The motivation behind this research is the prevalence of challenges and ambiguity associated with successful organizational change and the numerous available approaches in dealing with these challenges and ambiguity. Many definitions and methods have been suggested to manage change; however, organizations still report a high failure rate of their change initiatives. These high failure rates highlight the continuing need for research and investigation, and imply a lack of a valid framework for managing successful organizational change. This dissertation critically reviews the concept of having one change approach as the “silver-bullet”. In pursuit of this goal, this research contributes a roadmap to the change management literature and provides definitions for describing change types, change methods and change outcomes. This dissertation also develops a conceptual model that proposes relationships and connections between the change types, change method and change outcomes that is assumed to enable successful change. To validate the research conceptual model, two hypotheses were developed and a self-administered survey was created and administered (paper survey and online). The respondents were professionals involved in change projects in the Central Florida region. The unit of analysis in this research was a completed change project. Respondents were asked to complete the survey for two different projects: a successful project and an unsuccessful iii project. Statistical processes were applied to verify the conceptual model and test the research hypotheses. Based on the data collected, exploratory factor analysis was used to verify the validity and reliability of the conceptual model measures. Results of the hypotheses testing revealed that there are relationships between the complexity of the change type and the use of change methods that significantly relate to successful change. The results also revealed that the alignment of the change type and change methods significantly relates to successful change. From the viewpoint of change project managers, the results of this dissertation have confirmed that the complexity of the change project type negatively correlates with change success and the increased use of change methods positively correlates with change success. The results also confirmed that the methods that highly correlate to change success address the following: (a) the situation that needs changing, (b) the proper implementation of change, (c) the establishment of suitable plans and controls to sustain change, and (d) the presence of a credible team leader who influences the major decisions during the change project.

Abstract Values are foundational guidelines that underpin nurses’ actions. They serve as fundamental points of reference for nurses; and, as such, determine their moral nursing practice. Understanding how nurses’ experience of living their values amidst organizational change sheds light on how this social condition influences the narrative composition of nurses’ lives and their practice. This Narrative Inquiry (Clandinin & Connelly, 2000) illuminates the temporal connections of life events; how social conditions mutually shape personal conditions; and how actions that occur within a place give meaning to the experience. Six nurses from a large academic health centre in Southern Ontario were recruited and interviewed over eight months. During initial analysis, letters were constructed for each co-participant to reveal the experience of living values amidst organizational change. Subsequently, a composite narrative in the form of a letter was composed, revealing four plotlines: responsive relationship, moral distress, reflection and reconstruction, and knowledge and identity. These plotlines intersect to describe the extent to which nurses meet their moral obligations within relational practice. This inquiry brings to the foreground four narrative terms, including stories to commit by, that contribute to a new way of thinking about familiar issues. It illuminates the personal and the active movement of reflection that reside in a person and the choice(s) she/he makes to re-craft a life. Considerations for practice, education, policy, and research highlight the importance of a deeper level of reflective practice, the connection between personal and ethical knowledge, and the need for becoming aware of one’s moral horizon. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

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The purpose of the dissertation was to explore the impact of regulating dynamics on the process of organizational change in non-profit sport organizations. Regulating dynamics are the factors which enable or constrain organizational change. Four regulating dynamics were targeted based on previous literature: capacity for change, organizational culture, organizational politics, and digital technology. To address the purpose, four research objectives were developed: (1) To explore how capacity for change enables or constrains organizational change in non-profit sport organizations; (2) To explore how organizational culture enables or constrains organizational change in non-profit sport organizations; (3) To explore how organizational politics enables or constrains organizational change in non-profit sport organizations, and (4) To explore how digital technology enables or constrains organizational change in non-profit sport organizations. Through a constructivist epistemology, a collective case study methodology of five Canadian national sport organizations was employed. Data collection included semi-structured interviews conducted with 49 staff and Board members and 151 documents. Data were transcribed verbatim and analyzed thematically. Overall, the findings demonstrate how regulating dynamics impact organizational change as they enable and/or constrain change in non-profit sport organizations concurrently and sequentially. All four regulating dynamics examined appeared to enable organizational change while only three – capacity for change, organizational culture, and organizational politics – constrained change. Thus, digital technology appeared to only enable change. The dissertation also demonstrates the impact of regulating dynamics not only at the organization level, but also how systemic and individual level dynamics influence organizational change. The dissertation addresses recent calls by several scholars to examine the “how” of change or, in other words, the change process. In addition, the dissertation extends existing understandings of regulating dynamics beyond the context of organizational design change. In doing so, the author highlights how regulating dynamics impact different types of changes such as governance, structure, processes, culture, and people change. Practically, through regulating dynamics, this dissertation can help explain why change initiatives fail, whether it is because of a lack of capacity for change, poor organizational culture, complex political dynamics, or failing to capitalize on the benefits of digital technology.

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The growing body of knowledge about the use of strategic planning in higher education focuses on the decisional processes and dynamics of such planning as conducted in an academic setting. Information about the outcomes of strategic planning initiatives, or the ways in which institutions change in relation to plan goals, has received little attention by researchers. This qualitative study combined descriptive and case study methodologies to investigate what results occurred to meet strategic planning objectives at five small, four-year, private colleges and universities as measured by financial, enrollment, and programmatic indices. The case study method permitted an in-depth analysis of the relationship between individual institutional plans and their respective outcomes. The population consisted of thirty-two institutions awarded planning grants by the Consortium for the Advancement of Private Higher Education (CAPHE) between 1984-88. A purposive sample of five institutions was drawn from those institutions identified as having developed strategic plans by the end of the grant cycle. Evidence was gathered using IPEDS and CAPHE survey data, document analysis, and interviews. Data were analyzed using basic statistical procedures and qualitative methods. Further, data were standardized by means of common categories and reporting formats for the purposes of cross-site analysis. / Ph. D.