ABSTRACT
The processes of managing large scale change in organizations have many common elements regardless of the nature of the changes in hand. Commentaries in the 1970s typically offered programmatic guides to the implementation of work reorganization. David Birchall, for example, while appreciating that different settings require different approaches to change, advised managers to devise an implementation strategy from a thirteen-step model beginning with training sessions, moving through brainstorming and actual job design, to post-change measurement and evaluation. This and other similar contributions emphasized training, employee participation, and planned implementation as key components of successful change. Management attention has centred on research which has identified the critical characteristics of ‘best-run’, or ‘winning’ or ‘competitive’ organizations in America and Britain. Probably the most influential of these works is that of Peters and Waterman who identified eight ‘lessons from America’s best-run companies’.
