Abstract

Although organizational changes are common in business, few of these changes are decided based upon clearly defined organizational goals (Hilmer & Donaldson, 1996). Making structural changes may not be the best approach to improve performance, given that organizational changes are disruptive to the organization (Day, Lawson, & Leslie, 2003). Instead of following prevalent management fads, organizational leaders need to evaluate carefully any potential changes for their situation and objectives before embarking on a disruptive change. The purpose of this study is to determine the effectiveness of an organizational change in which the defined goals were to create more empowered employees and business partners who experienced a better level of service from their IT team. This study gathered both quantitative and qualitative data from employees and from the business partners they served. A Likert-scaled survey and qualitative interviews were used to gather data from IT employees and their business partners. These methods captured impressions, feelings, and observations from the IT group regarding increased employee empowerment, better partnership with the business, and overall improved service delivery following the change. This study focused on a structural change to improve customer alignment for an IT team within a large media conglomerate. Of the 23 IT managers and contributors polled, 10 responded. Additionally, 4 IT employees and 2 business partners completed the qualitative interviews. The survey was analyzed using descriptive statistics, while the interviews were reviewed through content analysis. The majority of the IT responses were at least 50% positive regarding increased clarity of goals, more effective partnership, level of IT service, and increased empowerment of IT employees. When specifically asked about their overall satisfaction with the organizational change, 90% of responses were favorable. This case study found that both the IT employees and business partners perceived there was improvement through the organizational change but voiced that there needs to be continued feedback and adjustments to address new issues. This study represents preliminary results because of limitations of the small sample size, a focused case study that may not be transferable to other organizations, and potential researcher bias based on former knowledge of the organization.

Library of Congress Subject Headings

Organizational change; Employee empowerment; Research projects (MSOD)

Date of Award

2011

School Affiliation

Graziadio Business School

Department/Program

Business

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Masters

Faculty Advisor

Feyerherm, Ann;

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