Sustainable change: long-term efforts toward developing a learning organization

Globalization and intensified competition require organizations to change and adapt to dynamic environments in order to stay competitive. This article describes a longitudinal action research study supporting the strategic change of a trading company. The strategic change was accompanied by planned changes in organizational structures and processes, management systems, emerging changes in leadership, and organization members’ attitudes and behaviors, and it was supported by management development activities. Longitudinal data over a 4-year period including participant observation and interviews reveal that a systemic approach, a learning and becoming perspective toward change, trust, an appropriate role perception, and the specific use of management instruments contribute to sustained change that resulted in performance improvements and a move toward a learning organization. We conclude with implications for strategic change and suggestions for further research in this area

Utilizing the Theory of Planned Behavior to Inform Change Management: An Investigation of Employee Intentions to Support Organizational Change

Utilizing the theory of planned behavior (TPB) as a framework for understanding employee intentions to support organizational change, this study examined the extent to which attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control (PBC) and the interactive effect of group norm and ingroup identification predicted intentions to carry out change-supportive activities. It also was hypothesized that communication and participation would increase intentions, with these relationships mediated by the TPB variables. The sample was 149 employees undergoing the first phase of a building relocation. Attitude, subjective norm, and PBC each predicted intentions. A significant interaction emerged, with group norm predicting intentions only for employees who identified strongly with their reference group. Employees who perceived sufficient information about the relocation reported stronger intentions, an effect that was partially mediated via subjective norm and PBC. Similarly, participation predicted intentions via subjective norm. Implications for fostering employee readiness for change are discussed