System Change at National Government Level

Raymond Saner & Lichia Yiu; (2018); “System Change at National Government Level”, Published in Research in Organizational Change and Development, Published online: 30 Jul 2018; 341-388.

The authors present and discuss a large system transformation project which they designed and implemented in Slovenia at the start of its independence in the early 1990s. Post-mortem analysis generates insights that are useful for practitioners who embark on a similarly broad and cross-sectoral level of transformation process. ODC design issues are discussed giving special consideration on structuring the pre-contracting phase to guarantee good enough inclusive stakeholder representation and participation throughout the transformation process. Intervention design needs to allow for experimentation and multi-stakeholder alliance building. Application of Action Research and Action Learning in a politicized and risk averse environment typical of central governments helped to enforce a sense of ownership, control and collective accountability in the partner country.

Keywords: Republic of Slovenia, social system change, public administrative reform, organization development, transition country challenges, action research, action learning, institution development.