Understanding program managers leading value creation in change programs: Taking content, context, and competencies into account

Abstract

Positioned within the project management field and literature, this thesis focuses on value creation process in organizational change programs by analyzing the perceptions and actions of program management actors, particularly, program managers. Organizational change programs are both of theoretical interest and practical importance. For the latter, organizations in different sectors and industries are increasingly urged to initiate and implement various transformational change processes, in order to survive and prosper. Thus, the organizational actors, specifically the managers are progressively encountered with the hurdle of realizing complex changes. For the former, choosing programs as temporary vehicles to provide a certain organizing and management framework to plan and realize such complex processes has created a significant, yet growing debate in the project management literature that elevates the issue of how change programs can be managed to create value. Communicating with this debate, taking an actor-centric view, this thesis attempts to answer how can program managers lead value creation in change programs?

In order to answer the posed question, the thesis raises three issues and develops a theoretical framework concerning (1) the process of value creation, (2) the importance of organizational context for managing change programs, and (3) the understanding of the change program manager’s role and their way of handling their role when leading value creation processes. Further, it follows and draws on seven Norwegian municipality merger, change programs that were planned and implemented between 2016 and 2020 in Trøndelag county. The longitudinal data collection allowed for registering program managers’ experiences throughout different phases of programs, projecting a unique and rich pool of empirical data. The thesis is built upon three research papers, each highlighting and addressing a specific issue related to the value creation and management of change programs by program managers. Employing new theoretical approaches and grounded in program managers’ experiences, this thesis suggests novel theoretical insights to project management literature and presents related practical impacts.