Managing Challenges within the Final Stage of Organizational Change Operations : A Case Study of a Swedish Consulting Firm

Sammanfattning: The objective of this research is to investigate ways to handle the various issues and challenges companies could encounter throughout the final stage of a change operation, and be able to accomplish this, relevant challenges must be recognized. The topic of change management was investigated and examined by using an abductive approach and the empirical evidence was acquired through semi-structured interviews with personnel and executives at a consulting firm, Company X. The writer analyzed the material using a thematic approach. The study is limited to just covering the final stage of the change operation because of the time constraints and the writer's belief of the great importance of this specific stage. Ten interviewees from Company X are included in the investigation, which further narrows down the research. The writer maintain anonymity as requested by the participants, which also is done to safeguard both the individuals and company as whole from potential impact that this study may have on them. The writer recognized four major topics of challenge that may arise during the final stage of change: personnel inclusion, prioritization, guidelines, and communication. Companies need to highlight the final stage of change and devote resources for the personnel to be able to solidify and integrate the changes. They need to establish concrete guidelines for the final stage, include all personnel and communicate with them to effectively handle the recognized challenges.