Moving from talk to action: Implementing austerity-driven change

Organizational change is often proposed as a solution to austerity. Implementing change when there is no budget, however, is difficult. This paper explains how a major Dutch city implemented radical changes in the wake of the global financial crisis. The paper relates the change programme to eight accepted determinants of successful change. Drawing on the experience of 65 employees, the author explores three catalysts for success, which he calls ‘acts of implementation’. The paper explains why successful implementation of austerity-driven change is not just a matter of complying with eight static success conditions but also of crafting dynamic acts that fits the specific context of austerity. Implementers have to deal with politics, resistance and ambiguity to move from talk to action.Practising innovation during fiscal crises is notoriously difficult because there is no time to waste, and no money for reforms. Realizing organizational change in the midst of crisis is a strike with little chance of success. Managers and policy-makers can learn from this paper how their colleagues in a large Dutch city successfully implemented radical austerity-driven change by focusing on specific contextual factors. They can learn how these managers have accepted and used political interference, how they anticipated resistance to change, and how they established and aimed for multiple aspects of success.