نقش های در حال توسعه در فرایندهای تغییر؛ یک مطالعه موردی از سازمان بخش دولتی

Even though change is recognized to be of utmost importance in today´s organisations, there exists no common understanding of change roles. The relationship between change roles and program and project roles seems not to be clear, although many changes are organized by projects. The paper presents a case study of a transformation of a public organisation. In an action research approach together with representatives of the case study company relevant roles for the change were developed and established. The paper analyzes different change roles and project and program roles in literature and identifies shortcomings, presents the change roles developed in the case study, reflects the necessity for an explicit definition and differentiation of change, program and project roles for the fulfilment of a transformation, and it analyzes the benefits and disadvantages of the application of multi-role assignments in changes.

Changes are of increasing importance in today´s turbulent environment to remain competitive. Changes are socially complex endeavours, and there is still a high rate of failure (Aiken and Keller, 2009). Specific organisational structures such as roles, communication structures and organisational rules help to deal with this complexity. Changes are performed by projects and programs (Biedenbach and Söderholm, 2008, Bresnen, 2006, Gareis, 2010, Pellegrinelli, 1997 and Pellegrinelli, 2002). Differentiated change types have been identified (By, 2005, Gareis, 2010 and Heitger and Doujak, 2008) which require different management. Levy and Merry (1986) distinguish first and second order changes, where they consider second order changes as more radical than first order changes. One second order change type is transformation, which is fundamental as most or all identity dimensions of an organisation are changed. The focus is on redesigning the organisation and on strengthening (new) core competences (Gareis, 2010). In this paper a case study of the change type transformation is presented. The objectives of the paper are to present and discuss the change roles which have been developed in an action research approach within a change of a public sector organisation. Thus the paper • analyzes different change roles and project and program roles in literature and identifies shortcomings, • presents the change roles developed in the case study, • reflects the necessity for an explicit definition and differentiation of change, program and project roles for the fulfilment of a transformation, and • analyzes the benefits and disadvantages of the application of multi-role assignments in changes.

A clear role differentiation between change roles and program/project roles was not found in the existing literature. Therefore also the relationships between these roles were not addressed in literature. With this paper we contributed to a better understanding of change roles, analyzed the demand for their clear differentiation from program and project roles and investigated the relationships between these roles. In addition the benefits and limitations of a multi-role assignments were analyzed. The paper suggests that the demand for management attention for the high number and variety of tasks needed in a second order change could be met with the definition of programs and projects, and in consequence with the definition of program and project roles. The paper suggests, that program and project roles are defined for the management of distinct change programs or change projects, such as the planning of a transformation. For the implementation of a transformation, even programs might be needed, therefore program roles, such as the program owner, program manager, and program team, for the duration of the program have to be performed in addition to the change roles, as well as project roles for the respective projects within the program. In difference to the change management literature analyzed the paper suggests a clear distinction between change, program and project roles to deal with the high complexity of transformations. In addition to transformations, also in the change type radical new positioning as well as in specific first order changes a clear differentiation of change, program and project roles might be applied. The following definitions of change roles and design of relationships to program and project roles for transformations can be summarized: • The change owner is responsible for the strategic management of a change. He/she defines the strategic requirements, makes strategic decisions, assigns new change processes, and has the authority to stop a change process. Persons performing the role change owner can contribute to change projects and change programs as owners or managers. • The change manager is responsible for the operational management of a change. He/she assures the transitions between change processes and the compliance with change management standards and performs change marketing. Persons performing the role change manager can contribute to change projects and change programmes as owners or managers or experts. • Change agents are responsible for the interaction with the employees of the organisation and the implementation of change management measures in the organisation. This includes the dealing with resistance. Change experts provide expertise for the fulfilment of the change. They usually act also as project managers or as team members in change projects. The paper discussed the need for differentiation and integration in change. The paper suggests the application of a multi-role assignments, as overlapping assignments of different roles help to reduce complexity in minimizing the amount of personnel being involved, in minimizing the information demand, etc. Multi-role assignments seem to be an effective concept to support an adequate mix of differentiation and integration and to comply with the high complexity of second order changes. As pointed out in the discussion multi-role assignments might lead to confusion and ambiguity thus the roles must be understood by the people involved. To support understanding the roles the paper recommends to develop the roles together with the participants, to reflect the application of the roles and to perform change management and project management trainings.