A study of government reform (change) initiatives in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa region of Pakistan

• Main Author: Nawaz, Muhammad Kamran
• Other Authors: Kelly, P. ; McClelland, B. ; Harrison, P.
• Published: Liverpool John Moores University 2017
• Subjects: HF5001 Business
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.727494

Whilst change management theories have significantly influenced profit-oriented organisations, their adoption by the public sector is less understood, particularly in developing countries (Kooskora, 2016). Reform failure rates in such countries are excessive compared with developed countries; a serious issue as such countries typically have limited resources to create public good. In response to this issue, this study aims to investigate key factors that enable or hinder employees' acceptance of recent change initiatives in the public organisations of Pakistan. The main objective of this research was to identify the challenges, barriers and opportunities hindering or supporting the adoption of public reforms in developing countries, with a specific focus on the KPK region of Pakistan. A review of the literature led to the development of a preliminary conceptual framework based on a robust Technology-Organisation-Environment (TOE) model developed by Tornatzky and Fleischer (1990), which provided a basis for further empirical research. The data was collected in two phases: (1) quantitative data was collected in the first phase to test the TOE-based framework using a survey questionnaire (300 public employees); and (2) qualitative data was gathered in the second phase via semi-structured interviews (three state ministers) and through public documents. While results indicated that two variables, legal and IT infrastructure, were found to be the most influential predictor of ‘employees’ intention to adopt change’ and ‘level of reform’s success’, economy was the least influential factor that affected the dependent variables. Moreover, demographic variables such as age, level of education and pay grade proved to be influential in determining employees’ intention to adopt/implement change in Pakistan. Low status groups with lower levels of education showed a reduced propensity to adopt change, and resistance was found to be more salient in junior employees. Overall, the results of the current study show that the proposed model has a good explanatory power and is therefore robust in predicting change (reform) adoption/implementation in Pakistan. This study will contribute to the literature on change management in public organisations, particularly for developing countries such as Pakistan, and may assist the public managers, change leaders and practitioners of human resources management in assessing, designing, initiating and evaluating new or existing programmes for change (reform).