Organizations regularly need to implement change initiatives to stay current, update technology, improve efficiency, enter new markets or make other improvements.
Organizations regularly need to implement change initiatives to stay current, update technology, improve efficiency, enter new markets or make other improvements. However, research has suggested that more than half of change initiatives attempted in the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) industry fail. A new study from the University of Kansas has found that six change strategies are key to successful implementation and two of them are vital for highly successful, sustained change.
The study also found that the type of change is not as important to its success as key management strategies. In surveying AEC firms across North America about an attempted change initiative, researchers found that effective change agents and a realistic timeline for the change were the two most important factors for an initiative to be deemed very successful and to last.
In their survey, researchers asked 633 firms to describe a change initiative they had attempted to install. They then implemented a scale to determine if the effort was unsuccessful, somewhat successful or very successful. The scale evaluated if the initiative was successful by three key metrics: if it was implemented into operations, benefits achieved and long-term sustainability.
"We analyzed data from across the entire industry. With organizational change, it’s something that starts with management and reaches all levels,” said Omar Maali, a doctoral candidate in engineering at KU and the study’s lead author. “They are attempted to improve efficiency, have better outcomes or make some update to the work environment. The worst thing that could happen is you lose your investment, or people try the change and revert back to what they used to do. There are a lot of recommendations in the professional literature about how to implement change. We found six key organizational change management practices."
Read more at: University of Kansas
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