EGOS 2013, Tucker, Hendy & Barlow - Agents of Change Management and The Role of Sensemaking

Agents of Change Management and The Role

of Sensemaking

EGOS 3rd-6th July 2013 Montreal, Canada

Danielle Tucker

Imperial College Business School

Jane Hendy, University of Surrey

James Barlow, Imperial College Business School

Background

• Healthcare and organisational change

• Health care reforms and spending cuts

• Increased demand and patient expectations

• Technology and innovation

• Use of agents of change

• Individuals who take on a role specifically linked to change

activity (formally or informally)

• Sensemaking of change

• How employees understand change and new work

practices

Imperial College Business School ©

Different types of agents


• Champions actively and enthusiastically promote innovation and change to others and identify with the idea beyond normal job requirements

• Opinion leaders are influential because they have an expert or respected view which guides others.

• “those perceived as having particular influence on the beliefs and actions of their colleagues in any direction”

• Change agents encourage readiness for change in others and facilitate change processes during implementation by problem solving and coordinating resources

Sensemaking

Sensemaking is the process by which individuals gather

information and assimilate interpretive schemes which form

the basis of their understanding and actions in relation to

change

• successful agents need to create a clear vision of the

change

Importance of middle managers:

• Translate strategy to implementation

• Filter of key messages


Sensemaking

But we don’t know how agents make sense of

their own role and the part which they play in

the change.

Research Questions:

1. How do different organisational members

sensemake and enact change management

roles

2. How does this process determine successful

organisational outcomes


Case Study

© Imperial College Business School

Drivers for Change and Context:

• Aging facilities

• Reconfiguration of Services within

the Trust

• Infection Scandal, Healthcare

Commission Report – 2007

• Change of Board – 2007/2008

• Political & community opposition to

reconfiguration of maternity services

Project Overview: Redesign and rebuild of two old hospitals and reconfiguration of services within an English NHS Trust. 100% single occupancy room design. All acute services for county to be consolidated at one site.

Middle Manager Agents


Executive Team

New Hospital Development

Team

Agent

Clinical Division

Agent

Clinical Division

Agent

Clinical Division

Agent

Clinical Division

Middle Manager Change Agents:

•2-year formal project mgmt role

(18months prior to stage 1 move)

•Seconded from Clinical Divisions

•Link between project team and

clinical divisions

Data Collection


Data Source Phase 1

(January-

September 2010)

Phase 2

(October 2010-

January 2011)

Transition

1

(January

2011)

Phase 3a

(February-

July 2011)

Transition 2

(September

2011)

Phase 3b

(August 2011-

January 2012)

Phase 4

(February -

December 2012)

TOTAL

Formal Interviews: (Jan-April) (Oct-Dec) (March-April) (Dec-Jan) (Oct-Dec)

Executive Directors 3 6 4 1 2 16

Other Trust Management 4 3 - 2 2 11

Project Management Office 7 4 1 2 1 15

Divisional Directors - 4 4 5 2 15

Change Management Agents 4 5 2 4 - 15

Lower management/Frontline staff - - 3 7 - 10

Total 18 22 14 21 7 82

Observations (hrs.):

Hospital tours 2 2 1 1 - 6

Informal observation (public areas) - 2 2 1 2 7

Total 2 4 3 2 2 13

Documents:

Internal documents 6 8 2 2 - 18

Government/National documents 1 - - - 3 4

Media 20 2 30 22 7 81

External parties (e.g. campaigns) 1 - - - - 1

Impressions/case notes 1 3 2 4 2 12

Total 29 13 34 28 12 116

Senior manager versus middle manager interpretations

“They had a responsibility to go out and become champions;

that didn’t really work here… On my previous scheme at

[removed], I had within my team, fairly early on, a very, very

senior nurse, who by her very character was very powerful,

very influential; as a clinical champion; and she made sure it

happened. And you realise, in hindsight, if you get someone

like that in your team, just how important they are” (Senior manager)

“My role is to act as a facilitator to make sure that everything

that needs to happen happens and that everything that needs

to be thought of has been thought of” (middle manager - agent)


Absence of role description

“People were saying, there’s a gap here, right okay,

we’ll plug it with a role. We’ll call them [official job

title]. This is what we’ll say after... this is what

we’ll say they’re looking after because that looks

like it splits nicely and I’ve pulled those out of a hat

and I think they’ll all go nicely together but on the

other hand we’re not really sure what their role will

be but, you know” (Agent).


Different interpretive schemes

“they come out of operational roles, now they’ve been

chosen by the divisions and, yes, if I’m honest, why have

they chosen someone... some of them are very good, and

some of them perhaps have been chosen because they

were a bit of a problem within the division, so they put

somebody like that into a role in a time honoured way. But

they’re failing to realise that that’s really quite important.”

(Senior manager)


Consequences

“I wonder whether we really put enough effort into actually

identifying exactly what was needed out of that role and

what the expectations were of that role” (Senior manager)

“I felt at the time, they’re wasting me. Everything I’ve

done over 18 months should be valued and should be

appreciated and should be used” (Agent)

“it’s been quite difficult because it’s the operational side.

And, whichever way you cut it, the operational side has

always overtaken other things,” (Agent)


Discussion and implications

• Allowing flexibility and ambiguity in the role:

• Increased empowerment and ownership

• Variability in interpretation of the role

• Development of shared mental model to fill void

• Gap between theory and practice:

• In literature we make clear distinction between different

roles, in practice there is much overlap – potential danger

of this?

• Important in recruitment and evaluation of roles


Thank You

• We welcome your comments and feedback

• Questions?
