Drivers of Organizational Change and the Keys to Successful Organizational Change

Organizations are dynamic entities. They consist of tangible resources (people, methods, equipment, information, finance and materials) and intangible resources (brands, trademarks, patents, reputation, motivation, goodwill, copyright, copy-left and other forms of intellectual property). Businesses do not exist in a vacuum. They affect and are affected by their environment (micro, macro, physical and intellectual). The four cases presented in the next section covers three broad industrial sectors – public sector, non-profit and private tertiary education provider. These cases provide background material to explore the philosophies presented in the learning resources. They contain a direct experiential component outlining the author’s change management role and contribution to the change management efforts in these organizations during his career.

Contribution to Organizational Change

Public Sector

Case 1a. I worked for 11 years in the public sector from 1985 to 1996. There were over five hundred employees in my department. In 1988 the Department’s records were converted from a manual system of ledgers to a computerized system. The system analyst liaised with the employees of the department to ensure that the necessary requirements were captured in the systems analysis phase of the project. Procedure manuals were rewritten to capture the current workflows and methods for carrying out the tasks. In the implementation phase we experienced a number of bottlenecks. The changeover process had a few delays that resulted in a backlog of work at least six months. Before the introduction of the new system, deadlines were met and the records were up-to-date. The delays adversely affected the motivation of the staff.

Case 1b. The g...

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