Identifying and Prioritizing the Influential Factors on the Organizational Change Capacity (Case Study: A Research and Training Center)

AbstractPurpose: The velocity of change in the surrounding world has forced them to identify those factors which impact their change capacity. The present study was conducted to identify and prioritize influential factors on organizational change capacity.Methodology: In terms of purpose, this was explorative and applied research. Its population included ten familiar experts with research subjects in a research and training center. By reviewing the literature on change capacity, relevant, influential factors were identified, and they were concurred by the fuzzy Delphi technique, and then they were ranked. After recognizing influential factors, a pair comparisons questionnaire was distributed among ten experts, and after gathering the questionnaires, effecting factors were ranked using the Expert Choice۱۱ Software package and AHP technique.Findings: Results show that organizational culture, structure, and style of leadership were the main factors that impacted change capacity.Conclusion: The influential factors can be divided into three categories: environmental, content, and structural elements. Environmental factors include environment and innovation; content factors include team working, intellectual capital, leadership, political behavior, and human resource management; Structural elements include strategy, structure, organizational policies, information technology, knowledge management, and technology. Value: This is the first time in the literature that the influential variables affecting the change capacity were recognized and categorized in a conceptual classification that has not been seen in the previous research.