Assessment of Organizational Change for Public Construction Organizations

Abstract

This paper explores change management for restructuring a public construction organization. The paper presents a model for organizational change and studies 20 change-management parameters for three engineering management levels—area engineers, project managers, and project engineers. The researchers studied the perception of engineers and the change process from initiation through completion, starting with forces that destabilize, spreading to awareness and management of anxiety, then acceptance and management of tasks, and finishing with integration and restart. These were examined quantitatively and qualitatively. The study concluded that engineers realize that changes are necessary but they perceive change management negatively. Though most engineers are aware of and committed to change, they perceive the communication of changes to be poor. Recommendations were made to adopt a participative style, improve the commitment of upper leadership, and apply incentives to implement changes. The organizational change model provides a simplified approach for any organization going through the process of change and reengineering.