Managing the soft side of organisational change : a case study in the Gozo Ministry

Abstract

The context of this research is a change process being undertaken within the Ministry for Gozo in relation to the accounts function with the scope of eliminating shortcomings and improving the mechanisms governing daily operations. The focus is on one of the major pilot projects that the Ministry for Gozo will embark upon, namely the new accruals system: Corporate Financial Management Solution System, which is already in the pipeline. The implementation of this new framework entails the amalgamation of all the tools into one centralised accounting system, which will definitely be leading to a quantum leap in the execution of the Ministry’s internal processes. From the research emerged that there are limited studies that focus on the soft side of change in the Public Sector, leaving a gap analysis in the literature concerning change management in relation to Public Sector. An interprevist qualitative research was performed. Intensity sampling and stratified random sampling were chosen. A case study approach was used which comprises the Ministry for Gozo. Due to the nature of the study, a triangular approach was adopted whereby a broad selection of literature drawn from current methodology and modes of management thinking were consulted to explore the subject matter and highlight the various problems that were identified in the accounting section. A detailed study of said operations was carried out with the result being combined with responses from Questionnaires and Semi-Structured interviews to portray an overall picture of perspective of the accounting workforce. This study has identified and explored the Critical Success Factors as well as Barriers to change. The Transformational Leadership, clear vision and the motivation and engagement from Ministry for Gozo employees towards change were the main critical success factors. Nonetheless, to enhance the centralisation process, the author made a number of recommendations for the future to overcome the identified barriers which are poor communication between sections, delay in training for the Corporate Financial Management Solution project and the negative attitude of certain officers towards organisational culture. To enhance the centralisation process, various recommendations were put forward, which are; conducting an exercise to identify training needs, establish a formal training process, developing a program explaining the change process, coaching and mentoring, engaging employees, fostering a teamwork attitude, open communication, introducing an innovative culture and endeavouring to create a learning organisation. The main research weakness is limited generalisability. Further research is suggested on other organisations in the public sector in Malta. The results of such studies should be compared with the findings of this research in order to support present principles and identify new ones.