Organisational Change Context Impact on Design

Some examples of organisational contextual factors (8)

i) time (urgent vs gradual, long-term vs short-term, etc.)

ii) scope (organisation - whole or part, etc)

iii) preservation (the past/present vs future, ie build on the past, etc)

iv) inclusivity (uniformity vs diversity)

v) capability (old expertise vs new expertise, etc)

vi) capacity (resources adequate vs limited, etc)

vii) readiness (degree of awareness and commitment, etc)

viii) power (formal versus informal, etc)

NB

These contextual factors are considered most important in the early diagnostic phase of change.

The change context will influence the design choice:

- change path (revolutionary vs. evolutionary, transformational vs transactional, major vs minor, big vs small, etc)

- change style (directive vs participative, etc)

- change starting point (strategy vs structure vs systems, etc)

- change roles (top downwards, etc)

- change target (tangible vs intangible, etc)

(main source: Taryn Haynes-Smart, 2010)