The research objectives of this report are to identify key drivers of change, investigate possible barriers to the implementation of change and determine the change readiness of the organisation / Graduate School of Business Leadership / MBA

To stay competitive in today’s business environments companies have to adapt to the fast-changing business conditions. Hereby change management plays an important role; companies and consultants often apply certain change models to plan and implement change projects. The two change models by John Kotter, published in 1996 and 2014 are one of the most famous and most often applied ones. Within this thesis, the authors developed a modified change management model where they developed Kotter’s ideas further and enlarged them with new perspectives that were not included before. Resistance to change is considered in the new approach from a positive perspective, which means that it is seen as an opportunity instead of being an obstacle. Besides that, the modified change model includes several leadership aspects that were neglected in Kotter’s change models. New leadership aspects are reflection, a concrete leadership style, sensemaking, as well as the different leadership characters between female and male leader. Out of these new insights, the authors developed a modified change model, which allows to plan and manage the change project better than before.

The focus of this research questions the role of change management in successfully implementing an Enterprise Resource Planning solution in the retail industry. The importance of the study could reveal a change approach more useful and relevant to the retail industry and offer opportunities for further research in this industry. / Graduate School of Business Leadership / MBA

Research report presented to the Unisa School of Business Leadership / This study looks at five cases of organisational change and considers how the respondents have perceived the implementation of change within their organisations. / Graduate School of Business Leadership / MBA

Global software development has been a phenomenon of growing interest for almost past decade or so; and its adoption trend continues to gain momentum. Globally distributed work istaken up as an alternative to single-site mainly because of the economic and strategic benefits itoffers. Software development at geographically distributed environment is not a straightforwardtask and entails numerous challenges which are unique to this form of development. Requirements change management is considered challenging even in the best of conditions andit becomes even harder when performed at geographically distributed development locations.There is no existing model for managing requirements change in globally distributed softwaredevelopment context. This study uses qualitative research method to explore requirements change managementprocess and investigates the underlying causes of requirements change in geographicallydistributed software development. The research work proposes a model for requirementschange management for global software development. This model tries to incorporate the roles,activities and artifacts identified in the change management models.

This research focuses on the perspectives and capabilities held by leaders as they seek to develop an effective engagement strategy when leading change. It has brought together aspects of change, leadership, engagement and leadership development theory in seeking to understand what helps and hinders leaders in developing engagement capabilities. The concept of engagement has taken on increasing significance in recent years, due to its link with higher performance and profitability in organisations. Much existing literature focuses on processes that encourage the involvement of others, and measuring engagement using survey questions. The surveys tend to focus on identifying if someone finds meaning in their role, and whether the environment they operate in enables engagement. This research has sought to use research methodologies based on action learning that encourages the development of capabilities enabling engagement, whilst examining the psychological and contextual factors that help and hinder development. The research draws on adult maturity theory which is used as a framework to aid analysis. This theory suggests that the capability to engage may unfold with the maturing process. This theory aligned with the findings resulting in a profile of what engagement looked like at various levels of maturity. This is useful in that by understanding the capabilities associated with engagement at various levels of maturity it supports leaders and HR consultants to identify development required, and potentially can aid the choice of leader for running change programmes. Four key themes were identified during the analysis. Firstly, the impact of context and how it impacts choices made. Secondly, the importance of capabilities associated with authenticity. Thirdly, the link with emotional intelligence. Finally, the importance of developing a learning practice. The implication of this research is that intent to engage is insufficient as is the focus on process and policy aspects of engagement. Engagement capabilities can be developed and the development of the individual needs as much consideration as the need to ensure strategy, policy and process is appropriate for the engagement strategy. It suggests that when considering major change in organisations focus should be placed on the mindset and capabilities of potential change leaders, to identify whether they have the capabilities likely to align to a particular engagement strategy and to support their understanding of their development needs.

Bakgrund: Vad skulle du säga om din chef en dag sa till dig att du skulle vara med i ett projekt? Skulle du tycka att det var roligt och se det som något positivt? Eller skulle du tvärtom inte alls vara intresserad av att var med? Projekt har under de senaste 20 åren varit en organisationsform som ökat i popularitet. Ett brett spektrum av företag använder projekt för att åstadkomma förändringar i sin organisation. Förändring kan dock stöta på hinder, eller misslyckas, om de som ska vara med och förändra inte är motiverade, det blir därför viktigt för företag att förstå vad som motiverar projektovana medarbetare som för första gången går från sitt vanliga arbete till ett projekt. Syfte: Syftet med uppsatsen är att undersöka vad som motiverar projektovana medarbetare, när det gäller att delta, och medverka, i projekt. Vi vill även skapa förståelse för vilka delar, dels i övergången från linje till projekt, men även under projektets gång, som är viktiga att hantera ur motivationssynpunkt. Genomförande: Studien har genomförts som en fallstudie baserad på kvalitativa intervjuer. Författarna har genomfört totalt 12 intervjuer med projektovana medarbetare från Toyota Material Handling Europe. Slutsatser och resultat: Det har i vår studie visat sig att förväntningar spelar en stor roll i huruvida en projektovan medarbetare är motiverad i både övergång till och arbete i projekt. De projektovana medarbetarna skapar innan projektet drar igång förväntningar på vad projektet ska innebära för dem själva, främst gällande personlig utveckling men även vad det gäller karriärsutveckling. Dessa initiala förväntningar följer sedan medarbetaren genom projektet och de som var motiverade in i, behåller även motivation i hög utsträckning genom hela projektet. Det har också visat sig att personer med ett stort behov att utvecklas trivts bättre i och har varit mer motiverade av projektet som arbetsform än den linjeorganisation de kommit ifrån. Bristen på kunskap om att arbeta i projekt har dock inneburit att förväntningarna inte varit särskilt välgrundade och många överraskades över arbetsbelastningen i projektet. Företag måste hantera dessa förväntningar och vara tydliga i informationen om projektet och vad projektet kommer att innebära för individen. / Background: What would you say if your boss one day told you that you were going to be part of a project? Projects have for the last 20 years become increasingly popular. Many different companies are using projects as a way to promote and drive change in their respective organization. Change however is not always easy and companies may face resistance even from their own workers who are not motivated or committed to change. Thus it has become important to know what motivates employees with low project familiarity that join a project for the first time. Aim: The purpose of this thesis is to examine what motivates project members with low project familiarity when it comes to joining and participating in projects. We also want to understand what parts of the transition from line to project as well as during the project that it is important to handle from a motivation standpoint. Completion: The study has been done as a single-case study based on qualitative interviews. The authors have interviewed 12 project members with low project familiarity all working at Toyota Material Handling Europe. Results: Our study has shown that expectations play a big role in whether a project member with low project familiarity is motivated both in transition to, as well as work in, a project. Project members with low project familiarity create their expectations before the project has started. These expectations include primarily what the project will mean for them in terms of learning and personal development, but also in terms of career advancement. These initial expectations follow the project member through the entire project. It has also become evident that people with a strong growth needs have found the way of work in the project to be very rewarding compared to their former workplace. The lack of knowledge on projects has meant that these expectations have not been based in reality and many project members have been surprised by the work load in the project. Companies must address these expectations and inform the prospective project members of what the project will mean for them.

This thesis is about how systems thinking might contribute to the successful management of change (MOC). The motivation is the increasing importance of MOC in an environment where competition and internationalisation of markets are ever intensifying: organisations either "change or die", yet MOC suffers adversely with unacceptably high failure rates. A critique of MOC literature shows that current MOe methodology is characterised by reductionist approaches with a diversity of confusing and contradictory suggestions and recipes. This is seen to be impoverished where different types of organisational change are interacting. All these suggest that MOC methodology itself needs to be improved and a systemic approach is more appropriate. In search of methodological underpinnings for proposing a systemic approach to MOC, literature on systems thinking is reviewed, indicating that systems approaches, especially critical systems thinking, are potentially powerful to inform the development of MOC. Nevertheless, important questions are raised about applying systems ideas to MOC. Further research is needed. And this has been done by triangulating data, theory and method to develop a fuller understanding of systems perspectives and their relevance to MOC. By combining MOC and systems thinking together in a theoretically informed way, a systemic MOC framework is suggested and revised. This framework is seen to provide a characterisation of MOC by identifying the conceptual components, a coherent theoretical structure by specifying and ordering the relationships between these components, and a way of helping understand and manage the diversity in organisational change systemically. This framework is theoretically underpinned and applied to a case study where different types of organisational change and their interactions are surfaced. The outcomes firmly support the view that MOe is characterised by different types of organisational change and their interactions, for which systemic approaches are more appropriate; thus the systemic MOC framework developed is seen to be useful in helping understand and manage organisational change more effectively. The findings are critiqued within the study, and from this come out the conclusions, and recommendations for future research.

"Resistance to change" is one of the most important topics of change management in organizations. The paper investigates the analytical framing of „resistance“ and the „resistant employee“ in established German literature on change management. The analysis reveals three main messages referring the characteristics of resistance and the resistant change recipient. These are 1) that resistance is a „natural“, nearly inevitable phenomenon in organizational change processes, 2) that every behavior of employees in change processes is potentially resistant and thus often „false faced“, and 3) that resistance often is based on „irrational" and "emotional” motives. From a critical standpoint, this appears as a rather problematic understanding of (employee) agency and resistance. The result once more point to the overdue reconceptualization of "resistance to change" within the change management discipline and raise general questions referring to the high popularity of the analyzed segment of literature.

Background: In today's dynamic business environment, organizations face high pressure for change and adaptation. It is generally perceived that change is inevitable and many believe that change is an ongoing and never-ending process. The retail industry is a highly competitive sector, and thus it becomes paramount for organizations to successfully manage change. The subject of change management has been present for a long period, however, a remarkably low amount of research has been focused on change management for retail store managers. Therefore, this study aims to examine retail store managers' communication during change processes. Purpose: This study’s purpose is to create a comprehensive understanding of retail store managers’ communication during change processes. Moreover, to identify which elements should be prioritized by retail store managers communicating during change. Method: To achieve the purpose of this thesis, a qualitative interview study was conducted, and it consisted of seven semi-structured interviews with retail store managers. The thesis was guided by an inductive approach, and a thematic analysis of the empirical findings was utilized. Conclusion: This study found that retail store managers' communicational structure was similar as it was based on the same elements, adaptability, selectivity, multiple channels, and prioritization. The structure enabled retail store managers to ensure that the communication was clear and open, thus minimizing employee stress and uncertainty. Continuing, the results indicated that retail store managers should prioritize certain communicational elements, for instance, clarity, openness, and long-run perspective.