TITLE:
Organizational Change Skills: An Empirical Cross-National Study
AUTHORS:
Karen Somerville, Inta Cinite, Carlos Largacha-Martínez
KEYWORDS:
Organizational Change, Change Skills, Empirical Research, Cross-National
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Business and Management,
Vol.9 No.2,
March
31,
2021
ABSTRACT: This research is premised on the proposition that mastering
organizational change skills may help improve success rate of change
initiatives. The overall purpose of this empirical, cross-national study was to
explore whether perceptions of organizational change skills differ across
nations. Using a convenience sample, structured interviews were conducted with
90 managers and executives in three regions: the USA, the Baltics and South America to collect quantitative and
qualitative data. Statistical significance of between-group differences in
means was obtained with the help of one-way ANOVA, and differences in
percentages were established using a chi square test. Most of the change skills
were perceived similarly across the three regions, but nevertheless, there were
some differences. More communication and managing the change process skills
were believed to be present in organizations in the USA, while understanding
internal and external environment was more characteristic of the Baltics and
South America. Respondents in these two regions also considered interpersonal
and social skills to be more important. Respondents’ awareness of change skills
was quite low without prompting. However, when prompted, all pre-established 11
groups of skills (Somerville & Whelan-Berry,
2009) were
rated as important, and the majority of respondents were confident that these
skills could be found in their organization. Given the relatively few
differences that were found across the three regions, this suggests that
cross-border dissemination of organizational change skills is possible, but
each geography requires a slight adaptation. The findings also suggest that if
those leading/managing change initiatives recognize that there are at least 11
groups of change skills, and cultivate these skills within the organization,
this could increase the success rate of change initiatives. Given the paucity
of empirical research relating to change skills generally, and cross-national
considerations specifically, and the importance of change for organizations
globally, this exploratory empirical research makes important contributions.