Essex Business School and Inoapps to Develop Change Agent Digital Toolkit
Thanks to British Academy Fellowship Award
Dr Danielle Tucker from Essex Business School has won an Innovation Fellowship from the British Academy to work with global Oracle partner Inoapps to develop a new Change Agent Digital Toolkit, to support better change management.
The British Academy Innovation Fellowships scheme makes it possible for researchers to partner with businesses to address challenges that require innovative approaches and solutions.
Reader in Organisation Studies and Human Resource Management, Dr Tucker will be looking at the vital role of change agents – the individuals within organisations who promote and support new approaches, processes, business models or management structures.
The project aims to create a Change Agent Digital Toolkit that Inoapps can use to help clients support change agents. Its innovative approach places change experience as a starting point in helping organisations to implement change.
Dr Tucker said: “My research has identified that by more clearly defining roles and expectations of staff who are at the heart of change management, organisations will reduce role ambiguity and better achieve real and lasting change for their workforce and clients.
“I have found that across sectors, organisations do not understand why supporting employees who implement organisational change is essential to ensure change success. By analysing the experience of 25 change agents in large change implementation projects I will identify how change agent role activities, relationships and mindset can influence successful change management.
“By partnering with Inoapps, a consultancy organisation which specialises in supporting the implementation of Oracle applications, we will work to place change agent experience at the heart of sustainable change.”
Vicky Collier, VP Strategic Enterprise Consulting at Inoapps said: “Inoapps is passionate about supporting our customers with effective organisation change management and user adoption. A pivotal role in the success of any transformation is that of the Change Agent. The research we are conducting with Essex Business School and the British Academy will provide a deeper understanding of how organisations can profile and select the most effective Change Agent for their culture. Perhaps more importantly though, it will also help us to teach organisations how best to empower and support Change Agents throughout the life of the change journey.”
To realise this, the partnership will work towards the following knowledge exchange objectives:
- To provide an evidence base and business case for a return on investment of supporting change agent experience for organisations - to help Inoapps improve its offering to clients
- To build resources to help change agents reduce the stress of role ambiguity – to create a more positive experience for change agents in organisations
- To encourage learning and development of project and change management skills within Inoapps’ client organisations for sustainable long-term growth
- To help change agents in Inoapps’ client organisations improve individual skill development for sustainable change and address talent shortages by improving retention of experienced employees
Inoapps has already formed a good working relationship with Essex Business School as regular contributors to the Directors Workshops on the Essex MBA.