Change Management Introduction
Part 1 provides an introduction to the literature on change management: where this comes from; the kinds of evidence it provides; and a discussion of key terms
Part 2 presents a review of the main models, approaches and tools which are likely to be of interest and use to practising managers and professionals
Part 3 provides some reflections on the nature of evidence in this field, with suggestions for further research, based on the preceding review.
A series of appendices provides further information on the methodology of the review, a summary of empirical research studies in the field, a brief overview of systems thinking, suggested areas of activity, and expertise that may be available from local Organisational Development (OD) resources, and lists of participants at events which helped to inform the development of the change management resources.
Scope
The document aims to provide a selective review of key change models and associated evidence rather than a comprehensive introduction to change management, its many schools, concepts and techniques, for which alternative resources are readily available. For reasons of length, we also touch only briefly on some important factors bearing on change, such as organisational culture and political factors (both ‘macro’ and ‘micro’). For the same reason case examples are used sparingly, to illustrate certain tools and methods.
The review focuses on organisational change – there are related fields of study which lie outside its scope. One is leadership and the attributes of successful leaders. Another is the use of ‘incentives’ as a driver for change.
The third is policy and any regulatory factors which may facilitate or inhibit the implementation of changes on the ground, especially those which involve other agencies with different accountabilities and governance arrangements.
Where does the literature come from?
Practitioners and academics have considered the management of change in organisations ever since management emerged as a discipline, at the beginning of the twentieth century. The arrival of large, complex organisations after the Second World War heightened interest in this subject and thus there is a large body of thinking about change that has been developed over the last fifty years. While some of the challenges facing the NHS are novel, many of them may benefit from the application of concepts that were developed several decades ago.
The literature about change management is large and not easy to access for six main reasons.
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It contains contributions from several different academic disciplines including psychology, sociology, business policy, social policy and others.
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Its boundaries can be set differently, according to the definition of change management employed.
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Valuable contributions to the literature have been made in all of the last five decades, with the later not necessarily superseding the earlier.
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It contains evidence, examples and illustrations generated in a wide variety of organisations and from a diverse range of methodologies with varying degrees of rigour.
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Some material is not readily accessible to non-specialists and does not readily lend itself to cumulative review.
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The concepts included within it range in scale from whole academic schools, through methodologies to single tools. Furthermore, the literature differs in format and tone, encompassing descriptive accounts of change, theoretical models for analysing change, prescriptive models that aim to guide the change process, typologies of different approaches to organisational change, and empirical studies of the success and failure of various initiatives, programmes and tools. In this review the presentation of the literature is structured so that managers and practitioners in particular may be better able to:
- find their way around the literature
- easily remember key lessons
- ‘place’ a model or idea when they come across it
- test out a new idea against others of its kind
- assess the benefits of new ideas and programmes put forward by consultants.