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This systematic review examines how organisational culture (OC) influences organisational change in developing countries, addressing a literature gap concentrated in Western, high-income contexts. Following PRISMA 2020 guidelines, we analysed 35 studies published between 2000 and 2025, spanning healthcare, manufacturing, higher education, public administration, and finance across 15 developing nations. The synthesis employed thematic analysis guided by the Competing Values Framework and institutional theory. Results indicate that organisational culture operates as a contingent mediator rather than a uniform driver or barrier. Clan culture consistently facilitates change through empowerment, trust, and participative decision-making. Conversely, a hierarchy culture typically impedes implementation through centralised authority, information hoarding, and suppressed psychological safety. Adhocracy and market cultures produce context-dependent effects, moderated by sectoral constraints and managerial practices. National cultural dimensions, political interference, and resource scarcity significantly moderate these relationships, often neutralising formal change policies. The findings demonstrate that change management practices mediate the culture-outcome link but require multi-level alignment to succeed. This review contributes a contextual model for OC-change dynamics, extending Western frameworks by showing that hierarchy in developing contexts is frequently an institutionalised norm rather than a managerial preference. Practically, the study provides evidence-based guidance for diagnosing cultural fit, adapting change strategies to national realities, and addressing systemic resource constraints.

Makhanda Municipality, in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa, faces difficulties such as service delivery failures, infrastructure deficiencies, and government inefficiencies. This paper aims to assess the applicability and efficacy of Lewin's model in promoting organisational change and improving performance in this particular Municipality. This paper used VOSviewer's bibliometric analysis to synthesise 36 current literature and pinpoint important trends, seminal research, and knowledge gaps about change management. The findings show that Lewin's model, which includes unfreezing, change, and refreezing phases, provides a systematic framework that, when applied in Makhanda, can greatly improve stakeholder engagement and organisational adaptability. The paper's novelty stems from its adaptation of a traditional change model to a modern municipal environment, which provides valuable insights into local governance. To improve the transformation process, recommendations include tailoring training programs for local officials and establishing a feedback mechanism. This paper concludes that effective change management is critical for enhancing public service outcomes, and Makhanda Municipality will greatly benefit from the application of the Model.

The aim of the study is to investigate how employees' unwillingness to change is influenced by demographic factors (age, gender, and educational attainment). Employees at car dealerships in the eThekwini region of South Africa make up the statistical population of this study. The means of data collection was by administration of questionnaires distributed across 170 employees from selected dealership automobiles. Cronbach's Alpha was used to compute and confirm the questionnaire's reliability, while factor analysis and the KMO index were used to authenticate its validity. The results demonstrate employees' resistance to change in the cognitive rigidity dimension to be significantly influenced by the mean of the variables in the two groups of men and women. Employee resistance to change in the cognitive rigidity construct is unaffected by age, and employees with better educational backgrounds displayed less cognitive resistance than those with lesser educational backgrounds. The tenure of employment also indicated that those with more years of tenure showed less resistance compared to those with lesser years of the tenure at the organisation. The study suggests that these insights are valuable for organisations seeking to improve their change management practices by considering demographic factors as means to understand change is increasingly essential and promises more successful change efforts in the future.

This paper explored factors for infusing change management practices in the public sector and gave recommendations for policy execution of technology. The Western Cape Department of Community Safety (DoCS) launched the Expanded Partnership Programme (EPP) in 2010, as provided for in section 206 of the Constitution to reorient social crime prevention by Community Policing Forums Educate and Share towards Monitoring Guided Actions to increase sustainability, the efficiency of Community Police Forums (CPFs), and the accountability of the police. Even with an investment of R18 million, participation levels were still low and there was no service delivery improvement by the police, thus the need for a change management was borne. The study pointed out the need of strategic methods such as Kotter’s 8-Step Process, Prosci ADKAR, and McKinsey Influence Model to implement institutionalised changes. The research pursued a practical stance and therefore merged objectivist and constructivist positions with an abductive approach. Count data were collected through the use of a Likert scale questionnaire since it was quantitative in nature while qualitative data was obtained from semi-structured focus group discussions. Data analysis was performed using qualitative and quantitative methods such as descriptive statistics, Pearson’s Chi-square, and content analysis, among others. The research findings highlighted key factors such as organizational culture, interests of stakeholders, politics, resources, and the external environment a determinants of change management. The creation of detailed guidelines that are supported by evidence to direct decision making, resource allocation and prioritisation of policies by the government was advocated for in the study. These findings closed the loop between the research academic domain and the practical field, and demonstrated clear steps towards improving accountability, transparency and adequacy of change implementation.

Research studies have proven that leadership styles and communication are positively and significantly related to effective change management. This implies that the influence of leadership on effective communication is integral to the success of any organizational performance. These leadership styles include transformational and transactional leadership. The study was based on two different theories; the leadership theory and the communication theory. The study was descriptive in nature considering a sample size of 300 employees in the selected dealership organisations operating in the eThekwini, South-Africa. Data collection was achieved by handing out questionnaires to 300 employees, out of which 170 were returned completed. The study was analysed by means of correlational and regression analysis ascertained through the structural equation model (SEM). The study found that leadership styles and communication were positively and significantly related and are major determinant to the success of an effective organisational change management. The study further concluded that leadership styles and communication were positively and significantly related to effective change. Conclusively, it was indicated that the transformational leadership style stands out as the most effective leadership style for successful change management. It was also agreed that integrated communications which involves the application of more than one communication strategy to pass important information especially regarding change management was vital. The study recommended the adoption of transformational leadership style in the various departments of the organization. Also, it considers the application of integrated communication which includes verbal, non-verbal, written, assertive and electronic means of communication.