Boundary activities and readiness for ... - Projekti-Instituutti

Discussion
third research question asked what this readiness consists of. Building on
the existing literature on organizational change and on the analysis of the
three case programs, the results of the study suggest that readiness for
implementing a change program includes three main dimensions: a shared
intent for change, the resources required for mobilizing change, and a
strong enough position for the change program within the organizational
context. According to the analysis, each of these main dimensions consists
of several elements, which together provide a list of factors that are
suggested to form the basis for change program implementation.
The created definition of readiness for change program implementation
combines the concept of readiness for change (e.g. Armenakis et al., 1993;
Jones et al., 2005) with the lists of success factors of organizational change
presented in previous literature (e.g. Covin & Kilmann, 1990; Cunningham
& Kempling, 2009; Kotter, 1995). When comparing the concept of
readiness for change program implementation with these previous studies
on organizational change, some differences or, rather, additions can be
identified, largely explained by the change program context of the current
study. The biggest contribution of the empirical study to the list of success
or readiness factors concerns the inclusion of the autonomy of the change
program. A program requires an extensive organization with defined and
authorized roles for guiding multiple projects and for coordinating the
program entity to deliver the desired changes. The empirical study suggests
that the program as a form of organizing change needs to be perceived
legitimate, and also the particular program needs to possess both legitimacy
and authority to use the resources and to realize the planned changes. The
requirement for program autonomy will be discussed in more detail in
section 5.2.3.
Some smaller adjustments or additions to the success or readiness factors
for change described in earlier literature are also inspired by the present
findings. As change programs are large endeavors, they involve structures
and procedures whose planning and maintaining requires resources. Thus,
the results highlight the need to explicitly commit resources for leading a
change program at its different levels, including the program steering
group, program owner, program manager, and project managers. The
findings also accentuate that it is not enough to initially establish a shared
intent for a change program, but the created momentum needs to be
actively sustained for several years of time due to the long duration of a
change program.
The empirical analysis showed how the three investigated cases differed
significantly in the level of success of early program activities, assessed by
the identified indicators of readiness for change program implementation.
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