Transforming the legal profession: an interview study of change managers in law

A lively debate progresses about change to the professions, including law, especially change in the form of managerialism. ‘Managerialism’ covers the methods and beliefs of managers within organisations, used to actively influence, evaluate, and ‘market’ professional work. But what about when that managerialism is change itself? How do we understand managerialism-as-change? This paper reports on an interview study with change managers, or ‘transformation leaders’ in the legal profession. Transformation leaders offer rich insights into the dynamics of professional change because they are incontrovertibly change agents. They are also themselves a form of managerial change as a new cadre of managers within the professions; managers with ‘hybrid’ identities whose legitimacy in professional settings is not assured. The findings presented include: the change leaders’ identities; the types of change being introduced; the constraints on and affordances for change in legal practices; and how change leaders secure, and sometimes struggle to secure, the authority needed to implement change. The concluding discussion highlights the study's contributions to our understanding of professional change and managerialism in the legal context – both what changes are being pursued and how they are materialising through certain ‘managerial’ goals, strategies, and the interactions of those with mixed identities and status.

Digital Transformation of Transportation in the Age of COVID-19

Purpose: To highlight the key trends in the transportation industry and the role of emerging technologies and digital transformation in acceleration of value creation. The conceptual framework suggests how such transformation could be implemented. Design/methodology/approach: Research in a focus group was carried out where selected digital transformation frameworks were reviewed, and one was selected as the most applicable to the transportation industry. The selected framework was adopted for the transportation industry. Findings: 1. Value creation should be positioned as the key objective of transformation. 2. Digital transformation is not so much about technology as it is about people. 3. The staged approach towards transformation allows it to be paced with account being taken of the maturity of technology as well as the maturity of competencies across the organization. For a successful digital transformation, the organization invests in development of digital capabilities. Moving towards digital means a mindset shift, cultural change and adoption of new methods of working. Research limitations/implications: Transportation companies are at the early stage of transformation at such a scale. The case studies on successful transformations are limited. Therefore, experience is gathered mainly by the test and learn process. It is recommended that findings are validated with a wider group of experts when transformation matures. Comparing the same framework usage in other industries can also offer additional learnings to be considered by change leaders. Originality/value: Transportation industry is in a process of transformation towards connected, electric and autonomous solutions, accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic. The presented framework, adopted for the transportation industry, offers a practical tool for executives and change leaders to lead the transformation.

On Leadership: What stories are we telling about our changing society?

The release of new U.S. census data led many pundits to opine about what demographic changes mean for the future of the country. But, as Joshua P. Starr explains, educators have been watching their classrooms and schools become less white for many years. What’s important now is not the change itself but how we interpret the change. The stories people tell about past and present changes can affect their response to that change. Leaders who encounter resistance as they propose new equity initiatives can benefit from listening to the stories of those who are wary to try to understand the reason for their resistance.

Clinical Scholars: Effective Approaches to Leadership Development

The Clinical Scholars (CS) National Leadership Institute (CSNLI) equips interprofessional teams of health care professionals through equity-centered leadership training, preparing them to be change leaders working to advance health equity in communities across the US and its territories. At the time of this writing, four cohorts consisting of 131 Fellows from 14 different disciplines, participating in 36 different teams of two to five members are working on “Wicked Problem Impact Projects”, an implementation science-based approach to action learning projects. This chapter reports on the design of the 3-year CS experience, the onsite and distance-based training support, and the subsequent learning responses of 98 participants, 30 of whom had completed the 3-year training (Cohort 1), 34 of whom had completed 2-years of the training (Cohort 2), and 34 who had completed 1-year of the training (Cohort 3). The training program is guided by 25 competencies that weave leadership and equity throughout, which are divided into four families: Personal, Interpersonal, Organizational, and Community & Systems. Learning outcomes indicated that Fellows are highly satisfied, with all participants rating their experience at 6.10-6.77 on a 7-point scale across all sessions, all years. Retrospective pre-and post-tests assessed learning gains on the competencies, indicating statistically significant changes from baseline to midpoint in participant knowledge, attitude, use, and self-efficacy in each of the 25 competencies and large and significant gains by competency family. The Clinical Scholars Program presents an in-depth, longitudinal, state-of-the-art approach to promoting the cultivation and development of a large and sophisticated set of skills that intentionally integrate leadership competencies with a focus on health equity. Taken together, these outcomes show how a logical and structured process, using widely available tools, can contribute to both learning and implementation of skills that lead to real world impacts in communities. Given the results reported at the close of their Clinical Scholars experience, the data suggest that investing in robust, intensive leadership development of interprofessional teams is a smart decision for impacting the culture of health in communities nationwide.

Assessing individual readiness for change in healthcare: a review of measurement scales

PurposeUnderstanding how individuals respond and adapt to change is essential to assist leaders to manage transformational change effectively. Contemporary health care environments are characterised by frequent and rapid change, often with unrealistic and challenging timeframes. Researchers have employed a range of assessment scales to assess individual readiness for change. Hence, to select the appropriate scale, it is critical to compare the properties of these instruments. A scoping review will be conducted to identify scales that measure an individual's response to change in the healthcare environment.Design/methodology/approachIn this article the authors used the PIC (Population or Problem, Interest, and Context) design and undertook a comprehensive literature search conducted in Eric, MEDLINE, EmCare, CINAHL, PsychINFO and PubMed. Management databases were also searched including Business Source Premium (Ebesco) and Business Collection (InfoRMIT). Reference lists were scrutinized, and citation searches were performed of the included studies. The primary outcome was the quality of the literature searches and the secondary outcome was time spent on the literature search when the PIC model was used as a search strategy tool, compared to the use of another conceptualizing tool or unguided searching.FindingsThis scoping review identified eight scales used to measure an individual's response to change. This scoping review did not identify any individual change readiness scales specifically designed for use in the healthcare environment. However, two scales (the Acceptance of Change Scale and the Resistance to Change Scale) had applicability across a wide variety of organisational settings.Research limitations/implicationsScoping reviews do not set out to comprehensively source all relevant literature but rather to ascertain the nature and extent of the published literature in the field. Therefore, it is possible that a systematic review might uncover additional relevant papers.Practical implicationsThis scoping review will assist change leaders to gain a better understanding of the different scales used to measure individual response to change.Originality/valueTo manage change effectively, change leaders first need to develop an understanding of how individuals respond and adapt to change. Change leaders require the necessary scales to assist them to understand change processes, providing an understanding of where individuals are placed on the change continuum. To the best of the authors' knowledge, this scoping review is the first of its kind to identify and review scales to measure individual response to change.

Introduction

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.

Launching the Change Initiative

The first implementation step is to determine an overall change strategy (empirical-rational, normative-reeducative, or power-coercive). Broadly and fully communicating the need and desirability of the change is necessary for staff to see the relevance of the change goal. This can include data from the earlier assessment of the problem and how achievement of the change goal will lead to a better future for the organization. Change leaders might show how the change is compatible with the organization’s mission, vision, and values. Change leaders cannot “overcommunicate” regarding the need for change. Creating a sense of urgency needs to be framed from the employees’ perspectives: how the change will address a real problem and what bad outcomes are likely if the problem is not addressed. Communicating the change vision involves referring to the new ideal future of the organization and also outlining the basics of the change process to be used.

Revitalization and Resurrection? Confronting Decline and Change in Religious Organizations

We draw on interviews with 22 religious leaders to develop a model that highlights how these individuals confront organizational change. Our model provides insight into the perceptions of leaders who are negotiating change in an unusual and turbulent organizational context. It also expands knowledge of how change is confronted in situations where organizational decline is exacerbated by widespread shifts within the larger institutional environment. We find religious leaders are attuned to the pressures facing their organizations and that in general, they embrace change. Leaders highlighted the need to encourage change not only in others, but also described a need for personal change; according to our interviewees, bringing about such transformation requires an ability to frame contextual demands for change in constructive ways, adapt and respond to the forces pressing on religious life, and balance tradition with innovation.