Organizational readiness: a case study of participatory interventions in SMEs

There is a need for an increased understanding of organizational readiness in relation to interventions. The study examines the implementation of the PoWRS model in four case companies. During the implementation period that companies have been interviewed, answered surveys and employees participated in a chronicle workshop.

The four case companies implemented the PoWRS model with varied success, and our investigation of change readiness is especially based on the situations where the companies experienced difficulties with implementing the model. The intervention process lasted for 4-6 months in the four companies. All four companies managed to follow the two first steps in the model.

From there on three of the companies continued following the model, whereas the fourth company never managed to establish clear supporting activities related to the two chosen changes. The study shows that there are some overall aspects that affect the process. The aspects are 1) Organizational design, 2) Company history, and 3) Organizational context.

The organizational design relates to the organization of work, management support, and participation. Company history concerns the previous experiences with change processes. Finally, organizational context deals with state of the market. Based on our findings we would like to include two more premises to the PoWRS model.

The first premise regards the organization of work, because the model needs to take the organizational set-up into account. The other premise relates to management support, which should include both support from top management and support from first line manager.