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Theoretical background
types of change programs, such as Total Quality Management (TQM) and
Business Process Re-engineering (BPR). More recently, fashionable change
initiatives have included Six Sigma quality programs and the adoption of
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems. Mergers and acquisition also
represent distinct types of large-scale change efforts, as well as the
privatization initiatives of public organizations. In the Finnish public
sector, the restructuring of local government and the related services has
been a major topic during the past few years, and recent largely debated
examples include municipal mergers and health care sector reorganization
initiatives. Table 5 lists common types of change programs and provides
examples of studies that examine their management.
Table 5 Common types of large-scale organizational change programs
Change program type
Organizational restructuring and reengineering
(e.g. Business Process Reengineering
(BPR) programs)
Quality improvement programs (e.g. Total
Quality Management (TQM) and Six Sigma
implementations)
IT-based restructurings (e.g. Enterprise
Resource Planning (ERP) system adoptions)
Organizational turnarounds
Examples of studies
Stoddard & Jarvenpaa, 1995; Willcocks,
Currie, & Jackson, 1997; McNulty & Ferlie,
2004
TQM: Mallinger, 1993; Spector & Beer,
1994; Cox, 1995; Douglas & Judge, 2001
Six sigma: McAdam & Lafferty, 2004; Huq,
2006
ERP: Akkermans & van Helden, 2002;
Motwani, Mirchandani, Madan, &
Gunasekaran, 2002; Boonstra, 2006: Martin
& Huq, 2007
Other: Cats-Baril & Thompson, 1995;
Stewart & O’Donnell, 2007
Barker & Duhaime, 1997; Clapham,
Schwenk, & Caldwell, 2005
Mergers and acquisitions Pfeffer, 1972; Trautwein, 1990
Privatization initiatives
Coram & Burnes, 2001; Erakovic & Powell,
2006
The change initiatives listed in Table 5 have different focuses, like the
improvement of quality or the restructuring of IT systems, but they all
encompass pervasive organizational change. In practice, radical
organizational change often involves simultaneous or subsequent
implementation of several change initiatives that are hoped to support each
other (Huq, Huq, & Cutright, 2006; Motwani et al., 2002). The present
study does not focus on any distinct type of change initiative, but examines
multi-project programs as a means of large-scale change.
Regardless of the change program type, large-scale change involves
simultaneous changes in several aspects of the organization, such as
strategy, structure, infrastructure, processes, practices, routines, and
values. It is this interplay between technical, economic, social and
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