Change: the road to institutional reform

摘要

Many public agencies in urban areas of developing countries are undertaking reforms in the Water and Sanitation Sector (WSS) to address the poor performance in service delivery. Not all reforms follow the same pattern, but they all aim at a more effective and sustainable service. For institutional reform to take effect a successful path of change needs to be charted out and followed. The change inherent to the process of reform is a complex, time-consuming and multi-facetted subject to deal with. It is therefore not surprising that the subject of change manage-ment takes center stage and numerous theories and models to provide insight in this process have been developed. Although the models seem very logical and applicable to every situation, as they are so generic in nature, the authors of this paper have met skepticism among professional of developing countries, with whom they have shared the different models. Opinions expressed include that the models can hardly be applied to the concrete working conditions and institutional realities faced by them, in their region and country in general and their organization and department in particular. Constraints mentioned to insti-tutional change include lack of transparency, prevalence of autocratic leadership and bureaucracy, and last but not least, corruption. Also other professionals, who are engaged in the piloting of reform processes with public agencies in urban areas of developing countries, expressed their sincere reservations about the "upscalability" of the pilots which were carried out. "Their " pilots inhibit initial promise but soon experiences emerge that failure may be around the corner. The subject of failure of change in itself is nothing new. The literature abounds with evidence and examples of change projects that have gone wrong, some disastrously so (Burnes, 1992). Kotter, 1995 addresses eight most common reasons for failure or organisaton transformation in a well-known publication. This paper concerns the applicability of existing models of change to specifically change processes in public agencies in urban areas of developing countries. The paper firstly reflects basic conditions for a successful process of change. These conditions hinge on existing models of change and seem to apply to any successful path of change; irrespective of the theoretical approach towards change one may prefer and support. Thereafter, two case studies are described and analysed. It concludes with an assessment of the applicability of the change models to the public sector organizations of urban areas of developing countries.