In today's rapidly changing world, companies are increasingly dependent on changing in an efficient and successful manner. Despite the large amount of research available in the field, attempts at conducting organizational change have a 70% failure rate. The purpose of this study is to describe and create understanding for what Swedish change leaders consider to be success factors for organizational change, and how these factors relate to leadership skills. The study has an abductive approach and through semi-structured interviews with eight change leaders, we have come up with six success factors, which are essential for successful implementation of organizational change. These are:

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The results of the study are useful for leaders in similar situations, as we have illustrated success factors that these individuals can benefit from during planned changes in medium and large-sized Swedish companies. The results show that there are similarities between previous research and what the respondents express, but we have also found differences. All the success factors had already partly been treated in the theory, except for the composition of change team where the connection previously did not exist. However, the respondents also came with new perspectives and interesting points of view on the previously treated factors. The study also illustrates the importance of the leader possessing leadership skills and we have demonstrated that the most significant one is conceptual skills.