Why change works sometimes

PurposeThis paper seeks to explore the process of change and in particular the nature of complex adaptive change by exploring whether Beer and Nohria's findings that organisational change was rarely successful was corroborated by examining the experience of organisations in the UK. It aims to explore whether organisations do have an inability to learn from experience and whether there was any validity in Argyris and Schon's view that organisations found it hard to adapt because they built in special systems and defences that prevented them from learning and questioning their basic beliefs and assumptions.Design/methodology/approachThe approach adopted used a questionnaire to establish some insights into the dynamics of change by examining: what the major drivers of organisational change were; what the expectations of senior managers were to the change programmes they had introduced in response to the change drivers; what was actually achieved and did it meet their objectives when embarking upon the change; whether they got what they hoped for when embarking upon the change programme and if so why they thought they were successful; if they did not get what they expected or were only partially successful, why did they think this was; and finally to consider with the wisdom of hindsight, what they would do differently.FindingsThe evidence seems to indicate that where the circumstances are right change can work provided the necessary conditions are met: sound pre‐planning; objectives of the change process aligned with organisational objectives; commitment from the top of the organisation to ensure that resources were available to manage the change effectively; commutations – explaining why the change was necessary; participation; applied project management; taking a measured approach to the roll out of the change programme; and progress monitoring of results using the balanced scorecard.Research limitations/implicationsThe sample group responding to the questionnaire was relatively small and so no statistically valid conclusions are drawn but nevertheless the responses received were rich in qualitative material.Practical implicationsGiven the context of a rapidly changing climate, organisations are increasingly addressing such issues as preparing for change, senior management commitment and changing the culture of an organisation and in such circumstances the necessary conditions for change to be successful should have practical relevance to any organisation embarking on a change programme.Originality/valueThis paper describes original research material in a well documented area and so adds to the canon of literature on the subject of change.