This study was an evaluation of the change management strategy implemented at the Foschini Retail Organization. An explanatory study was conducted by drawing up a case study and thereafter comparing the initiatives taken in the case study to an ideal change process model. In order to conduct a more focused design only four factors updating on the change management process were considered. These factors were :The nature of organizational change and the philosophy behind the Foschini Retail Academy; The need to develop a change approach which is suitable for the organizational specific context; The managerial and personal status designed by a successful change agent; The difference between the design of recipe - driven or formulaic approaches to change implementation and more context - specific approaches. Information for the case study was mainly obtained from interviews and focus groups. The problem matching technique was performed the case study, where strategy implementation was compared to those recommended in literature. It was found that there was effective change planning and communication. The change management process was tailored to suit the organization's specific context. The change agent had to have strong managerial and leadership status. The senior management team at Foschini had identified specific outputs that they expected after the role out of the academy and thereby careful emphasis and plan went into the context - specific approaches to the change process. The management team at Foschini had taken all aspects into account when designing the change strategy as recommended, by information gathered from literature and certain areas in communication and planning that needed to be implemented.

Thesis (MBA)-University of Natal, Durban, 2002.