The Role of Technical, Political, and Cultural Dynamics in Strategic Organizational Change: A Case Study of a Community Hospital in Connecticut

Date of Submission

1997

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Science in Management Systems (Sc.D.)

Department

Management

Advisor

Michael Morris

Committee Member

Judith Neal

Committee Member

Allen Sack

LC Subject Headings

Hospitals--Connecticut--Administration, Organizational change, Corporate culture

Call No. at the Univ. of New Haven Library

AS 36 N290 Mgmt. Syst. 1997 no.1

Abstract

This study focused on one acute care hospital in Connecticut ("Community Hospital") which is currently undergoing large-scale change, and examined the degree to which hospital leadership was perceived as addressing the technical, political, and cultural issues, described by Tichy (1983) as crucial to the success of the change process. Both surveys and interviews were used to explore the senior managers' approach to change.

These hypotheses were tested:

Ha1: The more that senior managers' attitudes toward change emphasize the technical, political, and cultural dimensions described by Tichy, the more their self-reported behaviors will reflect this emphasis.

Ha2: The more that senior managers report an emphasis on the technical, political, and cultural dimensions of change in their behavior, the more likely it is that they will be perceived to be effective change managers by department heads who report to them.

Ha3: The more that department heads perceive their senior managers' behavior as emphasizing the technical, political, and cultural dimensions, the more likely they will be to view their senior managers as effective in managing change.

Ha1 and Ha2 were not confirmed, by the survey data, while Ha3 was confirmed. Based on the survey and interview data, there appeared to be two sub-groups of Vice Presidents, who differed in terms of their perceived leadership effectiveness and in their level of optimism when discussing the change process at Community Hospital.

Areas for further research were identified and discussed. They include: the role of positive attitudes in leadership, the role of the political dimension in Tichy's (1983) TPC theory, and the silo effect.

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