Research subject

Thus, the general purpose of the study proposed is to try to fill the gap between the notions of Project management office and change management by drawing the line between them. More precisely, according to the problem mentioned above the research subject of the research consists in studying PMO roles and functions in change management activities held in the companies.

Research object

Subsequently, the research object is an organizational unit related to the project management functions called Project Management Office (PMO) or Project office. These and the other names are discussed more precisely in the following chapters.

Research goals

Within the broad purpose of the study mentioned above it will be necessary to:

1. Investigate the change management literature, describe the basic theoretical aspects of organizational changes, resistance to change and change management, identify the existing change management models

2. Examine previous research on PMO, identifying its types, roles and functions

3. Compare the PMO and change management models and reveal the possible relationships between them

4. Suggest the ways in which PMO could be applied to improvement of change management practices in organizations

Limitations of the study

Talking about the limitations of the study it is necessary to mention that during the survey it has been decided to limit the sample to the respondents that have personally participated in the change implementation. That has been done to enhance the quality of the information received and increase reliability of the data used in further analysis.

Paper plan

The following paper consists of five parts: Introduction, Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3 and Conclusion.

The introduction part presents the background and relevance of the study, states its problem and determines the goals, the subject and the object, as well as the scope of the research.

The First Chapter is concerned with the basic theoretical aspects of organizational changes, change resistance and change management. The existing change models and their classification are described and discussed.

The Second Chapter touches upon the issue of PMO, its definitions, roles and functions in organizations, describe the classifications and theories existing. As well the possible relations between PMO and change management are shown and discussed.

The Third Chapter is dedicated to the methodology of the research, providing the integrative framework proposed on the basis of the literature analysis, description of the field research and results received. The main findings of the study are drawn and discussed; conclusions and recommendations are made.

Finally, in the Conclusion the main outcomes of the study proposed are summarized and discussed, suggestions about the further development of the research are proposed.

Chapter 1: Changes and change management practicies

1. Organizational changes: terminology and typology

Just some time ago organizational changes were considered as a factor preventing enterprise performance. However, recently this paradigm has moved: nowadays changes are seen as a necessary process for successful development of the companies. According to the definition, change is “the movement of a company away from its present state toward some desired future state to increase its competitive advantage” (Hill and Jones, 2001, p. 486). Thus, change management could be defined as the process of continuous development of the company, its structure and abilities to adapt to continuously changing needs of internal and external consumers (By, 2005).

One of the earliest studies in this area is the classification of changes provided by Levy and Merry (1986). According to their study all changes could be divided into two groups: first- and second-order changes, the key difference between which lie in their size and speed of change. The first-order changes consist of “the improvements and adjustments that do not change the system’s core, and occur as the system naturally grows and develops” (Levy, 1986, p. 5). In other words they do not break current organizational culture, do not contradict to existing norms and behaviors and usually characterize changes in functional processes. In contrary, the second-order changes are seen as a radical structural and cultural shift that influence several organizational parameters and level at the same time. Finally they lead to a new identity of the organization.

Some later researches distinguish various types of organizational changes on the basis of the frequency or so called rate of occurrence (Grundy, 1993; Luecke, 2003; Burnes, 2004; Balogun, Hailey, 2004; Senior, 2002). However, according to By, in fact, they just use the different terminology for describing the same approach. The key idea is that due to the frequency change types could vary from discontinuous to continuous ones.

Synthesizing the studies mentioned above By has proposed a classification according to which changes could be classified into discontinuous, incremental, bumpy incremental, continuous and bumpy continuous. According to Grundy’s definition discontinuous change is “a change which is marked by rapid shifts in either strategy, structure or culture, or in all three” (Grundy, 1993, p.26). Talking about this kind of changes it’s interesting to mention that almost all the contemporary authors conclude such changes do not bring sustainable benefits to the enterprise although it is employed in many initiatives. In contrary, the continuous changes represented as an ongoing process are suggested to be the best approach that allows to keep up with the fast-moving environment (Kotter, 1990; Burnes, 2004). Changes are supposed to be incremental when they are implemented by limited and negotiated shifts. In its turn, according to Grundy, incremental changes could be divided into smooth and bumpy. The first ones evolve slowly in a systematic way that is quite rare in the current environment according to Senior, while the last ones are punctuated by the relatively peaceful periods (punctuated equilibrium in Hailey’s terminology). The main difference between continuous and incremental change consists in difference of level of changes: strategic and operational respectively. And, finally, bumpy continuous category can be defined to describe the type of continuous operational changes that could be punctuated by serenity periods (By, 2005). The summary and short comparison of the typologies existing is presented in the table below:

Table 1: Change characterized by the rate of occurrence (By, 2005)

Type of change	Balogun and Hope Hailey (2004)	Burnes (2004)	Grundy (1993)	Luecke (2003)	Senior (2002)
Discontinuous Incremental Smooth incremental Bumpy incremental Continuous Continuous incremental Punctuated equilibrium	✓ ✓	✓ ✓ ✓	✓ ✓ ✓	✓ ✓	✓ ✓ ✓