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Explore the Levels of Change Management

9 Successful Change Management Examples For Inspiration

organizational change case study examples

Updated: August 2, 2024

Published: January 3, 2024

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Welcome to our guide on change management examples, pivotal for steering through today's dynamic business terrain. Immerse yourself in the transformative power of change management, a tool for resilience, growth, innovation, and employee morale enhancement.

This guide equips you with strategies to promote an innovative, adaptable work environment and boost employee morale for lasting organizational success.

Uncover diverse types of change management with Prosci's established methodology and explore real-world examples that illustrate these principles in action.

What is Change Management?

Change management is a strategy for guiding an organization and its people through change. It goes beyond top-down orders, involving employees at all levels. This people-focused approach encourages everyone to participate actively, helping them adapt and use changes in their everyday work.

Effective change management aligns closely with a company's culture, values, and beliefs.

When change fits well with these cultural aspects, it feels more natural and is easier for employees to adopt. This contributes to smoother transitions and leads to more successful and lasting organizational changes.

Why is Change Management Important?

Change management is pivotal in guiding organizations through transitions, ensuring impactful and long-lasting results.

For example, a $28B electronic components and services company with 18,000 employees realized the importance of enhancing its processes. They knew to adopt more streamlined, efficient approaches, known as Lean initiatives .

However, they encountered challenges because they needed a more structured method for effectively managing the human aspects of these changes.

The company formed a specialized group focused on change to address their challenges and initiate key projects. These projects aligned with their culture of innovation and precision, which helped ensure that the changes were well-received and effectively implemented within the organization.

Matching change management to an organization's unique style and structure contributes to more effective transformations and strengthens the business for future challenges.

What Are the Main Types of Change Management?

Discover Prosci's change management models: from individual application and organizational strategies to enterprise-wide integration and effective portfolio management, all are vital for transformative success.

Individual change management

At Prosci, we understand that change begins with the individual.

The Prosci ADKAR ® Model ( Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability and Reinforcement ) is expertly designed to equip change leaders with tools and strategies to engage your team.

This model is a framework that will guide and support you in confidently navigating and adapting to new changes.

Organizational change management

In organizational change management , we focus on the core elements of your company to fully understand and address each aspect of the change.

Our approach involves creating tailored strategies and detailed plans that benefit you and manage you to manage challenges effectively, which include:

  • Clear communication
  • Strong leadership support
  • Personalized coaching
  • Practical training

Our strategies are specifically aimed at meeting the diverse needs within your organization, ensuring a smooth and well-supported transition for everyone involved.

Enterprise change management capability

At the enterprise level, change management becomes an embedded practice, a core competency woven throughout the organization.

When you implement change capabilities:

  • Employees know what to ask during change to reach success
  • Leaders and managers have the training and skills to guide their teams during change
  • Organizations consistently apply change management to initiatives
  • Organizations embed change management in roles, structures, processes, projects and leadership competencies

It's a tactical effort to integrate change management into the very DNA of an organization—nurturing a culture that's ready and able to adapt to any change.

Change portfolio management

While distinct from project-level change management, managing a change portfolio is vital for an organization to stay flexible and responsive.

It’s like having a bird's-eye view of all ongoing changes, prioritizing them effectively, allocating resources judiciously, and ensuring each aligns with the organization's fundamental goals. This holistic approach ensures that change is managed and optimized for the best possible outcome .

Change Done Right: Join 50,000+ Prosci Insiders Receive expert guidance and practical strategies for effective change management. Subscribe for success.

9 Dynamic Change Management Success Stories to Revolutionize Your Business

Prosci case studies reveal how diverse organizations spanning different sectors address and manage change.  These cases illustrate how change management can provide transformative solutions from healthcare to finance:

1. Hospital system

A major healthcare organization implemented an extensive enterprise resource planning (ERP) system and adapted to healthcare reform. This case study highlights overcoming significant challenges through strategic change management:

Industry: Healthcare Revenue: $3.7 billion Employees: 24,000 Facilities: 11 hospitals

Major changes:

  • Implemented a new ERP system across all hospitals
  • Prepared for healthcare reform

Challenges:

  • Managing significant, disruptive changes
  • Difficulty in gaining buy-in for change management
  • Align with culture: Strategically implemented change management to support staff, reflecting the hospital's core value of caring for people
  • Focus on a key initiative: Applied change management in the electronic health record system implementation
  • Integrate with existing competencies: Recognized change leadership as crucial at various leadership levels

This example shows that when change management matches a healthcare organization's values, it can lead to successful and smooth transitions.

2. Transportation department

A state government transportation department leveraged change management to effectively manage business process improvements amid funding and population challenges. This highlights the value of comprehensive change management in a public sector setting:

Industry: State Government Transportation Revenue: $1.3 billion Employees: 3,000 Challenges:

  • Reduced funding
  • Growing population
  • Increasing transportation needs

Initiative:

  • Major business process improvement

Hurdles encountered:

  • Change fatigue
  • Need for widespread employee adoption
  • Focus on internal growth
  • Implemented change management in process improvement

This department's experience teaches us the vital role of change management in successfully navigating government projects with multiple challenges.

3. Pharmaceuticals

A global pharmaceutical company navigated post-merger integration challenges. Using a proactive change management approach, they addressed resistance and streamlined operations in a competitive industry:

Industry: Pharma (Global Biopharmaceutical Company) Revenue: $6 billion Number of employees: 5,000

Recent activities: Experienced significant merger and acquisition activity

  • Encountered resistance post-implementation of SAP (Systems, Applications and Products in Data Processing)
  • They found themselves operating in a purely reactive mode
  • Align with your culture: In this Lean Six Sigma-focused environment, where measurement is paramount, the ADKAR Model's metrics were utilized as the foundational entry point for initiating change management processes.

This company's journey highlights the need for flexible and responsive change management.

4. Home fixtures

A home fixtures manufacturing company’s response to the recession offers valuable insights on effectively managing change. They focused on aligning change management with their disciplined culture, emphasizing operational efficiency:

Industry: Home Fixtures Manufacturing Revenue: $600 million Number of employees: 3,000

Context: Facing the lingering effects of the recession

Necessity: Need to introduce substantial changes for more efficient operations

Challenge: Change management was considered a low priority within the company

  • Align with your culture: The company's culture, characterized by discipline in projects and processes, ensured that change management was implemented systematically and disciplined.

This company’s experience during the recession proves that aligning change with company culture is key to overcoming tough times.

Change management examples Web Services Team Collaboration

5. Web services

A web services software company transformed its culture and workspace.  They integrated change management into their IT strategy to overcome resistance and foster innovation:

Industry : Web Services Software Revenue : $3.3 billion Number of employees : 10,000

Initiatives : Cultural transformation; applying an unassigned seating model

Challenges : Resistance in IT project management

  • Focus on a key initiative: Applied change management in workspace transformation
  • Go where the energy is:  Establishing a change management practice within its IT department, developing self-service change management tools, and forming thoughtful partnerships
  • I ntegrate with existing competencies:  "Leading change" was essential to the organization's newly developed leadership competency model.

This case demonstrates the importance of weaving change management into the fabric of tech companies, especially for cultural shifts.

6. Security systems

A high-tech security company effectively managed a major restructuring.  They created a change network that shifted change management from HR to business processes:

Industry : High-Tech (Security Systems) Revenue : $10 billion Number of employees: 57,000

Major changes : Company separation; division into three segments

Challenge : No unified change management approach

  • Formed a network of leaders from transformation projects
  • Go where the energy is:  Shifted change management from HR to business processes
  • Integrate with existing competencies:  Included principles of change management in the training curriculum for the project management boot camp.
  • Treat growing your capability like a change:  Executive roadshow launch to gain support for enterprise-wide change management

This company’s innovative approach to restructuring shows h ow reimagining change management can lead to successful outcomes.

7. Clothing store

A major clothing retailer’s journey to unify its brand model.  They overcame siloed change management through collaborative efforts and a community-driven approach:

Industry : Retail (Clothing Store) Revenue : $16 billion Number of employees : 141,000

Major change initiative : Strategic unification of the brand operating model

Historical challenge : Traditional management of change in siloes

  • Build a change network :  This retailer established a community of practice for change management, involving representatives from autonomous units to foster consensus on change initiatives.

The story of this retailer illustrates how collaborative efforts in change management can unify and strengthen a brand in the retail world.

A major Canadian bank initiative to standardize change management across its organization.  They established a Center of Excellence and tailored communities of practice for effective change:

Industry : Financial Services (Canadian Bank) Revenue : $38 billion Number of employees : 78,000

Current state : Absence of enterprise-wide change management standards

Challenge :

  • Employees, contractors, and consultants using individual methods for change management
  • Reliance on personal knowledge and experience to deploy change management strategies
  • Build a change network:  The bank established a Center of Excellence and created federated communities of practice within each business unit, aiming to localize and tailor change management efforts.

This bank’s journey in standardizing change management offers valuable insights for large organizations looking to streamline their processes.

9. Municipality

You can learn from a Canadian municipality’s significant shift to enhance client satisfaction. They integrated change management across all levels to achieve profound organizational change and improved public service:

Industry : Municipal Government (Canadian Municipality) Revenue : $1.9 billion Number of employees : 3,000

New mandate:

  • Implementing a new deliberate vision focusing on each individual’s role in driving client satisfaction

Nature of shift : 

  • A fundamental change within the public institution

Scope of impact :

  •  It affected all levels, from leadership to front-line staff

Solution : 

  • Treat growing your capability like a change: Change leaders promoted awareness and cultivated a desire to adopt change management as a standard enterprise-wide practice.

The municipality's strategy shows us how effective change management can significantly improve public services and organizational efficiency.

Change management examples Six Tactics Infographic

6 Tactics for Growing Enterprise Change Management Capability

Prosci's exploration with 10 industry leaders uncovered six primary tactics for enterprise change growth , demonstrating a "universal theme, unique application" approach.

This framework goes beyond standard procedures, focusing on developing a deep understanding and skill in managing change. It offers transformative tactics, guiding organizations towards excelling in adapting to change.  Here, we uncover these transformative tactics, guiding organizations toward mastery of change.

1. Align with Your culture

Organizational culture profoundly influences how change management should be deployed.

Recognizing whether your organization leans towards traditional practices or innovative approaches is vital. This understanding isn't just about alignment; it's an opportunity to enhance and sometimes shift your cultural environment.

When effectively combined with an organization's unique culture, change management can greatly enhance key initiatives. This leads to widespread benefits beyond individual projects and promotes overall growth and development within the organization.

Embrace this as a fundamental tool to strengthen and transform your company's cultural fabric.

2. Focus on key initiatives

In the early phase of developing change management capabilities, selecting noticeable projects with executive backing is important.

This helps demonstrate the real-world impact of change management, making it easier for employees and leadership to understand its benefits. This strategy helps build support and maintain the momentum of change management initiatives within your organization.

Focus on capturing and sharing these successes to encourage buy-in further and underscore the importance of change management in achieving organizational goals.

3. Build a change network

Building change capability isn't just about a few advocates but creating a network of change champions across your organization.

This network, essential in spreading the message and benefits of change management, varies in composition but is universally crucial. It could include departmental practitioners, business unit leaders, or a mix of roles working together to enhance awareness, credibility, and a shared purpose.

Our Best Practices in Change Management study shows that 45% of organizations leverage such networks. These groups boost the effectiveness of change management and keep it moving forward.

4. Go where the energy is

To build change capabilities throughout an organization effectively, the focus should be on matching the organization's current readiness rather than just pushing new methods.

Identify and focus on parts of your organization that are ready for change. Align your change initiatives with these sectors. Involve senior leaders and those enthusiastic about change to naturally generate demand for these transformations.

Showcasing successful initiatives encourages a collaborative culture of change, making it an organic part of your organization's growth.

5. Integrate with existing competencies

Change management is a vital skill across various organizational roles.

Integrating it into competency models and job profiles is increasingly common, yet often lacks the necessary training and tools.

When change management skills expand beyond the experts, they become an integral part of the organization's culture—nurturing a solid foundation of effective change leadership.

This approach embeds change management deeper within the company and cultivates leaders who can support and sustain this essential practice.

6. Treat growing your capability like a change

Growing change capability is a transformative journey for your business and your employees. It demands a structured, strategic approach beyond telling your network that change is coming.

Applying the ADKAR Model universally and focusing on your organization's unique needs is pivotal. It's about building awareness, sparking a desire for change across the enterprise, and equipping employees with the knowledge and skills for effective, lasting change. 

Treating capability-building like a change ensures that change management becomes a core part of your organization's fabric, benefitting every team member.

These six tactics are powerful tools for enhancing your organization's ability to adapt and remain resilient in a rapidly changing business environment.

Comprehensive Insights From Change Management Examples

These diverse change management examples provide field-tested savvy and offer a window into how varied organizations successfully manage change.

Case studies , from healthcare reform to innovative corporate restructuring, exemplify how aligning with organizational culture, building strong change networks, and focusing on tactical initiatives can significantly impact change management outcomes.

This guide, enriched with real-world applications, enhances understanding and execution of effective change management, setting a benchmark for future transformations.

To learn more about partnering with Prosci for your next change initiative, discover Prosci's Advisory services and enterprise training options and consider practitioner certification .

Download the eBook, "6 Tatics for Growing Enterprise Change Capability."

Founded in 1994, Prosci is a global leader in change management. We enable organizations around the world to achieve change outcomes and grow change capability through change management solutions based on holistic, research-based, easy-to-use tools, methodologies and services.

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organizational change case study examples

7 real-life organizational change examples & best practices

By Sanni Juoperi 9. November 2021

Does the famous Ray Noorda quote “Cause change and lead; accept change and survive; resist change and die” resonate with you?

The business environment is more turbulent and the technology adoption landscape is more fast-changing than ever . As of late, businesses have had to shift to fully virtual business models, only to start all over again to build models that work optimally in the hybrid environment. Leading change, and beyond that, the ability to proactively transform the business model and strategy, are the key capabilities for any leader today.

In this article, we will share seven real-life tested organizational change examples and best practices that will help you embrace the journey of neverending business transformation.

Grab our  free template for leading a change process  and get started with the cultural change process.

1. Real-life example: Shared values and culture drive the ability to change

The global elevator and escalator manufacturer with 60 000 employees, KONE Corporation , recreated its company values and was fast to establish them as a part of employees’ everyday life. The key to success? A collaborative process where the values came from employees’ real-life experiences and dialogue.

“Howspace really gives every individual the opportunity to influence and be part of the decision-making process.”

Lotta Vuoristo , Head of Culture Journey at KONE, describes the process: “There were a lot of people involved in the discussions whom we have previously struggled to engage without travelling to where they are and working together face-to-face. Now, everyone was really enthusiastic and active.”.

Vuoristo—like many other work-life professionals—believes that from now on, digital working practices are an inherent part of everyday life at KONE as well as in other organizations. The key to success is to get every member of the organization involved in cultural development and strategic transformation.

Virtual working methods contribute to equality when the discussions are not only analyzed by humans but also by artificial intelligence . “I feel that Howspace really gives every individual the opportunity to influence and be part of the decision-making process,” says Vuoristo. Read the full story here .

2. Best practice: Use a structured framework for organizational change

The ADKAR® Model of change is a well-known and widely used tool that helps you analyze your change and better understand it. For someone who’s unfamiliar with building organizational change processes, a structured framework around building human-centred change can be good support for getting started.

The five ADKAR elements—awareness, desire, knowledge, ability, and reinforcement—are the building blocks for creating change from the human perspective. Read this article to get ideas on how to take the ADKAR model from theory to practice. 

5 ADKAR elements

Image source: prosci.com

3. Real-life example: Build the organizational change by strengthening what already works

Banking is a traditional industry with a lot of hierarchical structures. At the same time, it’s going through major changes with digitalization and shifting customer behaviour.

The Finnish banking company, Aktia, and the culture design agency, Milestone , realized that to embrace external changes, they needed to double down on what already worked well in Aktia’s internal culture.

By listening to Aktia’s employees and line managers on a digital platform, they identified the best parts of their culture: working together for the customer, innovativeness, bravery, and accountability.

“Using digital tools combined with service design methods allowed us to grasp the big picture fast.”

“With the Howspace platform, we got the opportunity to also involve line managers in the organization straight from the beginning. Using digital tools combined with service design methods allowed us to grasp the big picture fast,” describes Elina Aaltolainen, Culture Strategist from Milestone.

Elina Aaltolainen from Milestone quote

By strengthening the positive aspects that already existed in Aktia’s corporate culture, they were able to build Aktia’s future culture vision. Read the full story here. 

4. Best practice: Create a safe space for finding all the ‘whys’ for change

There is usually a trigger—internal or external—as to why an organization pursues a change initiative. It’s the first ‘why’: Why do we need organizational change? It’s important to acknowledge, however, that this first why is not enough. People who make up the organization must make sense of the process in their own way and find their own ‘whys.’

Beyond the “why,” you then need to consider how you’ll go about the change process, which should include getting everyone involved and sharing their knowledge and ideas about the ongoing change.

As you facilitate this process, ensure people feel safe to speak their minds honestly. Feelings are always involved when people are involved. One helpful idea is to allow anonymous commenting for particularly sensitive phases of the process.

5. Real-life example: Build on asynchronous communication to involve everyone

Wärtsilä Energy, a global leader in sustainable energy solutions, had the ambitious goal of leading the transition towards a 100% renewable energy future. To reach this goal, the company needed a bold and unique organizational growth strategy.

Wärtsilä ’s talent development lead, Kati Järvinen, started working for the company in the middle of its strategy process. The company’s previous growth strategy was done traditionally, with little input from employees. But this time Wärtsilä Energy was ready to integrate every employee’s insights into the process of identifying strategic capabilities.

“We had been used to a quite stable business, but now we are facing a totally new situation in the market. The energy transition is huge, all the market requirements are changing, and our competitors challenge us all the time. That’s why it’s time for us to direct our whole organization to the more agile ways of working,” Järvinen explains.

Working both synchronously and asynchronously, no matter where people were and when they wanted to join the process, everyone was able to contribute to the shared strategy initiatives.

Four work modes quadrant

Adapted from the work of John Losey, IntoWisdom Group 

“With Howspace, people were able to join the process whenever, wherever. It was wonderful that we had some pre-study before the workshops and during and after the events. People learned on the go, in small pieces, and when they had the motivation. We also had some quizzes and polls that immediately gave us excellent insight on how people experienced our strategy,” says Järvinen. Read the full story here.

6. Real-life example: AI supports making sense of the big picture

People need time and space to do their own sensemaking around change, as mentioned before. And with large communities and organizations, the amount of material to go through quickly becomes an issue.

When the Finnish Medical Association (FMA) started to prepare its basic principles of healthcare, it wanted to involve all members in discussing how to make healthcare even more effective in the future. The FMA has more than 26,000 members. To involve this amount of members for co-creation, going through input manually is not an option.

“We wanted a practical tool that would encourage and inspire doctors to actively discuss healthcare needs. The doctors know best what is going on in their field, and the Howspace digital platform made it possible to involve people in extensive discussions,” says Heikki Pärnänen , Policy Director at the FMA. Read more about their use of AI supporting large-scale dialogue in this article.

7. Best practice: Use a digital platform to co-create change

Many of the themes mentioned in this article require the ability to bring people together to have a dialogue around the change that is happening or needs to happen in an organization.

Howspace is a facilitation platform that is built for this purpose. Its built-in real-time AI capabilities—to build summaries, theme clusters and word clouds out of the discussion—allow for large groups of people to participate in change.

Check out our template for leading a change process!  💡 This practical process template walks you through the whole process of involvement-based cultural change from communicating the need for change to integrating it into the day-to-day.

Already a Howspace-user? You can add the template to your account  here .

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Change Management Case Study Examples: Lessons from Industry Giants

Explore some transformative journeys with efficient Change Management Case Study examples. Delve into case studies from Coca-Cola, Heinz, Intuit, and many more. Dive in to unearth the strategic wisdom and pivotal lessons gleaned from the experiences of these titans in the industry. Read to learn about and grasp the Change Management art!

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In the fast-paced world of business, staying ahead means being able to adapt. Have you ever wondered how some brands manage to thrive despite huge challenges? This blog dives into a collection of Change Management Case Studies, sharing wisdom from top companies that have faced and conquered adversity through effective Change Management Activities. These aren’t just stories; they’re success strategies.

Each Change Management Case Study reveals the smart choices and creative fixes that helped companies navigate rough waters. How did they turn crises into chances to grow? What can we take away from their successes and mistakes? Keep reading to discover these inspiring stories and learn how they can reshape your approach to change in your own business. 

Table of Contents  

1) What is Change Management in Business? 

2) Top Examples of Case Studies on Change Management 

    a) Coca-Cola 

    b) Adobe 

    c) Heinz  

    d) Intuit  

    e) Kodak 

    f) Barclays Bank 

3) Conclusion

What is Change Management in Business?  

Change management in business refers to the structured process of planning, implementing, and managing changes within an organisation. It involves anticipating, navigating, and adapting to shifts in strategy, technology, processes, or culture to achieve desired outcomes and sustain competitiveness.  

Effective Change Management entails identifying the need for change, engaging stakeholders, communicating effectively, and mitigating resistance to ensure smooth transitions. By embracing Change Management principles and utilizing change management tools , businesses can enhance agility, resilience, and innovation, driving growth and success in dynamic environments.

Change Management Course

Top Examples of Case Studies on Change Management  

Let's explore some transformative journeys of industry leaders through compelling case studies on Change Management: 

1) Coca-Cola  

Coca-Cola, the beverage titan, acknowledged the necessity to evolve with consumer tastes, market shifts, and regulatory changes. The rise of health-conscious consumers prompted Coca-Cola to revamp its offerings and business approach. The company’s proactive Change Management centred on innovation and diversification, leading to the launch of healthier options like Coca-Cola Zero Sugar.  

Coca-Cola Zero Sugar 

Strategic alliances and acquisitions broadened Coca-Cola’s market reach and variety. Notably, Coca-Cola introduced eco-friendly packaging like the PlantBottle and championed sustainability in its marketing, bolstering its brand image. 

Acquire the expertise to facilitate smooth changes and propel your success forward – join our Change Management Practitioner Course now!  

2) Adobe  

Adobe, with its global workforce and significant revenue, faced a shift due to technological advancements and competitive pressures. In 2011, Adobe transitioned from physical software sales to cloud-based services, offering free downloads or subscriptions.  

This shift necessitated a transformation in Adobe’s HR practices, moving from traditional roles to a more human-centric approach, aligning with the company’s innovative and millennial-driven culture. 

Discover the Impact of Change Management Salaries on Career Growth and Organizational Success!

3) Heinz 

Berkshire Hathaway and 3G Capital’s acquisition of Heinz led to immediate, sweeping changes. The new management implemented cost-cutting measures and altered executive perks.  

Products by Heinz

Additionally, it introduced a more insular leadership style, contrasting with 3G’s young, mobile, and bonus-driven executive team. 

Commence on a journey of transformative leadership and achieve measurable outcomes by joining our Change Management Foundation Course today!  

4) Intuit  

Steve Bennett’s leadership at Intuit marked a significant shift. Adopting the McKinsey 7S Model, he restructured the organisation to enhance decision-making, align rewards with strategy, and foster a performance-driven culture. His changes resulted in a notable increase in operating profits. 

Discover the Best Change Management Books ! Read our top picks and transform your organization today!

5) Kodak  

Kodak, the pioneer of the first digital and megapixel cameras in 1975 and 1986, faced bankruptcy in 2012. Initially, digital technology was costly and had subpar image quality, leading Kodak to predict a decade before it threatened their traditional business. Despite this accurate forecast, Kodak focused on enhancing film quality rather than digital innovation.  

Kodak Megapixel Cameras

Dominating the market in 1976 and peaking with £12,52,16 billion in sales in 1999, Kodak’s reluctance to adopt new technology led to a decline, with revenues falling to £4,85,11,90 billion in 2011.  

Get ready for your interview with our top Change Management Interview Questions .

Fujifilm Camera 

In contrast, Fuji, Kodak’s competitor, embraced digital transformation and diversified into new ventures. 

Empower your team to manage change effectively through our Managing Change With Agile Methodology Training – sign up now!  

6) Barclays Bank  

The financial sector, particularly hit by the 2008 mortgage crisis, saw Barclays Capital aiming for global leadership under Bob Diamond. However, the London Inter-bank Offered Rate (LIBOR) scandal led to fines and resignations, prompting a strategic overhaul by new CEO Antony Jenkins in 2012.  

Changes included rebranding, refocusing on core markets, altering the business model away from high-risk lending, fostering a customer-centric culture, downsizing, and embracing technology for efficiency. These reforms aimed to strengthen Barclays, improve shareholder returns, and restore trust. 

Dive into the detailed Case Study on Change Management

Conclusion  

The discussed Change Management Case Study examples serve as a testament to the transformative power of adept Change Management. Let these insights from industry leaders motivate and direct you as you navigate your organisation towards a path of continuous innovation and enduring prosperity. 

Enhance your team’s ability to manage uncertainty and achieve impactful results – sign up for our comprehensive Risk Management For Change Training now!  

Frequently Asked Questions

The five key elements of Change Management typically include communication, leadership, stakeholder engagement, training and development, and measurement and evaluation. These elements form the foundation for successfully navigating organisational change and ensuring its effectiveness. 

The seven steps of Change Management involve identifying the need for change, developing a Change Management plan, communicating the change vision, empowering employees, implementing change initiatives, celebrating milestones, and sustaining change through ongoing evaluation and adaptation. 

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Alongside our diverse Online Course Catalogue, encompassing 17 major categories, we go the extra mile by providing a plethora of free educational Online Resources like News updates, Blogs , videos, webinars, and interview questions. Tailoring learning experiences further, professionals can maximise value with customisable Course Bundles of TKA .

The Knowledge Academy’s Knowledge Pass , a prepaid voucher, adds another layer of flexibility, allowing course bookings over a 12-month period. Join us on a journey where education knows no bounds.  

The Knowledge Academy offers various Change Management Courses , including the Change Management Practitioner Course, Change Management Foundation Training, and Risk Management for Change Training. These courses cater to different skill levels, providing comprehensive insights into Change Management Metrics .   

Our Project Management Blogs cover a range of topics related to Change Management, offering valuable resources, best practices, and industry insights. Whether you are a beginner or looking to advance your Project Management skills, The Knowledge Academy's diverse courses and informative blogs have got you covered.  

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Transformational change: Theory and practice

A look at how transformational change themes apply in practice, with case studies providing practical examples

Explores how the themes on transformational change apply in practice

Our report,  Landing transformational change: Closing the gap between theory and practice  explores how the themes identified in earlier research apply in practice. Case studies from four organisations provide practical examples of how organisations have approached transformational change.

The report also includes recommendations that HR, OD and L&D professionals should consider for their organisations and their own skill set, if they are to be successful expert initiators and facilitators of transformational change.

Whilst these findings and case studies are UK-based, the broader trends and implications should be of interest wherever you are based.

Download the report and individual case studies below

Landing transformational change

This earlier report covers some of the thinking and innovative ideas in the field of change management that can help to land transformational change. Drawing on a comprehensive literature review on change management the report develops ten themes on transformational change practice to provide a platform of knowledge on designing, managing and embedding change essential for OD, L&D and HR professionals.

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organizational change case study examples

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The Most Successful Approaches to Leading Organizational Change

  • Deborah Rowland,
  • Michael Thorley,
  • Nicole Brauckmann

organizational change case study examples

A closer look at four distinct ways to drive transformation.

When tasked with implementing large-scale organizational change, leaders often give too much attention to the what of change — such as a new organization strategy, operating model or acquisition integration — not the how — the particular way they will approach such changes. Such inattention to the how comes with the major risk that old routines will be used to get to new places. Any unquestioned, “default” approach to change may lead to a lot of busy action, but not genuine system transformation. Through their practice and research, the authors have identified the optimal ways to conceive, design, and implement successful organizational change.

Management of long-term, complex, large-scale change has a reputation of not delivering the anticipated benefits. A primary reason for this is that leaders generally fail to consider how to approach change in a way that matches their intent.

organizational change case study examples

  • Deborah Rowland is the co-author of  Sustaining Change: Leadership That Works , Still Moving: How to Lead Mindful Change , and the Still Moving Field Guide: Change Vitality at Your Fingertips . She has personally led change at Shell, Gucci Group, BBC Worldwide, and PepsiCo and pioneered original research in the field, accepted as a paper at the 2016 Academy of Management and the 2019 European Academy of Management. Thinkers50 Radar named as one of the generation of management thinkers changing the world of business in 2017, and she’s on the 2021 HR Most Influential Thinker list. She is Cambridge University 1st Class Archaeology & Anthropology Graduate.
  • Michael Thorley is a qualified accountant, psychotherapist, executive psychological coach, and coach supervisor integrating all modalities to create a unique approach. Combining his extensive experience of running P&L accounts and developing approaches that combine “hard”-edged and “softer”-edged management approaches, he works as a non-executive director and advisor to many different organizations across the world that wish to generate a new perspective on change.
  • Nicole Brauckmann focuses on helping organizations and individuals create the conditions for successful emergent change to unfold. As an executive and consultant, she has worked to deliver large-scale complex change across different industries, including energy, engineering, financial services, media, and not-for profit. She holds a PhD at Faculty of Philosophy, Westfaelische Wilhelms University Muenster and spent several years on academic research and teaching at University of San Diego Business School.

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  • Research article
  • Open access
  • Published: 14 November 2019

Organisational change in hospitals: a qualitative case-study of staff perspectives

  • Chiara Pomare   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-9118-7207 1 ,
  • Kate Churruca 1 ,
  • Janet C. Long 1 ,
  • Louise A. Ellis 1 &
  • Jeffrey Braithwaite 1  

BMC Health Services Research volume  19 , Article number:  840 ( 2019 ) Cite this article

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Organisational change in health systems is common. Success is often tied to the actors involved, including their awareness of the change, personal engagement and ownership of it. In many health systems, one of the most common changes we are witnessing is the redevelopment of long-standing hospitals. However, we know little about how hospital staff understand and experience such potentially far-reaching organisational change. The purpose of this study is to explore the understanding and experiences of hospital staff in the early stages of organisational change, using a hospital redevelopment in Sydney, Australia as a case study.

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 46 clinical and non-clinical staff working at a large metropolitan hospital. Hospital staff were moving into a new building, not moving, or had moved into a different building two years prior. Questions asked staff about their level of awareness of the upcoming redevelopment and their experiences in the early stage of this change. Qualitative data were analysed using thematic analysis.

Some staff expressed apprehension and held negative expectations regarding the organisational change. Concerns included inadequate staffing and potential for collaboration breakdown due to new layout of workspaces. These fears were compounded by current experiences of feeling uninformed about the change, as well as feelings of being fatigued and under-staffed in the constantly changing hospital environment. Nevertheless, balancing this, many staff reported positive expectations regarding the benefits to patients of the change and the potential for staff to adapt in the face of this change.

Conclusions

The results of this study suggest that it is important to understand prospectively how actors involved make sense of organisational change, in order to potentially assuage concerns and alleviate negative expectations. Throughout the processes of organisational change, such as a hospital redevelopment, staff need to be engaged, adequately informed, trained, and to feel supported by management. The use of champions of varying professions and lead departments, may be useful to address concerns, adequately inform, and promote a sense of engagement among staff.

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Change is a common experience in complex health care systems. Staff, patients and visitors come and go [ 1 ]; leadership, models of care, workforce and governing structures are reshaped in response to policy and legislative change [ 2 ], and new technologies and equipment are introduced or retired [ 3 ]. In addition to these common changes experienced throughout health care, the acute sector in many countries is constantly undergoing major changes to the physical hospital infrastructure [ 4 , 5 ]. In New South Wales, Australia, several reports have described the increase in hospital redevelopment projects as a ‘hospital building boom’ [ 4 , 6 ], with approximately 100 major health capital projects (i.e., projects over AUD$10 million) currently in train [ 7 ]. In addition to meeting the needs of a growing and ageing population [ 8 ], the re-design and refurbishment of older hospital infrastructure is supported by a range of arguments and anecdotal evidence highlighting the positive relationship between the hospital physical environment and patient [ 9 ] and staff outcomes [ 10 ]. While there are many reasons why hospital redevelopments are taking place, we know little about how hospital staff prospectively perceive change, and their experiences, expectations, and concerns. Hospital staff encapsulates any employee working in the hospital context. This includes clinical and non-clinical staff who provide care, support, cleaning, catering, managerial and administrative duties to patients and the broader community.

One reason as to why little research has explored the perspectives of hospital staff during a redevelopment may be because hospital redevelopment is often considered a physical, rather than organisational change. Organisational change means that not only the physical environment is altered, but also the behavioural operations, structural relationships and roles, and the hospital organisational culture may transform. For example, changing the physical health care environment can affect job satisfaction, stress, intention to leave [ 11 ], and the way staff work together [ 12 ].

Redeveloping a hospital can be both an exciting and challenging time for staff. In a recent notable example of opening a new hospital building in Australia, staff attitudes shifted from appreciation and excitement in the early stages of change to frustration and angst as the development progressed [ 13 ]. Similar experiences have been reported elsewhere, such as in a study describing the consequences for staff of hospital change in South Africa [ 14 ]. However, these examples explored staff attitudes towards change retrospectively and considered the change as a physical redevelopment, rather than organisational change. Such retrospective reports may be limited in validity [ 15 ] as prospective experiences and understanding of change reported by staff may be conflated with the final outcome of the change. The hospital redevelopment literature has also prospectively assessed health impacts of proposed redevelopment plans as a means to predetermine the impact of a large change on the population [ 16 ]; while prospective, this research again considers redevelopment as a physical modification, rather than an organisational change. Thus, while the literature has reported retrospective accounts of staff experiences in large hospital change and prospective assessment of the impact of the change, there is little research examining the understanding and experiences of staff in the early stages of redevelopmental change in hospitals through a lens of organisational change.

Seminal research in the organisational change literature highlights that the role of frontline workers (in this case hospital staff) is crucial to implementation of any process or change [ 17 , 18 ]. Specifically, that the support of actors (understanding, owning, and engaging) can determine the success of a change [ 19 ]. This is consistent with complexity science accounts which suggest that any improvement and transformation of health systems is dependent upon the actors involved, and the extent and quality of their interactions, their emergent behaviours, and localised responses [ 1 , 20 ]. In health care, change can be resisted when it is imposed on actors (in this case, hospital staff), but may be better accepted when people are involved and adopt a sense of ownership of the changes that will affect them [ 21 ]. This may include being involved in the design process. For this reason, it is important to examine the understanding and experiences of actors involved in a change (i.e., hospital staff in a redevelopment), in order to understand and potentially address their concerns, alleviating negative expectations prior to the change.

This study is part of a larger project exploring how hospital redevelopment influences the organisation, staff and patients involved [ 22 ]. The present study aimed to explore the understanding and experiences of staff prior to moving into a new building as one stage in a multidimensional organisational change project. The research questions were: How do staff make sense of this organisational change? How well informed do they feel? What are their expectations and concerns? What are the implications for hospitals undergoing organisational change, particularly redevelopment?

The study protocol has been published elsewhere [ 22 ]. The Consolidated criteria for reporting qualitative research (COREQ) guidelines were used to ensure comprehensive reporting of the qualitative study results (Additional file 1 ) [ 23 ] .

Study setting and participants

This study was conducted at a large metropolitan, publicly-funded hospital in Sydney, Australia. The facility is undergoing a multimillion-dollar development project to meet the growing needs of the community. This hospital has undergone a number of other changes over the last two decades, including incremental increases in size. Since its opening in the mid 1990s (with approximately 150 beds), several buildings have been added over the years. The hospital now has multiple buildings and over 500 beds.

During the time of this study, the hospital was in the second stage of the multi-stage redevelopment. This stage included: the opening of a new acute services building, the relocation of several wards to this new building (e.g., Intensive care unit (ICU) and Maternity), increases in resources (e.g., equipment, staffing), and the adoption of new ways of working (e.g., activity-based workspaces for support staff). Essentially, the redevelopment involves the opening of a new state-of-the-art building which will include moving services (and staff) from the old to the new building, with some wards staying in the old building. For the wards moving into the new building, this change does not initially involve more patients in existing services, but is intended to increase the number of staff because there will be more physical space to cover and new models of care introduced (e.g., ICU changing to single-bed rooms, more staff needed to individually attend to patients). The current redevelopment includes space for future expansion to account for the growing population. In addition to the redevelopment of the physical infrastructure, the way staff work together is also planned to change. Hospital leadership is aiming to foster a cultural shift towards greater cohesion and unity; highlighting that the hospital redevelopment can be conceptualised as an organisational change of considerable importance and magnitude.

Participants were hospital staff (clinical and non-clinical) working at the hospital under investigation. Staff working on four wards were targeted for interviews, with the intention to capture diverse experiences of the redevelopment and the broader organisational change; two of these wards would be moving into the new building (ICU and Maternity), one ward was not moving (Surgical), and one ward had moved into a new building two years prior (Respiratory). Interviews were also conducted with staff who held responsibilities across wards (e.g., General Services Department: cleaners, porters). The hospital staff were purposively recruited by department heads and snowballed from participants. Fifty staff members were approached (until data saturation was met) with four refusing to participate because they did not have the time.

Semi-structured interviews

Semi-structured interviews were conducted in private settings at the participants’ place of work (e.g., ward interview rooms, private offices). In the event a participant was unable to meet the researcher in person, interviews were conducted over the phone. A semi-structured interview guide was created in collaboration with key stakeholders from the hospital under investigation and following a literature review. The guide (Additional file 2 ) included questions aimed at exploring participants’: (1) understanding of the hospital’s culture and current ways of working; (2) understanding of the redevelopment and other hospital changes; and (3) concerns or expectations about the organisational change. The interviews were audio-taped and transcribed verbatim by the first author who is trained and experienced in conducting semi-structured interviews. No field notes were made during the interview nor were transcripts returned to participants for comment or correction due to the time poor characteristics of the study participants (hospital staff). Participants were informed that the research was part of the first author’s doctoral studies.

Interview data were analysed via thematic analysis [ 24 ] using NVivo [ 25 ]. This approach followed Braun and Clarke’s (2006) six phases of thematic analysis: familiarise, generate initial codes, develop themes, review potential themes, define and name themes, produce the report. Data were initially read multiple times by the first author, then descriptively and iteratively coded according to semantic features. The analysis included the use of inductive coding to identify patterns driven by the data, together with deductive coding, keeping the research questions in mind. Through examination of codes and coded data, themes were developed. The broader research team (KC, LAE, JCL) were included throughout each stage of the analysis process, with frequent discussions concerning the categorization of codes and themes. This process of having one researcher responsible for the analysis while other researchers then checked and clarified emerging themes throughout contributes to the trustworthiness of the findings [ 26 ].

In presenting the results, extracts have been edited minimally to enhance readability, without altering meaning or inference. Where extracts are presented, staff are coded according to their department (G: General – works across several wards; ICU: Intensive care unit; MAT: Maternity ward; RES: Respiratory ward; SUR: Surgical ward) and profession (AD: Administrative staff; CHGTEAM: Change management team staff; DR: Medical staff; GS: General services staff; MW: Midwifery staff; N: Nursing staff; OTH: Other profession).

Forty-six staff members participated in the semi-structured interviews. Interviews were typically conducted face-to-face ( n  = 41; 89.1%), with five interviews conducted over the phone. No differences were discerned in content between these different mediums. Hospital staff taking part in interviews included those from: nursing and midwifery, medical, general services, administrative, and change management (Table  1 ). Change management staff are external to the hospital staff, and do not report to hospital executives. Interviews ranged from seven to 33 min in length ( M  = 17 min). Participating staff had worked at the hospital for on average 10.5 years (range 5 months and 30 years).

Five themes were identified related to hospital staff’s understanding and experiences (i.e., expectations and concerns) of the change: staffing; benefits to patients; collaboration; fatigue; and adaptability. These expectations and concerns are schematically presented in Fig.  1 , with shades of red indicating negative expectations and concerns associated with the theme, and green representing positive expectations. Intensity of the colour demonstrated the frequency of positivity or negativity associated with that theme (i.e., deeper shades of red indicate frequency of negative discussion of this theme by different hospital staff). This figure also highlights the complexity and interrelatedness of these themes (e.g., the concern of inadequate staffing for the new building was linked with concerns about patient care, which could possibly impede the way the team work together, leading to staff feeling overworked and worn out; these expectations were all mitigated by the staff member’s understanding and awareness of the change). Explanations and examples are presented below.

figure 1

Thematic visualisation of staff understanding and expectations of the change

Hospital staff consistently held staffing to be a major concern in this redevelopment. To them, the opening of the new building, and with it the increase in physical size and addition of new services, meant that an increase in staff was crucial to successfully implement the change: “ My biggest uncertainty at the moment is the fact that I’m really concerned about whether I’m actually going to get enough staff ” (GS1). Many participants suggested that this issue would determine the success of the new hospital building. This was particularly important for staff moving into the new building with a bigger work space: “ We just need more staff. Yeah I think that’s the main issue - if we fix that then I believe everything should be smooth ” (ICUN4). For the most part, staff were unaware about how many new staff they would have in the new building. This uncertainty involved two related issues: (1) will we get the budget for new staff that we need? And if so, (2) where will we find all these new staff to employ?

On the first point, staff reported concerns that they would not have enough staff to cover the increased physical space and new ways of working within the new building. This lingering uncertainty was the result of external factors, specifically unresolved budget issues: “ But I suppose some of the issues stem from the fact that you never know how many beds we are able to open based on the funding from the government, and that is what is still up in the air ” (ICUDR1).

Regarding the second point, staff noted that even if budgetary issues were resolved, and there was enough money to hire new staff to fill the new building, a challenge would be finding the staff to recruit: “ I don’t know where these new staff are going to come from” (GN3). Some participants suggested that they already encountered difficulties with employing enough appropriately qualified staff and reported concerns that this issue would be compounded when they moved into the new building: “ Excitement will be way gone. It’s more to deal with that stress and the workload of other staff ” (ICUN4). Participants working on wards that were not moving into the new building also reported concerns about staffing. They noted that, despite not being directly involved in previous stages of the redevelopment, they had still been affected by these changes, because their colleagues were taken from their ward without consultation and moved into a new area. Hence, even staff not moving in the next stage of the redevelopment had concerns that their staffing levels would be affected: “ We have been told that we are not moving in there. And hopefully they don’t take our staff there ” (SURN5).

Benefits to patients

Many hospital staff expressed a positive expectation of the move related to benefits for patients. This was consistent across wards, departments and professions. Staff expected patients to experience benefits including reductions in infection rates and improved satisfaction, due to staying in a well-controlled and physically appealing environment with natural light: “ Any new place will give some joy or some happiness to people… The major change will be that because there are individual rooms, the infection rate will be lower and that I’m very pleased with” (ICUDR1).

Despite these participants reporting the improved physical environment was expected to positively affect patients, they also raised concerns that being in the new building might negatively affect patient safety because the increased physical space could introduce more room for error with the greater workload: “ Brings with it the fear, of how will we treat so many patients with nursing when you have one to one and the rooms are closed. That is a constant worry ” (ICUDR1). Participants indicated that this issue would be compounded if staffing levels were not increased.

Collaboration

Staff expressed multiple negative expectations or concerns about how their ways of working together would be affected by moving into the new building. Staff understood the change as more than just a physical expansion, but as an organisational change that would affect their ways of working. This understanding led to concern regarding how to work together in the new building. Specifically, staff moving into the new building were worried about the new layout of ICU, where nurses would be working alone in rooms with single patients. This would disrupt their ability to easily ask for support currently done by asking the nurse at an adjacent bed, or signalling to someone visible across the room: “ Single rooms are great for patients and everything but I think it becomes a bit more isolated for staffing ” (ICUOTH1). These concerns were also recognised among staff working in the change management team, who may not be directly affected by the change, but acknowledged that this is a major consequence of the move into the new building: “ All the beds, they were able to see each other all the time whereas now it’s a different work environment. They’re a bit more isolated… So that’s what we find is the challenge” (CHGTEAM2). Further, staff were concerned about working in open plan spaces that limit opportunity for private discussions, for example with other staff about workplace conflict or personal matters: “ I’m very concerned about insufficient space for private stuff ” (ICUAD1).

Staff reported negative expectations of collaboration breakdown not only within wards, but across the hospital. The organisational change will include far-flung staff and expanded infrastructure, which may decrease opportunity to collaborate directly. For several participants, the growing size of the hospital was seen as a fracturing of the positive, cohesive culture of what was once a smaller hospital—“ It used to be that the general manager would walk through and know everybody by name, the cleaner, maintenance crew, everybody knew everybody’s name ” (GN1)—into more disconnected, subunits: “ Now we’re very separate ” (ICUOTH1).

During interviews, many participants reported feeling over-worked and under-resourced. While some described being fatigued and unhappy at work, the redevelopment was, nevertheless, clearly a positive: “ We’re not happy because we’re under so much pressure and stress. But, you know, we are looking forward to the new build, it’ll be a beautiful building” (GN3). For others, there were concerns that their feelings of being over-worked would not subside with the opening of the new hospital building and that there was a lack of time to even consider the change. This was expressed by staff moving in to the new building, as well as those not moving:

Who has got the time to go and look at those decorative things ! (SURN5).
I can’t see how it will make a big difference to me… I don’t pay a lot of attention to the looks (MATDR1).
It doesn’t really matter… I could be providing it [patient care] in a tent or a building . (MATMW2).

Further, hospital staff expressed frustration in having to endure poor resourcing, which tempered their excitement for the new building: “We’ve all put up with whatever since whenever and I’m done, I’m so done” (ICUAD1). Some participants reported negative expectations related to the increase in physical space in the new building, as adding to the work load of clinical staff and requiring they travel further to get supplies and attend to patients: “They are worried about, hang on I’m going to have to do so many more laps” (ICUAD1). Similarly, an issue expressed on behalf of staff in the General Services Department was whether they will be able to adequately clean and cater for physically larger areas: “ I’m sitting here and looking at [a previous building that was opened] and seeing how filthy it is ” (CHGTEAM3). Concerns about being over-worked in the face of the redevelopment were further emphasised by some interviewees who discussed a problem with turnover: “ We’ve actually had a few people, I have had three people, which is unusual for us, who have looked for other jobs and are probably resigning. You know which is sort of the opposite of what we’d expect at this time, we’d expect they’d be excited for the new building ” (ICUN5). However, most staff in more junior positions had not seen the new building and thus were unaware of the layout and the degree to which it may impact their work: “ Because I have not seen the actual structure of the area, and I don’t know what they based it on and how they figured out a way to be friendly for both staff and patients at the same time ” (ICUN3). The unawareness and lack of understanding accentuated concerns and negative expectations among staff as they expected the worst.

Also contributing to reports of experiencing fatigue, staff described numerous other large changes taking place at the hospital over the years, in addition to the redevelopment: “ Basically for seven years we’ve been undergoing changes since I’ve been here. It is utterly exhausting having this many changes all the time ” (GS1). This highlights that while this study captures prospective insights to the change, change is constant in health care. While the move into the new building has not yet occurred, the move is part of a broader organisational change grander than the physical expansion of infrastructure. While this was a major concern for many staff, some of the senior medical staff dismissed this as being an issue, suggesting constant change is part of health care and should not lead to staff feeling worn out: “ I think once you get to my level you get good at kind of jumping through hoops… As you get more experienced, you just go with the flow a bit more” (SURDR2).

Adaptability

An additional theme involved staff’s positive expectation that they would be able to adapt to the changes brought about by the move into the new building. Reflecting on past experiences of organisational and infrastructure changes at the hospital, staff expressed that it could take time to adapt and see the benefits of the change: “ At the beginning, of course, everybody was scared of the changes and stuff like that, but eventually we got used to it. ” (SURN3). However, some staff reported that they saw adapting to the new building as a concern, potentially because of a lack of knowledge pertaining to what the new building entails: “ I just don’t know. I’m worried because I don’t know what we’re walking in to ” (ICUN2). In general, staff expressed an understanding of the change as one of physical growth (hospital redevelopment) and changes in ways of working (organisational change): “Getting bigger. So, basically taking all of our acute services and putting it in a brand spanking new building where they’re significantly expanding” (GN1); “ The biggest change is changing the way they work. Changing the way they deliver care .” (CHGTEAM2). When asked why the change was happening, hospital staff were consistent in attributing the need for redevelopment to population growth: “ To develop more resources to accommodate for the growing number of patients ” (SURDR3).

Feeling uninformed and uncertain about the change was expressed by staff of different professions and different levels throughout the hospital. In fact, even wards that were not moving to the new building were unsure if this was the case: “ There’s been no communication from anyone really. I hear from different people yes we are moving and then somebody says no we’re not. We’re staying here in the old building. So, I’m not sure exactly who’s going” (SURN1).

Our findings suggest that in the early stages of hospital redevelopment, staff experience both positive and negative expectations that are dependent upon the level of personal understanding, awareness of the change to come, and how well-resourced they already feel. Interviews with hospital staff highlighted a general understanding of the change as involving physical expansion of the hospital. However, participants also reported feeling inadequately informed about what is to come and described a range of sometimes differing expectations about the organisational effects of this change (e.g., on collaboration, for patients). This supports the conceptualisation of hospital redevelopment as not only a physical change, but an organisational one too.

The present study is the first to empirically explore the experiences and understanding of staff in the early stages of a hospital redevelopment, and conceptualised this as an organisational change. This conceptualisation is an important contribution to the organisational change literature because we show that change, even when based on the best evidence-based design, can be disappointing and bring about negative experiences for staff. The concerns and negative expectations of the change expressed by staff in the present study echo past research that retrospectively explored the experiences of staff during a hospital change, in Australia [ 13 ], and elsewhere [e.g., 14]. In the present study, staffing was a major concern reported by hospital staff. This is consistent with other reports of hospital redevelopment in the Australian context. For example, in a report into the opening of a new children’s hospital, staff were frustrated about the progression of the change and that a lack of staffing impacted on service planning. Staffing was also emphasised as an issue in another Australian hospital redevelopment project, where the building opened with insufficient staffing and resources [ 27 ]. Additionally, hospital staff in the present study indicated that they felt fatigued, so much so that excitement for the opening of the new building was diminishing. Reports of low staff morale in hospital redevelopment projects has also been documented in other Australian and international studies [ 13 , 14 ]. Further, participants in this study reported a lack of awareness of the redevelopment, something that appears to be common with a report of hospital revitalisation in the United States reporting a similar finding [ 28 ].

One source of many of the issues expressed by staff was uncertainty, a common and often inevitable experience in health care [ 29 ], for example, systems uncertainty about staffing levels and uncertainty about whether collaboration and support would break down as the hospital expands. While some types of uncertainty cannot be eradicated, it is important to manage uncertainty in times where information is available. One way to do this is to make sure front-line actors have a platform to seek information and ask questions during organisational change; having access to information is a predictor of success for organisational change in healthcare [ 30 ]. This may help alleviate stress associated with change and make the transition period less uncertain for staff, particularly in early stages where uncertainty may be greater. While it is not always possible for all the concerns and expectations of staff to be individually acknowledged and addressed by those coordinating the change (e.g., change management team or hospital executives), an alternative is through the use of ‘champions’ or ‘opinion leaders’. Opinion leaders are actors with a brokerage role; they carry information across social boundaries, such as between groups of professionals or different hospital wards [ 31 ]. Otherwise referred to as a ‘champion’, by virtue of their trustworthiness and connectedness, these actors are able to lead the opinions of others and are integral in the adoption and diffusion of new phenomena. Successful champions are enthusiastic and motivated about the change they are promoting [ 32 ]. In this case, a successful champion in a hospital undergoing organisational change is a staff member who can inform others and influence acceptance, and provide a positive frame for the change.

Implications

While findings may be localised to the hospital we researched, it is important to note that the hospital redevelopment under investigation is similar to other hospital redevelopments in metropolitan cities in Australia [ 7 ] and worldwide [ 5 ]. Specifically, the redevelopment is an expansion of infrastructure to meet the growing needs of the community which the hospital serves. The perceptions and experiences maintained by hospital staff will differ dependent on the state of the new facilities; these findings broadly generalise to any hospital redevelopment where a newer, larger building is opened. The implications of this study provide broad suggestions for other hospitals undergoing this type of hospital redevelopment.

Firstly, hospital redevelopment should be considered as more than physical change, but as an organisational change, in order to recognise the ripple effects of changing the infrastructure and how this may influence social and behavioural processes. From this study’s findings of the expectations and present experiences of organisational change, we recommend four strategies to aid in the early stages of hospital redevelopment: engage actors; plan and train; learn from the past; and increase managerial engagement (see Table  2 ). These recommendations correspond with suggestions from a past review examining transforming systems in health care [ 33 ]. Effort must be taken to ensure staff are informed of the change and rectify any confusions about who, what, when, and how the change is taking place. This is consistent with organisational change theory that maintains that large scale change requires significant effort and planning to ensure its success [ 19 ]. Therefore, an implication of this study lies in the importance of exploring the understanding and expectations of staff preceding a large organisational change in order to aid in the acceptance of, rather than resistance to, the change [ 21 ]. Further, this study also highlights the importance of studying the experiences of actors not directly involved in the organisational change but who are a part of the broader system (i.e., wards not moving implied they will be affected).

Strengths and limitations

A strength of this study lies in the number of participants and variability in the professions that contribute to the transferability of the study findings. Further, checking and clarifying themes with other researchers throughout the coding process increases the trustworthiness of the findings [ 26 ]. As to limitations, interviews were on average 17 min long, with the shortest interview lasting seven minutes. While this may be perceived as a short duration for collecting interview data it was appropriate for participants who were incredibly time poor (e.g., nurses on shift who could only get a 10 min break to talk to the researcher). It is important that the opinions of these busy staff are captured to reflect the true nature of a sample of varied hospital staff. Further, the findings may not be generalisable to other instances of organisational change and may be specific to the four wards and hospital examined in this study. Wards were purposively chosen rather than randomised. While findings may be specific to the hospital under investigation, the research has been designed to optimise research credibility in this qualitative analysis. Further, considerable context was provided to help readers infer relevance to different settings. This in-depth analysis of how staff understand and interpret organisational change in hospitals provides the opportunity to uncover theoretical insights into the processes of change in the health care system and the perspectives of staff during times of organisational change.

This study explored the prospective understanding and experiences of staff in organisational change in hospitals, using an Australian hospital redevelopment as a case exemplar. Findings indicated that staff were concerned about staffing levels, fatigue, and the potential for a breakdown of current collaborative working. These concerns are similar to past reports of redevelopment in hospitals. This paper presents recommendations for the early stages of organisational change in hospitals. For present and future hospital organisational change projects, it is important that staff concerns are addressed and that staff are informed adequately about the ongoing changes in order to improve their engagement and ownership of the change.

Availability of data and materials

The datasets analysed during the current study are not publicly available due to individual privacy, but are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Abbreviations

Administrative staff

Change management team staff

Medical staff

General – works across several wards

General services staff

Intensive care unit

Maternity ward

Midwifery staff

Nursing staff

Other profession

Respiratory ward

Surgical ward

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Acknowledgements

We thank the hospital executives, ward directors and nursing unit managers for their support in recruitment of interview participants. The authors also thank and acknowledge the interview participants.

CP was funded by the Australian Government Research Training Program (RTP) PhD Scholarship. JB is supported by multiple grants, including the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Partnership Grant for Health Systems Sustainability (ID: 9100002). The funders had no role in the design, analysis and drafting of the manuscript.

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Chiara Pomare, Kate Churruca, Janet C. Long, Louise A. Ellis & Jeffrey Braithwaite

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Contributions

CP and JB conceptualised the project. CP collected and analysed the data, and drafted the manuscript. KC, LAE and JCL assisted in the coding and interpretation of data. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Chiara Pomare .

Ethics declarations

Ethics approval and consent to participate.

The study was approved by the relevant Ethics Committee in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia (no: 18/233). Due to ethical requirements, the committee cannot be named because it may lead to the identification of the study site. Informed consent was obtained from all study participants.

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The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

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Supplementary information

Additional file 1..

Consolidated criteria for reporting qualitative studies (COREQ): 32-item checklist.

Additional file 2.

Semi-structured interview guide.

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Pomare, C., Churruca, K., Long, J.C. et al. Organisational change in hospitals: a qualitative case-study of staff perspectives. BMC Health Serv Res 19 , 840 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-019-4704-y

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Published : 14 November 2019

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-019-4704-y

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Organizational Change Management: What It Is & Why It’s Important

Business manager speaking to team during meeting

  • 21 Jan 2020

Virtually every organization will, at some point, undergo a transition or change in order to remain viable and scale. Whether onboarding new employees, growing a department, or merging with another company, these changes can have a significant impact on the trajectory of your business.

Unfortunately, organizational change isn’t always easy to adapt to and can be intimidating for all team members who find themselves impacted by it.

As a manager tasked with overseeing organizational change or guiding your employees through it, it’s important to know what the process looks like and what to expect. Change, although challenging, can be a major opportunity for growth and career advancement, so long as you know how to approach it.

Here’s a primer on what organizational change management is and some tips for navigating it.

Access your free e-book today.

What is Organizational Change Management?

Organizational change refers to the actions in which a company or business alters a major component of its organization, such as its culture, the underlying technologies or infrastructure it uses to operate, or its internal processes. Organizational change management is the process of guiding organizational change to a successful resolution, and it typically includes three major phases: preparation, implementation , and follow-through.

organizational change management definition

What Causes Organizational Change?

Many factors make organizational change necessary. Some of the most common faced by managers include:

  • New leadership at the helm of the company or within its departments
  • Shifts in the organizational team structure
  • The implementation of new technology
  • The adoption of new business models

To ensure a smooth transition, it’s important to have a set organizational change management process that can be applied across various types of change.

Types of Organizational Change

2 Types of Organizational Change: Adaptive and Transformational

Adaptive changes are small, incremental changes organizations adopt to address needs that evolve over time. Typically, these changes are minor modifications and adjustments that managers fine-tune and implement to execute upon business strategies. Throughout the process, leadership may add, subtract, or refine processes.

One example of an adaptive change is an organization that upgrades their computer operating systems from Windows 8 to Windows 10.

Transformational changes have a larger scale and scope than adaptive changes. They can often involve a simultaneous shift in mission and strategy, company or team structure, people and organizational performance, or business processes. Because of their scale, these changes often take a substantial amount of time and energy to enact. Though it's not always the case, transformational changes are often pursued in response to external forces, such as the emergence of a disruptive new competitor or issues impacting a company’s supply chain.

An example of a transformational change is the adoption of a customer relationship management software (CRM), which all departments are expected to learn and employ.

Many changes will fall somewhere between adaptive and transformational on the spectrum. For this reason, managers need to understand that the change process must be tailored to the unique challenges and demands of each situation.

How to Become a More Effective Leader | Access Your Free E-Book | Download Now

Why Is Organizational Change Management Important?

Organizational change is necessary for companies to succeed and grow. Change management drives the successful adoption and usage of change within the business. It allows employees to understand and commit to the shift and work effectively during it.

Without effective organizational change management, company transitions can be unpredictable and expensive in terms of both time and resources. They can also result in lower employee morale and skill development.

A company’s reaction and adaptation to change is also a critical consideration for key stakeholders like investors, suppliers, and prospective employees when deciding whether to work with or for a company. As a result, a lack of effective change management can lead to an organization’s failure.

A Manager’s Role in Organizational Change

Within an organization, every employee has a different role in assisting with change. While many staff members may complete heavily detailed work, senior-level executives with longer tenure might have different goals. Even within management, leaders and managers perform different tasks.

Leaders, for example, have to be courageous by taking on risks. They need to look at the big picture and articulate high-level change to the company, explain why it’s occurring, and motivate people to support the transition. To be successful as a leader , you must be insightful and know who to put in charge of carrying out change processes.

Managers are more concentrated on making business transitions successful. They focus on implementing change by determining the discrete steps that need to happen and their sequence. Managers are also typically responsible for allocating resources, such as personnel, and determining how success is measured. Ideally, leaders will also be managers , but it’s the primary responsibility of a manager to know how to design, direct, and shape change processes.

To achieve this, you must have a wide array of management skills , such as:

  • Effective communication , including actively listening to your team and colleagues
  • A highly developed level of emotional intelligence
  • Strong organizational skills
  • Attention to detail
  • Problem-solving and decision-making skills
  • Delegating without micromanaging

Preparing for Organizational Change

To prepare for organizational change, it’s essential to first define the organizational change, understand why it’s critical, and garner support from your colleagues.

Then, create a roadmap that clearly articulates and measures success and explains how the business—and its employees, customers, and constituencies—will be affected.

Ensure the process plan aligns with business goals and outlines the implementation and sustainability of the organizational change. Note what challenges may arise and be flexible enough to adjust accordingly. Be sure to celebrate small victories along the way.

Change management doesn’t stop once you’ve successfully executed an organizational transition. Both during and after the process, you need to continuously assess outcomes, track performance to goals, train employees on new methodologies and business practices, and readjust goals as necessary to increase the likelihood of success.

Management Essentials | Get the job done | Learn More

Developing the Skills You Need to Manage Organizational Change

Many managers experience organizational change throughout their careers. By learning how to preempt and address the challenges associated with change, you can ensure you’re equipped with the skills and knowledge needed to manage it.

If you’re looking for opportunities to improve your organizational change management abilities, enrolling in an online management course, like Management Essentials , is one option that can provide you with real-world skills, teach you common business strategies, and prepare you to handle any transitional challenge that comes your way.

Do you want to become a more effective leader and manager? Download our free leadership and management e-book to find out how. Also, explore our online leadership and management courses to learn how you can take charge of your professional development and accelerate your career.

This post was updated on January 3, 2023. It was originally published on January 21, 2020.

organizational change case study examples

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This definition leads the authors to including things like engagement surveys as example of analytics whereas to me, these are clearly measurement approaches rather than analytical ones (the analytics then follows the measurement of engagement). And I’m largely unimpressed by the book’s case studies . And scenario planning?

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When it came to productivity, “ The majority feel that their team demonstrated that they are capable of meeting (or in some cases exceeding) productivity targets within shorter working hours.” According to the case study , when the organization compared pre- and post-trial results, they found a 40% increase in employee engagement.

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Example : A company may flatten its hierarchy by reducing middle management levels, thus enabling quicker decision-making and improved communication between top management and front-line employees. Rebranding: Changing the company’s image and market positioning to reflect new strategic directions.

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Netflix Change Management Case Study

Netflix is one of the world’s leading internet television networks with over 100 million members in 190 countries. It has a wide variety of award-winning original programming, documentaries, TV shows and feature films. 

Netflix offers a subscription services to its users to watch all its content online. Now Netflix is producing its own content and also adding quality content of other producers for its users. It has become one of the popular online video streaming web portals and been on first top 50 websites globally.

But Netflix transformed itself and it embraced change with ever changing technology and business market.

What is Netflix successfully change story? How it happened and what challenges it faced to cope with change?

For this questions, we are presenting here Netflix change management case study.

This case study will explore how Netflix has successfully managed change in the past and present. It will also provide recommendations for other businesses on how to approach change management.

The story of Netflix change management

Netflix is a streaming service for movies and TV shows. It has a library of over 200,000 titles that you can watch on your phone, tablet, computer, or TV. You can also download shows to watch offline. Netflix offers a variety of plans, including a basic plan that starts at $7.99/month and a premium plan that starts at $11.99/month.

Netflix was founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph. They started the company with the intention of offering a DVD-by-mail service. In 2007, they introduced streaming, which allowed instant streaming of TV shows and movies on your computer. In 2013, they introduced the concept of ” binge watching” with the release of House of Cards, which all episodes of the first season were released at once so that viewers could watch them all in one sitting. In 2015, they launched their own production company, Netflix Originals, which produces movies and TV shows that are only available on Netflix. 

Netflix has undergone several changes since it was founded. The most notable change was the introduction of streaming in 2007, which changed the way people watched TV and movies.

Netflix made two big changes since its started business. First, it introduced the subscription option in 1999 to store DVD rental. This option allows users to rent unlimited DVD rental without late fees. It was a drastic change in the business model of Netflix.

The second big change was happened in 2007, when it launched an online video streaming service. It was a highly disruptive change which completely revolutionalized the concept of watching movies and Tv shows online. Consumers also welcomed this change because this change was the need of time. Because everyone was using smartphone, laptops and computers and trend of going to cinema to watch a movie was on decline. Netflix also used social media and present its content to reach out their customers.  

Netflix’s Change Management Process 

Netflix’s change management process is a model for other organizations to follow. The company has a dedicated team that is responsible for managing change. This team works closely with Netflix’s engineers and product managers to ensure that changes are made in a controlled and safe manner. Netflix has also implemented a series of mechanisms to help prevent and mitigate the impact of changes. For example, all changes are assessed for risk before they are implemented. Netflix also conducts regular post-change reviews to identify any issues that may have arisen from the change. As a result of these measures, Netflix has been able to successfully manage change while minimizing disruptions to its business.

How Netflix manages organizational change forces

There are many factors that affect organizational change . But primarily these are two broad forces of organizational change: a) external and b)internal. Among the external forces there were rapid changes in technology, globalisation, social media etc. These all external factors led to organizational change at Netflix. .For instance, people’s expectation and behaviour, likes and dislikes in terms of watching content was changing due to new technology. New tools, techniques were also affecting business of movies watching and TV shows. But Netflix managed all those forces of change and responded in a big way to meet expectations of its consumers.

There were also internal forces of organizational change like new skills of employees and employees expectations, need of change in work environment, cost of business model etc. Netflix taken all these factors into consideration before going to execute change. And that’s the reason behind their successfully implementation of change.

How Netflix Uses Data to Drive Change 

Netflix’s data team is made up of over 800 people, including statisticians, analysts, and engineers. Their mission is simple: “to help Netflix understand its business and the world.” To do this, they collect and process tons of data every day. This data comes from a variety of sources, including things like clickstream data (what you watch and when you watch it), surveys, social media activity, third-party research, and more. 

Once all this data is collected, it’s organized and stored in a massive data warehouse. This is where things start to get really interesting. The team then uses a combination of qualitative analysis (looking at the meaning behind the numbers) and quantitative analysis (using statistical models to draw conclusions) to glean insights from the data. These insights are then used to inform everything from what new shows to green-light to which actors should star in them. 

For example, let’s say the team notices that a lot of people who watch Stranger Things also tend to watch You. They might then use this information to suggest Stranger Things to people who haven’t watched it yet or recommend You to people who have finished Stranger Things and are looking for something similar. This is just one small example of how Netflix uses data to drive change within its business. 

It’s clear that data plays a big role in everything Netflix does. From deciding which new shows to produce to suggesting content for individual users, data is at the heart of the company’s decision-making process. And as our watching habits continue to be tracked and analyzed, we can expect even more personalized recommendations and a more tailored streaming experience overall.

Learning from drastic changes

In order to maintain a successful business, it is important to occasionally review your company’s methods and make changes where necessary. This is especially true in today’s ever-changing marketplace. Netflix, a leading provider of streaming video content, knows this well. In 2011, the company made a drastic change to its business model that upset many of its customers. However, thanks to careful planning and execution, the change was ultimately successful and resulted in increased profits for the company.

The introduction of drastic changes can be a difficult process, but with proper planning and execution, it can be successful. Netflix provides a great example of how to successfully navigate a major change. By carefully considering the needs of its customers and taking the time to properly execute its plans, the company was able to weather the storm and come out stronger than ever before.

Final Words

Netflix is a great example of change management. Business organizations can learn from Netflix change management case study to keep up with the latest changes and trends. Netflix has been successful in managing change by using data to drive their decisions. There are multiple lessons for other business entities that how Netflix capitalised on its human resources and rightly understood needs of modern-day customers.

About The Author

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Tahir Abbas

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organizational change case study examples

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Organizational Change: What it is, Types & How to Manage

Organizational Change: What it is, Types & How to Manage

Change is the only constant in business, and the ability to manage it effectively can make the difference between thriving and merely surviving. Understanding and managing organizational change is crucial, whether your organization is introducing a new technology, expanding into new markets, or completely reimagining its strategy. But what exactly does it entail? What are its different forms, and how can you smoothly steer your organization through these transitions?

In this blog, we’ll learn the essence of organizational change, explore its various types, and provide practical strategies for managing it.

What is Organizational Change?

Organizational Change is the process by which a company or organization transforms its structure, strategy, operations, culture, or processes. 

This change is driven by internal factors like growth, leadership shifts, or the need for improvement, as well as external factors such as market conditions, technological advancements, and competitive pressures.

Organizational change can take various forms, from small, incremental adjustments to large-scale, transformational shifts. The primary goal of organizational change is to enhance the organization’s effectiveness, improve performance, and adapt to evolving circumstances.

The change in organizational structure is a necessary process for growth and sustainability. It enables organizations to navigate challenges, seize opportunities, and maintain a competitive edge in their industry.

Why is Organizational Change Management Important?

Properly managing change is not just about implementing new systems or processes; it’s about ensuring these changes lead to positive, lasting outcomes. Let’s explore why organizational change management is important for your success.

  • Employee Engagement

Organizational change management isn’t just about sending out company-wide notifications. It’s about actively involving everyone in your organization in the change process. By engaging your employees and making them feel part of the transition, you’re more likely to gain their support and ensure successful organizational change.

  • Communication

Effective communication is essential for successful change management and offers several key benefits. When communication is clear and consistent among employees, leaders, and key stakeholders, the change process becomes more manageable.

Here are some of the advantages of strong communication during organizational change:

  • Reduces Confusion: Clear communication helps prevent misunderstandings and misinterpretations.
  • Minimizes Uncertainty: Providing regular updates eases anxiety and keeps everyone informed.
  • Builds Trust: Open dialogue creates trust between all levels of the organization.
  • Encourages Support: Transparent communication helps gain buy-in and support for the changes.

By prioritizing effective communication, you ensure a good organizational transition and approach to managing change.

Minimizes Resistance to Change

Change can be challenging and often meets with resistance, which can slow progress. Employees might actively refrain from participating in the change efforts, impacting project management , productivity, and morale. 

However, employing an effective change management strategy can help overcome this resistance. Providing employees with the necessary information and support can alleviate their concerns, making them more likely to embrace and support the changes.

Enhances Productivity: 

Properly managed organizational changes can lead to: 

  • Improved processes
  • New systems
  • More efficient workflows

This results in a more coordinated and positive work environment , which boosts employee productivity. A supportive team atmosphere also encourages greater engagement in their tasks, further enhancing productivity.

Improves Customer Satisfaction 

The impact of organizational changes eventually reaches your customers, for better or worse. Positive change management contributes to a more secure and stable environment for your employees, leading to more efficient operations and higher-quality products and services. As a result, you can deliver better customer experience and reduce mistakes that could negatively affect your customers.

What are The Key Components of Organizational Change Management?

Effective organizational change management involves a structured approach to transitioning individuals, teams, and organizations from a current state to a desired future state. The goal is to ensure that changes are implemented smoothly and achieve the intended outcomes. Here are the key components of organizational change management:

  • Change Vision and Strategy
  • Leadership and Sponsorship
  • Employee Involvement and Engagement
  • Training and Development
  • Change Management Team
  • Stakeholder Management
  • Monitoring and Evaluation

By focusing on these key components, organizations can successfully navigate change, ensuring that the transition is smooth, employees are engaged, and the desired outcomes are achieved.

Types of Organizational Change

Organizational changes are crucial for businesses to stay competitive and effective. These changes typically fall into five main categories:

1. Transformational Change

Transformational change involves complete and significant alterations that reshape business strategies and processes. It redefined the organization entirely. These changes are usually large-scale, impacting the entire organization, and are implemented in response to drastic shifts in the market, technology, or internal conditions.

Types of Changes:

  • Cultural Change: Shifting the core values, vision, and mission of the organization, leading to a transformed work environment.
  • Structural Change: Reorganizing departments, creating new roles, and redefining job responsibilities to improve performance.
  • Personnel Change: Mass hiring or layoffs due to significant growth or downsizing, affecting employee engagement and retention.

2. Transitional Change

Transitional change replaces existing processes with new ones to enhance efficiency and performance. These changes are often periodic and necessary for maintaining competitiveness in the marketplace.

Common Scenarios:

  • Mergers and acquisitions
  • Policy updates
  • Corporate restructuring
  • Technology Change: Implementing new technologies to replace outdated methods, such as automation or new software platforms.
  • Operational Change: Updating processes or streamlining operations to improve efficiency, often involving new technologies or products.

3. Developmental Change

Developmental change focuses on improving and refining existing systems incrementally. These changes are small-scale, aimed at enhancing current processes and correcting deficiencies.

  • Updating payroll procedures
  • Enhancing billing and reporting methods
  • Refining marketing strategies
  • Anticipatory Change: Preparing for future opportunities or challenges based on data analysis and customer feedback.
  • Remedial Change: Quickly addressing unanticipated problems, such as talent loss or customer communication issues.

4. Proactive Change

Proactive changes are pre-planned and implemented to avoid future threats or capitalize on potential opportunities. These changes are strategically planned to address underlying issues and improve the overall system.

  • Increasing production in anticipation of rising demand.
  • Introducing employee benefit schemes to boost retention.

5. Reactive Change

Reactive changes are unplanned and executed in response to unforeseen internal or external factors. These changes are often necessary to address immediate threats or opportunities that have already occurred.

Reactive changes are usually chaotic and costly. It requires immediate action to mitigate the impact of unexpected events. They often focus on addressing specific symptoms rather than underlying issues.

How to Manage Organizational Change?

Managing organizational change effectively is critical for business processes to thrive in today’s dynamic environment. Change can be daunting, but with the right strategies, it can lead to innovation, growth, and improved efficiency. Here’s we will explore how to manage organizational change successfully.

1. Understand the Change

Start by clearly defining the change and understanding its scope. Identify what needs to change, why it is necessary, and how it will impact the organization.

  • Conduct a thorough analysis of the current situation.
  • Determine the objectives and desired outcomes of the change.
  • Identify the stakeholders affected by the change.

2. Develop a Clear Vision and Strategy

Articulate a clear vision that outlines the end goal of the change. This vision should be compelling and align with the organization’s overall mission and values. Develop a strategic plan that includes detailed steps on how to achieve the vision. This plan should cover timelines, resources needed, and key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure progress.

  • Create a detailed action plan with specific milestones.
  • Allocate necessary resources and assign responsibilities.
  • Set up a timeline for implementation.

3. Communicate Effectively

Effective communication is crucial for managing organizational change. Ensure that all stakeholders are informed about the change, its benefits, and the steps involved. Engage employees at all levels to gain their support and reduce resistance. Provide platforms for feedback and address concerns promptly.

  • Hold regular meetings and updates.
  • Use multiple communication channels (emails, meetings, intranet).
  • Encourage open dialogue and feedback.

4. Build a Change Management Team

Assemble a dedicated change management team comprising leaders from various departments. This team should be responsible for driving the change and ensuring alignment across the organization. Clearly define the roles and responsibilities of each team member to avoid confusion and overlap.

  • Select team members with the necessary skills and influence.
  • Define clear roles and responsibilities.
  • Ensure regular communication within the team.

5. Provide Training and Support

Develop training programs to equip employees with the skills and knowledge required for the change. This can include technical training, soft skills development, and leadership training. Establish support systems such as helpdesks, online resources, and mentoring programs to assist employees during the transition.

  • Conduct a needs assessment to identify training requirements.
  • Develop and deliver training programs.
  • Provide ongoing support and resources.

6. Monitor and Measure Progress

KSet key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure the effectiveness of the change. Regularly track progress against these indicators and make adjustments as necessary. Implement feedback loops to gather input from employees and stakeholders. Use this feedback to make continuous improvements.

  • Establish clear KPIs and metrics.
  • Regularly review progress and make adjustments.
  • Collect and act on feedback.

7. Celebrate Successes and Learn from Failures

Recognize and celebrate milestones and successes to maintain morale and motivation. This helps reinforce the positive aspects of the change and encourages continued effort. Analyze failures and setbacks to understand what went wrong and how to improve. Use these lessons to refine your approach and avoid similar issues in the future.

  • Publicly acknowledge achievements and contributions.
  • Hold debrief sessions to discuss lessons learned.
  • Apply insights to future change initiatives.

How QuestionPro Helps in Managing Organizational Change?

Managing organizational change can be challenging, but QuestionPro Workforce offers powerful tools to help organizations navigate these transitions effectively. By focusing on employee feedback, engagement, and data-driven insights, QuestionPro Workforce ensures that changes are implemented smoothly and successfully. Here’s how it works:

Employee Feedback Collection 

It allows organizations to gather real-time feedback from employees, which is crucial during change initiatives. This feedback helps in understanding employee concerns and expectations, allowing for timely adjustments to change human resource management strategies.

Surveys and Polls

The platform enables the creation of customized surveys and polls to understand: 

  • Employee sentiment
  • Engagement and 
  • Readiness for change

This data helps tailor communication and support strategies to manage the change process better.

Analytics and Reporting

QuestionPro provides advanced analytics and reporting tools to analyze feedback data. This helps in identifying: 

  • Potential issues
  • Areas that need attention

It allows for data-driven decision-making in managing change.

Change Readiness Assessment

The tool can be used to assess the organization’s readiness for change by evaluating employee attitudes and perceptions. This helps in planning and implementing change initiatives more effectively.

Engagement Tracking

By monitoring employee engagement levels, organizations can assess the impact of change initiatives and make necessary adjustments to improve engagement and reduce resistance.

Actionable Insights

The insights gathered from surveys and feedback can be used to develop targeted action plans to address specific concerns and improve the overall change management process.

Organizational change is vital to maintaining and improving business performance. Organizations can navigate transitions smoothly and achieve their goals by understanding the different types of organizational change and implementing effective management strategies. Clear communication, employee engagement, and ongoing support are key to managing change successfully and ensuring long-term success.

QuestionPro Workforce is a powerful tool for managing organizational change. It helps organizations navigate the complexities of change with greater confidence and success. Whether assessing change readiness, monitoring impact, or enhancing communication, 

QuestionPro Workforce equips organizations with the insights and tools to manage change effectively and sustainably. So, Get ready to turn uncertainty into opportunity and lead your organization toward a successful future with QuestionPro.

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COMMENTS

  1. Coca Cola Change Management Case Study

    Coca Cola Change Management Case Study. Tahir Abbas February 26, 2023. Change is an inevitable part of running a successful business, and companies must adapt to remain competitive. However, managing change can be a daunting task, especially for large organizations. One company that successfully navigated the challenges of change management is ...

  2. 9 Successful Change Management Examples For Inspiration

    These diverse change management examples provide field-tested savvy and offer a window into how varied organizations successfully manage change. Case studies, from healthcare reform to innovative corporate restructuring, exemplify how aligning with organizational culture, building strong change networks, and focusing on tactical initiatives can ...

  3. Walmart Change Management Case Study

    Walmart Change Management Case Study. Tahir Abbas March 5, 2023. Change management is an essential aspect of any business that seeks to remain competitive in a dynamic market environment. Walmart, one of the world's largest retail giants, has had to navigate through significant changes in the retail industry, including the growth of e ...

  4. The Top 20 Business Transformations of the Last Decade

    Summary. The strategic impulse to identify a higher-purpose mission that galvanizes the organization—is a common thread among the Transformation 20, a new study by Innosight of the world's ...

  5. Short Case Study on Change Management

    Learning about them through a short case study is an excellent way to gain a better understanding of these concepts. Here are 05 short case studies on change management that offer you valuable insights on managing change. 1. Adobe- a transformation of HR functions to support strategic change. Many a times external factors lead to changes in ...

  6. 7 real-life organizational change examples & best practices

    Learn how to lead and transform your organization with these stories and tips from different industries and sectors. Discover how to use digital tools, frameworks, culture design, and employee engagement to drive change.

  7. Five Case Studies of Transformation Excellence

    Without any changes to the product lineup, that measure has driven a 4 percent jump in gross sales. Throughout the process, management had a strong change-management effort in place. For example, senior leaders communicated the goals of the transformation to employees through town hall meetings.

  8. Change Management Case Study: Real-World Examples and Lessons

    1) Coca-Cola. Coca-Cola, the beverage titan, acknowledged the necessity to evolve with consumer tastes, market shifts, and regulatory changes. The rise of health-conscious consumers prompted Coca-Cola to revamp its offerings and business approach. The company's proactive Change Management centred on innovation and diversification, leading to ...

  9. Change Management: Articles, Research, & Case Studies on Change

    Change Management. New research on change management from Harvard Business School faculty on issues including how to plan for opportunities, how to effect change in the workplace, and case studies on how business leaders managed the economic crisis. Page 1 of 67 Results →. 18 Jun 2024.

  10. Organizational Change & Adaptation: Articles, Research, & Case Studies

    New research on organizational change and adaptation from Harvard Business School faculty on issues including how companies can react to market disruptions, maximizing economic value while developing organizational capabilities, and how the FBI reinvented itself after 9/11. ... A case study by Luis Viceira and Emily McComb explores how the ...

  11. Transformational Change with Case Studies

    Whilst these findings and case studies are UK-based, the broader trends and implications should be of interest wherever you are based. Download the report and individual case studies below. Landing transformational change: Closing the gap between theory and practice - Report. PDF document 474.5 KB. BBC Worldwide case study. PDF document 107.2 KB.

  12. The Most Successful Approaches to Leading Organizational Change

    Summary. When tasked with implementing large-scale organizational change, leaders often give too much attention to the what of change — such as a new organization strategy, operating model or ...

  13. Starbucks Change Management Case Study

    Starbucks Change Management Case Study. Tahir Abbas March 4, 2023. Change is a constant in any business, and successful organizations must adapt to changes in the industry, market, and consumer preferences to remain competitive. The ability to manage change is crucial to the survival of businesses in today's dynamic market environment.

  14. Organisational change in hospitals: a qualitative case-study of staff

    Organisational change in health systems is common. Success is often tied to the actors involved, including their awareness of the change, personal engagement and ownership of it. In many health systems, one of the most common changes we are witnessing is the redevelopment of long-standing hospitals. However, we know little about how hospital staff understand and experience such potentially far ...

  15. How to Implement Organizational Change Successfully

    6 Steps to Implement Organizational Change. Organizational Leadership breaks the change implementation process into six steps, known as the CHANGE model. C onceptualize: Distill your organization's complex issues into a clear picture of root causes and potential solutions. H ear: Gather perspectives from different team members to learn what ...

  16. Successful change management

    Turn adjacencies into a change catalyst. Adjacency and diversification are different: diversification is entering totally new markets while adjacency focuses on finding opportunities that are much closer to the core of the business. For instance, in the case study below, as Amazon's data centers grew in scale, so too did its skills and ...

  17. What Is Organizational Change Management?

    Organizational change refers to the actions in which a company or business alters a major component of its organization, such as its culture, the underlying technologies or infrastructure it uses to operate, or its internal processes. Organizational change management is the process of guiding organizational change to a successful resolution ...

  18. Case Study, Change Management and Examples

    It offers tools to guide management through organizational change. Topics covered in the Organization Design: A Foundational Course for Practitioners - IRL Cornell program include business analytics, change management, human capital management, leadership, and strategy. Cost: Course is $1,995. Course 98.

  19. Unilever Change Management Case Study

    Here are three examples of internal factors that have led to organizational changes at the company: Management Changes: Changes in top management can often lead to organizational changes. For example, when Paul Polman became CEO of Unilever in 2009, he initiated a major restructuring of the company that aimed to streamline operations and focus ...

  20. Case Studies of Organisational Change

    Work-life integration : case studies of organizational change / Suzan Lewis and Cary L. Cooper p. cm. ISBN -470-85344-1 (hbk) - ISBN -470-85343-3 (pbk) 1. Work and family - Case studies. 2. Organizational change - Case studies. I. Cooper, Cary L. II. Title. HD904.25.L48 2005 306.306 - dc22 2004022951 British Library Cataloguing in ...

  21. Netflix Change Management Case Study

    Netflix Change Management Case Study. Tahir Abbas December 9, 2022. Netflix is one of the world's leading internet television networks with over 100 million members in 190 countries. It has a wide variety of award-winning original programming, documentaries, TV shows and feature films. Netflix offers a subscription services to its users to ...

  22. Organizational Change: What it is, Types & How to Manage

    Types of Organizational Change. Organizational changes are crucial for businesses to stay competitive and effective. These changes typically fall into five main categories: 1. Transformational Change. Transformational change involves complete and significant alterations that reshape business strategies and processes. It redefined the ...