Developing Organisational Change Capability

This paper reports the outcome of research into eleven organisations in the UK automotive supply sector, all of which have an acknowledged reputation for their ability to sustain successful change. It describes a ‘Listen – Interpret –Translate – Transfer’ (LITT) process used by a researcher to build an explicit model of change, based on the often only implicit experience of these organisations. In addition the LITT process is used finally to establish each organisation’s ownership of the explicit model. The paper argues that the process–model symbiosis used in the research and described here can be used by internal managers or outside consultants to accelerate the development of organisational change capability in any organisation. Organisational change capability is regarded in this study as generic to all the other dynamic capabilities embedded in an organisation, and as essential if a dynamically stable organisation is successfully to operate any of the other dynamic capabilities around which it is structured

Total quality leadership: Employing organisational learning as a conduit

The British Government sold Rover Group to British Aerospace in 1988 for L150m. In 1994, it was re-sold to BMW for L800m. During that period, a major factor which added value to the business was a culture-change program with substantial investment in people. A key component within the program was the advent of a new style of leadership, which was often equated as moving from a "cops to coaches" style of government. The Group promoted a style where line managers maintained the prime responsibility for developing employees with professional specialist help from HR Professionals. This paper provides an account of this leadership program that was founded upon a Corporate Learning Process. Consideration is given to the driving features of the Rover Company, common processes and working practices, managerial practices and competence implications