Moving from Awareness to Practice: Change Management and Adoption Success in Saudi Architecture and Engineering Firms

Abstract Saudi Arabia’s architecture and engineering (A/E) sector is changing rapidly under Vision 2030, yet little is known about how A/E firms manage organizational change. This study examines whether change management (CM) is practised in these firms and whether its practice, rather than awareness of its value, is associated with perceived success in adopting change. An online questionnaire was completed by 70 practitioners working in or with Saudi A/E firms and analysed with non-parametric tests, Spearman correlations and ordinal logistic regression, supported by four sensitivity analyses. Organizational change was nearly universal (84.3% reported change within five years), most often in management systems, technology and delivery systems. Awareness of CM was high, with 80.0% rating its relationship to firm success as strong or very strong, yet only 45.7% reported explicit use of CM strategies, which relied mainly on senior leadership rather than training, change agents or communication. Explicit strategy use was associated with higher perceived adoption success (Kruskal–Wallis H (2) = 9.57, p = .008) and remained the only significant predictor after adjusting for management system, external pressure and firm size (OR = 4.25, 95% CI [1.59, 11.36]). Perceived importance of CM was unrelated to success ( ρ = −.04), and firm size, structure and management system did not differentiate outcomes. The findings reveal an awareness–implementation (knowing–doing) gap: Saudi A/E firms value CM but apply it inconsistently, and its benefits appear only where it is deliberately practised. The study offers baseline evidence and practice-oriented recommendations for firms, professional bodies and Vision 2030 programme sponsors.