Determinants of the Institutionalization of Planned Organizational Change

Abstract

A survey of randomly selected employees from a large county government organization was taken to evaluate the extent to which a new performance appraisal system had been institutionalized, that is, had been accepted and was being used by the organization's members. A total of 477 out of 1,034 employees from six county departments completed the survey, for a 46% response rate. The results showed that employees perceived a moderate degree of institutionalization, with a significant difference between departments. Further, the new system was perceived to have had less than a moderate impact on performance. Four factors were found to contribute significantly to the perceived level of institutionalization, and five factors were found to have a significant effect on the perceived performance impact of the new system. It is suggested that improvements in one or more of these factors may enhance the level of institutionalization and the perceived performance impact.