Menting, Magteld Mathilda Frances (2022) Towards the understanding of collective readiness for change: a multilevel view. Other Degree thesis, Victoria University.

Abstract

My professional interest as a business analyst influences this research into understanding the successful adoption of change. Readiness for change is an essential aspect of organisational change, with research consensus showing a positive correlation between readiness for change and the effectiveness of organisational change. However, the inability of many organisations to meet their desired change outcomes suggests we need to know more about readiness for change. Readiness for change describes members’ shared commitment to implement change and their confidence in their capability to make the change. While readiness for change involves social processes, in practice evaluation generally occurs at the individual level. A multi-level understanding of readiness for change, including individual, group and organisational levels, is still unclear. Does readiness for change differ at the individual, group and organisational levels? Can we interpret multi-level readiness for change from the individual’s readiness for change? This thesis addresses these questions through a predominantly qualitative research design combining a questionnaire based on established scales and individual interviews with change practitioners. This research is a phenomenological study as it explores the lived experiences of individuals experiencing readiness for change to develop a greater understanding of multi-level readiness for change. The convenience sampling method chosen incorporates an aspect of multilevel sampling design combining people who have experienced a workplace change and change professionals who have implemented a workplace change. The findings of this research extend the literature on multilevel readiness for change. This research also showed the need for organisations to develop their own readiness for change framework to align with their culture. The high proportion of external change agents interviewed provided the additional finding that external change agents are often subjected to political influences undermining their change efforts and impacting their ability to deliver effective and timely change outcomes.

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