Managing change for strategy implementation at the Aurum Institute
Date
2015-05-26
Authors
Kuwane, Bulelani
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Abstract
The research examines how The Aurum Institute (Aurum) managed change
during the implementation of its 2010 strategy. The new strategy also
included changes to the structure. Aurum is a not-for-profit, public benefit
organisation. The purpose of the research was to investigate factors that led
to resistance to change at Aurum. The research drew on Lewin’s Force-
Field Theory of Change as a theoretical framework.
This research adopted an interpretative social science approach. The
design that the research took is a qualitative approach. Data was collected
through semi-structured interviews conducted with ten people: eight current
senior and middle managers at Aurum and two other interviewees, a former
manager and a consultant. Data was analysed using the Successive
Approximation Method.
The results show that there was resistance to change at Aurum during
strategy implementation and restructuring. The results also showed that
there were good reasons for the organisation developing a strategy and
organisational restructuring, and one of the main results was growing the
organisation to ensure sustainability.
The research showed that there was resistance to change as a result of
multiple factors. These factors include, among other things, ownership of
the change initiatives, that the implementation of the matrix structure was
difficult, insufficient resources were allocated to change initiatives, and
some people did not understand the need to change. It is recommended
that the organisation builds leadership capacity and prioritises allocation
resources to ensure that change initiatives are successful.
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Keywords
Strategic planning -- South Africa. Organizational change -- South Africa.