Dynamics of designing and implementing effective change : an empirical evaluation of perception of general managers of leading companies in Turkey

Abstract

In today's business environment, it is a matter of fact that change is almost inevitable. Once change is taken into consideration, the neccessity to manage it emerges as a crucial function of management teams. Ignoring the importance of change can create catastrophic consequences for organizations. Because of this, many organizations attempted to change but unfortunately, literature exhibits that they end up with 70% failure rates in reaching desired levels. This research intends to contribute to the change management literature in two main ways. One is to reveal all factors related to success or failure in literature of change management, and second is to create a model with the key factors of change management. It is found out that literature of change management reveals 24 factors to be taken into account. All of these factors are taken into research through a three-step data collection process and the new model for change is constructed by five key variables of interest, that are namely, Leadership Quality, Managerial Quality, Motivation, User Participation, and Effective Change. The final questionnaire, after a refinement process via two pilot tests, is sent to CEOs or General Managers of Capital 500 listed companies. 190 respondents fill in the questionnaire, reaching to a 38% response rate among the population. After applying correlational, regression and mediational analyses, results show that except motivation, all other key factors of interest proved to have significant effects on success in change management. Finally, a new model for change, that is subject to a comprehensive quantitative analysis, is contributed to the literature of change management.