What are the drivers of change?

Question

What are the drivers of change?

Answer

The Burke-Litwin model illustrates the numerous drivers of change, and also ranks them in terms of significance. Burke-Litwin argue that environmental factors are the most significant drivers for change. This can include factors such as (any changes in) markets, legislation, competition or the economy. All of these factors will have consequences for a company. The model also identifies another 8 drivers for change, (in order of more important to less important) namely, mission and strategy, leadership, culture, structure, work unit climate, task requirement and individual abilities, individual needs and values and lastly, employee motivation. The authors argue that these factors are integrated. Their premise is that transformational change happens as a response to the external environment, which affects the organisational mission and strategy, the organisation 's leadership, and culture directly. As a result of this, the transactional factors are then affected, such as the structure, systems, management practices, and climate. These transformational and transactional factors affect motivation, which in turn, affects performance.

References

Burke,WW & Litwin,GH (1992) ‘A Causal Model of Organisation Performance and Change’, Journal of Management, Vol 18, No 3, pp 523–545.