ISYS90026 · Concepts In Information Systems
IT Change Management
Week 9 turns from technology to people: change management is people management. Kotter (2007) studied why transformation efforts fail and found two causes — the change process is complex and multi-phase (so it is error-prone), and fundamental change is resisted by the very people it most affects. The chapter pairs Kotter's eight-step model (do all eight, in order — urgency first, anchoring in culture last) with Ward & Elvin's benefits chain (IS/IT functionality only enables business changes that deliver outcomes, benefits and the objectives). The exam tests one move above all: read a failing transformation and say which step they botched, and why.
What this chapter covers
- 011. Change management is people management — the technology is the easy part; getting people to adopt the new way is the hard part
- 022. Mandatory ≠ successful — you can order people to use a system, but you cannot order the change to succeed (compliance is not commitment)
- 033. Why people resist — lack of trust, lack of choice, feeling forced, stress, past failures, helplessness, fear of being judged
- 044. The transition model — reduce the pull of current comforts, emphasise current pains, demonstrate the gains, eliminate the new pains
- 055. Ward & Elvin benefits chain — IS/IT functionality enables business changes → outcomes → benefits → objectives (break any link, no benefit)
- 066. PPTO — an IT change almost always forces organisational change across People, Process, Technology and Organisation
- 077. Kotter's 8 steps — urgency, coalition, vision, communicate, empower, short-term wins, consolidate, anchor (order matters)
- 088. The classic failures — skipping urgency (Step 1), declaring victory too early (vs anchoring, Step 8), confusing short-term wins with culture
Which step did they botch? — diagnose a failing transformation with Kotter
- +2Recall the eight in order: 1 urgency, 2 coalition, 3 vision, 4 communicate, 5 empower, 6 short-term wins, 7 consolidate, 8 anchor. The sequence itself earns marks because order is the thing the exam tests.
- +2Urgency failure (Step 1): "use it" with no reason why the old way is failing breeds complacency. The fix is a felt case for change — patient-safety risk, error rates — so staff accept the status quo is unacceptable. Evidence: the bare "go live Monday — use it" email.
- +2Coalition and empowerment failure (Steps 2 and 5): the senior clinicians are outside the coalition and openly block the change. Confronting blockers matters not to punish them but to protect the credibility of the whole effort and empower the staff they are blocking. Evidence: clinicians who never join and keep using paper.
- +2Short-term-wins failure (Step 6): eighteen months with no visible early wins lets momentum die and cynicism grow. The fix is to plan and celebrate a concrete early win — e.g. one ward where the EMR cuts medication errors. Evidence: "still no visible early wins".
- +2Anchoring error (Step 8): toasting a "digital culture" is wrong on every count — culture is anchored last, not declared; it takes roughly 5–10 years and sticks only when staff see new behaviour linked to better outcomes and new leaders embody it. Evidence: the CEO's party toast.
- +2Why systematic (part b): transformation is a complex, multi-phase process prone to critical errors, and fundamental change is strongly resisted by those it most affects; without a formal sequence efforts "dissolve into a list of confusing, incompatible projects that lead nowhere". Kotter's ordered steps supply that discipline.
Key terms
- Change management is people management
- The chapter's premise: a transformation succeeds or fails on whether people adopt the new way of working, not on whether the technology works. Treating a rollout as a purely technical task — "it works in test" — is the classic misdiagnosis.
- Mandatory ≠ successful
- You can make a new system compulsory, but mandating use does not make the change succeed. Compliance is not commitment; resentful users quietly defeat the intended benefits. The systematic remedy is Kotter, not coercion.
- Resistance to change
- A rational response to threat, driven by lack of trust, lack of choice, feeling forced, stress, past failures, helplessness and fear of being judged. It is lower when people see the gains, feel capable of the transition, and believe it is in their own best interest.
- Transition model
- A way to lower resistance: reduce the pull of current comforts, emphasise the pains of the status quo, demonstrate the gains of the new state, and eliminate the new pains (e.g. training, no layoffs from a pilot, coaching). It makes the new state more attractive and the old one less comfortable.
- Ward & Elvin benefits chain
- A model (1999) showing that IS/IT functionality only enables business changes, which deliver outcomes, which achieve benefits, which satisfy the objectives that justified the investment. Break any link — buy the system but never redesign the process — and the benefits never arrive.
- PPTO (People, Process, Technology, Organisation)
- A reminder that an IT change almost always triggers significant organisational change: it reshapes roles (people), workflows (process) and structure/reporting (organisation), not just the technology. Answers that stop at "install the software" miss most of the change.
- Kotter's 8-step model
- An ordered staircase for leading change: 1 establish urgency, 2 form a guiding coalition, 3 create a vision, 4 communicate the vision, 5 empower action (remove barriers), 6 create short-term wins, 7 consolidate gains, 8 anchor in the culture. Each step rests on the one below, so sequence matters.
- Short-term wins vs anchoring in culture
- Step 6 (short-term wins) builds momentum with visible early results; Step 8 (anchoring) gives permanence by embedding new behaviour in the culture over years. Confusing the two — or declaring the culture "changed" up front — is a frequent exam error.
IT Change Management FAQ
Why do most IT transformations fail according to Kotter?
For two reasons. First, the change process is complex and multi-phase, so it is prone to critical errors and skipped steps. Second, fundamental change is strongly resisted by the people it most affects. Kotter's answer is a systematic, ordered approach — his eight steps — because without one, efforts "dissolve into a list of confusing and incompatible projects that lead nowhere".
Does the order of Kotter's 8 steps matter?
Yes — order is the single most tested point. Each step builds on the ones beneath it, so the sequence is fixed: urgency comes first and anchoring in the culture comes last. The two reorderings that lose the most marks are soft-pedalling urgency (Step 1) and declaring victory or a "new culture" too early (anchoring is Step 8, achieved over years, not a launch announcement).
What is the difference between short-term wins and anchoring in culture?
Short-term wins (Step 6) are visible early results — say, one team where the new system cuts errors — that build momentum and silence sceptics. Anchoring in culture (Step 8) is making the change permanent by linking new behaviour to better performance and growing leaders who embody it. Wins create energy; anchoring makes it stick. Treating a celebration of early wins as a finished culture change is the trap.
What does Ward & Elvin's benefits chain add?
It explains why owning the technology is not enough. IS/IT functionality only enables business changes; those changes deliver outcomes; outcomes achieve benefits; benefits satisfy the objectives that justified the spend. If a firm buys the system but never redesigns its processes, roles and structure (PPTO), the chain breaks and no benefit appears. Use it whenever a case firm had the tech but still failed.
Can't we just make the new system mandatory?
No — that is a tempting but wrong answer. You can mandate that people use a system, but you cannot mandate that the change succeeds. Forced, resentful adoption produces compliance, not commitment, and quietly defeats the benefits. The marks are in the systematic remedy — building urgency, a coalition, a vision and early wins — not in coercion.
Is this page official or affiliated with the University of Melbourne?
No. This is an independent AskSia study resource for students taking ISYS90026; it is not produced, endorsed by, or affiliated with the University of Melbourne. Always confirm assessment details against the official Canvas subject page and current handbook.
Exam move
Drill the one move the diagnostic essay rewards: read a failing transformation, then for each problem name a numbered Kotter step, quote the case as evidence, and say why that step matters — never write a generic "they communicated badly". Memorise the eight steps cold and in order, because the exam is closed-book under LockDown Browser, and burn in the two boundaries markers test every time: urgency is always first, and culture is anchored last (so any "we are now a digital culture" declaration up front is a failure, not a success). Keep the language of people management front of mind — "it works in test" is not a successful change, and "make it mandatory" is not a fix. When a case firm clearly owned the technology but still failed, reach for Ward & Elvin's benefits chain and PPTO to show that functionality alone is just the first link: the business changes, outcomes and benefits never followed. If asked to recommend, fix the specific broken step (usually build genuine urgency first) rather than proposing "better technology".
