Specificity of Change Management in Public Organizations: Conditions for Successful Organizational Change in Dutch Ministerial Departments

This article is about the specificity of change management in public organizations. We analyze change management in a core-governmental type of public organization, that is, ministerial departments. Using six case studies of ministerial reorganizations, we address the question what specific characteristics the conditions for successful organizational change can have there. The case studies show that some of the success conditions did apply to these public organizations, some could be refined and specified, and others did not apply. The case studies also show that the conditions for successful organizational change were not the major explanations for success and failure of change. Change management in this type of public organization is not simply a straightforward application of generic management science insights.