Consultancy students collaborate with Change Management Institute to tackle organisational change challenges
Students on the MSc Management Consultancy and Organisational Change will work with Change Management Institute members to explore specific challenges, observations and assumptions that practitioners experience in change initiatives.
Birkbeck’s Department of Organizational Psychology is collaborating with the Change Management Institute to tackle the key challenges facing the change management profession.
Students on the MSc Management Consultancy and Organisational Change will work with practitioners to identify and investigate ‘thorny’ topics that arise during change initiatives.
The students will carry out a thorough literature review to look for evidence for and against each selected topic, before conducting interviews with members of the Change Management Institute to understand how this compares with practical experience within organisations.
The work will focus on key questions surrounding change initiatives, such as:
- How can the actions of senior leaders impact the success or failure of a change initiative?
- What are the key factors that need to be considered when looking to achieve a change in different industries or sectors?
- What are the indicators of organisational change fatigue and what should be done to reduce current and future levels?
Dr David Gamblin, Programme Director of the MSc Management Consultancy and Organisational Change, said: “We are delighted to be working with the Change Management Institute on this project. The collaboration perfectly embodies the programme’s ethos of putting theory into practice and provides students the opportunity to learn from the wealth of experience of Change Management practitioners. Working together in this way provides good exposure to real challenges that are highly relevant to the profession, as well as the chance to make a genuine impact. We are looking forward to seeing the insights and recommendations that are developed from the project.”
Ket Patel, Collaborations and Country Co Lead for Change Management Institute UK, said: “This initiative is a critical step forward for making Change Management more evidence based. It is commonplace for practitioners to advise based on anecdotal evidence from their own practice. However, it is now critical we develop a greater appreciation of the broader evidence that is available to ensure we are using the most robust and proven approaches to achieving successful change. Our collaboration hopes to bring academic rigour balanced with powerful practitioner insight for a fuller evidenced-based approach to change management.”