The Importance of Healthy Organizational Change Processes

The present chapter treats the subject of healthy change processes and investigates their role in organizational change. Based on observations in the research literature of the challenges inherent in organizational change and own empirical studies, a model is presented linking the comparative contributions of organizational change and change processes to parameters of the psychosocial work environment. The model takes as its point of departure that change can be treated as an overall force which is associated in a general way with certain effects for the psychosocial work environment, independent of the change content of any given change effort. Further, a conceptualization of the healthy change process is presented comprising five dimensions: Awareness of norms, awareness of diversity, leader availability, constructive conflicts, and role clarification. These different dimensions are then discussed in terms of their individual contributions to the psychosocial work environment of organizations undergoing change. The chapter concludes with some lessons as to what a healthy change process can – and cannot hope to provide.