Studying organizational change: A change response model with readiness factors, a case study, and research implications

Organizational change was the mantra of the 1990s and according to a recent survey by Deloitte and Touche (1998) will continue to be so through the first decade of the next millennium. To date, many change management models have been offered, but they lack the integration of the various strands of research within organizational change, namely change type, readiness, process and resistances to change. This dissertation presents and tests a model for studying the phenomena of organizational change from a change response perspective, integrating the change type and readiness literatures.; The change type literature is synthesized into a change type quadrant model. Change readiness factors of leadership and management style, performance management systems, and communication intention are presented as the readiness factors that are differentially mapped to a change type in the quadrant model. The propositions of the Organizational Change Response Model are that if an organization follows the mapping of the readiness factors with the various change types, the change process will be more successful than an organization that does not.; The case study of the Organizational Change Response Model was conducted in a design group in a Fortune 100 manufacturing organization. The case study was a longitudinal field study that was completed from 1999 to 2001. Four change events were used to represent the change types and various survey and focus group data (quantitative and qualitative) were collected to measure the readiness factors. The change type and change successfulness data were collected through subject matter experts.; The results of this study provide the first test of the hypotheses of the Organizational Change Response Model. Four of the proposed twenty hypotheses were tested due the limitations of a convenient data sample. Support was provided for the hypotheses that a directive performance management source and an intrinsically focused performance management value for a long-term radical change will be most effective for the organization. Support was not provided for the hypothesis that a supportive management style would be most effective with a short-term continuous improvement change, nor that a directive management style is most effective with a long-term radical change.