Abstract
The paper comparatively analyses six cases in order to explore the emerging processes of change management in private companies and public administration. In all the examined cases the engine of organisational change is a critical circuit made up of learning-resources-power. In public administration this engine strives to work at full capacity owing to structural constraints to the development of resources and power management. Greater effort is thus required to start processes and keep them dynamic over time. Change management in public administration also calls for the additional commitment of change agents whose roles develop along more varied lines and in a richer way and have diversified links with the outside environment. The presence of specific structural constraints in public administration seems to generate a paradox: a series of characteristics recalling the continuous entrepreneurial change model proves to be crucial for succeeding in managing change. Very few innovative companies seem to be able to carry on this model for any length of time: it pivots on “drives and vital worlds”, a range of motivations and incentives, a variety of subjects and much more significant players than those normally required by enterprises. The drive for survival and the need to react to threats from the environment are hardly enough to motivate organisational players but the search for strong personal commitment is the critical resource that leads to success in some cases. Of course, this is a limit that results in instability, the risk of breakdown and inversion of virtuous cycles of change. In companies, on the other hand, many successful change processes, even if they are not in response to a crisis, pivot around the goal of averting future crises; therefore they are triggered more by the fear of crisis than by the genuine search for a transformation which could deeply involve individuals.