Introduction

2021 ◽  
pp. 3-16
Author(s):  
Thomas Packard
Keyword(s):  
Organizational Change ◽  
Human Services ◽  
Change Agent ◽  
Evidence Base ◽  
Change Leadership ◽  
Service Organizations ◽  
Change Initiatives ◽  
General Management ◽  
Change Leaders ◽  
Theory Research

Anyone in an organization has the potential to become an organizational change agent. A review of common ways of viewing organizations (e.g., as machines, cultures, or organisms) gives change leaders frameworks to understand and make sense of organizational operations. The purpose of this book is to offer a package of theory, research, and practice that can provide guidance to anyone working in a human services organization, from practicing administrators and other staff to students and consultants, who see opportunities to improve some aspect of an organization’s functioning. The evidence base includes the human services and general management literatures and the author’s research on organizational change. Four cases of change initiatives provide examples of the concepts and materials in some chapters. The sections of the book include challenges and change opportunities, a conceptual framework, change leadership, a change model, generic organizational change methods, and change methods for human service organizations.

Organizational Change for the Human Services

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Packard
Keyword(s):  
Organizational Change ◽  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Change Process ◽  
Team Building ◽  
Change Leadership ◽  
Service Organizations ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Case Examples ◽  
Arc Model ◽  
Organizational Culture Change

This book presents an evidence-based conceptual framework for planning and implementing organizational change processes specifically focused on human service organizations (HSOs). After a brief discussion of relevant theory and a review of key challenges facing HSOs that create opportunities for organizational change, a detailed conceptual framework outlines an organizational change process. Two chapters are devoted to the essential role of an organization’s executive or other manager as a change leader. Five chapters cover the steps of the change process, beginning with identifying a problem or change opportunity; then defining a change goal; assessing the present state of the organization (the change problem and organizational readiness and capacity to engage in change); and determining an overall change strategy. Twenty-one evidence-based organizational change tactics are presented to guide implementation of the process. Tactics include communicating the urgency for change and the change vision; developing an action system that includes a change sponsor, a change champion, a change leadership team and action teams; providing support to staff; facilitating the development and approval of ideas to achieve the change goal; institutionalizing the changes within organizational systems; and evaluating the change process and outcomes. Four case examples from public and nonprofit HSOs are used to illustrate change tactics. Individual chapters cover change technologies and methods, including action research; team building; conflict management; quality improvement methods; organization redesign; organizational culture change; using consultants; advancing diversity, equity, inclusion, and social justice; capacity building; implementation science methods; specific models, including the ARC model; and staff-initiated organizational change.

scholarly journals Follower perceptions of the emotional intelligence of change leaders: A qualitative study

Leadership ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 435-462 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roy Smollan ◽  
Ken Parry
Keyword(s):  
Emotional Intelligence ◽  
Organizational Change ◽  
Qualitative Study ◽  
Qualitative Data ◽  
Change Leadership ◽  
Qualitative Investigation ◽  
Change Leaders ◽  
Follower Perceptions ◽  
The Impact

We present and explore a follower-centric model of how employees perceive the emotional intelligence (EI) of change leaders. Qualitative investigations of EI are rare and have not explored the field of organizational change leadership. Accordingly, we analyse qualitative data from a series of interviews set within the context of organizational change. We examine follower attributions about the abilities of their leaders to manage and express their own emotions and to respond appropriately to the followers’ emotions. The findings reveal that the ways in which leaders deal with emotion might be the key to followers sharing their own emotions with them. The impact of perceived leader EI on follower responses to change is also discussed. The complexity and ambivalence of our participants’ perceptions of the EI of their change leaders highlight the utility of a qualitative investigation.

scholarly journals Theories for Effective Change Leadership

2021 ◽  
pp. 74-88
Author(s):  
Thomas Packard
Keyword(s):  
Organizational Change ◽  
Shared Vision ◽  
Change Leadership ◽  
Service Organizations ◽  
Intellectual Stimulation ◽  
Skill Levels ◽  
Idealized Influence ◽  
The People ◽  
Adaptive Challenges ◽  
Individual Consideration

Several leadership theories have particular relevance for organizational change leadership. The classic model of Rensis Likert’s participative System 4 style seems especially well-suited for human service organizations, which are typically staffed by professionals with high skill levels and expectations of autonomy and empowerment. Participative decision-making theory is especially valuable in organizational change. Other theories, including exemplary leadership as articulated by Kouzes and Posner, which includes modeling the way, inspiring a shared vision, challenging the process, enabling others, and encouraging the heart, are directly relevant to change leadership. Transformational leadership, using idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, and individual consideration is useful in motivating staff. Adaptive leadership, which involves getting on the balcony, identifying adaptive challenges, regulating distress, maintaining disciplined attention, giving work back to the people, and protecting leadership voices from below, is also particularly relevant to change leadership.

Changes in commitment to change among leaders in home help services

2015 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 216-227 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristina Westerberg ◽  
Susanne Tafvelin
Keyword(s):  
Organizational Change ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Change Initiatives ◽  
Commitment To Change ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Team Meetings ◽  
Home Help ◽  
Home Help Services ◽  
One Year ◽  
Over Time

Purpose – The purpose of the this study was to explore the development of commitment to change among leaders in the home help services during organizational change and to study this development in relation to workload and stress. During organizational change initiatives, commitment to change among leaders is important to ensure the implementation of the change. However, little is known of development of commitment of change over time. Design/methodology/approach – The study used a qualitative design with semi-structured interviews with ten leaders by the time an organizational change initiative was launched and follow-up one year later. Thematic content analysis was used to analyze the interviews. Findings – Commitment to change is not static, but seems to develop over time and during organizational change. At the first interview, leaders had a varied pattern reflecting different dimensions of commitment to change. One year later, the differences between leaders’ commitment to change was less obvious. Differences in commitment to change had no apparent relationship with workload or stress. Research limitations/implications – The data were collected from one organization, and the number of participants were small which could affect the results on workload and stress in relation to commitment to change. Practical implications – It is important to support leaders during organizational change initiatives to maintain their commitment. One way to accomplish this is to use management team meetings to monitor how leaders perceive their situation. Originality/value – Qualitative, longitudinal and leader studies on commitment to change are all unusual, and taken together, this study shows new aspects of commitment.

Exploring Policy Implications of Ethics of Care and Justice in Care Work and Human Services Organizations

2021 ◽  
pp. 193672442110274
Author(s):  
Christa J. Moore ◽  
Patricia Gagné
Keyword(s):  
Child Protection ◽  
Human Service ◽  
Human Services ◽  
Ethics Of Care ◽  
Human Service Organizations ◽  
Policy Implications ◽  
Service Organizations ◽  
Care Work ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Bureaucratic Constraints

Much attention has recently been focused on the efficacy of cross-sector collaboration within the field of human services in response to increasing rates of child maltreatment and subsequent foster care entries nationwide. Our research includes 200 hours of participant observation, in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 65 professionals broadly involved in the protection of vulnerable children and the support of their parents, and an analysis of 45 case files. It was carried out in a rural region of Kentucky between May 2015 and July 2017. We used established principles of analytic induction to analyze our data. In this study, we explore perceptions of power, authority, inequality, and bureaucratic constraints that emerge during organizational processes of interagency collaboration among multidisciplinary human service organizations situated within the child welfare system. We argue that ethics of care and, subsequently, care work are constrained by power dynamics, primarily embedded in bureaucratically structured human service organizations as well as in policy mandates that embody ethics of justice. We conclude that the tensions between bureaucratic constraints and professional workers’ desire to care for and serve clients often disrupt and undermine organizational missions and policy goals targeting child protection. We indicate the need to examine these structural dynamics at a policy level and provide recommendations with policy implications.

Critical Applications of Heterogeneity Theories to Power in Nonprofit Human Services Organizations

2021 ◽  
pp. 089976402110297
Author(s):  
Shawn Teresa Flanigan
Keyword(s):  
Human Services ◽  
Nonprofit Sector ◽  
Service Organizations ◽  
Theoretical Frameworks ◽  
Services Research ◽  
Nonprofit Studies ◽  
Theoretical Perspectives ◽  
Human Services Organizations ◽  
Nonprofit Human Service Organizations

The field of nonprofit studies often assumes that efforts of actors in the nonprofit landscape are beneficial, especially when considering nonprofit human service organizations. However, there are both theoretical and empirical reasons for scholars to adopt a more critical lens when examining these organizations. Taking nonprofit human services organizations as a common setting, the article uses a critical lens to apply classic, “mainstream” theories of the role of heterogeneity in nonprofit sector formation and illuminate risks often neglected in nonprofit human services research. In this way, the article demonstrates that classic social science theories of heterogeneity already offer us the tools we need to critically question dominant assumptions about nonprofit human services provision and challenges the reader to consider why we so rarely use these well-known theoretical frameworks in a critical manner. The article concludes by inviting scholars to utilize additional critical theoretical perspectives in future studies of nonprofit human services.

Growing through Organizational Change

2009 ◽  
Vol 90 (3) ◽  
pp. 329-331 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ann M. Callahan
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Organizational Change ◽  
Staff Development ◽  
Mental Health Care ◽  
Therapeutic Community ◽  
Change Agent ◽  
Facility Management ◽  
Management Staff

This article describes the authors experience as an organizational change agent. The need to enhance client access to mental health care was the rallying cry for clinic transformation. The author describes how facility management, staff development, and therapeutic community were used to improve clinic functioning. The article ends with suggestions for how the reader might engage in organizational change.

scholarly journals THEORATICAL FRAMEWORK TO UNDERSTAND THE ASSOCIATION OF ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE ON THE ORGANIZATIONAL COMMITMENT

2014 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 618-624
Author(s):  
Kanika Sofat ◽  
Dr.Ravi Kiran
Keyword(s):  
Organizational Change ◽  
Organization Change ◽  
Intangible Asset ◽  
Labor Turnover ◽  
Change Initiatives ◽  
Organization Commitment ◽  
Managing Change ◽  
The People ◽  
New Ideas ◽  
The Relationship

The organization change is defined as the adoption of new ideas or behavior by an organization. The mainobjective of organizational change is to maximize the benefits of the people involved in the process and to minimize the risk involved in the failure of implementing and managing change. Organization commitment of the employees is an intangible asset for an organization so as to derive strategic advantage over competitors. It is a psychological link between the employee and his organization. If the employees lack commitment it willlead to increase in absenteeism and affecting labor turnover. The commitment employees will hence ease stressduring organizational change process and will understand and cope with change so as to make it successful. The paper helps to understand the organizational change initiatives undertaken in the organizations. It further helpsto examine the relationship between change management and organization commitment in organizations.Keywords: Organizational change, Change levers, Organizational change initiatives, organization commitment

Culturally Informed Evidence-Based Organizational Change and Development Through the Lens of Complexity Theory

2019 ◽  
pp. 140-154 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Cseh ◽  
Beatriz Coningham
Keyword(s):  
Organizational Change ◽  
National Culture ◽  
Complexity Theory ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Cultural Dimensions ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Cultural Environment ◽  
Change Initiatives ◽  
External Consultants ◽  
Culturally Informed

In this chapter, the authors apply the lens of complexity theory to explore evidence-based organizational change and development (EBOCD) in global contexts with external OCD consultants working with organizations located in a national culture other than their own. The authors' research and experience leads them to believe that, while OCD is practiced within the complexity of organizations, the addition of cross-cultural dimensions significantly exacerbate the contradictions and paradoxes OCD practitioners need to manage, making change initiatives and their results more unpredictable. The authors highlight the experiences of global OCD external consultants to illustrate this added complexity and discuss how practitioners should apply evidence in a complex, cross-cultural environment.

You as a Change Leader

2021 ◽  
pp. 59-73
Author(s):  
Thomas Packard
Keyword(s):  
Organizational Change ◽  
Personal Development ◽  
Leadership Competencies ◽  
High Energy ◽  
Change Leadership ◽  
Self Awareness ◽  
Achievement Orientation ◽  
High Energy Level ◽  
Self Confidence ◽  
Change Leader

The executive or other member of the organization who is in charge of the change initiative will need to engage in self-assessment to identify the need for personal development of any change leadership competencies and skills and then implement a plan for leader for development. Traits including a high energy level, emotional maturity, personal integrity, self-confidence, and an achievement orientation are valuable assets. Task, relationship, and change behaviors and the use of influence tactics are all essential. A change leader must develop self-awareness, including the understanding of one’s basic philosophies and preferences as well as strengths and areas to develop. Ethics issues are relevant in organizational change leadership. All of these dynamics of change leadership will affect how a change leader will design and implement an organizational change intervention.

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