Der Masterplan und sein Weg durch die Organisation

Organizations in the public sector, like the German police, are under increasing pressure to change in the face of new challenges. We discuss the complexity of change projects based on qualitative interviews with future top managers in the police. It emerges that employees do not faithfully implement top down change plans. Instead, they subject change plans to various adaptations based on their active sense-making which is influenced by cognitive and behavioral patterns of the organizational members. These micro processes of change severely restrict the plan-ability of change projects. Flexible and reflective procedures are required to successfully manage change, as plans are more often adapted as their champions ever intended.