Improving technology adoption through change management

Abstract: Change management plays an important role in the technology implementation process. Organisations strive for innovative ways to survive their competitors and the changes in customer requirements, which are linked to satisfaction and technological advancements. The purpose of this research was to understand the change management model that an opencast mine uses and its critical success factors so that the end-users adopt these and realise the value. When steps and factors are clearly identified or known, they can easily be managed in future implementations. The literature review provided a list of change management models, together with their critical success factors that were used during the technology implementation process. The case study was conducted using a questionnaire. The questionnaires were sent to the production team members. From the literature review, three change management models were identified; Kotter’s change model, Lewin’s change model and ADKAR’s change model. The steps for each model were presented, as well as the critical success factors required for adoption and value realisation. The background information obtained from the literature review assisted in drafting the questionnaire that was sent to the production team members to obtain the applicable steps within the case organisation. The data was then analysed and the steps and critical factors that the organisation must consider, were presented. Based on the results obtained from the questionnaire, the level of agreement from the respondents showed that there were gaps within the organisation that needed to be addressed, such as end-user involvement, prior to and throughout the change process.M.Phil. (Engineering Management