What is the Experience of Leaders Who Lead Organizational Change: A Case Study

This case study investigated the experiences of positional or hierarchical leaders in municipal government who were leading organizational change. The government sector’s organizational structure appears to be shifting toward leaner and more efficient operations management. The last two decades of research has focused on the styles and strategies leaders have used to implement change. Little is known about the experiences of positional leaders leading organizational change within the municipal government setting. To gain insight into this experience, I interviewed twelve positional leaders employed by a municipality in the Midwest. The interviews consisted of an in-person, semi-structured, open-ended format. Eligible participants were or recently had been positional leaders employed within the bounded municipal case setting, had held positions on the municipality’s leadership cabinet, and had been active in the organization’s change-related decision-making process. An analysis of the interview transcripts revealed five emergent themes: (1) the leaders indicated a preference for collaboration, participation, consensus building, and communication approaches; (2) the leaders preferred to use a private-sector business management approach; (3) leading organizational change contributed to long work hours, stress, frustration, exhaustion, and strained relationships for the leaders; (4) the leaders desired their own improvement through more preparation, communication, and listening; and (5) leadership turnover impacted the positional leaders