Postpone and accelerate improvements in organizational transformations

An organizational transformation is about strategically redesigning the entire organization. Hence, it requires that every middle manager and employee be involved in the project. Yet, these middle managers and employees have opinions on their own. Knowing where and how much these opinions differ from the management target helps refine strategic decision-making and improve internal communication. But, little is known about the gap between employee and ambition and management targets.

This study aimed to fill this gap. Data were generated utilizing questionnaires in 84 organizational transformations covering more than 800 teams and 30,000 employees. The findings reveal that, on average, only 40% of the middle manager/employee ambition was in synch with the management target and, thus, was 60% postponable. The management target was 16% higher than the ambition of employees. That resulted in 76% of the management target not being covered by middle managers/employees and, therefore, accelerated. Approximately 60% of the teams needed to do less to reach the management target, 20% needed to do more, and 20% needed to do much more.