Prescriptions for managing change: a survey of their effects in projects to impement collaborative working between organisations

This paper reports on a quantitative study of 100 companies which had attempted to move towards a more collaborative relationship with another organisation. Judged on criteria set out in the survey 46 had succeeded and 54 had failed in their attempt to implement supply chain partnering. A questionnaire invited respondents to indicate which project management practices (drawn from a review of the change management literature) they had used. Statistical analyses showed that four practices accounted for most of the difference between successful and unsuccessful implementation. These concerned project goals, resources, structures and controls. Many conventional change management prescriptions had no statistically significant effect on the outcome. The paper relates these results to theories of change management and draw the practical implications. These are likely to apply to many other types of change project.