Kriti Gautam 7012EHR Assessment 1
Kriti Gautam
Student Number - 5034087
5/2/2016
2016ItsMeSee -Change Leader Interview Report
Kriti Gautam 7012EHR Assessment 1
Table of ContentsIntroduction & Context of the Change 1
Study of The Change and The Change Leader’s Role 6
Analysis and Assessment of the Change Leader’s Effectiveness 10
The Takeaways 14
The Conclusion 14
References 15
Appendices 18
INTRODUCTION & CONTEXT OF THE CHANGEEntrepreneurial organizations are all about profitability, growth and innovative strategic
practices, and the entrepreneur sets up that organization, displays innovative behaviours and
employs strategic management practices (Hoy, 1984). Such organizations, or start-ups, are
generally resource-poor and that affects their human resource practices, which are usually ad
hoc and informal (Cardon & Stevens, 2004; Marlow 2006). So, the entrepreneur usually
carries out the HR function himself until the organization has grown to a certain size
(Marlow, 2006). In the very early days of the star-up, also called as the start-up phase, the
entrepreneur recruits the core team members from her/his social networks whilst during the
growth phase of the start-up, the entrepreneur recruits the core team members from her/his
professional networks (Leung et. al., 2006). Start-ups are in a state of change, continually,
until they have achieved some of their goals. These multitude of changes make these
organizations what they are, and the entrepreneur is the one who leads the organization by
undertaking various job roles.
In this case study of change (see fig. 1), we shall follow and analyse a major change in an
entrepreneurial organization (ItsMeSee INC). The change is the hiring of the company CEO.
The investors of ItsMeSee introduced the founders to an advisor, who after three months of
working with them, became the CEO. He is a well-established professional and a key figure
in the global fashion industry, with vast professional networks in the USA and Norway, and
with a base in the USA. Upon the appointment of the CEO, the head office was relocated to
Austin, Texas(USA). A serial of change events unleashed since the appointment of the new
CEO, and we shall throw a light on those later. The change has been initiated, led and
implemented by the founder (entrepreneur) of ItsMeSee, Mr. Alf – Bjørnar Dagsvold. He is
also the chief Production officer. The core team is composed of Mr. and Mrs. Dagsvold, the
CEO and the technology head. ItsMeSee is a Norwegian fashion technology project, wherein
a software is under development, that would help online fashion retailers. ItsMeSee has been
outsourcing the technology development to various software development companies in the
USA, India and elsewhere.
The structure of the report is as follows: we first study the interview, which is followed by
analysis, then, results and the concluding discussion.
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Kriti Gautam 7012EHR Assessment 1
Figure 1 Change Steps in ItsMeSee
Start-up Needs More Investors
3 Core Team Members (2 Founders, 1 Advisor), and the
Investors
The Vision: relocate the project to USA
Consensus between the founders, the investors, and new CEO
Narrowed job roles of both the founders
More Investors and B2B Clients
Hiring a New Technology Head
Progressing as a flat multicultural company
Study of The Change and the Change Leader’s RoleA written interview was taken via open-ended questions and that was followed up by a string
of e-mails to gain further insights into the responses. Since the researcher was aware of the
developments in ItsMeSee, and the respondent preferred an e-mail based interview, an open-
ended interview seemed the best fit method to collect primary data. The secondary data was
collected through the official blog of the company, its website and through personal
observation(s) as the founder and the researcher have the same professional network. The
respondent is Mrs. Ivelina Dagsvold.
Mr. and Mrs. Dagsvold have also been keenly involved with various e-magazines, blogs and
other media to release information regarding the project’s development and call more B2B
clients and investors. When they hired the new CEO, that information was shared to all
stakeholders of the organization through the media.
For the report, the founder of ItsMeSee – Mr Dagsvold, as our change leader. Kotter’s eight
steps for creating a major change is one of the widely used methods in change management
and organisational transformation. The change that we are about to study has been a major
change in the organisation resulting in its complete transformation. A method used for change
management has to be aligned with the organizational change type. Other methods such as
the Luecke method seemed less applicable as it addresses different reactions of employees
and the organization under study is micro organization (Al-Haddad & Kotnour, 2015).
Moreover, Kotter’s model places a big emphasis on leadership and views the change to be as
‘top-led’. As the change in our case study is a 2nd degree, and not a large scale change.
Therefore, we are able to utilize the model without worrying about parallel small groups of
stakeholders and the unintended consequences of a change led from the top.
We believed that studying the change process in details was crucial to analyse, to comment
and to bring forth the effectiveness of the change leader. Moreover, studying the change
helped support our arguments of the effectiveness of the change leader. We study the change
through a case study approach with the assistance of interview and personal observations.
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Kriti Gautam 7012EHR Assessment 1
Step 1: Creating the Sense of Urgency
The CEO was hired by the entrepreneur and the core team of ItsMeSee created the sense of
urgency and the change emerged.
It happened by accident. We didn`t plan to hire CEO. We were introduced
to the CEO of a Norwegian investor. He was advisor first for 3 months.
The new CEO has helped to set-up ItsMeSee in Austin, Texas. Soon, the founders of
ItsMeSee are moving to the US, as well. The sense of urgency developed when the
entrepreneur had been working with the advisor, realizing that there is a better future for the
organization. Once, this had been a realisation, the current situation of ItsMeSee seemed
perilous. The sense of urgency also developed because the organization was mindful.
The founder of ItsMeSee saw the need of hiring a CEO. The project was
mature for that. We had the need for a person with more experience and
contacts. The first killer of a start-up is the location. We were located in
Norway but Norway is not possible to find the right investors. So we had to
change the location of the company and we needed more contacts and
visibility as well as possibilities for finding investors. We needed a person
with the qualities we lack
Step 2: Creating a Guiding Coalition
When we hired a CEO we were only 2 co-founders working for the project.
So hiring a CEO was a welcome change. We decided – “Let`s go for it”.
The founders, the CEO, and the investors made a powerful, guiding coalition to orchestrate
the upcoming change and the subsequent chain of events for ItsMeSee. All of the members of
the coalition had credibility, and authority. A guiding coalition comprised of the senior
managers and people from outside the management, is the most effective as outsiders bring in
insights, expectations and ideas (Luecke & Johnson, 2005).
The founder of ItsMeSee Alf-B Dagsvold decided to hire the CEO so
personally for me it was a positive change with a lot of opportunities.
There was a clear and shared understanding of the fact that ItsMeSee needed better investors
and a bigger platform, amongst all primary stakeholders. Since, the CEO had been an advisor
for ItsMeSee before, a certain degree of trust and communications had been established
between the guiding coalition, and that made it powerful and unanimous.
Step 3: Developing a Compelling Vision
Being an entrepreneur you realize that you need to go more further, out of
your borders and limitation to make things work, to release the control.
This is part of the development of the project.
The vision of the change was to move the project (the software under development) further.
This also encompassed moving ItsMeSee further, as an organization. With the progression of
the organization, each member world make progression individually as well.
The founder and the core team of ItsMeSee clearly demonstrate the values, focus and
dedication required to turn things into a reality. They ‘walk the talk’. They are committed to
it whole-heartedly.
We have always been motivated with or without CEO.
Step 4: Communicate the Vision
The communication happened face-to-face meetings and one-to-one interactions.
Communication, with all stake holders, has also occurred through blog-posts and press
releases.
Step 5: Empower Others to Act on the Vision
Since a series of changes unleashed after the new CEO came on-board, further empowering
was necessary. A new technology head was hired and that reduced the job responsibilities
from both the founders. This also helped the organization become more formal and growth-
oriented to potential investors and B2B clients.
Step 6: Generating Short-term Wins
The short-term wins generated are summarized in Table 1.
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Kriti Gautam 7012EHR Assessment 1
Table 1 Advance in ItsMeSee since the hiring of the new CEO
Advances In ItsMeSee Since The Hiring of The New CEO
1. Relocated ItsMeSee from Norway to Austin, TX as ItsMeSee INC.
2. Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, P.C. as new Corporate and IP law firm.
3. Engaged with a very experienced game developer (Meta 3D Studio, Austin
TX) as advisor and developer.
4. Possible partnership with IBM for global back end, server and 3D cloud
based systems.
5. Added several very experienced advisors to the core team.
Step 7: Consolidation Gains and Creating More Change
ItsMeSee is a still start up and we are going to do some changes if we do
not think that we have the right partners. By the right partners I mean the
people who can bring a results.
The organization moves further as the technology develops further.
The CEO has moved the project further but he has a lot to learn.
The founder and the core team is focused on the long-term goal, not declared victory
prematurely, and is building further momentum for the growth of the technology and the
organisation, alike.
Step 8: Anchor New Approaches in the Company’s Culture
We are building up an organization. But you know we have always to be
flexible and not be stuck in things that do not work.
Being an entrepreneur is a very tough thing. You do not know the answers;
you have to find them. Otherwise there is no change or development.
Continuous development, continuous improvement are the agendas of the founders. The
organization will build a culture which will be a multinational non-hierarchical in nature. The
organization is at stage 2 in the figure below. So, many more radical changes have to be made
till stability is achieved. We can surely see some of these changes (see table 1) already
happening and leading the organization towards stability.
Figure 2 Evolution of Permanent Organization (Gareis, 2009). ItsMeSee in at the stage two of continuous development.
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Kriti Gautam 7012EHR Assessment 1
The Analysis and Assessment of the Change Leader’s EffectivenessThe Roles of the Change Leader
The change was: hiring a new CEO for ItsMeSee. The founder hired its advisor after three
months of working together. So, the founder or the change agent also acted as a hiring
manager to bring about a change in his organization. He took the control of the hiring; he was
active before the change was brought on; he chose the new CEO himself; he remained
involved in further changes that followed since the new CEO was hired; most importantly, he
gave a meaning to the change, and the subsequent changes that have followed. This clearly
indicates that our change leader was a good hiring manager (Smid et. al., 2006). The entire
team of ItsMeSee was motivated and is more motivated since the project has moved further.
Everyone at ItsMeSee, has now narrowed and specific job responsibilities and that is a sign of
enabling further changes and obtaining compliance from all members.
The approach of the change leader has been through empowerment and participation, as
mentioned before. The advisor was empowered by becoming the CEO and he gave more
cooperation and brought many more changes to the company.
Maybe should use more time to get know the character and personality of
the CEO, of his/her mentality, background and cultural differences. We
should look for a CEO with entrepreneur background and with
understanding the technology and with more empathic qualities.
As an HRM manager, the leader is clearly attentive of people’s authenticity and its non-static
quality (Dooreward & Beschop, 2000). Empowering and increasing the participation of the
CEO is a way developing the authenticities of the CEO and the other founder (Mrs.
Dagsvold) further to influence their functions in the organization. As the organization is
building its capabilities from the ground, its inculcating the empathetic and strategic approach
to HRM. The core team is also mindful of the cross-cultural issues and considerations that
may come arise in the future. ItsMeSee will be an American-Norwegian company.
It is worth noticing that none of the changes has appeared to be imposed on the core team.
They all feel to be a part of all the changes.
Leadership
Change is more about change leadership than change management. The entrepreneur has
displayed some exceptional qualities of a leader, who brings growth, motivation, empathy,
energy, etc. The entrepreneur is transforming the organization and bringing more catalysts
(the CEO) for that. The entrepreneur has showed competencies of a project manager, a
change manager and a hiring manager as well. He is motivating the CEO, Mrs. Dagsvold, the
new head of technology and the various stakeholders but inspiring trust and promise. There is
an increased amount of commitment, empowerment and participation between the core team
and all stakeholders. The leader is bringing everybody together through shared values, beliefs
and developing these as the organization develops.
The Three-Month Advisory Period
The three-month period: when the new CEO was the advisor for ItsMeSee, has proved to be a
crucial factor for the success of the change. This time-period allowed relentless interactions,
communications between the founders and the CEO – an indicator of successful change
(Will, 2015). It gave them enough time to adapt their performance, and understand the
expectations and the vision for change. This period of time helped the CEO and the founders
to align their individual interests with the goals of the start-up (Will, 2015). This also allowed
the training and education of the core team, changing their behaviours and political diffusion
(core team development). These are certain crucial change management competencies
displayed by our change leader (Crawford, 2010). By including the participation of the new
CEO and the other founder, the change was successfully brought on (Luo et. al., 2016).
Some other indications of the success of the change:
With the event of hiring a new CEO, ItsMeSee advanced further with many new
changes. This is a solid measure of the success of the change outcomes (ref).
The change, i.e., the hiring of the new CEO, has been achieved within the allocated
budget and time (ref).
This change has led ItsMeSee to be involved with more investors and B2B clients.
The customer (stakeholder: investors and B2B clients (fashion brands)) satisfaction
has been achieved through the change (Keegan et. al., 2014). The core team of
ItsMeSee appears to be satisfied with the outcomes of the changes (Keegan et. al.,
2014).
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Kriti Gautam 7012EHR Assessment 1
The core team is also increasingly committed, motivated, dedicated, and is realistic
about the progress of ItsMeSee (Luo et. al., 2016).
Readiness for change and implementation of change have clearly been accomplished
and this is a solid reason for the success of a change initiative (Tanner et. al, 2007).
Strong leadership, ownership, tight alignment of core team with organisation’s goal,
embedding change in the company’s culture (Vora, 2013; Blackburn, 2014).
The entrepreneur is also building leadership through the CEO and himself, which
shall lead to a sustainable change (Vora, 2013).
Scoring
The scores for change assessment tool (Luecke & Johnson, 2005) and the managing change
scorecard are given in box 1, and box 2, respectively.
Box 1 Scoring on change assessment tool (Luecke & Johnson,
2005)
We score the change on the scale of 1-5 (“1” indicates “strongly disagree”;”5” indicates
“strongly agree”) on the eight steps of changes:
1. Establishing a sense of urgency - 5
2. Has a powerful guiding coalition to lead major change efforts - 5
3. Has a compelling vision - 5
4. Communicates its vision effectively - 4
5. Empowers people to act on the vision - 5
6. Plans for, creates, and rewards short-term wins for each change initiative - 4
7. Consolidates gains to produce additional change - 5
8. Embeds new behaviours, attitudes, and values in the company’s culture – 4
Box 2 Scoring on the Managing
Scorecard
1. Communication Process. Overall Score: Very Good.
2. Communication Content. Overall Score: Very Good.
3. Involvement. Overall Score: Very Good.
4. Leadership: The founders provided with training, expectations over the three-month
period when the CEO was their advisor. This three-month period enabled complete
communication, support. The CEO was the facilitator for further changes in to
organizations such as relocation to the USA, and so on. At one point of the interview, the
respondent said that: “the CEO has moved the project further but he has a lot to learn”.
Therefore, it can be easily said that the leaders are not complacent. Overall Score: Very
Good.
ASSESSMENT RESULTS
We can confidently say that the change leader in our study has been an effective leader in
introducing, setting, implementing the change in his organization. Obviously, the micro size
of the organization has played a role in this as unlike the larger organizations, here there are
lesser number of complexities. Even so, such an organization can only survive in the
changing environment (the global fashion industry), when the speed of change and learning
will meet the dynamics of the environment (Gareis, 2010). The change has a strategic
dimension – it has to move the organization to where it is seen to be (goals). There is a clear
portrayal of a high quality leadership by our entrepreneur. The change that has occurred in
the organization, and the series of changes following that – have all added considerable value
to the organization. It also appears that the change was approach with the concept of
mindfulness because there was an increasing sense of urgency, no resistance to change and a
positive attitude to change. Moreover, the organization appears to be aware of the dynamics
of its environment and therefore, ready for change, and more change. The core team is also
credible at developing a mindful organization.
The founder of ItsMeSee Alf-B Dagsvold decided to hire the CEO so
personally for me it was a positive change with a lot of opportunities.
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Kriti Gautam 7012EHR Assessment 1
The TakeawaysIt all – the change – comes down to leadership, which here is displayed by the entrepreneur. The
leader, leads everyone, everything. Leadership has so much to render – grow organisations, lead
organizational changes, lead countries. Strong leadership, empathetic leadership will bring profound
developments and progress. Leadership is so important for small organizations, and even more so for
larger entities be those MNCs or nations.
We studied the organizational change in a very small organisation- very small system. Had the system
been bigger, more complexities would have risen. There would be many unintended consequences
and many more ‘actors’ in the change. The bigger organization will have more employees, and more
internal stakeholders. But, with a larger organization, more resources will be available, and that
means, more tools to implement change, to sustain change will be available. So, ultimately, it’s the
management’s responsibility to bring about that change effectively. The leaders – the managers of the
change – have to be skilled, equipped to bring about a successful change. To make a change
successful, the change could be executed as a project with proper planning and resource allocation.
For our future, participation, empowerment, empathy are the key takeaways as they enhance team-
work. As students, we shall be working in groups for various projects and these two key takeaways
can be extremely helpful. These will also be helpful whenever we work in teams, in our future, when
we work in organisations. Mindfulness, as shown by the leader and the organization, is another
keepsake as this will enhance our overall performance, as students and as professionals.
ConclusionChanges have to be made to the organizations, irrespective of the size or the growth stage of
the organization. Gareis’ model for change in SMEs is an appropriate way to depict the
degrees of change required (Gareis, 2010). For a growth-oriented start-up, radical changes are
required and often required till it has achieved a certain degree of growth. As the organization
gets bigger, the scale of change increases- change now applies to a much broader scale,
across departments, across teams and so on. In such a scenario, the complexities of change
will increase, and more systems thinking approach will have to be applied. Also, constant
watch on various activities of the firm has to be maintained. This is to say, that with bigger
stable firms, the changes will primarily be deeply internal (for instance, a change in the IT
department) and have to be found by constant assessments and feedbacks.
ReferencesGareis, R. (2010). Changes of organizations by projects. International Journal of Project Management, 28(4), 314-327.
Crawford, L., & Nahmias, A. H. (2010). Competencies for managing change. International journal of project management, 28(4), 405-412.
Smid, G., Van Hout, E., & Burger, Y. (2006). Leadership in organisational change: Rules for successful hiring in interim management. Journal of Change Management, 6(1), 35-51.
Luo, W., Song, L. J., Gebert, D. R., Zhang, K., & Feng, Y. (2016). How does leader communication style promote employees’ commitment at times of change?. Journal of Organizational Change Management, 29(2), 242-262.
Pollack, J., & Pollack, R. (2015). Using Kotter’s Eight Stage Process to Manage an Organisational Change Program: Presentation and Practice. Systemic Practice and Action Research, 28(1), 51-66.
K. Vora, M. (2013). Business excellence through sustainable change management. The TQM Journal, 25(6), 625-640.
Carter, E. (2008). Successful change requires more than change management. The Journal for Quality and participation, 31(1), 20.
Heilbrunn, S. (2005). The impact of organizational change on entrepreneurship in community settings. Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development, 12(3), 422-436.
Will, M. G. (2015). Successful organizational change through win-win: How change managers can create mutual benefits. Journal of Accounting & Organizational Change, 11(2), 193-214.
Al-Haddad, S., & Kotnour, T. (2015). Integrating the organizational change literature: a model for successful change. Journal of Organizational Change Management, 28(2), 234-262.
Jacobs, G., Keegan, A., Christe-Zeyse, J., Seeberg, I., & Runde, B. (2006). The fatal smirk: Insider accounts of organizational change processes in a police organization. Journal of Organizational Change Management, 19(2), 173-191.
Oakland, J. S., & Tanner, S. (2007). Successful change management. Total Quality Management and Business Excellence, 18(1-2), 1-19.
Leung, Aegean, et al. "The use of networks in human resource acquisition for entrepreneurial firms: Multiple “fit” considerations." Journal of Business Venturing, 21(5), (2006): 664-686.
Marlow, Susan. "Human resource management in smaller firms: A contradiction in terms?." Human Resource Management Review, 16(4), (2006): 467-477.
Cardon, Melissa S., and Christopher E. Stevens. "Managing human resources in small organizations: What do we know?." Human resource management review, 14(3), (2004): 295-323.
Carland, J. W., Hoy, F., Boulton, W. R., & Carland, J. A. C. (1984). Differentiating entrepreneurs from small business owners: A conceptualization. Academy of management review, 9(2), 354-359.
Schumpeter, J. A. (1934). The theory of economic development: An inquiry into profits, capital, credit, interest, and the business cycle (Vol. 55). Transaction publishers.
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Johnson, L. K., & Luecke, R. (2005). The essentials of managing change and transition. Harvard Business School Publishing Corporation and the Society for Human Resource Management.
Gareis, R. (2009). Change Management in SMEs. In KMU Symposium, Vienna.
Blackburn, G. (2014). Elements of successful change: The service Tasmania experience to public sector reform. Australian Journal of Public Administration, 73(1), 103-114.
Doorewaard, H., & Benschop, Y. (2003). HRM and organizational change: an emotional endeavor. Journal of organizational change management, 16(3), 272-286.
Questions for Organizational Change InterviewInterview 1
1. Could you please describe the structure and management of ItsMeSee (how many permanent employees and their roles and responsibilities, contract employees, head office, regional offices, age of the organization etc. 2-3 paragraphs would be sufficient).
2. Kindly describe a recent change (Hiring of new CEO) that may have occurred in your organisation: ItsMeSee
3. What were the reasons for hiring a new CEO?
4. How did you realize that ItsMeSee needed the new CEO?
5. Has the performance of ItsMeSee changed with the new CEO?
6. What was your vision for this change? How did you communicate that vision throughout the entire organization?
7. How did you bring everyone at ItsMeSee to get on board with the change? How about the other stakeholders, how did you get them to come on board for the change?
8. What tools or processes did you use to implement the change?
9. How did the people of organization react to the change?
10. What were the results of the change?
Interview 2
1. Is your CEO based in America? Is he American?
2. Its a great accomplishment on your part that you were able to hire the right leader. Could you please tell us how long did it take for you to find your CEO? How many candidates did you consider? Did anyone referred the CEO?
3. Was Mr. Feldman hired after ItsMeSee found its CEO and moved to America? Did the CEO have a role in this hiring?
4. It is apparent that your CEO has motivated you and ItsMeSee. Could you please say a bit more about the impact of your new CEO on your work and Mr. Dagsvold's work?
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Kriti Gautam 7012EHR Assessment 1
7012EHR Organisational Change
CONSENT FORMRESEARCH TEAMPrimary Course Convenor
Dr Ellie Meissner
Department of Employment Relations & Human Resources
Griffith Business School
Griffith University, Nathan Campus
Phone: (07) 373 54708
Email: [email protected]
Student Investigator
KRITI GAUTAM
Department of Employment Relations & Human Resources
7012EHR: Organisational Change
+61 481 729 247
By signing below, I confirm that I have read and understood the information package and in particular have noted that:
I understand that my involvement in this research will include an interview
I have had any questions answered to my satisfaction;
I understand the risks involved;
I understand that there will be no direct benefit to me from my participation in this research;
I understand that my participation in this research is voluntary;
I understand that if I have any additional questions I can contact the research person;
I understand that I am free to withdraw at any time, without comment or penalty;
I understand that I can contact the Manager, Research Ethics, at Griffith University Human Research Ethics Committee on 3735 5585 (or [email protected]) if I have any concerns about the ethical conduct of the project; and
I agree to participate in the project.
NameIvelina Dagsvold
Signature
Date 12.04.2016
Would you like to receive a summary of the results at the end of the study?
Yes X No
If yes, please provide your email address: [email protected]
7012EHR: Organisational Change
INFORMATION SHEET
Primary Course Convenor
Dr Ellie Meissner
Department of Employment Relations & Human Resources
Griffith Business School
Griffith University, Nathan Campus
Phone: (07) 373 54708
Email: [email protected]
Student Investigator
KRITI GAUTAM
Department of Employment Relations & Human Resources
7012EHR: Organisational Change
+61 481 729 247
Why is the research being conducted?We are currently undertaking a course in Organisational Change at Griffith University Business
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Kriti Gautam 7012EHR Assessment 1
School. As part of the course we are required to investigate an organisational change process in an organisation of our choice. This will provide us with an opportunity to apply the knowledge and skills from the course and conduct a case study of an organisation.
What you will be asked to doWe would like to conduct an interview with you to find out more about your organisation and a change that the organisation has gone through (is currently involved in). The interview will take approximately 45 minutes of your time. The interviewer would like to make an audio recording of your session to ensure accurate data collection if you agree to this. The expected benefits of the researchThis project will provide a learning opportunity for the students involved. It will allow us to apply the knowledge and skills from our course in a real life situation. In conducting an interview we aim to further develop our understanding of organisational change processes.
Risks to youThe risks of this research have been assessed and are not above those associated with everyday living.
Your confidentialityYour confidentiality is important to the researchers. You will be addressed only by your first name during the interview so that your full name will not appear on the audio recording. Following transcription, all recordings will be erased. The transcription of your interview will be kept for analysis purposes and will be stored securely at Griffith University. Any identifying information will be removed from the transcripts.
Your participation is voluntaryParticipation in this study is voluntary and there will be no repercussions for choosing to participate or not in the study. You are free to withdraw from the study at any time by contacting the researchers using the details provided on this information sheet.
Questions / further informationIf you have any questions or would like further information, please don’t hesitate to contact the researchers who are named above.
The ethical conduct of this researchThe information sheet should indicate that Griffith University conducts research in accordance with the National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Human Research. If potential participants have any concerns or complaints about the ethical conduct of the research project they should contact the Manager, Research Ethics on 3735 5585 or [email protected].
Feedback to youIf you wish to receive feedback on the outcomes of this study, please check the box on the accompanying consent form and provide an email address. A summary of the overall results will be emailed to you on completion of the study.
Privacy Statement
The conduct of this research involves the collection, access and/or use of your identified personal information. The information collected is confidential and will not be disclosed to third parties without your consent, except to meet government, legal or other regulatory authority requirements. A de-identified copy of this data may be used for other research purposes. However, your anonymity will at all times be safeguarded. For further information consult the University’s Privacy Plan at www.gu.edu.au/ua/aa/vc/pp or telephone (07) 3735 5585.
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