Are change readiness strategies overrated? a commentary on boundary conditions created by Steven D. Caldwell

Change readiness of employees is a familiar notion about how organizations can enhance their chances for success from an organizational change initiative. At the core of readiness themes is the formation of beliefs within change recipients that engender a willingness to positively engage the change. The purpose of this article is to examine the themes of readiness models with respect to boundary conditions on change readiness theory and practice. First, the article identifies limitations that are inherent in the assumptions underlying the six readiness themes. Second, the article discusses four issues concerning change itself that may provide substitutes for readiness strategies, make readiness not necessary or make readiness strategies necessary, but not sufficient. The four issues are attributions for change, the scope and genesis of change, specific change management within the context of broader leadership practices, and individual differences that may make a focus on readiness by change agents less necessary. The main thread running through this article is a competing context for understanding change, suggesting that what is salient to individual employees is not an organizational change but rather a changing organization, which places multiple, simultaneous adaptive demands on them from many forces within the organization, many of which are not planned or intended.