Identifying organizational (mis-)alignment in transformations

Identifying misalignment beforehand is a key challenge for organizational transformation projects. A lack of organizational alignment could easily slow down an organizational transformation or even bring it to a grinding halt. However, how to successfully reconfigure this issue remains unclear in the literature.

This case study explores misalignment within an organizational transformation. Towards this aim, a comprehensive dataset of 449 organizational transformations covering more than 3,000 teams and nearly 130,000 employees have been collected, processed, and analyzed. We focused on two aspects leading to four quadrants. Firstly, to what extent were teams themselves aligned about the organizations near future (high versus low). Secondly, to what extent were teams aligned with the management target (high versus low).

It is found in this study that in half of the teams, there was low alignment within the team itself, whereas low alignment with the management target in another (partly overlapping) half. Identifying where misalignment is prevalent within an organizational transformation will contribute to a smarter target setting and, therefore, an increased chance of a successful transformation.