Change Readiness for Sustainability-Oriented Change : A mixed-method study about how ready Swedish organizations are for change towards sustainability

Abstract: Background: Many change processes in organizations fail and efficient change management is therefore crucial for success. For successful change to be possible, an organization needs to be readied for that change. The growing demand on sustainable business practices leads organizations to embrace sustainable development and therefore go through change. Change readiness can be viewed on two levels; organizational and individual and there are different factors impacting each of these levels. Examples of such factors are Vision & Goals, Organizational structure and A sense of urgency. Purpose: The purpose of this research was to explore how ready Swedish organizations were for sustainability-oriented change, taking both organizational and individual change readiness into account. Method: 8 Swedish organizations were studied with the help of 15 factors that impact change readiness. By using mixed methods, qualitative data from interviews and quantitative data from surveys was collected, and the factors were evaluated. Findings: The organizations had an average of 67 % change readiness overall, with the factor A sense of urgency scoring the highest results indicating that Swedish organizations understand the importance of sustainability. The data suggested that the organizations were more change ready on the individual compared to the organizational change readiness level. The findings also showed that the factors Vision & Goals and Organizational structure had no positive impact on the organizations´ change readiness.