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Continuous learning has been referred to as an integral phenomenon of learning organization. While a range of studies have associated continuous learning with employee performance; understanding of this relationship remains underdeveloped in the context of mergers and acquisitions. The present study investigates the relationship among continuous learning, change-efficacy and contextual performance of employees working with a recently merged bank and further explores the mediating role of employees' change-efficacy in relationship between continuous learning and contextual performance of employees.

A research model with underlying hypothesis is proposed by drawing upon the theory of transformative learning, social cognitive theory and theory of change management. Cross-sectional data was collected from bank employees undergoing integration in a post-merger phase.

The findings of the study suggest that continuous learning influences employees' change-efficacy and change-efficacy significantly mediates the relationship between continuous learning and contextual performance of employees. The empirical association drawn from the variables has been recognized by extant research as a brighter manifestation of learning organizations.

The research is undertaken in a large Indian bank and the analysis is based on cross-sectional data which may not be generalized across a broader range of sectors and international environment.

The findings of the study have a potential to help HR practitioners to utilize continuous learning in change management by enhancing contextual performance of employees post-mergers and acquisitions.

The study is one of its kinds in a post-merger setup which captures the outcomes of continuous learning by either confirming or extending the existing theories.

Considers the relationship between the types of targets or benchmarks used and reward structures adopted in two contrasting performance improvement strategies – continuous improvement and radical change. Hypothesises that the process of target setting and the reward structures adopted will be different between the two strategies. The propositions are that organisations involved in continuous improvement of a process will base their performance targets on past performance and internal benchmarking, arrived at through consultation and with a mixture of financial and non‐financial rewards for achieving targets. For processes involving radical change, targets will be based on external benchmarks imposed by senior management, with financial rewards for their achievement. The findings from a semi‐structured questionnaire conducted in 40 UK service organisations reveal that most continuous improvement targets were based on past performance and that processes undergoing radical change made limited use of external benchmarks. In the majority of cases, targets were imposed by managers without consultation, with rewards linked to theachievement of those targets. Financial rewards, particularly financial bonuses, predominated in both improvement strategies. The implications are that the potential benefits of adopting process changes are being constrained. In continuous improvement the lack of participation in target setting could be undermining the team‐based empowerment philosophy of the strategy. The aim of radical change is to achieve a paradigm shift involving revolutionary rather than evolutionary change which is less likely to be fulfilled with targets based on past performance.

Change receptivity is recognised as an important factor in successfully implementing organizational change strategies. The purpose of this paper is to examine the process of change in the initial stages of a change agenda within a public sector organization and analyze the communication of change. It traces the resultant receptivity to organizational change. The paper investigates whether organizational change communication is a crucial element in employees' receptivity to change.

A case study design is employed and the multiple methods employed include surveys, focus groups, archival data and participant observation.

The findings indicate that the initial change communication is problematic. The employees respond to a lack of instrumental change communication with a constructivist communication approach in order to manage the implications of continuous change.

This research provides an overview of the first 100 days of change in a public sector organization only, and so the limitations of single case studies apply. However, the close investigation of this phase provides further research directions to be addressed.

The findings suggest managers need to align employees' expectations of the change communication with understanding of the change goal.

The primary value of the paper is in using a communicative lens to study the change process.

Facilitation activities support implementation of evidence-based interventions within healthcare organizations. Few studies have attempted to understand how facilitation activities are performed to promote the uptake of evidence-based interventions in hospitals from resource-poor countries during crises such as pandemics. This paper aims to explore facilitation activities by infection prevention and control (IPC) professionals in 16 hospitals from 9 states in Brazil during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Primary and secondary data were collected between March and December 2020. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 21 IPC professionals in Brazilian hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic. Public and internal documents were used for data triangulation. The data were analyzed through thematic analysis technique.

Building on the change response theory, this study explores the facilitation activities from the cognitive, behavioral and affective aspects. The facilitation activities are grouped in three overarching dimensions: (1) creating and sustaining legitimacy to continuous and rapid changes, (2) fostering capabilities for continuous changes and (3) accelerating individual commitment.

During crises such as pandemics, facilitation activities by IPC professionals need to embrace all the cognitive, behavioral and affective aspects to stimulate positive attitudes of frontline workers toward continuous and urgent changes.

This study provides unique and timely empirical evidence on the facilitation activities that support the implementation of evidence-based interventions by IPC professionals during crises in hospitals in a resource-poor country.

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the developmental needs of managers operating in continuous change contexts. Special attention is drawn to communicative competences through the use of Kent and Taylor's five principles of dialogic communication. A case study is used to illustrate the communicative challenges in creating a learning organization.

The research uses longitudinal case study methodology and provides details on the multiple methods used, specifically: participant observation, focus groups, and document analysis.

Findings suggest that existing management development literature needs to reconceptualise change communication as communication during change, rather than to communicate the change. In so doing attention is drawn to the power of communicative expectations and communicative competence. Successful transformation to a learning organization is hampered by a misalignment of the employee's communicative expectations and management delivery of change communication.

Whilst single case studies can be criticized for a lack of generalisability, the use of multiple methods and a longitudinal study bolsters the rigor and validity of this study. Management development needs were not formally addressed in this case study, and thus it is difficult to offer prescriptive statements to improving communicative competences.

The field study provided ample opportunity to identify change management development needs, and reflect on how to bolster an often difficult area of change management, communication during change.

This research provides in‐depth empirical data from an organization attempting to transform to a learning organization. In prior studies the communicative theoretical framework is rarely tested, and this paper provides evidence of the communicative theoretical applicability. This contribution is extended to management development needs.

This research paper takes an interdisciplinary approach, drawing from empirical data, to explore the relationship between organisational change management and strategic leadership to promote growth in value-driven, membership-based organisations through a qualitative multi-case-based analysis and to provide a discussion on the philosophies and practices of leadership teams which underpin successful organisational change within such not-for-profit organisations.

Each participating organisation had 700+ members, had previously experienced prolonged periods of auditable membership growth and employed distinctly different organisational models to facilitate growth. A qualitative multi-case study approach was adopted informed by 32 interviews with eight leadership teams. A thematic analysis provided a comparative review of responses.

All case study organisations emphasised the significance of strategic leadership teams and clearly communicated vision and flexible organisational structures as central to their strategic planning and subsequent growth. This builds on previous research which has explored organisational change in not-for-profit organisations and strategic leadership in not-for-profit organisations, which explores the strong linkages between the roles and functions of strategic leadership, organisational structures designed with the adaptive capacity to manage continuous and convergent change and their impact on sustained growth. Such linkages are more specifically supported by extended tenure of office for those in senior leadership roles, clear delineation of roles and responsibilities, the adoption of an outward growth-oriented focus and adaptable structures that encourage wider participation in leadership and management functions for the fulfilment of the organisation's mission. Most significantly, these organisations plan with change and growth in mind.

The findings of this research have transferable value to other not-for-profit, membership-based, value-driven organisations as well as other faith-based organisations, which will help to provide future linkages between leadership structures, decision-making and organisational design and its impact on the not-for-profit organisations' capacity for sustained growth.

This research challenges previous conceptions on UK church growth trends and observes that all the case organisations presented different organisational structures which were intentionally designed, context specific and developed by leadership teams with sustained growth in mind. Results from psychometric testing of participants confirmed that senior leaders of large value-driven organisations that have demonstrated a capacity for sustained growth are consistently likely to exhibit leadership characteristics which demonstrate a balanced capacity for personal humility and a committed resolve or professional will, which is also reflected in a pragmatic-type leadership style, building on previous psychometric testing research in this context.

This paper aims to gain empirical insights into the relationship between lean production and digitalization within Industry 4.0 from a process-theoretical perspective. Following an initial report at the European Lean Educators Conference 2021 conference, the authors searched for explanations as to why digital lean tools stagnate, whereas production improves continuously.

This paper is based on a qualitative case study in a Norwegian processing industry company over a period of 18 months from 2020 to 2022.

Process theory offers explanations of why digitalization and lean can change over time. Despite agile development, digitalization is still characterized by centralization and programmatic planning. Lean production is decentralized, with long-term and continuous change processes. This creates challenges for coordination between digitalization and lean.

Organizations should strive for coordination and collaboration between central and local decision makers and between digital and business process competence. Digital systems should have built-in flexibility for local setup, and local managers need sufficient competence to set up systems that are aligned with continuous improved production.

This study contributes empirical insights into real-life industry challenges to a literature that has until now been theoretical and focused on potential synergies.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a dynamic, multi-faceted and multi-temporal model of organizational change capability (OCC) to better grasp the complexity of this construct which is still mainly defined through its facilitating conditions rather than its own characteristics.

Building on the literature on organizational learning, punctuated equilibrium, continuous transformation, organizational ambidexterity and dynamic capabilities, this paper critically analyzes the OCC construct by challenging the ways it is currently studied.

This paper highlights that OCC contains five dynamically and temporally interrelated dimensions: learning from past change experience, managing continuous change, managing episodic change, managing change without compromising core organizational activities as well as anticipating future change. A set of propositions that link the construct to its facilitators and outcomes are also suggested.

This conceptual analysis shows that recognizing the existence of tensions in change management constructs is crucial to gaining a deeper understanding of the complexities that organizations are facing today. In addition, by proposing a model both in continuity with the literature by adopting a dynamic conception of OCC, but also in discontinuity by shifting the focal point of analysis towards the essence of the construct rather than its peripheral variables, this research takes a step forward to tackle the remaining misconceptions around the interpretation of change capability.

The purpose of this study is to explore the link between continuous improvement (CI) and dynamic actor associations through a case of lean thinking implementation in healthcare.

The paper follows the qualitative case study strategy. Data were collected by interviewing (tape‐recording) managers and staff, analysing relevant written project material, and conducting non‐participant observations.

The findings suggest that the implementation of CI depends on the emergence of a “favouring” network from the dynamic associations between heterogeneous entities. This network aims at facilitating change leadership, establishing behaviour/culture prone to CI, and constructing a behaviour non‐resistant to CI needed for creating competencies for the continuous roll‐outs of such changes. Continuous translation is the underlying mechanism for establishing the favouring network.

The paper addresses the literature gap regarding the role of dynamic actor associations in shaping CI in a public sector context. It does not aim at generalising the results of the case study; it informs current theory by revealing that the success of CI deployment depends on the emergence of a CI‐favouring network, which will continuously transform opposing views into accepting CI.

Spurred by the globalization of competition, organizational learning and continuous improvement have attracted a great deal of research and managerial interest in recent years. Notwithstanding the growing literature on these topics, there is still considerable conceptual ambiguity about organizational learning and continuous improvement among researchers. The paper clarifies the underlying processes through which organizations “learn,” highlights the role of learning in continuous improvement programs, and shows how an organization may go about building a continuous improvement culture. Specific tools and techniques of organizational learning which may be used in continuous improvement programs are also discussed.