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Introduction
The nature and causes of organizational change have been extensively studied but are still not fully understood. There is a need to better understand how to manage change and successfully implement innovations in general and in relation to specific interventions and contexts (Walker et al., 2007; Helms et al., 2009).
A large number of all organizational change initiatives fail to reach their set goals (e.g. Higgs and Rowland, 2000; Burnes, 2004; Hughes, 2011). Although many studies in different research areas provide input on what to address to enhance development and improvement, see, for instance, McGlynn et al. (2003), Asch et al. (2006) and Durlak and DuPre (2008), there are many aspects that require further investigation (Harvey et al., 2011). Since performing development initiatives in health care generally requires substantial resources, it is imperative to increase knowledge about how to improve the success rate of organizational change.
The role of change agents involved in organizational development (OD) is one of the aspects that has become increasingly important to understand (Rycroft-Malone et al., 2002; Harvey et al., 2011; Höög, 2014). The change agent concept stems from the roots of OD and action research (Ottaway, 1983). A generic definition of the concept was provided by Beckhard (1969, p. 101): “Change agent’ refers to those people, either inside or outside the organization, who are providing technical, specialist, or consulting assistance in the management of a change effort”. Research on change agent roles has been conducted in the OD tradition, for example, by Ottaway (1983), who developed a taxonomy of change agent roles consisting of three main categories:
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change generators (key change agents, demonstrators, patrons, defenders);
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change implementers (internal, internal/external and external implementers); and
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change adopters (early adopters, maintainers, users).
Ottaway’s taxonomy follows Lewin’s stage theory of change (Lewin, 1952) with change generators as unfreezers, change implementers as movers and change adopters as re-freezers.
The research on change agents and change facilitation is rather extensive, but has mainly been concentrated on facilitator features and competencies, and actions revolving around the intended adopter (i.e. how to enhance tendencies or willingness of intended adopters to assimilate) (e.g. Rees, 1990; Harvey et al., 2002). Less discussed is the concept of change facilitating functions (CFFs) and...