Organisational Change: A Critical Review of the Literature
This paper presents a literature review on change management. Change management has been defined as 'the process of continually renewing an organisation's direction, structure, and capabilities to serve the ever changing needs of external and internal customers (Moran Brightman 2000) Kanter (1992) contends that we live in a constantly changing world, and change has an impact on the individuals and the organisation as a whole. In this context, organisations have to look into the future to find new advantages. New technologies, new products, new competitors, new regulations, and new people with new values and experience is the order of the modern organisation. Nevertheless, theories and approaches to change management are often conflicting, lacking in empirical evidence and based on unchallenged assumptions about the nature of modern organisational change management. This paper looks at some of the main theories and approaches to organisational change management as an important first step towards constructing a new framework for managing change.