The effectiveness and specificity of change management in a public organization: Transformational leadership and a bureaucratic organizational structure

• Published in: European management journal Vol. 32; no. 3; pp. 373 - 382
• Main Author: van der Voet, Joris
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Elsevier Ltd 01.06.2014; Elsevier Science Ltd
• Subjects: Bureaucracy; Change management; Effectiveness studies; Leadership; Management; Management of change; Management theory; Netherlands; Organizational behaviour; Organizational change; Organizational effectiveness; Organizational structure; Private sector; Public administration; Public sector; Public sector organizations; Supervisors; Western Europe; Netherlands; Leadership; Organizational structure; Change management; Public sector organizations
• ISSN: 0263-2373; 1873-5681
• DOI: 10.1016/j.emj.2013.10.001

•This study examines the effectiveness and specificity of change management in public organizations.•Employee willingness to change is related to both planned and emergent change approaches.•Transformational leadership behavior contributes little to the effectiveness of planned change.•Transformational leadership behavior is crucial for employee support in emergent change.•Bureaucratic organizational structures limit the effects of transformational leadership. There is an extensive private sector literature on organizational change management. However, recent studies have suggested that the specific context of public organizations may have consequences for the management organizational change. This study examines to what extent different change approaches and transformational leadership of direct supervisors contribute to the effective implementation of organizational change in public organizations, and to what extent the bureaucratic structure of public organizations makes the implementation of organizational change s3pecific. The implementation of an organizational change in a Dutch public organization is studied using quantitative methods and techniques. The results indicate that bureaucratic organizations may effectively implement organizational change with both planned and emergent change approaches. The contribution of transformational leadership depends on the type of change approach and organizational structure. Transformational leadership behavior of direct supervisors contributes little to planned processes of change, but is crucial in emergent processes of change in a non-bureaucratic context. Although the literature on change management mostly emphasizes the leadership of senior managers, the leadership role of direct supervisors should not be overlooked during organizational change in public organizations.