Managing Change: An Overview

TLDR

In health‑care informatics, system success is largely hindered by behavioral resistance rather than technical issues, requiring a blend of technical expertise and organizational leadership to overcome low ownership and promote adoption. This paper examines four key areas: causes of information system failures, foundational change‑management theories, practical applications, and informatics‑specific change‑management efforts.

Abstract

As increasingly powerful informatics systems are designed, developed, and implemented, they inevitably affect larger, more heterogeneous groups of people and more organizational areas. In turn, the major challenges to system success are often more behavioral than technical. Successfully introducing such systems into complex health care organizations requires an effective blend of good technical and good organizational skills. People who have low psychological ownership in a system and who vigorously resist its implementation can bring a "technically best" system to its knees. However, effective leadership can sharply reduce the behavioral resistance to change—including to new technologies—to achieve a more rapid and productive introduction of informatics technology. This paper looks at four major areas—why information system failures occur, the core theories supporting change management, the practical applications of change management, and the change management efforts in informatics.