In a commercial environment that is ever changing, organisations have to constantly adapt to remain competitive. To ensure the benefits of change are achieved a coherent and structured approach to implementing change is essential, as disconnected initiatives often fail. This thesis presents a series of eight continuous improvement projects undertaken by a leading engineering design consultancy. The projects use a range of process management and knowledge management techniques to improve specific aspects of the sponsor's business, in particular how it manages its organisational knowledge, business processes and management systems. To better understand the strengths and weakness of process and knowledge management techniques, in order to see how they can be combined, the techniques are first applied separately on six projects. Based on the lessons learnt from these projects, key aspects of the process and knowledge management techniques used are then combined to create two robust business solutions that have the potential to significantly benefit the sponsor's business. In developing and implementing the solutions, to the eight specific business issues covered in this thesis, a number of key issues relating to the architecture of successful systems and the organisational change management process involved with implementing these systems are captured. These key points are summarised into recommendations focused at both academic and commercial organisations.

Os desafios de competitividade têm levado as organizações a estruturarem estratégias robustas de crescimento, consolidando a sua atuação em determinados setores ou mesmo levando à expansão das suas atividades para novos mercados e regiões geográficas. As combinações empresariais, caracterizadas por aquisições e fusões, tornam-se cada vez mais relevantes para a viabilização destas estratégias e passam a fazer parte integrante da agenda dos líderes empresariais. Diante dos baixos indicadores de efetividade verificados em operações desta natureza, torna-se importante refletir sobre a sua gestão e identificar as condições necessárias para que as novas configurações organizacionais implementadas resultem alinhadas às orientações estratégicas que motivaram a realização destas transações. Este trabalho insere-se neste tema ao propor um modelo de gestão da mudança organizacional advinda de combinações empresariais e a sua aplicação no setor de ciências da vida. As oportunidades características deste novo setor, com fronteiras ainda pouco estabelecidas, têm gerado uma série de movimentos de combinação em empresas tradicionais do setor químico, em busca de crescimento ou obtenção de indicadores mais elevados de competitividade. Ao propor o modelo de gestão, este trabalho traz duas contribuições para o arcabouço conceitual sobre aquisições e fusões. Em primeiro lugar ele elabora, com base no referencial teórico disponível, um conjunto de categorias para a gestão da etapa de integração entre as empresas participantes de um processo de combinação. A aplicação deste conhecimento na realidade empírica, com adoção de procedimentos estatísticos, levou à identificação de uma nova categoria - denominada clareza de expectativas - que está relacionada ao estabelecimento de relações entre a empresa e os seus profissionais visando fortalecer a adesão e o comprometimento das pessoas com os novos modelos de gestão implementados. A segunda contribuição corresponde à verificação da importância de não dissociar a etapa de integração das empresas do processo decisório que levou à efetivação destas transações. A atenção antecipada às variáveis indicadas neste trabalho, para o momento anterior ao fechamento do acordo de combinação, pode evitar equívocos e conflitos viabilizando uma integração efetiva entre as organizações participantes da operação. / The challenges around competitiveness faced by organizations are leading them to structure robust growth strategies, consolidating their presence in specific economic sectors as well as ensuring their growth in new markets and geographic regions. The combination of companies, identified as mergers and acquisitions, are gradually becoming more important to enable the implementation of these strategies and therefore constitute important components of leaders agenda. It is a key challenge to reflect about the managerial aspects of these transactions due to the low effectiveness indicators identified, researching the required conditions that will enable the alignment between the new organizational configurations and the strategic drivers that motivated their implementation. This study is related to this theme since it proposes a model to manage organizational change that results from this type of transaction. The model is also applied in combinations within the life sciences sector. The potential opportunities identified in this new sector, which has low defined boundaries, have generated some combinations between traditional chemical companies aiming at growing or reaching higher levels of competitiveness. Whilst proposing the management model, this thesis builds two contributions to the conceptual framework around mergers and acquisitions. It designs, as a result of the available theoretical references, one set of categories to manage the integration phase for companies facing combination processes. The application of this knowledge in an empirical reality, enabled by statistical procedures, led to a new category identificaion - named as clarity of expectation ? which refers to the relationship established by the company and its employees and aims to reinforce the people commitment with the new management models implemented. The second contribution shows the importance to connect the integration planning phase to the decision making process that leads into the transaction. The anticipated analysis of the variables presented by this thesis in the previous stage before the deal conclusion can mitigate mistakes and conflicts enabling an effective integration between the companies that are part of these operations.

A sistematização do PDS (processo de desenvolvimento de software) é reconhecida como um fator chave para o desempenho competitivo das empresas, pois assim garante-se a repetibilidade e a qualidade dos projetos de desenvolvimento. A sistematização do PDS é um dos projetos de mudança que possui um grande impacto na melhoria do processo, uma vez que a definição do processo estabelece o padrão de trabalho, como também as ferramentas de apoio ao processo. Esse projeto de melhoria deve ainda estar inserido no contexto mais amplo da gestão de mudanças das empresas, pois seu impacto pode afetar todas as áreas da empresa. O presente trabalho tem por objetivo apresentar uma metodologia de gestão de mudanças desenvolvida, com ênfase no relato de experiências práticas de sua aplicação, na institucionalização do processo de venda e desenvolvimento de software sob encomenda (PV&DS) de uma empresa desenvolvedora de software, que está inserida em uma rede de colaboração. A metodologia proposta sintetiza as melhores práticas dos seguintes métodos de gestão de mudança: SSM (Soft Systems Methodology); Modelo Ideal (Initiating, Diagnosing, Acting, Establishing e Learning ); DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyze e Control) do Six Sigma; metodologia de transformação TransMeth; e metodologia de transformação do PDP. Três projetos de mudanças foram implantados: instanciação do PV&DS; implantação da fase de vendas; e implantação da fase planejar projeto. A utilização da metodologia de gestão de mudança proposta mostrou ser uma adequada ferramenta para a implantação de mudanças. Ela serviu como um guia para a customização e institucionalização do novo processo da empresa, proporcionando aos colaboradores um espírito de confiança e otimismo quanto aos resultados da mudança. / Software development process (SDP) systematization is acknowledged as a key factor for the competitive development of companies. It ensures repeatability and quality of development projects. The process of the SDP systematization is a change projects that leads to great improvements in SPD. The definition of the project establishes a work model, as well as the support tools for the SDP. This improvement project must also be incorporated into a wider context of the company’s change management. Because its impact may influence all areas of the company. This work presents a change management method, including a report that describes the practical experiences that were applied to the institutionalization of sales process and software development process (SP&SDP) of a software development company, which is part of a collaboration network. The proposed method synthesizes the best practices of the following change management methods: SSM (Soft Systems Methodology); Ideal (Initiating, Diagnosing, Acting, Establishing and Learning) Model; DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyze, and Control) of Six Sigma; metodologia de transformação TransMeth; and metodologia de transformação do PDP. Three changes projects, SP&SDP institutionalization; implementation of sales phase; and implementation of project planning phase, were developed. The proposed change method provides an appropriated framework to manage changes by a holistic view. It is reported that the companies' collaborators are motivated and feel confident with the changes.

by Ng Long-Tan. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 51-55). / ABSTRACT --- p.iii / TABLE OF CONTENTS --- p.iv / LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS --- p.vi / ACKNOWLEDGEMENT --- p.vii / Chapter / Chapter I --- INTRODUCTION --- p.2 / Chapter II --- LITERATURE REVIEW --- p.5 / The Applicability of Social Accounts Theory in Change Management --- p.5 / Classification of Social Accounts Theory --- p.7 / Types of Social Accounts --- p.8 / Chapter (a) --- Mitigating Accounts: lessening apparent responsibility --- p.8 / Message-Communicator Characteristics --- p.9 / Chapter (b) --- Exonerating Accounts: legitimate motives --- p.11 / Chapter (c) --- Reframing Accounts: altering perceptions about consequences --- p.12 / Chapter III --- RESEARCH SETTING --- p.14 / Hypotheses --- p.14 / Conceptual Framework of this study --- p.16 / Chapter IV --- THE CHANGE PROGRAM --- p.17 / Introduction --- p.17 / Company Background --- p.17 / The Change Program --- p.18 / Action Plans Recommended by PricewaterhouseCoopers --- p.19 / The Implementation of the Change Program --- p.21 / Chapter V --- RESEARCH METHODOLOGY --- p.24 / Data Collection --- p.24 / Measurement of Questionnaire --- p.25 / Chapter VI --- RESULTS --- p.30 / Correlation --- p.30 / Regression --- p.33 / Chapter VII --- DISCUSSION --- p.37 / Message communicate characteristics --- p.37 / Exonerating Motives --- p.40 / Reframing Outcome --- p.42 / Chapter VIII --- LIMITATIONS AND CONCLUSION --- p.46 / Limitations --- p.46 / Conclusion --- p.47 / BIBLIOGRAPHY --- p.51 / APPENDIX --- p.56

This final thesis deals with role of the headmaster in process of change and is divided into theoretical and research part. Theoretical part is about problematics of change management. It defines causes of change, its phases, process and how is the change managed and all connecting issues. Other chapters focus on change management in education, especially from headmaster's point of view. Conclusion of the theoretical part focuses on inclusive education change implementation. Goal of the research part is to find out, what kind of roles did headmaster's in Ústecký region held within the process of change due to inclusive education implementation. For the research itself, quantitative method was chosen with the questioning technique. Results showed for example that most of the headmasters doesn't feel change due to inclusive education implementation as required or well prepared. Most of the headmasters also feel, that they give enough space for their employees to participate in change management and they are willing to discuss their opinions on this change with them. Results also showed, that headmasters mostly took the manager's, executive's or all three roles at the same time (leader, manager and executive) during the change process. KEYWORDS change, change management, role of the school headmaster,...

As organizations strive to remain competitive despite economic pressures and the rapid pace of technology innovation, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems provide businesses with the functional best practices and customisable capabilities they need to adapt to these changes. However, the high rate of failure of these Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems remain a challenge for the managers who are usually tasked with ensuring the huge investments achieve its purpose and yield a return on investment. In attempting to explain the reasons behind these Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) implementation failures, previous research has identified user adoption as one of the main drivers of ERP implementation success. An abundance of technology adoption theories and change management models have been proposed as solutions to user adoption, by measuring different factors they consider are important to the adoption of these systems. However, ERP systems still fail to achieve their intended purpose because these theories have not been able to explicitly explain how these factors impact on adoption. To address this gap, this research takes a comprehensive approach to identifying the change management influences on user adoption by integrating change management and technology adoption constructs. The main contribution of this research is a common-sense perspective of the realities of user resistance. The study provides a causal model derived from Structural equation modelling, which explains the multiple influence relationships between the measured constructs. An adoption tool is also developed for managers to use as a yardstick to benchmark the effectiveness of an implementation strategy. Using a structural equation modelling approach, a theory was developed from a survey of 616 ERP users across 6 organizations. Six constructs were identified as the key influences of user adoption – Trust, Communication and Engagement, System Qualities, Training, Organizational Benefits and Resistance. The theory explains the multiple influence relationships between these constructs and Adoption, and assists in the pinpointing of failure points that need to be addressed by Enterprise Resource Planning project managers. The resulting theory developed indicates the multiple influence relationships between these constructs as determinants of Adoption of ERP systems. In addition, the theory assists in the pinpointing of failure points that need to be addressed by Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) project managers.

The study explores the subjects of organizational change and management of intercultural teams. The goal of the study is to spread knowledge about how an intercultural team should be managed in order to assure the best possible success of an organizational change initiative. It has long been recognized that organizations constantly need to change in order to stay competitive. At the same time it has also been recognized that organizations today operate on the global arena with operations spread to many different parts of the world. It is thus important to understand how an intercultural team should be managed in order to assure the success of an organizational change initiative.The aim of this study has been to provide information and guidelines that may be used by academia as well as professionals to better understand how to manage an intercultural team that conducts an organizational change. A total of six different guidelines have been presented in this research - each one important in assuring an effective teamwork and a successful organizational change.The study has been conducted using a qualitative research approach and the method used for gathering data has been interviews as well as literature studies. / Program: Magisterutbildning i informatik

Context: Requirements change commonly occurs during the software development lifecycle. Requirements traceability is one of the important techniques to support requirement change management and analysis, ensure quality and keep requirements consistent during development. We find that existing research mentioned various issues and challenges during practicing requirements traceability, and the practitioners show certain obstacles on the subject. Major existing work of the area focuses on requirements traceability processes, frameworks, and techniques to address certain issues accordingly. And we want to focus on and investigate the existing challenges to practice requirements traceability systematically. Method: We investigate the requirements traceability and its challenges through a systematic literature review (SLR) of various concepts and existing challenges of requirements traceability, and a survey of 7 Chinese small-and-medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). With 7 interviews, we studied different traceability practices and situations with the surveyed companies under the possible impact of requirement change, development processes, tools, and other factors. And then we conducted conventional qualitative content analysis to identify and classify the challenges in practicing requirements traceability. Results: With the systematic literature review, we classified 14 categories of academic identified challenges. Through the collected data of the survey, we identified and discussed 6 categories of the requirement traceability challenges, involving costs, tools, awareness, documentation, etc. And we compared and discussed the connections and differences of the survey results with the literature for validation of our survey results and possible extension to the existing work. Through research, we may help the practitioners to deal with requirements change with traceability practice better by recognizing and preventing the obstacles. Our research may provide researchers with more information on practical situations. And in the future, researchers may study the traceability models more effectively aiming at addressing the existing problems.

The master's thesis focuses on distribution in a selected company. The company has been going through many changes which affect the whole logistic chain. The company is pushed by the current market situation to change processes in the central warehouse and in the costumer distribution. The author analyses all these changes and compares them to the theory. The author also proposes some improvements for efficiency increase in single parts of the logistic chain. There is not only theory used for these proposals. The proposed solutions are based on his own work experience and inspiration from different companies.

A existência de alterações no produto ao longo de sua vida é um fato inevitável. A efetiva gestão dessas mudanças, diante da atual competitividade do mercado, torna-se uma necessidade. O conhecimento dos aspectos relevantes para a gestão do processo de mudança de engenharia permite a obtenção de melhores resultados. Este trabalho procurou caracterizar o processo de mudança de engenharia, analisando suas dimensões, seus aspectos e práticas de gestão. As discussões são embasadas por uma detalhada revisão da literatura e o estudo de três casos práticos em empresas de manufatura. Tratando-se de uma pesquisa aplicada, os resultados deste trabalho podem ser utilizadas como referência para as empresas que buscam uma efetiva gestão das mudanças ao longo do ciclo de vida do produto. / The existence of modification in the product along its life cycle is an inevitable fact. The effective management of the changes becomes a necessity, considering the current market competitiveness. The correct understanding about the important aspects of the engineering change process management allows the companies obtain superior results. This research aims at to characterize the process of engineering change, analyzing its dimensions, its aspects and management practices. The discussions are based on a detailed literature review and on the study of three practical cases in manufacturing companies. As an applied research, the results can be used as a reference for the companies looking for an effective engineering change management system along the product life cycle.