Transformation in the workplace : what makes for sustainable solutions.
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Date
2009
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Abstract
This research is an experiential learning history of a change management
process that occurred within the local government Development
Management Department of the Ethekwini Municipality in the South African
province of KwaZulu Natal. The department is the gatekeeper of
development for Ethekwini and offers the plans approval service in the
municipal area. The department underwent an internal change management
process in 2000, which aimed to streamline the plans approval process and
minimize the approval timeframe. The Municipality’s decision to change the
existing system was motivated by the lack of foreign direct investment into
the city due to the bureaucratic plans approval process.
This research used the qualitative framework and case study approach to
understand the context of the requirement for the change, the implemented
changes and the aftermath of the changes. A sample group of 38% (from the
department) was interviewed, their responses consolidated, grouped and
graphically represented, enabling the unpacking of the change management
experience. The author then analyses the data against systems theory and
change management theory to enable a greater appreciation of the
complexity of the process and the high impacts of specific choices in the
change management process.
The findings of the research indicate a high degree of unresolved stress
relating to the imposition of the process of change management on
employees. The author draws the conclusion from the evidence presented
that the inclusion of the recipients of change, in the process of change will
mitigate against these stresses.
This research documents the experience of the change management
process by the recipients of change. In so doing it offers a greater level of
insight of the way in which change is experienced, thereby promoting better
choices by practitioners in the field of change management.
Description
Thesis (M.Com.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Westville, 2009.
Keywords
Organizational change--Management., Transformational leadership., Theses--Leadership and management.