Making change permanent A model for institutionalizing change interventions

Increasing global competition has accelerated the rate of organizational changes, such as reengineering, restructuring, and downsizing. As a result, organizational leaders find themselves faced with growing cynicism among employees that the current wave of changes is nothing more than the program of the month that will pass as those that preceded it. We address the issue of how to make changes permanent by providing a model developed from theory and research on organizational change and from successful practices implemented in numerous organizations worldwide. The model can serve at least three purposes. First, the model can assist change agents in planning for and assessing progress toward institutionalizing organizational change. Second, the model can help focus efforts of organizational scholars to study the change process. Third, the model offers the basis for hypothesis testing regarding the success or failure of change efforts.