Transformational Change Process Research Articles

Just Sustainability Transitions: Politics, Power, and Prefiguration in Transformative Change Toward Justice and Sustainability

Facing the world's ecological, economic, and social challenges requires us to connect the concepts of justice, sustainability, and transitions. Bridging and discussing heterogeneous fields, we argue that these concepts need to complement each other, and we present just sustainability transitions (JUSTRAs) to do so. To define JUSTRAs, we review the state-of-the-art literature, focusing on the understanding of these three concepts and their pairings in various disciplinary fields and empirical settings (e.g., environmental justice, just transitions, sustainability transitions, energy justice, food justice, urban justice). We center marginalized voices to highlight the processes of radical transformative change that JUSTRAs seek. We offer three analytical lenses that further the understanding of JUSTRAs: politics, power, and prefiguration. We argue that these complementary lenses are necessary to remake the world in both critical and pragmatic ways. Finally, we present a research agenda on JUSTRAs, foregrounding three complementary modes of inquiry: analyzing, critiquing, designing.

Multiple ways to bend the curve of biodiversity loss: An analytical framework to support transformative change

Abstract Humans are significantly impacting ecosystems worldwide. Scientists of the IPBES Global Assessment are therefore calling for a transformative change that includes all aspects of society in order to address drivers of biodiversity loss. However, these calls are rather abstract, and thus it remains unclear how this goal can be achieved. With this conceptual contribution, we present an analytical framework for evaluating existing processes of societal change which are enhancing biodiversity, and we illustrate its application using three case studies in Germany. We argue that an empirical analysis provides insights into the causal mechanisms that initiate or promote change processes. In doing so, we can draw recommendations for future transformative change processes with regard to biodiversity conservation. In our analysis, we are dealing with questions concerning the following three areas: the drivers and context of societal change processes, the change processes themselves and finally their impacts. Subsequently, we generate recommendations on how to enhance and support the process of future societal transformation that aims at biodiversity conservation: (a) Retaining co‐benefits for biodiversity with goals that are primarily focussing on other objectives; (b) harmonising biodiversity use and conservation by turning conflicts into drivers of transformation; (c) prioritising biodiversity conservation by taking advantage of windows of opportunity. With our conceptual framework, we provide an analytical tool to learn from existing processes of societal change how to support future transformative change. This is an important step that contributes to the generation of relevant knowledge of promoting transformative change for nature and people. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.

Стратегии новых моделей медицинских организаций в системе первичной медико-санитарной помощи.

At present, primary health care is improved by the new models of organisation’s work. All elements of the transformational change process are based on a patient-centered system of medical care that is sustainable in the long term. The urgent problem for outpatient clinics to become improve effectively using a patient-centered approach. The aim of this study was to describe the strategies on patient-centred outcomes used in primary care in Russian regions. Materials and methods. A systematic literature review was conducted in Google Scholar and Elibrary databases using keywords. According to the inclusion criteria, the studies described the experience of implementing new strategies in the Russian primary health care system between 2017 and 2023, resulted in a total of 2874 articles being found. After reviewing the abstracts of the retrieved articles, 211 were retained for further analysis. Another 175 articles were excluded after reading the full text. Results. In this article, we describe a set of priorities strategies related with a new models in primary health care: expanded role of nurses in primary health care, improvement of Ambulatory complementary technologies, use of new organizational structures of medical care, using remote technologies. Findings. The strategies of new organizational models in primary health care are based on the successful experience of reforms. Factors affecting the expansion of strategies to other health care organizations include: teamwork of medical and non-medical professionals, low level of interprofessional collaboration to ensure effective implementation and delivery of patient-centered care, lack of incentives to improve the Ambulatory complementary technologies, patient routing problem for primary health care services, systematization of experience of telemedicine technologies in outpatient practice.

The Influence of Humanist Da'wah in Social Transformation and Social Change in Muslim Societies

This study aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the influence of humanist da'wah in changing and influencing the process of social transformation and social change in the Muslim community. The study method involves library research and integrated literature analysis to produce an in-depth understanding. The study's results confirmed that humanist da'wah has great potential in forming a more tolerant, humane, and sustainable Muslim society. Human values in Islam become the main foundation for positive changes in the social reality of the Muslim community. The influence of humanist da'wah is not only limited to changes in thinking, behavior, and social dynamics but also embraces human values within the framework of Islamic principles. This results in an inclusive and tolerant environment, reflected in social behavior that is responsive, caring and voluntary to social needs. Nonetheless, challenges such as resistance to change, social polarization, and disinformation remain obstacles that must be overcome. There are great opportunities to harness social inclusion, cross-sectoral cooperation, and interreligious collaboration to strengthen the message of humanist da'wah.

Addressing gender inequalities and strengthening women's agency to create more climate-resilient and sustainable food systems

Climate change affects every aspect of the food system, including all nodes along agri-food value chains from production to consumption, the food environments in which people live, and outcomes, such as diets and livelihoods. Men and women often have specific roles and responsibilities within food systems, yet structural inequalities (formal and informal) limit women's access to resources, services, and agency. These inequalities affect the ways in which men and women experience and are affected by climate change. In addition to gender, other social factors are at play, such as age, education, marital status, and health and economic conditions. To date, most climate change policies, investments, and interventions do not adequately integrate gender. If climate-smart and climate-resilient interventions do not adequately take gender differences into account, they might exacerbate gender inequalities in food systems by, for instance, increasing women's labor burden and time poverty, reducing their access to and control over income and assets, and reducing their decision-making power. At the same time, women's contributions are critical to make food systems more resilient to the negative impacts of climate change, given their specialized knowledge, skills and roles in agri-food systems, within the household, at work and in their communities. Increasing the resilience of food systems requires going beyond addressing gendered vulnerabilities to climate change to create an enabling environment that supports gender equality and women's empowerment, by removing structural barriers and rigid gender norms, and building equal power dynamics, as part of a process of gender transformative change. For this to happen, more research is needed to prioritize structural barriers that need to be removed and to identify effective gender transformative approaches.

Sustainable Strategic Management For A Sustainable Future

Due to the imbalance that has been caused by mass scale production, societies are looking towards the corporate to adopt the sustainable strategies. The organizations' very objective of producing goods in bulk and to operate on economies of scale has left the environment unnoticed. Sustainable Strategies are financially sound, socially responsible and in balance with the environment. The importance of sustainable strategies cannot be overemphasized for the societies and companies. Successfully implementing the sustainable strategic management practices will require transformational change processes that allow organizations to examine and redefine their core values and assumption as well as the nature of their work and the role of their employees. The idea of Green world can be achieved only when the corporates incorporate sustainability strategies in their working This research paper discusses the need and relevance of sustainable strategic management for today’s corporate and also discusses in brief the process of sustainable strategic Management.

The contribution of a complex systems-based approach to progressive social resilience.

The use of resilience in social practice has evolved from a theoretical framework at the intersection between individuals and their social ecology. Critics argue this theory still results in policies and practices that are too individualised, with the potential for negative social consequences. This paper further critiques contemporary understanding of resilience theory and its application. It juxtaposes complex systems theory with a social inequalities oriented resilience practice. This provides a paradoxical approach. It is acknowledged that state and public policy decisions and actions can be anti-resilient, undermining community and social resilience that already exists in the form of social relationships, self-organisation and co-production. Nevertheless, collective social resilience also illustrates the potential of local and service user organisations to contribute to an overall transformational change process.

Innovation studies, social innovation, and sustainability transitions research: From mutual ignorance towards an integrative perspective?

This article is a first attempt towards building an integrative analytical framework to study goal-orientated transformative change (GOTC) processes, defined as system-transforming processes that are guided by the ambition to resolve current or expected future societal challenges. GOTC can only start once a broad range of possible goals are considered by key stakeholders and major relevant actors are committed to act. Hence, there is a need for widening the scope of the current, partial conceptual models to consider the co-evolutionary interactions between technology, economy, and society to better understand and effectively guide and/or assess GOTC. This claim is based on our focussed review of Innovation Studies, Social Innovation, and Sustainability Transitions research. We offer four building blocks for a new, integrative framework to analyse GOTC: its overarching goal; objects, types, and levels of change; mechanisms of change; and a set of criteria to assess change.

Digitally-induced change in the public sector: a systematic review and research agenda

ABSTRACT Digital transformation has become a buzzword that is permeating multiple fields, including public administration and management. However, it is unclear what is transformational and how incremental and transformational change processes are linked. Using the PRISMA method, we conduct a systematic literature review to structure this growing body of evidence. We identified 164 studies on digitally-induced change and provide evidence for their drivers, implementation processes, and outcomes. We derive a theoretical framework that shows which incremental changes happen in public administrations that are implementing digital technologies and what their cumulative, transformative effects are on society as a whole.

Disrupting the opportunity narrative: navigating transformation in times of uncertainty and crisis

COVID-19 posed threats for health and well-being directly, but it also revealed and exacerbated social–ecological inequalities, worsening hunger and poverty for millions. For those focused on transforming complex and problematic system dynamics, the question was whether such devastation could create a formative moment in which transformative change could become possible. Our study examines the experiences of change agents in six African countries engaged in efforts to create or support transformative change processes. To better understand the relationship between crisis, agency, and transformation, we explored how they navigated their changed conditions and the responses to COVID-19. We document three impacts: economic impacts, hunger, and gender-based violence and we examine how they (re)shaped the opportunity contexts for change. Finally, we identify four kinds of uncertainties that emerged as a result of policy responses, including uncertainty about the: (1) robustness of preparing a system to sustain a transformative trajectory, (2) sequencing and scaling of changes within and across systems, (3) hesitancy and exhaustion effects, and (4) long-term effects of surveillance, and we describe the associated change agent strategies. We suggest these uncertainties represent new theoretical ground for future transformations research.

Emphasizing equity amid transformational change at community colleges

AbstractIncreasingly, community colleges recognize the need to center transformational change on equity. This chapter presents findings from a multi‐site qualitative case study on how community college presidents and chancellors can keep equity at the forefront of the transformational change process. The three community college presidents and chancellors participating in this study reflected on how their colleges—all 2019 Aspen Prize finalists or winners—adopted an equity lens to guide their change efforts and guided sensemaking among their campus members to challenge existing institutional logics and develop an equity‐minded culture. This study found that community college leaders should: (a) lead their colleges in equity sensemaking; (b) embed student success and equity within their institutional mission; (c) leverage data and policies to increase equity; and (d) provide professional development for college leaders, faculty, and staff around equity and social justice.

Does change incite abusive supervision? The role of transformational change and hindrance stress

AbstractTo remain competitive, organizations tend to change their established ways of working, their strategy, the core values, and the organizational structure. Such thorough changes are referred to as transformational change. Unfortunately, transformational change is often unsuccessful because organizational members do not always welcome the change. Although organizations often expect their supervisors to be successful role‐models and change‐agents during the transformational change process, we argue that initiating transformational change could increase supervisors' hindrance stress levels, which may result in abusive behaviors towards employees. More specifically, in a multi‐source survey and an experimental study, we find evidence that transformational change is associated with supervisors' experienced hindrance stress, which subsequently led to more abusive behaviors towards employees.

IPBES as a transformative agent: opportunities and risks

SummaryThe Intergovernmental Science–Policy Platform for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) has played an important role in assessing knowledge and raising awareness of biodiversity loss, and it is now also mandated to assess and support processes of transformative change. This perspective paper argues that the transformative change assessment entails key elements of transformative agency, which, along with the performative role of IPBES, makes it relevant to re-conceptualize the organization as a transformative agent. This new role will change IPBES and brings attention to risks related to undermining the credibility, relevance and legitimacy of IPBES, but it also brings opportunities for innovations that may strengthen the organization, including furthering public reasoning, acknowledging ambiguities and disagreements, ensuring scientific autonomy and balancing governmental power in the organization. As IPBES takes on the fundamental challenge of transformative change, critical scrutiny and democratic debate regarding its function as a political actor are more important than ever.

Social tipping points everywhere?—Patterns and risks of overuse

AbstractThe last few years have witnessed an explosion of interest in the concept of social tipping points (STPs), understood as nonlinear processes of transformative change in social systems. A growing body of interdisciplinary scholarship has been focusing in particular on social tipping related to climate change. In contrast with tipping point studies in the natural sciences–for example climate tipping points and ecological regime shifts–STPs are often conceptualized as desirable, offering potential solutions to pressing problems. Drawing on a well‐established definition for tipping points, and a qualitative review of articles that explicitly treat social tipping points as potential solutions to climate change, this article identifies four deleterious patterns in the application of the STP concept in this recent wave of research on nonlinear social change: (i) premature labeling, (ii) not defining system boundaries and scales of analysis, (iii) not providing evidence for all characteristics of tipping processes, and (iv) not making use of existing social theories of change. Jointly, these patterns create a trend of overusing the concept. Recognizing and avoiding these patterns of “seeing the world through tipping point glasses” is important for the quality of scientific knowledge generated in this young field of inquiry and for future science‐policy interactions related to climate change. Future research should seek to identify empirical evidence for STPs while remaining open to the possibility that many social change processes are not instances of tipping, or that certain systems might not be prone to nonlinear change.This article is categorized under: Climate, History, Society, Culture > Ideas and Knowledge Perceptions, Behavior, and Communication of Climate Change > Behavior Change and Responses The Social Status of Climate Change Knowledge > Sociology/Anthropology of Climate Knowledge

A Possible Pathway to the C-Suite for Every Woman

This case study describes how appreciative questions were used to address a need for the topic of gender diversity in the banking industry, in particular at the C-suite level. From September to December 2021, Appreciative Inquiry principles were used in the development of a transformational change process within a managers’ group, comprised of women and men, as well as with individuals. With this in mind, a new program in favour of sustainable gender diversity emerged: C-level, a potential pathway for every woman.

Role of Asia-Pacific Regions in Partnering UN SDGs

The research paper identifies broad strategies for accelerating transformative change processes in the form of mission orientation and mobilizing the public and stakeholders, aligning systems, readying institutions and people for change, policy making for managing complexity which are considered to be the building blocks in the Asia Pacific region. The focus of the research study is on the growth, development, economics of peace, role and impact of SDGs on the economies and societies in general including justice, peace building, developing strong institutions and in transforming the region into an international hub to achieve the SDGs and the broader agenda of UN 2030 including the overall development of the Asia-Pacific region in the long run. The paper studies the aspects of the inter-linkages between Governments and other stakeholders to deliver the ‘decade of action towards SDG’, particularly in the aftermath of COVID-19. It is observed that COVID-19 pandemic has created many gaps in social protection systems and wider policies for delivering public goods with devastating effects on the poorest and utmost vulnerable in the Asia-Pacific region. The United Nations Sustainable Development Goal Summit held in 2019 had identified six transformative areas to accelerate progress towards the SDGs. In fact, these transformative areas present development challenges that are interlinked, complex and integrate goals and targets across the SDG framework which are strengthening human well-being and capabilities, shifting towards sustainable and just economies, securing the global environmental commons. A proposed action plan with regional interventions in the Asia-Pacific region, alignment with the goals and outcomes of the UNFPA strategic plan 2018-2021 and the Roadmap of PIFS in accelerating the SDGs have been delineated in the study.

Institutional change to support online learners: A case study for student success

AbstractThe article presents a case study on institutional change within the context of an online improvement initiative. As part of its quality enhancement plan (QEP) improvement process in support of accreditation reaffirmation, Wake Technical Community College (Raleigh, NC) implemented a multistage change process to engage the college in data‐driven change resulting in the eLearning preparedness initiative (EPIC). EPIC targeted student success in online courses by improving both student and faculty preparedness for online learning and teaching. The article first describes the need for change, provides an overview of the change initiative, then describes the transformational change process and lessons learned. The article closes with guiding questions for community college leaders and online learning change‐agents to consider when planning for and implementing strategies for improving the student experience and supporting online student success.

Trends in the Development of the Insurance Market of Ukraine in the Conditions of Transformational Changes

Abstract. Introduction. In modern conditions, the result of globalization processes are rapid changes in the world economic system, in particular in its financial sphere, which cause not only positive but also negative consequences. Therefore, there is an objective need to deepen research on the functioning and identify promising areas of insurance market development. After all, in the process of their activity, insurance companies ensure the formation of effective market mechanisms for attracting investment resources into the national economy. Purpose. The purpose of the study is to study the main trends in the insurance market of Ukraine in modern conditions of transformational change and globalization processes and substantiation of promising areas to increase its efficiency. Results. It is established that the main destructive factors that hinder the development of the insurance market of Ukraine include: reducing the level of solvency and liquidity; lack of a clear business model; unfounded approaches in financial risk management; uncertainty of the strategy and program of formation of financial security of the insurance market as a component of security of the non-banking financial sector and others. During 2011-2021 there is a clear trend to reduce the number of insurance companies. At the same time, the level of insurance penetration and concentration of the insurance market of Ukraine in premiums is much lower than similar world and European countries. Insurance companies belong to high-risk financial institutions. Therefore, the obligatory structural elements of the strategy of strengthening the financial security of the insurance market of Ukraine are substantiated. In addition, the principles of financial risk management in the financial security system of the insurance market are presented. It is established that in order to increase the competitiveness of insurance companies it is necessary to first adapt their business models to digital requirements, modernize major technology platforms, expand analytical capabilities of databases, improve interaction with all members of the insurance ecosystem. Conclusions. Modern dynamic conditions of globalization and a number of destructive factors necessitate the development of a strategy for the formation of financial security of the insurance market of Ukraine, as well as the justification of rational approaches to managing financial risks of insurance companies. It is established that the reorientation of the insurance market to digital technologies is a defining requirement of the transformational world. The period of implementation of digitalization processes causes insurers to move from outdated sales channels of insurance products to find new ways to communicate with customers, develop innovative approaches to the insurance business. We are convinced that the simultaneous development of internetization, individualization and digitalization will provide a synergistic effect in the process of digitalization of the insurance market of Ukraine and bringing it to a qualitatively new level of development in the conditions of transformational changes.

AN INTRODUCTION TO SERVANT LEADERSHIP AND ITS POTENTIAL FOR NONPROFIT ORGANIZATIONS

Most leadership styles are trying to maximize leaders’ efficiency in achieving organizational goals, using different approaches. This article makes a short introduction to the concept of servant leadership, a relatively new style of leadership that focuses on addressing followers’ needs and supporting them to achieve personal and organizational goals. Servant leaders are authentic, empower and empathize with their followers, empathize with them and show stewardship. This style developed at roughly the same time with the positive ideology and relatively close to the transformational leadership style, a style that is used mainly in organizations that go or are willing to go through a transformational change process. Although servant leadership is an important and resourceful leading style, it is not widely as used and researched as it should, both in for-profit but mostly in nonprofit organizations.

Transformational change process in a large corporation – case of a prominent Indian public sector undertaking

Purpose This study aims to discuss what prompted this organization to embark on the journey of transformational change, challenges faced strategies adopted to overcome challenges, leadership role and outcomes. Design/methodology/approach The descriptive approach is used to comprehend the transformational change process in this gigantic public sector undertaking (PSU). To have an idea of the effectiveness of the change process, the pre- and post-change performance of the company was taken into account through collection and analysis of physical and financial parameters. However, focus of this paper is concentrated on the transformation process and its chronological sequence only. Human resource productivity trend and organization development interventions adopted over the years were also observed along with conducting a sentiment analysis of the employees who lived through this entire change process in the organization. Findings The case study describes how this Indian PSU went through the process of transformational change management and leaves the reader to assess the degree and extent of success of the approach and strategy of the company in this regard. There may be many what-if situations and contingencies in this case for readers to explore for suggestions and solutions and finding new possibilities. Originality/value Change management is not a new exercise for the Indian corporate sector. What makes this case unique is the pro-active action initiated by a traditional high-performing and well-protected PSU to anticipate the future challenges and initiate action to overcome these. Change agents must “rewire” the plane while it is flying if the organization hopes to survive and perhaps prosper in the future. This case study is a first-hand account of the change process happening in a gigantic Indian PSU with Maharatna status.