Identifying and prioritizing effective factors on improving organizational change capacity

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Reza Zadvali ¹

Ali Taheri ²

¹ Master of Business Administration, Faculty of Management and Strategic Planning, Imam Hossein University, Tehran, Iran.

² Assistant Professor, Faculty of Management and Strategic Planning, Imam Hossein University, Tehran, Iran.

https://doi.org/10.22067/tmj.2026.91261.1645

Abstract

Organizations in the modern era are constantly undergoing change in order to survive and remain competitive in complex and dynamic environments. The present study aims to identify and prioritize the factors influencing the enhancement of organizational change capacity. This research is a mixed-method study, which employed a systematic literature review in the first phase, followed by the use of Fuzzy Delphi and Fuzzy DEMATEL techniques for data analysis in the subsequent phases. The statistical population of the study included all faculty members in the field of management from universities in Tehran in 2023 (1402 in the Iranian calendar), among whom ten expert professors were selected using non-probability purposive sampling. In order to identify the effective factors, the systematic review method was applied. The keywords “organizational change” and “change capacity” were searched in both domestic and international academic databases within the time frame of 1990–2024. Based on the search results, 45 relevant articles were finally selected from the databases. Findings from the systematic review revealed 55 factors influencing change capacity, which were classified into three main dimensions: contextual, process, and learning. According to experts’ opinions, these factors were scientifically validated through the Fuzzy Delphi questionnaire. The results of the Fuzzy DEMATEL analysis indicated that within the contextual dimension, organizational justice was identified as the most influential (causal) factor; within the learning dimension, political skill had the strongest causal effect; and within the process dimension, the organizational structure with low formalization emerged as the key influencing factor. Overall, the results of this study demonstrate that enhancing organizational change capacity requires simultaneous attention to contextual, learning, and process-related dimensions, as each plays a critical role in shaping an organization’s readiness and ability to adapt to change.

Keywords

Change capacity

organizational change

Fuzzy dematel

systematic review

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