Introduction

History is littered with stories of once-successful organizations that went into terminal decline and eventual death (Cameron, Sutton, and Whetten, 1988; Whetten, 1980). Although organizational decline and death have not attracted much scholarly interest relative to organizational success, as adaptive systems, it is imperative that organizations respond to environmental changes or continuously adapt to their environment if they are to survive and grow (McKinley, Latham, and Braun, 2014; Probst and Raisch, 2005; Trahms, Ndofor, and Sirmon, 2013). The increasingly turbulent environment in which organizations operate has, therefore, made organizations more dependent than ever on their ability to understand the forces that precipitate change, how change is managed, and its impact on organizational performance. Despite the importance of effective change management to an organization’s continued survival and growth, there are several stories of failed organizational change efforts (Beer and Nohria, 2000; Probst and Raisch, 2005). Indeed, some researchers estimate that between 70–80% of change initiatives fail or achieve only partial success (Coetsee and Flood, 2013: 4).