Change management and communication in public sector organizations: the Gordian knot of complexity, accountability and legitimacy

The chapter opens up with a description of the challenges and characteristics of change management in public sector organizations. Basic understandings of and approaches to change management and communication are then introduced and discussed in reference to the specific characteristics of public sector organizations. The majority of large-scale changes in public sector organizations are very often politically initiated, and this affects the approach taken to change and the manager’s relation to both internal and external stakeholders. The central part of the chapter discusses the managerial and communicative challenges inherent in public sector change processes, and the notion of transparency is introduced as a possible solution to the change-related Gordian knot of complexity, accountability, and legitimacy.