Organizational Change Tactics: Successful and Unsuccessful Interventions from a Survey of NSWM Members Tom Packard, DSW Professor Emeritus School of Social Work San Diego State University NSWM Annual Conference June 2016 Los Angeles

RESEARCH QUESTION What organizational change tactics are more present in successful than in unsuccessful change initiatives in human service organizations?

THE ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE TACTICS QUESTIONNAIRE Based on the literature, especially Fernandez and Rainey (2006) and Proehl (2001) Developed to enable respondents (HSO employees) to identify and assess both successful and unsuccessful organizational change initiatives:  Whether or not specified tactics were used in the initiative  The extent to which they were factors in success

RESPONDENTS NSWM members: on-line survey announced via to NSWM members 147 accessed the survey at Qualtrics 95 had experienced both successful and unsuccessful organizational change processes Largest group (20%) had 6-10 years management experience 69/66% nonprofit, 29/31% government organizations Most agencies had fewer than 99 employees 44% of successful initiatives and 38% of unsuccessful initiatives lasted between 7 and 12 months

RESPONDENTS Position in Organization Successful initiative Unsuccessful initiative N%N% Executive management 1324%1029% Middle management 1833%1544% Supervisor 1222%412% Line staff 713%26% Analyst/staff support 00%13% Other 59%26% Total55100%34100%

RESPONDENT’S INVOLVEMENT IN THE CHANGE INITIATIVE Participation Successful initiative Unsuccessful initiative N%N% Regular involvement 2749%1029% Occasional participant 1527%1544% Not involved, but affected 1324%721% Total55100%34100%

Examples of change goals Successful change:  Restructuring care management requirements and procedures  Increase staff morale, better inter-departmental communication, and strengthen ease-of-use of IT  Enhance team work, develop new initiatives Unsuccessful change:  Implement a new service delivery model  Redesign organization with an outdated mission and business model  Improve the quality of services

EXTENT TO WHICH RESPONDENTS OBSERVED GOAL ACHIEVEMENT Goal Achievement Successful initiative Unsuccessful initiative N%N% Fully achieved511%26% Mostly achieved2864%26% Only partly achieved 818%1234% Minimally or not at all achieved 37%1954%

Use of change tactics 1-7 SUCCESSFULUNSUCC DIFFWilcoxon t-test Mean Sigsig I was aware of the need I was aware of the urgency Change leaders shared information Vision & outcomes clear Understood plan for change Top management support Change team of staff

Use of change tactics 8-14 SUCCUNSUCCDIFFWilcoxont-test Mean Sigsig Received needed info and training Leaders solicited my support Widespread staff participation Opportunities for team building Board supported Community/agency partners supported I understood progress on the change

Use of change tactics Successful Mean Unsucc Mean DiffWilcoxon SigT-test sig We had sufficient resources My concerns were addressed Monitoring tools to track progress Activities revised as needed Results were institutionalized Results evaluated with data I was made aware of the results

ISSUES 147 accessed the survey, 95 experienced successful & unsuccessful change, matched pairs of Successful vs. Unsuccessful. Respondent’s position in the organization's hierarchy could affect their knowledge or opinion of success of an initiative. A respondent’s level of involvement in the change process could affect their knowledge or opinion of success. “Successful” and “unsuccessful” were not precisely defined. There may be variations based on factors such as the role of the change leaders, contextual factors, and conditions such as respondents’ views of the nature of an organization’s culture.

CONCLUSIONS Findings tend to confirm many of the prescriptions in the literature and can offer guidance to change agents which goes a bit beyond the use of a single book or article This study shows promise by providing a method which goes beyond individual case studies of successes, paying equivalent attention to unsuccessful change efforts, and contrasting them using precise measures of the use of change tactics. Continued use of the instrument, with larger samples, should shed further light on differences between successful and unsuccessful change efforts.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES Anderson, D. and Ackerman-Anderson L. (2010). Beyond change management, 2nd Ed. San Francisco: Pfeiffer: An Imprint of Wiley. Glisson, C. (2012). Intervention With Organizations. In C. Glisson, C. Dulmus & K. Sowers (Eds.), Social work practice with groups, organizations, and communities. (pp ). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons. Johnson, M., & Austin, M. J. (2008). Evidence-based practice in the social services: Implications for organizational change. Journal of Evidence-Based Social Work, 5(1- 2), Kotter, J. (2012). Leading change, rev. ed. Boston: Harvard Business Review Press. Packard, T., McCrae, J., Phillips, J, & Scannapieco, M. (2015). Measuring organizational change tactics to improve child welfare programs: Experiences in 13 counties. Human Service Organizations: Management, Leadership, & Governance. 39(5), Packard. T. & Shih, A. (2014). Organizational change tactics: The evidence base in the literature, Journal of Evidence-Based Social Work. 11:5, Packard, T. (2013). Organizational change: A conceptual framework to advance the evidence base. Journal of Human Behavior and the Social Environment. 23(1), Packard, T. (2013). Organizational change in human service organizations. In The Encyclopedia of Social Work online. Retrieved from Oxford University Press & NASW.

Questions? Thoughts? Suggestions? If you have experienced a successful large-scale change process and would like to have it studied, contact Tom Packard at