Supporting Middle Management in Change Implementation : Case Company X

Abstract

In the nowadays fast paced business environment, organizational change has become a continuous process to compete and anticipate the turbulent and dynamic business environment, integrating change into development activities and daily management of an organization and making change the new normal. Majority of the middle managers report participating in at least one major change initiative during the last year even though almost 70 percent of change initiatives fails to reach the targeted benefit or results in an overall failure. The field of change management recognizes middle managers making incremental contributions during change but their role is still poorly understood. This study concentrates on discovering how the implementers of a change should be themselves supported during change efforts. The Kurt Lewin’s three stepped change model is used to describe the different phases of a change. This study uses a qualitative research method. Five semi-structured interviews were conducted with middle managers from the case company. Each interview was recorded and lasted around one hour. The theoretical contribution of this thesis to the existing literature is the framework that combines change phases with the roles middle managers have during the unfreezing, change and refreezing phases of a change. Based on the findings of this study, the importance of the middle managers own sensemaking process during a change is highlighted. This study further provides managerial suggestions on how set dialogue and feedback structures to support middle managers in their own sensemaking process to enable improved change implementation