The aim of this study was to explore the role of feedback in managing resistance to organisational change. A general systems theoretical model of individual resistance to change was developed. It describes the origin, function and outcomes of individual resistance to planned organisational change. The role of feedback within this process was identified as a central one and feedback was therefore identified as an important point of leverage in managing resistance to change. The survey feedback approach was adopted in a retail organisation undergoing significant change. Staff were asked to respond to a survey on their experience of the change. Results were analysed and then fed back to them during group discussions. The process was repeated. It was concluded that the survey feedback approach significantly contributed to a reduction in resistance to change and that both survey feedback approach and the model of individual resistance to change merit further investigation. / Industrial Psychology / M.A. (Industrial Psychology)

The intention of this study was theory creation in the field of organisational change, directed towards the creation of a conceptual change framework. A qualitative research approach was followed and a grounded theory methodology adopted. This study involved a theoretical investigation of organisational change and leadership within South African organisations, although insights gained could be transferred across contexts or settings. The primary aim was to create a practical change framework to ensure sustainable organisational change. Secondly, to determine the impact of leadership on successful organisational change. Thirdly, to establish whether any fundamental elements can be identified as essential for inclusion in such a change framework. Fourthly, to identify non-negotiable success factors that can ensure successful change. Fifthly, to determine the human elements that should be included in order to minimise negative outcomes such as resistance and noncompliance. The final aim was to ascertain what meta-insights can be gained from organisational change and leadership. The research findings concluded that the first perception when speaking about change is fear, anxiety and increased stress, resulting in impaired functioning. Organisations struggle to handle increased stress levels during periods of change and require improved methods of dealing with stress to ensure optimal individual functioning. Only through reduced stress levels will individuals be able to engage with organisational change initiatives. Alternative intervention technologies were suggested which could assist the individual change journey through reduced stress and/or increased consciousness. These alternative intervention technologies were suggested because of the paucity of current literature. It practically aids organisations on how to deal with the stress dilemma. This research introduced the concepts of anti-leader and anti-manager. These concepts depict the negative characteristics of leadership and management which invariably increases individual stress levels. Emotions elicited by the anti-leader and/or anti-manager could potentially split, divide and fragment a workforce. The ideal organisational approach should be designed by the people, be inclusive of all, involve, empower and allow individuals to make the required decisions. As organisational change can only be effected through individual change, this thesis places the individual in the centre. Without individual change, vicissitude and sustainable organisational change become highly unlikely. / Graduate School of Business Leadership / DBL

SAMMANFATTNING I organisationers och inte minst biblioteks sätt att förhålla sig till förändring och utveckling kan genom den litteratur som presenterats flera olika krafter i denna process urskiljas. I ett växande medvetande om omvärlden och dess accelererande dynamik och inverkan på biblioteksorganisationens framtid, har en vilja för större öppenhet gentemot denna utvecklats. Tjänster i form av service till användarkollektivet tas på större allvar. Organisationsstrukturen förändras och bryts ner och i och med det kommer problem och frågeställningar i dagen som rör såväl verksamhetens teknik, arbetsuppgifternas innehåll som ledarskap och maktfördelningen. Trots vilja till förändring och implementering av nya idéer, finns de traditionella förhållningssätten kvar nere i organisationen. Bakom en organisationsförändring döljer sig ett syfte, ett mål med verksamheten, samtidigt som organisationen lever och utvecklas i en omvärld med normer och värderingar som basen för dess mål. Biblioteksorganisationens medvetenhet om mål och värderingar bakom verksamhet och uppgifter har visat sig vara ganska svag. Många medarbetare och bibliotekarier ser organisationens blotta existens som ett värde i sig som inte bör ifrågasättas, medan ledare och beslutsansvariga har ett mer rationellt förhållningssätt till dessa begrepp. Inte sällan kan här skönjas en konfliktyta mellan värderationalism och målrationalism i den Weberska betydelsen. Därför får organisationen svårt att skapa en kontinuerlig målförståelse ner genom organisationen, från det övergripande syftet med nära relationer till bakomliggande värderingar och ner till de mer operativa delmålen. Detta får följder vid implementering av datorstödda bibliotekssystem, som idag 94 representerar det tekniska systemet i organisationen. Utformningen av detta system har stor betydelse för måluppfyllelse. Utformningen av datorfiler och bibliotekssystem har utgått från ett tänkande som går långt tillbaka i tiden. De bygger på en konsoliderad teknik. Katalogsystem i samverkan med andra bibliotek har varit det som utgjort grunden för universitetsbibliotekens datorisering. Användarnas behov har definierats genom bibliotekets egna behov och sätt att betrakta dem. Man har ofta betraktat dem som ett kollektiv och tjänsterna har generaliserats i sin utformning. Just användarna, deras antal, krav och önskemål, har blivit en av de komponenter i omvärlden som utvecklats till den starkaste drivkraften och utmaningen för biblioteken förändring och syn på sig själv. Emellertid har biblioteken en tendens att bortse från olika användargruppers specifika beteendemönster och behov som går att finna inom olika fakulteter och forskningsområden. Användarna å sin sida har ofta mycket traditionella och konventionella förväntningar på vilken service de vill och kan få vid biblioteken.

This research investigates opportunities for Service Design in Education. The focus is on a particular type of change happening within education that of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) where Service Design has little presence and limited knowledge. This research has been carried out through grounded theory and contextualised in English institutions of primary education. As a result it identified Service Design as an approach to enable transformational change within educational institutions that seek to move towards ESD. To establish the basis for the research, a literature review has been carried out on Service Design, the vision of ESD and its application in the context of English schools. As a result, Service Design capability to re-design services at organisational level was linked to the gap in normative re-educative change processes towards ESD in English schools. The rest of the research sought to build on these findings. In-depth case studies with five primary schools and a cross-case analysis have been carried out to establish an understanding of ESD change at organisational level. It focused on elements relevant to normative re-educative change processes, which included social and personal norms and values residing within organisational systems. From the case studies, principles, concepts and processes were identified that enabled schools to engage with ESD at the deepest level. The knowledge derived from the case studies was further developed in order to relate the ESD phenomenon to Service Design. Service thinking and organisational change theory were applied to develop a Sustainable Education as a Service Model (SES MODEL) to understand ESD as a phenomenon in a service system. A SES Model was presented back to Service Design community. The sense-making of ESD was undertaken with seven service design practitioners by conducting semi-structured interviews during which they explored the SES Model. The outcome of the interviews showed the model to build service designer s capacity to engage with ESD, while the use of the model showed that designers could envision using it at a normative re-educative change level. The research shows that ESD is a new concept, which is relevant to Service Design. It therefore offers opportunities for further service design research and practical applications.

Since the end of the 1980’s  Swedish county council managers has been preoccupied with planning and implementing organisational change in order to alleviate the financial problems and to create more efficient production systems. Many of these efforts to change have implied changing the systems for management accounting and control, changes that have been inspired both by market-oriented ideologies and by the governance principles of large corporations in the private sector. Literature on manage­ment accounting and control indicates however, that management is unintentionally contributing to the creation of organisational inertia and conservatism. This contradiction is formulated as a change dilemma; ”How can managerial principles that make organizations subject to  bureaucratization and inertia be used as important strategies for organizational change?” The purpose of the study is thus to analyze the use of management control systems as organizational change strategies in health care, employing a change perspective on management control. When used as a change strategy,  management accounting and control becomes manifest as management control initiatives. Actors handle these control inititatives by organising themselves around the issue at hand. This organising process ends or fades away when there are no need for further attention to the control initiative. Empirical studies were made in the councils of Västerbotten, Sörmland and Upp­sala counties. Management control initiatives investigated were performance-related pay, quality improvement work, systematic planning procedures, provider/purchaser-models, downsizing projects and profit center systems. The systems for management accounting and control appeared to structure health care organisations in terms of spatial structuring temporal structuring and actor categorization. The management control initiatives introduced were structured as extraordinary organising processes delimited in terms of space, time and involved actors. Actors in the administrative norm system participated with the intention to change the organisation, while those in the medical norm system aimed at just handling the initiative. Management control initiatives can therefore be seen as passing opportunities to change, passing in the sense that the organising processes are temporary by nature, opportunities in the sense that temporary re-coupling can be used to  achieve long-term change. One such opportunity is the formulation of control initiatives; the possibility of using simple and standardized change strategies can be useful, but only if they are also linked to the medical norm system. A second opportunity is the temporary organising processes; if the project form of organising change can also be conveyed to the medical norm system, management control initiatives could result in short, intense courses of events that actually change things. The third opportunity  s the recurrent  cyc ica  pro­ perties  of  management  accounting  and control  systems, enabling  recurrent  activities around the same themes, thereby keeping them alive. / <p>Diss. av båda förf. Umeå : Umeå univ., 1998 ; Framlägges för vinnande av filosofie doktorsexamen respektive ekonomie doktorsexamen.</p> / digitalisering@umu

This current study investigated a possible extension to existing transformational leadership models used during organisational change programs. Researching the literature provided some preliminary evidence there was a need to include a potential extension to transformational leadership models. The original models of transformational leadership involved looking at the staff members from an organisational perspective, whereas the potential extension, concerns the human aspects of organisational change. The potential new extension consists of four components: communication, team building, stress and coping and inter-group conflict. This possible extension to the transformational leadership models appeared to be an exciting addition as it addresses important human resource issues experienced during organisational change. The present study sought to further investigate whether these four components indeed were warranted and whether its components actually contributed to successful organisational change. The research methodology was exploratory, qualitative and based on a grounded theory approach (Glaser & Strauss 1967). Using an embedded case study method, in-depth convergent interviews were undertaken in four hospitals undergoing considerable organisational change. Twenty-six managers, executives and staff were interviewed. It was found that the change managers themselves were enthusiastic about implementing change but were unable to offer effective support for staff. Staff and managers said that communication within the hospitals during the period of change was poor. Similarly there was a paucity of accurate information being disseminated. Managers and staff also revealed that they had experienced considerable stress during the period of change and they needed help in order to cope effectively. Varying levels of inter-group conflict were reported in all the hospitals studied and managers reported that changes were not being implemented appropriately. However, efforts at team building were non-existent in two of the hospitals studied. These findings provide strong support for managers and leaders to pay increased attention to communication, team building, dealing with conflict and managing stress during times of increased change. This study suggests that a potential extension of the four components could be added to, and thereby strengthen, the transformational leadership models of organisational change.

The present studies were designed to advance theoretical understanding of employee adjustment during organisational change. There were two broad aims of the thesis. Firstly, the role of organisational climate factors in facilitating employee adjustment during change was examined by testing models based on Lazarus and Folkman's (1984) cognitive-phenomenological account of stress and coping processes. In particular, the concept of coping resources was expanded to examine organisational factors rather than individual attributes. Secondly, the extent to which organisational sub-groups differ in their perceptions of climate and levels of adjustment indicators during change was investigated. The research also aimed to inform diagnostic processes within organisational change management by examining the applied value of the empirical findings of each of the studies. The first two studies were empirical tests of a theoretical model of employee adjustment. Study 1 tested a model of employee adjustment to organisational change that examined employee well-being and job satisfaction as outcomes of positive adjustment during change. Firstly, pilot interviews with 67 hospital employees enabled salient aspects of the organisational climate that may facilitate adjustment during organisational change to be confirmed. Next, 779 employees in the same organisation completed a structured questionnaire that examined their perceptions of organisational coping resources, appraisals of change and adjustment indicators. Confirmatory factor analyses established the sound measurement properties of the proposed model and structural equation analyses provided evidence that supported the majority of theoretical predictions. Overall, the final model showed that employees who had positive perceptions about employee relations within the hospital, strong beliefs about the quality of patient care, and felt supported by their supervisors were more positive in their appraisals of the change and reported better personal adjustment. The effects of climate variables on adjustment were direct and indirect (mediated by change appraisals). A particularly influential variable in the model was the effectiveness of employee relations within the organisation. Study 2 tested a model of employee adjustment to organisational change which examined organisational commitment, turnover intentions and absenteeism as outcomes of positive adjustment during change. Firstly, as in Study 1, pilot interviews with 20 state public sector employees enabled salient elements of the organisational climate that may function as resources for coping with organisational change to be confirmed. Next, 877 employees in the same organisation completed a structured questionnaire that examined their perceptions of organisational coping resources, appraisals of change and adjustment indicators. Like Study 1, confirmatory factor analyses established the sound measurement properties of the proposed model and structural equation analyses provided evidence which supported most of the theoretical predictions. Overall, the final model showed that employees who had positive perceptions about customer service, believed that their leaders communicated a vision for the organisation, and felt supported by their supervisors were more positive in their appraisals of the change and reported better personal adjustment. The effects of climate variables on adjustment were direct and indirect (mediated by change appraisals). The extent to which leaders exhibited a vision for the organisation emerged as an important predictor in the model. Together, the results of studies 1 and 2 provided evidence that organisational climate variables are important predictors of the way employees appraise and respond to organisation change. The next two studies presented were focused on group differences in the model variables from studies 1 and 2. Study 3 investigated group differences in perceptions of climate and levels of adjustment during organisational change as a function of an employee's organisational level. The pilot interviews revealed that an employee's organisational level was the most salient source of sub-group identification in the climate of a public sector department. Survey data from study 2 were analysed using Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA). The responses of 669 public sector employees were grouped into 3 categories: lower, middle and upper level employees. Results revealed that upper level staff reported higher levels of adjustment during change, across a range of indicators. Study 4 investigated occupational group and organisational level differences in perceptions of climate and levels of adjustment during organisational change. The pilot interviews in this organisation revealed that it was an employee's occupational group membership that provided the most salient group delineator in the hospital climate. Survey data from Study 1 were analysed using MANOVA. The responses of 732 hospital employees were grouped into 4 major occupational categories: medical, nursing, allied health and non-clinical staff. Participants were also grouped on the basis of whether they occupied a management or non-management position. Results revealed statistically significant differences between groups and an interaction between occupation and level. Non-clinical staff were less well adjusted during change than other occupational groups. Managers appraised change as more stressful than non-managers, but felt more in control of the situation. Together, the results of Studies 3 and 4 highlighted the importance of examining employee perceptions at the sub-group level when implementing change and indicated the need for interventions to be targeted at the sub-group level. Overall, the research reported in this dissertation extended a theoretical model of employee adjustment to change and improved the application of the model. This outcome was achieved by investigating the role of environmental coping resources drawn from the organisational climate in improving employee adjustment during change and the degree to which groups differed in their perceptions of these variables. Climate and change appraisal factors were linked with a range of important individual/organisational outcomes such as employee well-being, job satisfaction, organisational commitment, turnover intentions and absenteeism. Differences in perceptions of climate and levels of adjustment during change were also observed at the organisational sub-group level. The findings of the research have implications for the effective management of organisational change. Change should be implemented in conjunction with ongoing organisational development processes involving diagnostic research that identifies the elements of climate that employees draw upon for support in the process of adjustment. Interventions should be based on improving and strengthening these resources. Diagnostic processes should also pay attention to the salient groupings of staff within an organisation so that interventions can be targeted specifically to relevant sub-groups.

Patient safety is of particular importance within intensive care units (ICUs), where critically ill, vulnerable patients receive complex multidisciplinary care. Prior research has indicated that improving patient safety and reducing errors within healthcare requires a focus on systems and organisational culture issues. This thesis was concerned with three studies. One focused on assessing the patient safety culture and two on quality improvement initiatives within an intensive care unit (ICU) of a large teaching hospital. The first study involved a survey of ICU consultant, registrar and nursing staff regarding aspects of safety culture. This was conducted using an existing Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture. Of the twelve patient safety culture composites assessed, eight had scores lower than 50%, highlighting these as areas for improvement. Overall, while the survey results revealed that teamwork within the ICU was considered a strength, event reporting and patient care handovers and transitions were both considered areas with potential for improvement. The second study focused on the evaluation of a change initiative designed to improve the handover of patient clinical information in the ICU. This study involved a survey and interviews with consultant, registrar and nursing staff before and after the introduction of a Patient Management, Plan and Progress (PMPP) document. Examination of the survey responses involved both quantitative and qualitative analysis; respondent interview transcripts were analysed using thematic analysis. The results of this study revealed resistance to, and criticisms of, the introduction of the PMPP document; the initiative failed and use of the document was discontinued. The second initiative concerned an evaluation of the impact of a hospital-wide document on improving documentation of withdrawal of patient treatment within the ICU. This involved both quantitative and qualitative analysis, with a patient medical record audit of decisions to withdraw patient treatment within the ICU before and after the introduction of an Advance Care Plan (ACP) document. ICU consultant, registrar and nursing staff were interviewed regarding the process of withdrawal of patient treatment within the ICU. Interview transcripts were analysed using a modified grounded theory approach. Results revealed that the attempt to improve the documentation of withdrawal of treatment within the ICU failed, with the ACP document remaining unused in 89% of cases and incomplete in the remaining 11%. Also, documentation of decision-making and of the process within the medical records did not improve. Before-introduction findings revealed that only 26% of medical records met the pre-existing requirements for treatment withdrawal in the ICU, and after-introduction findings revealed that only 19% of medical records audited met the requirements of the ACP document. After-audit findings also revealed significant and inappropriate increases in the involvement of an ICU registrar both as primary and secondary decision-makers. In spite of an increased awareness of ICU staff concerning the importance of improving documentation, the medical record audit revealed less compliance with the standards required for documentation. Possible reasons for the document remaining essentially unused, as revealed from interviews with staff, included: previous criticisms by the coroner when they failed to complete a similar formalised document properly; perceived logistical issues associated with obtaining required staff signatures; disagreement concerning who should be involved in documenting the withdrawal of treatment process; and the existence of an ICU subculture of practice that, in one particular aspect of documentation, was not consistent with established hospital and ICU protocol and documentation requirements. The final chapter of this thesis considered implications of the results of the studies for the planning, development, implementation and evaluation of improvement programs within the ICU setting. The results were considered within the context of organisational change management theory and research, including factors that have been found to be critical in the success or failure of change programs, such as resistance to change, the involvement of key stakeholders in the change process, leadership, communication and organisational culture. It is suggested that management consultants with organisational change expertise in the planning, development, implementation and evaluation of such programs should be involved in future quality improvement initiatives. / http://proxy.library.adelaide.edu.au/login?url= http://library.adelaide.edu.au/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?BBID=1297608 / Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, School of Psychology, 2007

<p>Making the work in the public sector more efficient is something that has been seen as necessary during the later years. One way to do this on municipal level has been to apply solutions former used mostly by private companies. The organisational parts have also been adjusted to existing conditions in this work of change. For example more and more municipalities have come to use the purchaser-supplier model since the beginning of the 1990's. Norrköping, Linköping and Motala have been chosen in this essay for a closer study of the effects of the changes of the 90's, from an efficiency point of view. Even the process whereby the changes have been performed has been studied. The result that is being presented is that the purchaser-supplier model in many ways has contributed to an increased consciousness about the existing problems in the work and organisation in the municipalities. At the same time there is critics about the way the model is being used, and about the fact that the application isn't always adjusted to the existing reality.</p>

Making the work in the public sector more efficient is something that has been seen as necessary during the later years. One way to do this on municipal level has been to apply solutions former used mostly by private companies. The organisational parts have also been adjusted to existing conditions in this work of change. For example more and more municipalities have come to use the purchaser-supplier model since the beginning of the 1990's. Norrköping, Linköping and Motala have been chosen in this essay for a closer study of the effects of the changes of the 90's, from an efficiency point of view. Even the process whereby the changes have been performed has been studied. The result that is being presented is that the purchaser-supplier model in many ways has contributed to an increased consciousness about the existing problems in the work and organisation in the municipalities. At the same time there is critics about the way the model is being used, and about the fact that the application isn't always adjusted to the existing reality.