Successful Change Management in Health Care: Being Emotionally and Cognitively Ready

Change is frequent in healthcare, yet change management is often far from perfect. This book considers the complexity of change within large organisations, explores existing models of change and emphasises the vital role of emotional and cognitive readiness in successful change management.

Despite the plethora of organisational change management approaches used in healthcare, the success rate of change in organisations can be as low as 30 percent. New thinking about change management is required to improve success in service development, improvement and innovation. Arguing that emotional and cognitive readiness for change requires engagement with the people involved, and a thorough understanding of areas of friction and potential challenge, this book also delves into the neglected issue of emotion, examining emotional labour and emotion and change. It investigates how human emotion can be incorporated into Change Management Models, alongside and intertwined with cognitive approaches, to support effective change. Using the NHS as a central case study, this book incorporates examples of actual change from a range of healthcare settings from acute to primary care, enabling readers to see how Change Management Models can be adapted and utilised in practice.

This is an essential read for students, as future change leaders, and practitioners and managers leading and managing change in healthcare.

Annette Chowthi-Williams was a senior manager in the NHS and is Senior Lecturer at the University of West London, UK.

Geraldine Davis was a Senior Lecturer at the University of Essex and then Principal Lecturer at Anglia Ruskin University, UK, until her retirement in 2018.