An organizational readiness for change method

Description

Organizational readiness for change has not been subject to extensive theoretical development or empirical study. This article conceptually defines organizational readiness for change and develops a theory of its determinants and outcomes. This article focuses on the organizational level of analysis because many promising approaches to improving healthcare delivery entail collective behaviour change in the form of systems redesign—that is, multiple, simultaneous changes in staffing, work flow, decision-making, communication, and reward systems. Although organizational readiness for change is difficult to generate, motivation theory and social cognitive theory suggest several conditions or circumstances that might promote it.

Change Valence: whether organizational members value the specific impending change. The more organizational members value the change, the more they will want to implement the change, or the more resolve they will feel to engage in the courses of action involved in change implementation.

Change Efficacy: a function of organizational members' cognitive appraisal of three determinants of implementation capability: task demands, resource availability and situational factors. In formulating change-efficacy judgments, organizational members acquire, share, assimilate, and integrate information bearing on three questions:

1. Do we know what it will take to implement this change effectively?
2. Do we have the resources to implement this change effectively?
3. Can we implement this change effectively given the situation we currently face?

Contextual Factors: broader, contextual conditions affect organizational readiness through the more proximal conditions, e.g., organizational policies and procedures could positively or negatively affect organizational members' appraisals of task demands, resource availability and situational factors.

Steps for Using Method/Tool

If generating a shared sense of readiness sounds difficult, that is because it probably is. This might explain why many organizations fail to generate sufficient organizational readiness and, consequently, experience problems or outright failure when implementing complex organizational change. Although organizational readiness for change is difficult to generate, this model provides several conditions or circumstances that might promote it.

Evaluation

Shea et al (2014) conducted four studies to assess the reliability and validity for a theory-based measure of organizational readiness for implementing change.

Validity

Items developed to measure change commitment and change efficacy reflected theoretical contents.

Reliability

High reliability was shown in lab and field studies.