Public sector managers' readiness to manage change during mergers
type: CreativeWork
description: It is well accepted that if we want to progress we need to change. Though we all rationally recognise that progress means change, not everyone is ready and willing, or indeed able, to embrace the change. On the contrary, it is widely believed that most people would resist change. The purpose of the study was to investigate whether managers had been prepared and ready for implementing a merger (change) within the North West Provincial Government as part of a planned change process. One of the most important traits in any organisation that ensures successful change is the state of readiness of its staff to embrace and accept change. To achieve the state of readiness of employees there is a great need for senior management to create a rallying vision to galvanise and convince employees to embrace the change. The vision will represent some future image to strive for which then makes it simpler for management to make everyone in the organisation focus on the vision (Kotter, 1995). If there is buy-in from all employees involved or affected by the change and management makes appropriate efforts to conscientise them, chances of resistance to the change will be quite minimal and any form of resistance displayed can be well and satisfactorily managed. Because the research involved dealing with human experience, the methodology that was adopted for this research was qualitative and exploratory in nature. The population for this study was deemed to be homogenous and only employees of the two North West provincial government departments formed the research population. A sample size of 10-15 participants from departments that merged, which included staff, supervisors/managers and senior managers, was decided upon. However, qualitative sampling depends on data saturation that is at the point where any further collection of new data does not provide any further additional information or details on the issue under investigation. The data collection for this study was done through in…
abstract: It is well accepted that if we want to progress we need to change. Though we all rationally recognise that progress means change, not everyone is ready and willing, or indeed able, to embrace the change. On the contrary, it is widely believed that most people would resist change. The purpose of the study was to investigate whether managers had been prepared and ready for implementing a merger (change) within the North West Provincial Government as part of a planned change process. One of the most important traits in any organisation that ensures successful change is the state of readiness of its staff to embrace and accept change. To achieve the state of readiness of employees there is a great need for senior management to create a rallying vision to galvanise and convince employees to embrace the change. The vision will represent some future image to strive for which then makes it simpler for management to make everyone in the organisation focus on the vision (Kotter, 1995). If there is buy-in from all employees involved or affected by the change and management makes appropriate efforts to conscientise them, chances of resistance to the change will be quite minimal and any form of resistance displayed can be well and satisfactorily managed. Because the research involved dealing with human experience, the methodology that was adopted for this research was qualitative and exploratory in nature. The population for this study was deemed to be homogenous and only employees of the two North West provincial government departments formed the research population. A sample size of 10-15 participants from departments that merged, which included staff, supervisors/managers and senior managers, was decided upon. However, qualitative sampling depends on data saturation that is at the point where any further collection of new data does not provide any further additional information or details on the issue under investigation. The data collection for this study was done through in…
author: Yiga, Ronald
language: en
keywords: Change management, Mergers, Change readiness, Public sector, Managerial implications
date published: 2015
date modified: 2026-07-24T03:33:45Z
provider: North-West University (South Africa)
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: North-West University (South Africa)

PropertyValue
property ID: Handle
value: http://hdl.handle.net/10394/17646