Change Management Survey
Different concepts of Change Management have been around for the last twenty years, and depending on background, practitioners, such as consultants and managers have applied different tools and methodologies to facilitate change in organizations, teams and individuals.
To find out what is the state of the art, in 2004 the Change Management Toolbook run a survey on the future and practice of Change Management.The survey which ran from August until September 2004, queried participants’ views on the application of Change Management, the competitive advantage of its different methodologies, its drawbacks and its prospects. In total there were 562 respondents, covering private business, public services, development agencies, NGOs, universities and consultants. Further, 45% of the survey’s responses come from outside North America and Europe, indicating that Change Management has no borders and is relevant throughout the world.
The central target of this survey was to get an idea on whether Change Management will still be talked about in 10 years and whether the concepts will become mainstream. There is good news! The Change Management sector will grow. The respondents believe in the validity of Change Management approaches; the results are striking. 99% of all respondents agree that in the future Change Management skills will be in higher demand than today. This is confirmed by 94% of all respondents who consequently disagree with the idea that Change Management is a fashion which will not survive for much longer.
Another outcome of this survey, came as a surprise to us because of its clarity. 89% of all respondents consider Change Management as a universal concept. Deep rooted in concepts of democracy at the workplace and the stakeholder participation, with large parts of the concept having been developed in the US and in Western Europe, it is not perceived as a Western paradigm. To our surprise, there isn’t a significant variation over geographical background, position or length of experience with Change Management approaches. Interesting though, that people from “Western cultures” (Europe, Australia, North America) are slightly, but not significantly, more critical of the universal applicability of Change Management concepts than respondents from “Eastern” or “Southern” cultures.
The report is available from http://www.change-management-toolbook.com/res/Reports.html
