Change management in the banking sector A comparative case study

Sammanfattning

The banking industry is characterised by regulation, formalisation and continuous organisational change, making change management a central challenge for banks. However, existing research on change management in banking remains fragmented and often treats organisational change as a relatively uniform process, regardless of organisational size and with limited attention to how employees interpret different types of changes. Hence, the purpose of this thesis is to explore how change management is implemented in banks of different sizes and how employees interpret these change initiatives. The study addresses this research gap by offering a comparative case study of two Nordic banks that differ substantially in organisational size. The theoretical framework builds on change management theory, sensemaking theory and organisational size, which together enable an analysis of both the implementation and interpretation of change. The study adopted a qualitative and comparative research design, using empirical material collected through 16 semi-structured interviews with employees. The findings reveal that change management in banks cannot be understood as one uniform process, but should instead be separated into structural change management and process change management. While structural change is mainly top-down and strongly shapedby formalisation, communication and reinforcement, process change is more continuous, employee-driven and embedded in daily work. The study concludes that organisational size influences change management primarily through formalisation, but that this effect is most important during structural change, where formal structures help reduce ambiguity and support employee sensemaking.