Implementing organizational change projects: impediments and gaps

A ‘project’ perspective on managing change is offered to embrace a focused range of gaps and behavioural issues which determine the success or failure of change programmes. The argument evolves around contemporary strategic, managerial and behavioural concepts on implementing organizational change projects, and is supported by first-hand empirical evidence from a sample of UK based organizations during 1996–98. The gaps are identified as: clarity of the purpose of, and reasons for change [why]; definition and specification of project objectives [what], and the design of project process and choice of implementation method [how]. The impediments reflect the phenomena of slow learning, fast forgetting and organized resistance. Research evidence indicates that the management effort invested in closing those implementation gaps could concurrently remove the behavioural obstacles to change project success.