IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/cup/jomorg/v30y2024i2p287-303_5.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Success or failure? Making sense of outcomes in a public sector change project

Author

Listed:
  • Hagebakken, Grete
  • Olsen, Trude Høgvold
  • Solstad, Elsa

Abstract

The most common method of assessing outcomes of change projects is to compare the final outcomes with predefined goals and conclude that the project has been a success, or more commonly, a failure. We question whether such simple conclusions pay due respect to complex processes. In this paper, we apply a sensemaking perspective to explore how and when outcomes of change projects are assessed. We report from a longitudinal case study of a project in the Norwegian public sector that was initiated to suggest and implement changes in response to major challenges in the health sector. We found outcome narratives in all project phases, including those not based on change objectives. The study contributes to the literature by suggesting that outcome narratives are continuously constructed throughout change projects and that competing outcome narratives can co-exist, be reinforced or be merged over time.

Suggested Citation

  • Hagebakken, Grete & Olsen, Trude Høgvold & Solstad, Elsa, 2024. "Success or failure? Making sense of outcomes in a public sector change project," Journal of Management & Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 30(2), pages 287-303, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:cup:jomorg:v:30:y:2024:i:2:p:287-303_5
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S183336722000019X/type/journal_article
    File Function: link to article abstract page
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cup:jomorg:v:30:y:2024:i:2:p:287-303_5. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Kirk Stebbing (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.cambridge.org/jmo .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.