The Role of Organizational Change Management in Facilitating Successful Conservation Engineering Research

A key goal of conservation engineering research is to encourage significant or revolutionary change in a fishery, such as fishermen using new fishing gear, their compliance to seafood certification requirements, and the introduction of new regulations pertaining to fishing gear design and operation. However, in many instances, revolutionary change is resisted by fishermen and other stakeholders and their appetite for change is low. Revolutionary change is often considered to be uncontrollable, unpredictable, and a threat to established processes and systems that forces individuals to face an uncertain future. Subsequently, many conservation engineering research initiatives do not realize their full potential, and if change occurs, it is achieved reluctantly with a sub-optimal outcome. We present a well-known model for change management and describe how its application in a fisheries context can guide initiatives for change and produce enhanced outcomes. We also explore how this model provides insight into why many past conservation engineering research initiatives did not realize their full potential and posit how it can influence the success of future research initiatives.