All changes great and small: Exploring approaches to change and its leadership
Abstract
Although the growing need for change in organizations it is widely acknowledged it is asserted that up to 70% of change initiatives fail. While there have been attempts to understand the reasons for failure these have been seen as inconclusive, and a need for further empirical work has been identified. Within the growing literature on change leadership there are assertions that the root cause of many change problems is leadership behaviour. This article begins by exploring the change literature and, in particular the broadening of this literature with the inclusion of complexity and evolutionary theories. From the literature the authors propose a typology of change approach is proposed. In examining change the authors also examine emerging thoughts from the change leadership literature. Combining these different streams of literature leads to three core research questions, which are: (1)What approach to change management is likely to be most effective in today's business environment? (2)What leadership behaviours tend to be associated with effective change management? And (3)Are leadership behaviours related to the underlying assumptions within different approaches to change? These questions are explored using a case study methodology. The study involved seven organizations and 40 informants who provided 70 change stories. The data was initially analysed as qualitative data and subsequently (following participant lines of inquiry) quantitatively. Both qualitative and quantita…
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The overall findings of this study provide support for the findings of the previous study by Higgs and Rowland (2005).
“The overall findings from this study provide support for the findings from the previous study conducted by Higgs and Rowland (2005).”
From What Does It Take to Implement Change Successfully? A Study of the Behaviors of Successful Change Leaders (2011) · cites this paper as Higgs and Rowland (2005)
Change approaches that are programmatic and view change as linear, sequential, and predictable tend to fail in most contexts.
“Change approaches that tended to be programmatic and rooted in a viewpoint that saw change initiatives as linear, sequential, and, consequently, predictable tended to fail in most contexts”
From What Does It Take to Implement Change Successfully? A Study of the Behaviors of Successful Change Leaders (2011) · cites this paper as Higgs & Rowland (2005)
Approaches that recognize change as a complex responsive process and embed this recognition tend to be successful across most contexts.
“Approaches that recognized change as a complex responsive process and embedded this recognition within the overall change process tended to be successful across most contexts.”
From What Does It Take to Implement Change Successfully? A Study of the Behaviors of Successful Change Leaders (2011) · cites this paper as Higgs & Rowland (2005)
More group- and systemic-focused behaviors (Framing and Creating) were positively related to success in most contexts examined.
“On the other hand, the more group- and systemic-focused behaviors (i.e., Framing and Creating) were positively related to success in most of the contexts they examined.”
From What Does It Take to Implement Change Successfully? A Study of the Behaviors of Successful Change Leaders (2011) · cites this paper as Higgs & Rowland (2005)
Leader-centric behaviors (Shaping) had a negative impact on change success in all contexts examined.
“From their analyses, they demonstrated that leader-centric behaviors (i.e., Shaping) had a negative impact on change success in all the contexts examined.”
From What Does It Take to Implement Change Successfully? A Study of the Behaviors of Successful Change Leaders (2011) · cites this paper as Higgs & Rowland (2005)
Higgs and Rowland (2005) identified that leaders with a notable combination of 'Framing' and 'Creating' behavioral sets appeared particularly successful in implementing change across most contexts examined.
“Indeed they identified that leaders who had a notable combination of the 'Framing' and 'Creating' behavioral sets appeared to be particularly successful in implementing change across most of the contexts examined.”
From What Does It Take to Implement Change Successfully? A Study of the Behaviors of Successful Change Leaders (2011) · cites this paper as Higgs & Rowland (2005)
Cites
Handbook of Qualitative Research
Crozier, G., Denzin, N., & Lincoln, Y. (1994) · British Journal of Educational Studies · doi:10.2307/3121684 · Cited by 26,636 · see citing works
Building change leadership capability: ‘The quest for change competence’
Higgs, M., & Rowland, D. (2000) · Journal of Change Management · doi:10.1080/714042459 · Cited by 194 · see citing works
Self-citation
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The management of change in public organizations: A literature review
KUIPERS, B. S., HIGGS, M., KICKERT, W., TUMMERS, L., GRANDIA, J., & VAN DER VOET, J. (2014) · Public Administration · doi:10.1111/padm.12040 · Cited by 508 · see citing works
Self-citationHiggs, M., & Rowland, D. (2011) · The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science · doi:10.1177/0021886311404556 · Cited by 135 · see citing works
Self-citation
- Authors
- Higgs, M., & Rowland, D.
- Affiliations
- Henley College (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Higgs, Malcolm
- ORCID
- Higgs, Malcolm
- Venue
- Journal of Change Management
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2005-06
- Volume
- 5
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 121-151
- ISSN
- 1469-7017 (ISSN-L)
- 1479-1811
- OpenAlex
- W2055528669
- Cited by
- 410
- References
- 2
- Citations by year
- 2026: 12 · 2025: 14 · 2024: 15 · 2023: 18 · 2022: 17 · 2021: 24 · 2020: 20 · 2019: 23 · 2018: 31 · 2017: 22 · 2016: 26 · 2015: 19 · 2014: 34 · 2013: 33 · 2012: 20
- FWCI
- 16.01
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Change Management (publishedVersion)
- CentAUR (University of Reading) (acceptedVersion)
- ePrints Soton (University of Southampton) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management › Organizational Change and Leadership
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management › Organizational Management and Change
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management › Management and Organizational Studies
- Keywords
- organizational change, change leadership, change management approaches, complexity theory, evolutionary theory, emergent change, change implementation, leadership behavior
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