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Aim: The aim of this study is to gain deep understanding on how organizational changes are managed and implemented in small firms.   Method: The data for this study is collected by doing an extensive literature study and by conducting semi-structured face-to-face interviews with respondents from one single case company. This data was then sorted by topic and analyzed accordingly. The management’s perspective is presented by statements and quotes and the employee’s perspective is presented in summarized essay form.    Result & Conclusions: The study showed that change is an ever-present future of the small firm business environment and must be seen as an ongoing process. Firms have to take a thorough approach when implementing change, where gaining enough support for a change initiative is essential for its success.  Suggestions for future research: Since this study is only focused on a single case, the suggested framework needs more validation. Also the author recommends further research on the topic of change implementation at small firms in general.  Contribution of the thesis: More case studies are needed to further validate the research outcomes since this study was a first attempt to discover the field of change implementation in small organizations.

This thesis describes an exploratory study designed to investigate the beliefs and perceptions of eight English language lecturers about, and their classroom practices in implementing the curriculum change that was enacted in 2010 at the undergraduate level in the public sector colleges in Pakistan. Research indicates that curriculum change is a highly complex and a multifaceted process (Carl, 2009), and its success depends on a number of features. In this respect, it is acknowledged that teachers and their multiple roles contribute significantly to the success or failure of any educational reform or change. Therefore, this exploration focussed on investigating teachers’ implementation of the curriculum change through an analysis of their beliefs about teaching and learning, their perceptions about the curriculum change, and the issues involved in implementation. My approach is interpretive, and thus qualitative research methodology was employed to obtain an in-depth understanding of the phenomenon under investigation. Semi structured interviews and classroom observations were used as data collection instruments. The analysis of the data revealed that, in spite of the lecturers’ generally positive attitude towards the concept of change and their belief in the importance of English for both individual and national progress, there was a limited uptake of the new communicative curriculum. The study indicated that teachers’ beliefs combined with a number of external factors including the student level, educational culture, examination washback, lack of resources and support, and absence of teacher training could be an explanation for contradictions between the intended and the implemented curriculum change. The study concluded that the needs of the teachers must be acknowledged, and measures should be taken to create compatibility between the teachers’ beliefs, contextual factors and the reform policies. Although the study does not provide any explicit solutions to the problem of change and reform implementation, the insights revealed significant implications, clarified some critical issues, and offered some recommendations which might prove beneficial not only for curriculum planning and implementation in the future, but could also be useful in guiding those involved in the present curriculum change. Important areas were also suggested for further research in the field.

<p>In the current fast-moving, global and complex business world, implementing organisational change has become one of the major leadership issues. Indeed, competitive organisations are turning out to be the ones that are flexible, able to adapt rapidly and continuously; strong leaders are turning out to be the ones who are transformational and who are able to implement change successfully.</p><p>However, as the business world is becoming more complex, organisations are following the same path and are developing increasingly complicated structures. Risk of failure in implementing change in such complex organisations is consequently high and leaders must lead strategic moves with dexterity. They must understand their role, the required skills as well as the importance of the people while starting to implement change. They must understand where to exert their influence and they should therefore be able to determine what are the key success factors to be taken into consideration in the implementation process.</p>

In the current fast-moving, global and complex business world, implementing organisational change has become one of the major leadership issues. Indeed, competitive organisations are turning out to be the ones that are flexible, able to adapt rapidly and continuously; strong leaders are turning out to be the ones who are transformational and who are able to implement change successfully. However, as the business world is becoming more complex, organisations are following the same path and are developing increasingly complicated structures. Risk of failure in implementing change in such complex organisations is consequently high and leaders must lead strategic moves with dexterity. They must understand their role, the required skills as well as the importance of the people while starting to implement change. They must understand where to exert their influence and they should therefore be able to determine what are the key success factors to be taken into consideration in the implementation process.

Problem - The challenge investigated in this present study is for a project-based organization to create a well-planned implementation by knowing the current state of the organization and its readiness for a change. This while also taking the time for unexpected events and communicating the issue while also taking their organizational structure into consideration. Purpose - The purpose of this study is to analyze the readiness to change for the case company with focus on three aspects of readiness: information sharing, common views and implementation approach, while also taking into account the distinct features of a PBO-structured organization. The study aims to identify supporting factors for successfully managing an implementation of a new business system at the individual level. Method - This study is a case study based on a single case company: Sweco, which is a Swedish technical consulting firm that is about to change their business system. A literature review was conducted in order to collect previously conducted research within the research area. The primary methods used for data collection in this study have been semi-structured interviews and a questionnaire, the data was mainly analyzed though thematic analysis. Results – The readiness for change for the case company is affected by their organizational structure. The results of the questionnaire show that collaboration within Sweco works relatively well, but there are some aspects that can be improved, such as communication and information sharing. The results of the conducted interviews show that most employees at the case company perceive the change of business system to be good, but they were unsure about why it would be carried through. Guides on how the change would affect the specific individual and knowing where to turn for feedback and information was pointed out as a suggested improvement by the employees. A lot of responsibility of implementing the new system was put on the unit managers. Conclusions - The study strengthens the existing theory regarding change readiness and individual supporting factors for successful change implementation. It confirms some of the strengths and drawbacks for organizations working with projects. The study also concludes how the case-company and other companies in a similar situation can utilize some advantages of being familiar with working in projects.

This study aimed at determining whether classroom teachers&lsquo / attitudes toward change correlate with their perceptions of constructivist curriculum change and implementation of constructivist teaching and learning activities in class at primary school level. Through a questionnaire, data were collected from 236 classroom teachers teaching in all public primary schools in the city center of Afyonkarahisar, Turkey. Demographical data of the participants, their attitudes toward change, perceptions of constructivist curriculum change, and implementation of constructivist teaching and learning activities were reported in terms of frequencies, percentages, and means. Bivariate correlations were employed to understand the relations among classroom teachers&lsquo / attitudes toward change, perceptions of constructivist curriculum change and implementation of constructivist teaching and learning activities at primary school level. The results revealed that classroom teachers were open to change and often implemented constructivist teaching and learning activities in class whereas they had mixed perceptions about constructivist curriculum change carried out in Turkey in 2004-2005 academic year. Classroom teachers&lsquo / attitudes toward change were significantly but moderately correlated with their perceptions of constructivist curriculum change and implementation of constructivist teaching and learning activities at primary school level. Besides, classroom teachers&lsquo / perceptions of constructivist curriculum change were significantly but moderately related to their implementation of constructivist teaching and learning activities.

The objective of this study is to gain an understanding of how change leaders and managers affect a change implementation in a municipality. To help increase the understanding, the study examines the change project Skolplattformen which was implemented in Sweden's largest municipality Stockholms stad. This to uncover areas that possibly could improve change initiatives in the public sphere. The literature review of the study examines the concepts of public sector related change, change management and change leadership in order to help answer our research questions. This qualitative single case study is conducted primarily through 13 semi-structured interviews with five interviewees, combined with data from publicly published documents. The findings are analyzed through subcategories derived from the theoretical concepts and suggest that the scale of the change project was too complex to implement smoothly in a municipal environment. Hence, lack of communication was shown, the timeframe prolonged and strategic changes in structure was at times unexplained. In the end, Skolplattformen did not meet expectations in relation to time and cost spent.

Healthcare professionals such as speech and language therapists are expected to change their practice throughout their career. However, from a practice perspective, there is a lack of knowledge around what practice change is, what it really takes, and why there are different trajectories. Consequently, therapists, managers and commissioners lack empirical evidence on which to base decisions about enabling practice change. In addition, intervention researchers lack basic sociological research around implementation that could inform their research designs, reporting and impact. This case-based sociological inquiry, underpinned by critical realist assumptions, was designed to address this knowledge gap. It includes a two-stage qualitative synthesis of 53 (then 16) studies where speech and language therapists explained the work of their practice in depth, and a primary qualitative study focused on one professional jurisdiction, children with speech sound difficulties (SSD). Forty two speech and language therapists from three NHS areas and independent practice in Scotland participated in individual interviews or self-organised pairs or focus groups to discuss in depth how and why they had changed their practice with these children. A variety of comparative methods were used to detail, understand and explain this particular aspect of the social world. The resulting theory of SSD practice change comprises six configured cases of practice change (Transforming; Redistributing; Venturing; Personalising; Delegating; Refining) emerging from an evolving and modifiable practice context. The work that had happened across four key aspects of this context (Intervention; Candidacy; Caseload; Service) explained what made each case possible, and how practice had come to be one way rather than another. Among its practical applications, the theory could help services plan more realistic practice change. In addition, the inductively developed layered model of SSD intervention change has the potential to contribute to speech and language therapy education as well as methodological discussions around complex interventions.