Assessing Change Management Competencies of Boatbuilding Project Managers in the Western Cape

South Africa’s boatbuilding industry (BBI) employs organisational change (OC) through projects and programmes to improve process maturity, efficiency, and regulatory compliance. Despite limited empirical evidence, low change implementation success rates and inadequate change management (CM) competency remain widely cited. This study examined perceptions of change implementation success, assessed CM competency levels, and explored the relationship between CM competencies and perceived implementation success within the BBI. A quantitative, deductive survey was conducted using a non-probability sample from BBI organisations. Data were analysed using one-sample t-tests and Pearson correlation analysis, guided by Higgs and Rowland’s CM competency framework. The findings did not support the low-success narrative, with perceived implementation success of change and both human- and organisation-centric CM competencies significantly exceeding neutral or benchmark levels. Although CM competencies were positively associated with perceived implementation success, the relationships were weak to moderate in strength. The findings provide context-specific evidence to inform practice while indicating that CM competency alone is not a dominant predictor of successful organisational change. Sustainability to Regeneration: Designing Net-Positive Built Environments in African Hospitality Akintade, Elizabeth1*, Oke, Ayodeji Emmanuel2