal communication potential amongst organizational change stakeholders. Using social media, change recipients are now more empowered and connected with their leadership that ever before. It is now easier to facilitate decision making during the change formulation and implementation process.Practical implicationsSocial media applications have become necessary to ensure incremental and radical changes to the survival of dynamic businesses. The findings of this study are beneficial for change leaders and recipients of change to implement successful organizational change using social media tools. The effective and efficient use of social media applications helps organizations to foster knowledge amongst employees and they can address various critical issues, that is resistance to change, lower levels of knowledge sharing and support for change acceptance and lack of employee participation in decision making.Originality/valueThere is an inadequate understanding regarding how SNAs play a role in facilitating the change process in both public and private sector organizations. This study offers a social mchange facilitation model with the help of social learning, social networking and social behaviourism theories.

Transformational Leadership and Organizational Change: In The Context of Today’s Leader

Today’s leader deals with many challenges in enacting roles as agents of change. Extremely uncertain and rapidly changing in a dynamic environment become a crucial problem for a leader in mobilizing organizational change. It is imperative for a leader to adopt a strategic approach to drive organizational change effectively for establishing organizational improvement and sustainability. This article reviews transformational leadership as an effective model to drive organizational change in the context of today’s organization leader. Although, there is still controversy about the significant leadership style for establishing changes, the results of previous studies have proven that transformational leadership is a specific approach to achieve the success of organizational change in today's environment.

Why should I share knowledge with others? A review-based framework on events leading to knowledge hiding

PurposeThe significance of managing and sharing employee knowledge for successful organizational change, innovation, and for sustainable advantage has indeed been suggested by research since the last few decades. Despite numerous attempts to foster the sharing of knowledge in organizations, employees may not always be willing to share knowledge attributed due to personal beliefs or situational constraints leading to hiding of knowledge. This article provides a theoretical basis by identifying and illustrating the present and the possible myriad of knowledge hiding (KH) events by employees within organizations.Design/methodology/approachDrawing literature from numerous sources, this paper adopts synthesis and provides a review of the literature and proposes framework.FindingsThis paper identifies six broad drivers which may lead to KH, including: driven by situation explain the reason for unintentional hiding as a result of performance and competition leads to individual to have a motive to hide knowledge, driven by psychological ownership leads to controlled hiding, driven by hostility and abuse by employees or managers leads to victimized hiding and lastly driven by identity and norms leads to favoured hiding. Furthermore, this study uncovers three potential future events, which need managerial attention: negative reciprocity, influenced disengagement and perceived disengagement.Originality/valueThis paper also offers new insights to managers to understand the present events and foresee the possible reasons about the KH behaviour and how they can strategize to reduce these events and undergo organizational change.

Empowering Leadership, Risk-Taking Behavior, and Employees’ Commitment to Organizational Change: The Mediated Moderating Role of Task Complexity

Successful organizational change is an important factor for maintaining sustainable competitive advantage and growth in today‘s rapidly changing business environment. The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between empowering leadership and the commitment to organizational change of Korean employees and also examine whether risk-taking behavior mediates the above relationship. Moreover, we attempt to address the moderating role and mediated moderating role of task complexity in the relationship between risk-taking behavior and commitment to organizational change. The main hypotheses were tested using a cross-sectional design, with questionnaires administered to 275 employees working in Korean firms. The results of the empirical analysis revealed that empowering leadership was positively related to commitment to organizational change. The results also showed that risk-taking behavior positively mediated the relationship between empowering leadership and employees’ commitment to organizational change. More importantly, we found that the indirect effect of empowering leadership on commitment to organizational change via risk-taking behavior was stronger when task complexity was high. Uncovering the relationship between empowering leadership and employees’ commitment to organizational change through the mediating role of risk-taking behavior and the mediated moderating role of task complexity has useful theoretical and practical implications. The limitations of the study are discussed along with suggestions for future research.

Teacher perceptions of sun protection practices in the secondary school setting: Barriers, enablers and recommendations for future

This qualitative study aimed to explore sun protection barriers and enablers in secondary schools in Victoria. Five focus groups were conducted with nominated Health or Physical Education (PE) Coordinators (or other staff representatives) from schools in metropolitan and regional Victoria. Discussions were audio-recorded, transcribed and coded thematically. Participants identified the need for regulatory influences that included minimum standards for sun protection policy, training and shade in the built environment. Participants perceived that sun protection is not always acknowledged to be a duty of care in secondary schools. A crowded health and well-being curriculum, a focus on fostering independence, and challenges overcoming peer norms were perceived to be important contextual influences. At an organisational level, strong leadership and a united approach among staff were identified as critical ingredients for successful policy implementation and organisational change. Several potentially effective strategies were proposed, including increased shade, leveraging from student leaders, normalising sun protection practices and prioritising staff role modelling. A cultural shift is required for many schools to accept and act on sun protection as a duty of care. A comprehensive approach that includes regulatory action, healthy school policies and leading by example may help protect students and staff from harmful UV exposure during school hours. SO WHAT?: Without regulatory support, strong leadership is required to implement and enforce sun protection practices within schools. Health promotion programs could assist schools to trial and evaluate the sun protection strategies that involve student-led solutions, role modelling and increasing shade.

ORGANIZATIONAL READINESS FOR CHANGE: TOWARD UNDERSTANDING ITS NATURE AND DIMENSIONS

Strategic management researchers claimed that organizational readiness for change is one of the key factor to successful change implementation. This article embrace review of key factors of successful organizational change, review of conceptual definitions and available scale to measure organizational readiness for change.Finally, the proposed measurement scale need to be adressed to generate knowledge useful for practice, identified and discussed

Training in Implementation Practice Leadership (TRIPLE): evaluation of a novel practice change strategy in behavioral health organizations

BackgroundEffective leadership for organizational change is critical to the implementation of evidence-based practices (EBPs). As organizational leaders in behavioral health organizations often are promoted from within the agency for their long-standing, effective work as counselors, they may lack formal training in leadership, management, or practice change. This study assesses a novel implementation leadership training designed to promote leadership skills and successful organizational change specific to EBP implementation.MethodsWe conducted a pre-post outcome evaluation of the Training in Implementation Practice Leadership (TRIPLE), delivered via three in-person, half-day training sessions, with interim coaching and technical support. Sixteen mid-level leaders (75% female, 94% Caucasian, mean age 37 years) from 8 substance abuse treatment agencies participated. Professional roles included clinical managers, quality improvement coordinators, and program directors. Participants completed surveys prior to the first and following the final session. At both time points, measures included the Implementation Leadership Scale, Implementation Climate Scale, and Organizational Readiness for Implementing Change Scale. At post-test, we added the Training Acceptability and Appropriateness Scale (TAAS), assessing participant satisfaction with the training. Qualitative interviews were conducted 6 to 8 months after the training.ResultsMost participants (86% and 79%, respectively) reported increased implementation leadership skills and implementation climate; paired samples t tests indicated these pre-post increases were statistically significant. Implementation leadership scores improved most markedly on the Proactive and Knowledgeable subscales. For implementation climate, participants reported the greatest increases in educational support and recognition for using EBP. Post-test scores on the TAAS also indicated that participants found the training program to be highly acceptable and appropriate for their needs. Qualitative results supported positive outcomes of training that resulted in both increased organizational implementation as well as leadership skills of participants.ConclusionsThis training program represents an innovative, effective, and well-received implementation strategy for emerging behavioral healthcare leaders seeking to adopt or improve the delivery of EBPs. Reported implementation leadership skills and implementation climate improved following the training program, suggesting that TRIPLE may have helped fulfill a critical need for emerging behavioral healthcare leaders.

The Impact of Organizational Change on Government Civil Servants’ Behavioral Responses in China

With the globalization and the development of scientific technology, competition pressure is more and more in all kinds of organization. Thus, organizational change is becoming the norm, which inevitably lead to the uncertainty of employment relationship, particularly, on employees’ serious of behaviours. These effects have become the vital factors in the organization achieving its organizational goals, and have become an important factor in determining successful organizational change. However, the relevant studies are based predominately on Western theories and models, rather than Chinese cultural background, especially within a public sector context such as the government. By selecting more than 500 Chinese civil servants for the questionnaire, this study is going to measure the dimension of organizational change in Chinese government, and its impact on Chinese civil servants’ behavioural responses. The results show that the impact of different organizational change on Chinese civil servants’ behavioural responses (Exit, Voice, Loyalty, Neglect) is different.

Partners and plagiarisers: dualities in consultants’ influence on organisational change projects

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the interplay between the requirements for successful organisational change and the imperatives faced by management consultancy firms in running successful businesses, and how this interplay affects the ways in which management consultants influence organisational change projects. Design/methodology/approach The paper reviews literature on management consultancy and organisational change over the past 30 years to identify insights into this issue. Findings The paper shows that business imperatives faced by management consultancy firms affect the ways in which consultants influence organisational change projects. It shows how management consultants aspire to form strategic partnerships with their clients in order to win profitable business, and to plagiarise established organising practices and change management methods in defining their services in order to manage their costs. It illustrates how these aspirations give rise to a number of dualities that consultants face in undertaking organisational change projects. Originality/value Only limited research has been carried out into the ways in which the business imperatives of management consultancy firms interact with the requirements for successful organisational change in shaping the influence that management consultants have on organisational change projects. This paper demonstrates the significance of this issue and suggests directions for future research into it.

Understanding organizational change implementation with integration of self-determination theory and knowledge management strategies: The mediating role of employee readiness to change

Expanding competitive business markets, restructuring, rightsizing, privatisation and government legislation are increasing the pressure for organisation change (OC) to stay alive. Therefore, dynamic organisations need to focus on fostering employee motivation and knowledge management strategies to implement successful organisational change. We advance the body of knowledge on this subject by proposing a motivational research model that combines two well-known theories: self-determination theory and knowledge management strategy. The research model was empirically tested using 350 responses collected from government employees of Saudi Arabia. Data was analysed using the structural equation modelling (SEM). Findings revealed that newly developed integrated model had significant influence on employee readiness and explained 59.5% variance in employee readiness to change. The importance performance matrix analysis (IPMA) suggested that manager and policy makers should pay attention on personalisation knowledge and employee readiness to change in order to bring successful organisational change implementation.

Towards a Successful Organizational Change: The Role of Dialogic Communication

The impetus for change has ensued abundant failures in organizational change initiatives despite the profusions of research that have been conducted. While the change itself is becoming more volatile in times, scholars are struggling to find new strategies that can help to favour organizational change as change failure rate still persisted. Looking from the perspective of communication on change, ample of research has been carried out in this area since 1950. Although there are many different meanings and depths, the bases to what most communication types in change literature remain consistent. One of the key areas of effective change management is through communication. A recent study has shown dialogic communication has brought a new paradigm shift in managing organizational change. This research seeks to contribute to the theoretical establishment of dialogic communication through its unique conjecture lens that proven to support and facilitate organizational change. This study was conducted quantitatively via 333 respondents in public service education sector through multi-stage sampling technique. Analysis of structural equation modelling (SEM) demonstrated that dialogic communication has a mediating effect on the constructs along with good reflective and structural model measurements. The findings have unlocked many insights for change practitioners especially on utilizing dialogic communication. The implications of this research were further discussed in details.

Engaging Professionals in Sustainable Workplace Innovation: Medical Doctors and Institutional Work

AbstractThis paper investigates the role of medical professionals in the success and longevity of the implementation of workplace innovation and organizational change in the Accident and Emergency (A&E) Departments of two large public hospitals, in Australia and Canada, during the introduction of process improvement using Lean Management (LM) methodologies. We ask why and how doctors resist, influence or enable LM initiatives in healthcare. Using a qualitative methodology, we contribute to institutional work theory by unpacking the complex forms of boundary and practice work undertaken by key actors who effectively use their professional status and power to enable practice changes to be embedded. Our findings lend support to the importance of the involvement and ownership of senior doctors in the design, introduction and implementation of successful workplace innovation and organizational change. Senior doctors use their professional expertise, positional and political power at the industry, organization and workplace levels to influence strategically the use of resources designated for workplace innovation to improve efficiencies, quality of patient care and maintain their dominance. The significant organizational change achieved reflected the ownership and leadership of the workplace innovation by senior doctors in ‘hybrid roles’ who captured the rhetoric and minimized adversarialism among key stakeholders.

Multifunctional organisation models

PurposeAre entrepreneurial opportunities discovered or created? The debate around this question has crucial implications for successful organizational change management in the business world. The present conceptual paper transcends this debate by embedding the concept of the entrepreneurial opportunities within a Luhmannian systems – theoretical framework which accentuates the unique role of organization and change in the age of functional differentiation. The purpose of this paper is to show how the strategic navigation of the borders between function systems such as politics, science, education, religion, art, or, of course, economy leads to the discovery or creation new opportunities for both business and social entrepreneurship.Design/methodology/approachThe paper combines Niklas Luhmann’s theory of social differentiation with Kim and Mauborgne’s Blue Ocean Strategy. The key argument is that the alternative regimes of social differentiation, such as segmentation, centralization, stratification, and functional differentiation, create distinct pools of entrepreneurial opportunities to be discovered, created, and exploited by adequate business models. (Business) Organizations, therefore, need to strategically adjust the amount of attention they devote to the different forms of social differentiation. The argument is buttressed with illustrative examples of business models related to the regime of functional differentiation.FindingsA paradoxical finding is that the multifunctional business models which explicitly draw on the value creation potential of the most recent form of social differentiation, functional differentiation, remain little known even though they infuse business organizations with a unique capacity of new venture discovery and creation in the modern society.Originality/valueMultifunctional business models have so far remained unexplored in entrepreneurship theory and practice. This paper develops a first strategic approach to the discovery or creation of both multifunctional business models and a broader framework of multifunctional organization models.

Making change last: leadership is the key

PurposeMultiple models of organizational change provide guidance, goals and strategic steps for organizations to complete initiatives effectively. The purpose of this paper was to discuss the impact of transformational leadership as it relates to organizational change in the twenty-first century and propose a consolidated approach to planned organizational change useful for practitioners.Design/methodology/approachPractitioners and researchers can benefit by a strategy to apply models of change to organizational initiatives. It is proposed that models by Kotter (2012), Bridges (2017) and Lewin (1951) can be consolidated into a comprehensive approach to achieve successful organizational change. Transformational leadership is a critical component which bonds such models together and guides the leader’s role in the process.FindingsKotter, Bridges and Lewin’s approaches all share similar beliefs about the effectiveness of a transformational leader. First, people and process aspects of change take center stage. Second, urgency needs to unsettle or awaken the need for change. Third, people want to be part of the change process. By involving others, engagement, empowerment and buy-in all increase. Fourth, change will only last if it is embedded into the structures and systems which make up the organization’s culture.Originality/valueThe value of the consolidated approach to change proposed in this paper is that it meets leaders at their level of skill and experience, as it offers options depending on the needs of the organization and extent (depth) of the change required.

Western organizational change capacity theory and its application to public health organizations in China: A multiple case analysis.

As health reform becomes a crucial task for both Chinese and United States government, public health organizations are required to adopt changes based on reform policy. Organizational Change Capacity theory is a Western theory that indicates the capacities that organizations should possess when pursuing successful organizational change. This study seeks to understand the applicability of this theory to Chinese public health organizations by contrasting organizations that have achieved success or remained challenged in implementing organizational change to optimize health reform. The research questions are: Is the Organizational Change Capacity theory applicable in Chinese public health organizations? How should it be modified to best fit Chinese public health organizations? Seventy-two participants from 12 public health organizations in Beijing and Xi'an were recruited for interviews and follow-up questionnaires that asked for experiences during their organizational changes. During the analysis, a new Chinese Organizational Change Capacity theory with nine main themes emerged. This new framework provides a guideline for Chinese public health organizations to evaluate their change capacity, and offers a theoretical foundation for researchers to design interventions that increase these organizations' capacity in achieving successful change.

Examining barriers to organizational change for sustainability and drivers of sustainable performance in the metal manufacturing industry

Traditionally, the metal manufacturing industry in China is focused only on economic growth and just in the past decade, environmental regulatory policies have started to emphasize organizational sustainable improvements. Thus, the metal manufacturing industry in China has a high potential for value addition and organizational change for sustainability. The success of organizational change for sustainability should be based on an in- depth insight into barriers to organizational change for sustainability and drivers which support sustainable performance. In this context, this study employed interpretive structural modeling (ISM) technique and Technique for Order Performance by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) to examine the barriers to organizational change for sustainability and drivers which support sustainable performance. Firstly, ISM technique was applied to select the key barriers to organizational change for sustainability based on experts’ evaluations in the Chinese metal manufacturing industry. Then, TOPSIS model was applied to assess and prioritize the drivers which support sustainable performance with respect to their influence on the key barriers. Based on the study results, inefficient legal framework, inadequate proactive plans, lack of sustainable waste management and preferences of institutional buyers are the key barriers. Furthermore, enforcing government regulations, integrating sustainability in proactive plans, promoting sustainable products and developing infrastructure support and facility for sustainability were found to be the most influential drivers. This study will enable managers and government bodies to manage their resources in an efficient way so that organizational change management for sustainability can be achieved in the metal manufacturing industry in China.