In Search of Evidence

Chapter 3
ABSTRACT
Despite the popularity of organizational change management, the question arises
whether its prescriptions are based on solid and convergent evidence. To answer
this question, a systematic review was conducted of organizational change
management research published in scholarly journals during the last 30 years. The
databases ABI/INFORM, Business Source Premier, ERIC and PsycINFO were searched
for relevant studies. A total of 563 studies met the review’s criteria. Assessment
shows a predominance of one-shot studies with a low internal validity. Replication
studies are rare. Findings suggest that scholars and practitioners should be
sceptical regarding the body of research results in the field of organizational
change management published to date. Prescriptions are offered for researchers,
editors and educators in order to develop a more solid body of evidence on
organizational change management.
INTRODUCTION
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“Billions of dollars have been spent in the last two decades on management
activities purportedly designed to change organizations. Virtually none of these
efforts has any systematic monitoring or evaluation associated with it. This leads to
an unfortunate state of affairs where the waxing and waning of organizational
improvement remedies are associated with limited understanding about what
works and what does not.” (Tichy, 1983).
Despite reportedly high failure rates (Beer & Nohria, 2000; Smith, 2002), the
popularity of organizational change management (OCM) continuous. In 1980 the
database ABI/INFORM contained 426 articles on the subject in scholarly journals.
This figure had risen to over 1,700 by 1990 and to more than 6,800 by 2000. As
of 2012, this database contained 20,000+ articles on OCM. Despite this
publication boom, questions remain regarding whether and how well change
management practices work. Thirty years ago, Noel Tichy was pessimistic on this
subject. The issue remains whether this situation has improved. The present
systematic review answers a question that must be resolved first. That is, whether
change research is actually being conducted in a manner that can create the body
of evidence necessary to provide conclusive findings regarding OCM’s
effectiveness.
The term ‘organizational change management’ takes a variety of meanings. It
came into use in the early 1970’s and encompasses an array of concepts and
methods that collectively address the question of how organizational change can