Is There Any Use in Changing?

Abstract

There are quite a few books for sale on organizational behavior in general, and management of change in particular. One would expect that those trees were cut for a good reason—in short, that we would know by now what the best change program and what its best implementation strategy is. But sadly more than 70 % of the change programs worldwide do not achieve the desired return [1–3]. This percentage is even higher according to some researchers, and there are even researchers who claim that not a single change program has had the desired effect [4]. Also 96 % of all the mergers and takeovers are very problematic (research Hewitt and Associates, 2009) apparently as a result of ‘cultural problems’. These are rather shocking findings, and one thing is for sure: there is something wrong despite the willingness of all the parties involved.