Perceptions of the obstacles to successful change management in a medical research consortium.

Abstract

The medical research environment is a resource scarce environment that is consistently in a state of flux, however change management has the potential to facilitate and ensure the success of large scale, resource intensive projects within medical organisations. This study examined a large scale project that was rolled out in a medical research organisation to assess how the employees within the organisation perceived the change in terms of Kotter’s (1995) eight step process for leading change. Members of the organisation’s core project team were interviewed by using a semi-structured questionnaire. Kotter’s (1995) model requires all steps to be followed in strict sequence and all the steps are required for a successful roll out of the change intervention. In most areas the organisation fulfilled the requirements of Kotter’s model (1995), however in at least two instances the organisation failed to adequately complete the steps that formed the basis of the model. The roll out of the project was deemed a success, however, implying that the steps of the model do not need to be followed rigidly and that there is some flexibility within the model. The project also showed how the organisation was able to fulfil most of the model’s requirements without any explicit intention on the part of the organisation to apply the model.