2025 Theses Doctoral

An Evidence-Based Approach to Leading and Managing Change: A Validation Study

Johnson, Abigail Shea

To help bridge the gap across the academic and practitioner divide, revisions were made to a tool, The Managing Change Questionnaire, that has been used in executive education programs for over thirty-five years to facilitate discussions and learning about navigating organizational change.

This study sought to update the tool to be consistent with current research on organizational change and compile best practices across change models to increase the likelihood of success with organizational change initiatives. Additionally, the revised tool incorporated concepts such as leadership and system psychodynamics to provide a more holistic perspective on navigating organizational change. To better reflect the content in the revised questionnaire it was renamed the Leading and Managing Change Questionnaire (LMCQ).

The evolution of organizational change management is discussed, acknowledging the history and a shift towards continuous change within organizations. Based on a review of organizational change literature, six domains for navigating organizational change were identified and have been evaluated by subject matter experts. After content validation was conducted the questionnaire was administered via Prolific. Upon obtaining an adequate sample statistical validation was conducted on the LMCQ. The analysis led to the identification of 27 questions about the current best practices for leading and managing organizational change.