Chapter 4: Building Change Capacity: Client–Consultant Collaboration and Organizational Change¹

Companies in every industry are increasingly challenged to build a capacity for change, both in response to and in anticipation of continuously changing competitive, market and technological pressures. Given this need, significant attention has been devoted to conceptualizing and empirically testing a range of change management practices. Much of this effort, however, has focused on how to best implement specific organizational changes. While this emphasis has improved the ability of organizations to deal with the myriad ramifications of a particular change, many of these models and prescriptions continue to fall short of the challenge (cf. Abrahamson, 2000; Beer, Eisenstat, & Spector, 1990; Kerber & Buono, 2005). An underlying need is to develop the ability of organizations and their members to change not just once, but continuously, in response to ever shifting market conditions, customer demands and competitive pressures.