Change management : an integrative approach

This thesis explores the nature of organisational change and proposes that the majority of change programmes are unsuccessful due to their interventionist orientation. The inherent complexity of organisational change is such that the change needs to be understood from a range of perspectives and that many factors need to be fully integrated if the change is to be managed effectively.The original proposition was a vertically integrated methodology called the Five Dimensions of Change that stratified and integrated organisational activity from strategic planning to operational processes. This was fundamentally a prescriptive and positivistic model of change management, that was subsequently developed into a more interpretive, question-based approach called the Six Dimensions of Change, which included a focus on the person-centred and socio- cultural aspects of an organisation and proposed a more integrated and generative methodology.This approach was further refined to encompass the critical learning of the author that a change agent must take full cognisance of the personal and symbiotic relationship they have with the change programme. This holistically integrative methodology is explored through the use of the DNA helix, representing the importance of direction, task focus, people focus and the nature of engagement of the change agent.Three case studies explore the development and refinement of the methodology and these are explored from three perspectives: researcher, change agent andlearner, thus providing epistemological relativism and ensuring that the essential elements of action, learning and research were the focus of the work.Action Learning was central to the development, and critically to the refinement, of the integrative methodology and this is documented within the thesis, as is the personal and professional development of the author. Action Learning Sets provided opportunity for constant challenge and critical evaluation of the work and resulted in a significant personal exploration of the manner in which the author as a change agent interacts and engages with a change programme