Studying the effects of a constructivist role play intervention on employees’ readiness for second order change

Second order changes like mergers, acquisitions and major consolidations pose significant challenges for corporate training personnel who are often heavily involved in the implementation of such initiatives. These types of changes have a high rate of failure because they involve making revisions to employees’ underlying beliefs about their organizations. A review of the literature on second order change reveals that it has its own unique set of challenges that cannot be overcome by conventional change management strategies. In response to this pressing need, this mixed methods study investigated the effects a constructivist role play scenario activity had on employees’ readiness for second order change. Constructivist methods such as role play games are much more effective at facilitating second order change because they give participants the opportunity to develop a unique and meaningful interpretation of the information. The study followed the experiences of 12 employees from different departments within an insurance company who had recently been affected by the sudden acquisition of their company. It compared their readiness for change to the rest of the office personnel using the Change Readiness Survey before and after the role play. The role play scenario activity took place over a five week period and was comprised of online and face-to-face components. The study found that constructivist role play games can help facilitate a deeper understanding of second order change while not always increasing participants’ readiness for change. Participants reported that the role play game made them feel valued and respected as employees because it gave them a safe place to express and discuss their feelings about the change. It also gave them a greater understanding of the depth of the change by providing them with the opportunity to interact with participants from other departments. Given the small number of participants, additional research needs to be conducted that would make these findings more generalizable.Ph.D., Educational Leadership Development and Learning Technologies -- Drexel University, 201