A Transparent Agile Change : Predicting a Transparent Organizational Change from Change Recipients’ Beliefs and Trust in Management

Abstract: The popularity of agile methodologies is steadily increasing. This study is an intent to balance the agile change literature with a psychological perspective and quantitative measures of an agile change made within a Swedish organization. Organizational change recipients’ beliefs (discrepancy, appropriateness, valence, efficacy, & principal support) and trust in management were measured in an online survey to see how well these variables could predict a successful agile change towards transparency. The results indicate a lack of support for several previously cited success factors in the agile literature and a need for more quantitative and research-driven literature. No support could be found for a relationship between discrepancy, appropriateness, valence, principal support, trust in management, and the outcome of a successful implementation of transparency. Efficacy was found to be a significant and robust predictor of the outcome. More research is needed to ensure the generalizability of the results.