Organizational Readiness for Implementing Change (ORIC)

In short

A 12-question staff survey on one specific change: are people committed to it, and do they believe the organization can carry it out? Use it before a rollout, team by team.

For whoever runs the assessment: an HR or operations lead, an internal project team, or an outside consultant.

What it measures

ORIC asks staff about one named change, such as a new AI tool in customer support. It has two parts:

• Commitment: do we want to do this?
• Confidence: do we believe we can do it, together?

It measures a shared view inside a team or organization. It is not about AI in particular, so you name the change yourself.

How to use it

1. Name the change precisely in the introduction to the survey.
2. Ask every member of the teams affected, anonymously.
3. Report results by team. Report the overall score, and treat the two sub-scores with care.
4. Pair it with questions about concerns, reported separately.
5. Repeat it during the rollout. One reading is rarely enough.

What it does not measure

• Resistance. Readiness and resistance are not opposites. A team can score high on both. See measure readiness and resistance separately.
• Whether the rollout will succeed. A review of 47 studies found the link between readiness and success unclear.
• Skills or infrastructure. It asks what people believe, not what the organization has.

How it was tested

The measure was first published by Shea and colleagues in 2014. A 2024 study tested it on 313 staff in child-welfare services in the United States:

• Answers to the questions agreed closely with each other.
• The statistical check of the survey’s two-part structure did not fit well.

In plain terms: the survey gives a steady overall reading of readiness, but the split into commitment and confidence is less certain. The technical detail: internal consistency was very high (alpha 0.96), and factor models showed insufficient fit.

Licence and access

The licence for the questions is not established. Contact the authors of the original measure before you translate or change it.

Alternatives

Other assessments with a similar job, and when to prefer each.

• Is the new way of working becoming routine? NoMAD: is a new way of working taking hold? Prefer it once the change is under way and you want to know whether it is becoming normal work. The staff who use the new practice · 23 questions Free to use and adapt Testing: Strong Readiness surveys
• How positive are staff about AI in general? AI Attitude Scale (AIAS-4) Prefer it when you want staff attitudes to AI in general, in four questions. Staff, each about their own views · 4 questions Free to use and adapt Testing: Strong Attitude and trust surveys

Practices that use it

• Do not treat a maturity score as a forecast An AI maturity or readiness score describes where you say you stand. Evidence that a higher score leads to better results is thin and disputed. Use it to start a discussion, not to predict returns. Do next · Effort: low (days, one person) Evidence: Moderate Contested Measurement · Explore
• Measure readiness and resistance separately Staff can be keen on AI and worried about it at once. Ask about the two separately. A single “readiness” score hides the worry. Do next · Effort: medium (weeks, a few people) Evidence: Emerging Measurement · Explore

The details

Testing

Moderate Tested more than once. A 2024 study of 313 staff found that answers were very consistent, but the two parts the survey is meant to have did not separate cleanly.

Looks at

Organization, Team

How the answers are collected

A survey answered by staff about their organization or team.

Length

12 questions

Cost

Not established

Licence

Not establishedThe questions have been published in the research literature. The terms for reuse are not established. Ask the authors before you translate or adapt them.

Languages

English. Other language versions are not established.

By

Shea and colleagues, 2014

Sources

1. Steen and Stewart (2024). A Psychometric Analysis of the Organizational Readiness for Implementing Change (ORIC) in a Child Welfare Setting. Journal of Evidence-Based Social Work. doi:10.1080/26408066.2024.2409092

Related studies on this site

• Does readiness for change predict success? A review of 47 studies Caci, Nyantakyi, Blum, Sonpar, Schultes, Albers and Clack (2025). Organizational readiness for change: A systematic review of the healthcare literature. Implementation Research and Practice, 6.
• Ready for change, resistant, or both? Repovš, Drnovšek and Kaše (2019). Change Ready, Resistant, or Both? Exploring the Concepts of Individual Change Readiness and Resistance to Organizational Change. Economic and Business Review, 21(2).