Development of a readiness for change maturity model: an energy management system implementation case study


 This paper provides a methodology to assess the maturity of an organization’s readiness for change based on the use of a Fuzzy Analytic Network Process and fuzzy linguistic evaluation maturity model. This anticipatory approach’s purpose is to evaluate the extent in which an organization is ready to implement a change initiative, in order to enhance supportive behaviors and identify improvement areas before engaging the change and thus reducing change adoption failure risks. A case study for the implementation of an Energy Management System according to the ISO 50001 Standard within a factory operating in the automotive sector is provided. Rather than the classical technical approach found in energy management maturity models, this approach offers an organizational perspective. The use of the Fuzzy Analytic Network Process allows the consideration of the interrelations between factors, while the use of fuzzy logic for the evaluation through linguistic variables helps in taking the uncertainty and imprecision of respondents into consideration. This approach serves as a decision support system for decision-makers by providing the organization’s readiness maturity level as well as the identification of improvement areas that will help ensure a successful implementation of the desired change initiative. In the conducted case study, the obtained maturity level refers to an average readiness for change for the implementation of the Energy Management System and requires the definition of an improvement roadmap, comprising the following elements: ensuring top management leadership and organizational commitment and involving employees as well as internal communication on the personal and organizational benefits of the implementation of an Energy Management System.


Introduction
In response to climate change and sustainability challenges, reducing their energy consumption has become crucial for countries to meet their national greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction commitments. Morocco has committed to reduce its GHG emissions by 17% below business-as-usual levels by 2030, with an additional 25% conditional on international support following the ratification of the Paris Agreement in September 2016 (UNFCCC, 2016;Terrapon-Pfaff and Amroune, 2018). In June 2021, Morocco enhanced its Nationally Determined Contribution to 45.5% by 2030 (with 27.2% of this target being conditional to international assistance) (Ministry of Energy, Mines and the Environment, 2021).
Since 2009, Morocco has deployed a national energy strategy that serves as a roadmap for the transition to a low-carbon energy system with a 2030 horizon. It revolves around five priorities: the optimization and diversification of the energy mix, the mobilization of domestic resources and particularly renewable energy use, the promotion of energy efficiency, building stronger regional cooperation with Europe's and Africa's energy markets, and industrial integration by developing local industrial capabilities. This strategy's implementation relied on energy sector reforms, increased transparency and competition, as well as capacity building…It aims at securing the country's energy supply and ensuring energy availability and affordability. Thus, contributing to the reduction of the country's energy dependence, the improvement of citizen's purchasing power, industries competitiveness and public accounts… Morocco possesses valuable renewable energy resources that can help it meet its energy needs. It benefits from an average solar radiation of 5.3 kWh/m 2 annually and with sunshine durations of more than 3000 h/year (Ministry of Energy, Mines, Water and the Environment, 2020). The country also benefits from a significant wind resource, with 3500 km of coastline and mean wind speeds varying between 7.5 m/s to 9.5 m/s in the south (Tarfaya, Taza, Laayoun, Dakhla) and up to 11 m/s in the North (Tangier, Tetouan) (Kousksou, et al., 2015;Ministry of Energy, Mines, Water and the Environment, 2020). Morocco's potential for renewable energies is illustrated by initiatives such as: the Moroccan Solar Plan and the Moroccan Integrated Wind Energy Program.
According to a comparative analysis on energy efficiency and renewable energy strategies and policies within Southern and Eastern Mediterranean countries (Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine, Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco) by the (Mediterranean Association of the National Agencies for Energy Management; Regional Centre for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency, 2019), the countries with the most ambitious energy efficiency national targets by 2030 are Tunisia (30%) and Morocco (20%). Regarding renewable energy national targets, Morocco and Egypt have the most ambitious targets with Morocco's goal of 52% share of renewable energy in energy production by 2030 that was updated and enhanced in 2021 to aim for an installed power capacity of 52% by 2025 and 64.3% by 2030 (Hayoun, 2021), and the Egyptian strategy's goal of 42% share of renewable energy in energy production by 2035.
According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), the industrial sector was responsible for 20.9% of final energy consumption in Morocco in 2018 (International Energy Agency , 2018). Therefore, a wide dissemination of the energy management standard ISO 50001 within industrial organizations, presents a good opportunity. This standardized continuous improvement framework helps to foster energy efficiency and reduces the emission of greenhouse gases. It also helps organizations ensure legislative compliance, gain a competitive advantage, provide a cost reduction opportunity in relation to energy consumption and improve operational efficiency as well as demonstrating some aspects of their corporate social responsibility.
Ensuring the readiness for change of an organization prior to engaging the implementation of a change initiative is often regarded as critical to the success of the change (By, 2007;Rafferty, et al., 2013;Weiner, et al., 2020), and helps enhance change supportive behaviors (Rafferty, et al., 2013), employee's cooperativeness, sense of initiative and persistence (Weiner, 2009). Therefore, developing a readiness for change maturity model that evaluates the extent in which an organization is ready to implement a change initiative can be highly beneficial for companies and can play an important role in reducing failure risks related to the adoption of a change initiative or a new project. In this paper, we will explore the readiness for change aspects in the case of the implementation of an Energy Management System (EnMS) within a Moroccan factory.
This paper's contribution to the literature can be summarized as follows:  Proposing a change readiness evaluation framework based on readiness for change literature review.
 Contrary to the classical technical approaches found in energy management maturity models, the proposed approach explores the organizational dimension linked to the adoption of an Energy Management System.  Relying on an anticipatory approach, the proposed readiness evaluation framework gives an alternative to the bias present in retrospective employee reports (Cunningham, et al., 2002;Rafferty, et al., 2013) and meets the need for more acute measurement methods as described by (Holt and vardaman, 2013).  The proposed evaluation framework takes the human factor's inherent uncertainty and imprecision into consideration (using fuzzy logic and fuzzy linguistic variables). This is particularly useful since the human factor is at the core of technology acceptance research and change management.  Using the Fuzzy Analytic Network Process makes it possible to consider the interdependencies between the studied concepts.  Several managerial implications in practice such as the identification of the company's readiness for change maturity level regarding the implementation of an Energy Management System and helping in the construction of a targeted improvement roadmap based on the evaluation's results. This approach has also the potential to be generalized for similar studies. The goals of this study are to provide corporate decisionmakers who want to evaluate the current level of readiness for the implementation of an Energy Management System for their organizations with a suitable model that adheres to the particularities of each organization. As well as providing a decision-aid tool for the identification of areas that further need to be addressed prior to engage with the change initiative.
The structure of this paper is organized as follows; section two presents a literature review on energy management maturity models, the concept of change readiness and its related factors, followed by the description of the proposed methodology for the change readiness evaluation of the EnMS implementation in section three. Section four presents the obtained results and findings for a manufacturing plant based in Morocco and operating in the automotive sector that are further discussed in section five. Finally, the last section presents the conclusion of the study.

Literature review
The conducted literature review considered both the implementation of an Energy Management System and the concept of change readiness.

Energy Management System implementation
A common approach in the literature of Energy Management System implementation is to define an energy management maturity model that measures the maturity to implement energy management actions. A maturity model in general, allows to represent the progress and evolution in a specific do-main across levels through measurable transitions. It is composed by levels that represent the transitional states of the model, model domains that represent the knowledge areas of the model and that are in turn composed by attributes, Appraisal and Scoring Methods to conduct the assessment. They can be used for benchmarking purposes or to define improvement roadmaps (Caralli, et al., 2012). Maturity in the studied context refers to the organization's capabilities to manage energy ranging from procurement to utilization. Energy management maturity models help structure energy management practices and orient investments (Antunes, et al., 2014) and can serve as a strategy to scale up energy efficiency actions' impacts (O'Sullivan, 2011).
In the recent years, few studies addressed energy maturity models (Finnerty, et al., 2017). Among the existing energy management maturity models, there is: the energy and utility management maturity model for sustainable manufacturing process (Ngai, et al., 2013), the energy management maturity model by (Introna, et al., 2014), the ISO 50001 standard-based energy management maturity model (Jovanović and Filipović, 2016), the energy management maturity model by (Antunes, et al., 2014), the energy management maturity model for multi-site industrial organizations with a global presence (Finnerty, et al., 2017).
The common factor between these models is that they have five levels of maturity and most of them align with the Plan Do Check Act cycle (Antunes, et al., 2014;Finnerty, et al., 2017;Introna, et al., 2014;Jovanović and Filipović, 2016). The models proposed by (Introna, et al., 2014) and (Jovanović and Filipović, 2016) are closely linked to the ISO 50001 Standard and can be considered complementary to the standard. Ngai et al's model (2013) does not permit the definition of an organization's maturity, however the progress description between levels provides guidance for companies in their improvement journey. The particularity of the energy management maturity model by (Finnerty, et al., 2017) is that it focuses on global multisite organizations. However, implementation activities for a successful adoption of an EnMS are subject to limited scientific literature (Antunes, et al., 2014), and existing maturity models focus on the organization's maturity in energy management, but not in an organizational readiness perspective that is based on an anticipatory approach prior to the adoption of the EnMS, as proposed by this study.

The concept of readiness for change
The concept of change readiness is a multilevel construct (individual, group, organization…), that has been given many definitions across the literature. (Armenakis, et al., 1993) defines the concept from the individual's perspective as its "beliefs, attitudes, and intentions regarding the extent to which changes are needed and the organization's capacity to successfully undertake those changes". while the definition provided by (Holt, et al., 2010) refers to the extent to which the people involved are "individually and collectively primed, motivated, and technically capable of executing the change". In this paper, the influence of the social sphere (Dievernich, 2015) is taken into consideration by considering both the individual's and the organization's levels of analysis, especially since only few readiness evaluation tools (7%) allow the measurement of both the individual and organizational levels of readiness (Holt and vardaman, 2013;Weiner, et al., 2020). A capability's perspective is also taken into consideration, it is inspired by the structural approach (weiner, et al., 2008) that is based on capabilities and resources.
The concept of change readiness has been the subject of several literature reviews that explored some existing evaluation tools for organizational change readiness (Gagnon, et al., 2014;weiner, et al., 2008;Weiner, et al., 2020). These evaluation tools can be associated to different goals such as: readiness description purposes, studies of change related attitudes, adoption and implementation prediction, prediction of other outcomes like employee turnover and job satisfaction. This study's aim falls within the three first categories, it helps to answer the questions: How ready is the company for the change? And what factors should be addressed to improve change related attitudes and capabilities?
According to a recent review on change readiness (Weiner, et al., 2020), the most used readiness tools are the "Texas Christian University Organizational Readiness for Change (TCU-ORC)" (Lehman and Simpson, 2002), the "Individual Readiness for Organizational Change (IROC)" (Holt, et al., 2007), the "Organizational Readiness to Change Assessment (ORCA)" (Helfrich, et al., 2009). The ORCA (19 scales and 77 items) and the TCU-ORC (18 scales and 118 items) are considered quite long. Other existing instruments with promising psychometric properties according to (Weiner, et al., 2020) are the organizational readiness for implementing change (Shea, et al., 2014), the perceived organizational readiness for change (Cinite, et al., 2009), the organizational change recipients beliefs scale , the Organizational Change Questionnaire-Climate of Change, Processes, and Readiness (OCQ-C, P, R) by (Bouckenooghe, et al., 2009). In contrast with the existing survey-based evaluation tools the originality of the proposed evaluation framework, lies in the consideration of uncertainty and imprecision inherent to the human factor, combined with a maturity evaluation that is practical for decision-making in a managerial context.
Other change readiness studies focused on the change message, and the factors that lead to readiness through it (Armenakis and Harris, 2002;Berneth, 2004). Therefore, a full category was dedicated to it in the proposed framework.
Exploring the different dimensions of the concept of change readiness, the conducted literature review helped structure the perspectives to be included in the proposed evaluation model (both individual and organizational perspectives, capabilities perspective, communication and change readiness messages).
In the following section, we will also present the change readiness factors that also emerged from reviewing the literature on change readiness evaluation tools and factors. The justification of each factor or association is provided in Table 1. These change readiness factors, validated in previous studies, are the ones that will form the proposed evaluation framework.  (Weiner, 2009)  Policies and procedures: Existing company policies and procedures (Weiner, 2009)  Environment and organizational climate: The organizational culture of the company (Weiner, 2009)  Cohesion: The perception of togetherness, cooperation and sharing (Bouckenooghe, et al., 2009)  Discrepancy: A sense of urgency or the need for change, it is the realization that there are legitimate reasons for the change (Holt, et al., 2007) We maintained the placements of organizational politics, policies and procedures, organizational culture and past-experience within contextual factors (Weiner, 2009). Cohesion is placed in the context factors (Bouckenooghe, et al., 2009), and discrepancy is placed within the internal change context category (Holt, et al., 2007).

Change content:
The content of the planned change  Organizational valence: The realization of the change's benefits on the organization.  Appropriateness of the change: The planned change is well suited for the organization.
The two factors are supported by Holt, Armenakis, Field et al (Holt, et al., 2007) Structural factors: The availability of necessary structure, resources and workers knowledge, skills, and their abilities alignment with the change.
 Knowledge, skills, ability alignment (Holt and vardaman, 2013) also present in people category (Combe, 2014)  Organizational resources and structure (weiner, et al., 2008) that is extended to other elements such as Processes, Technology/ support resources, physical resources and organizational systems (Combe, 2014).
Holt and vardaman place knowledge, skills and ability alignment within the structural factors (Holt and vardaman, 2013). We include the organizational resources and structure inspired by the capacity assessment.

Change process readiness:
The process of the implementation of the change (Bouckenooghe, et al.,

2009)
 Management support: The support and understanding of immediate supervisors towards employees (Bouckenooghe, et al., 2009;Holt, et al., 2007)  Attitudes of Top management: The position of top management towards the change (Bouckenooghe, et al., 2009)  Participation: The involvement of employees with the change and keeping them informed of decisions that interest them (Bouckenooghe, et al., 2009).
Quality of change communication is placed in the process category (Bouckenooghe, et al., 2009), however we placed this factor in a dedicated change communication readiness category.

Change communication readiness
Communication on:  Discrepancy: Communication about the necessity to change  Efficacy: Communication on the confidence in employee's ability to implement the change  Appropriateness of the change: Communication on change's accuracy regarding the discrepancy identified.  Principal support: Communication on the support of leaders.  Valence: Communication on change benefits.  Quality of change communication: The way the change is communicated and its effectiveness (clarity, frequency and openness) (Bouckenooghe, et al., 2009) (Armenakis and Harris, 2002;Berneth, 2004) support the first five message components.

Change agent attributes:
The change agents are the individuals that lead the change within the organization  Perceived credibility: The credibility of a message source with no regard to the content.  Trust worthiness: The ability to be relied on as honest or truthful (oxford dictionary)  Sincerity: The absence of pretense, deceit or hypocrisy (oxford dictionary)  Expertise: Both content expertise about the change and change process expertise (Baker, 1995).

Change recipient's individual factors
 Values: Principles or standards of behavior (oxford dictionary)  Self-efficacy: Individual's confidence in its own ability to perform the change.  Yield-Personal valence: The benefits or rewards that may result from the change. (Baker, 1995) supports values. Self-efficacy and yield are considered important individual change readiness attributes (Holt, et al., 2007).

Change recipient's organizational factors
 Vision for change: The construction of a vision of what is the change, why, how to achieve it (Kotter, 1995;Smith, 2005)  Organizational commitment: The dedication and belief in the organization's goals and values (Identification, involvement and loyalty) (Holt and Vardaman, 2013;Weiner, 2009)  Trust in leadership: The perceived trustworthiness of employees towards their supervisors and top management (Bouckenooghe, et al., 2009;Holt and vardaman, 2013)  Collective efficacy: Group's confidence in its own ability to perform the change (Baker, 1995;Holt and Vardaman, 2013;Weiner, 2009).  Social relationships: Work relationships between employees: peers, supervisors, subordinates (feelings, attitudes, perceptions…). (Bouckenooghe, et al., 2009) places trust in leadership within the context factors. We placed it within the collective attributes as suggested by (Holt and Vardaman, 2013) where it is named as collective trust. Also, (Madsen, et al., 2005)'s study shows a relationship between change readiness and social relationships.
Following the conducted literature review, a focus group was carried out. It was composed by three change management experts, with more than fifteen years of experience as change management consultants, that have collaborated with several firms on different transformation and organizational projects. The aim of the focus group was to validate the proposed factors and discuss the framework structure. As a result, all proposed factors and subcategories of factors emanating from the literature were maintained by the experts.
However, for the quality of change communication factor, it was moved to the change readiness communication subcategory following the experts' suggestion. The subfactors categories were then regrouped by the experts in four interdependent categories: change characteristics, change capabilities, change implementation process and change recipients, as illustrated in Figure 1.

Methodology
The proposed methodology for the assessment of the organization's readiness for change in the case of the implementation of an EnMS according to ISO 50001 standard is described in Figure 2. The detailed steps will be provided after describing the case study and the study design.

Case study description
The automotive sector in Morocco has benefited from a strategic continuity through the emergence Plan followed by the Industrial Acceleration Plan, to reach an important place within the national industry. Morocco is considered the leading automobile producer on the African continent since 2017 and the 2nd exporter to Europe from the first half of 2021. There are currently 250 equipment manufacturers installed in Morocco (Ministry of Industry, Trade, Green and Digital Economy, 2021).
This case study takes place in a factory that specializes in the assembly of light commercial vehicles based in Morocco. The process of the assembly of the produced vehicles at the plant goes through five main stages: Sheet metal work, painting, assembly and finally finishing and delivery.
As part of the maintenance and reliability team's technical and operational watch activities and benchmarks, the project of the implementation of an EnMS according to the ISO 50001 standard (2018 version) was proposed to top management.
The objectives of the EnMS implementation project are the following:  Improving the energetic performance of the factory through a better usage of energetic resources  Achieving cost-effectiveness by reducing energy-related costs  Developing efficiency energy practices within the company  Adoption of a dynamic process towards continuous improvement and obtaining the ISO 50001 certification  Contribution to sustainable development national efforts and exhibiting the company's corporate social responsibility. Considering the company's previous experience with other management systems like quality management, occupational health and safety, environmental management. Top management required an appropriate change conduct to be realized to gain employee's support and adherence to ensure the success of the project. In this regard, it is important to know how ready is the company for the change? And what factors should be addressed to improve change related attitudes and capabilities of employees regarding the implementation of the EnMS?

Study design
To conduct the change readiness evaluation for the implementation of an energy management system within the Moroccan manufacturing company, the authors relied on a second focus group. It was composed by the focus group members in Table 2, that are considered experts in their respected fields within the company, all members have at least seven years of experience within the factory and have taken part in important transversal projects in the past. The Focus group session started with an introduction on the ISO 50001 standard (2018 version) and the description of the EnMS implementation project objectives, as well as a brief overview of the proposed methodology, and particularly the use of the Delphi Technique.
The proposed methodology relies on the Fuzzy Analytic Network Process to attribute weights to the change readiness evaluation framework's factors and subfactors while consid-ering the factor's dependencies. Then, a fuzzy linguistic variable based evaluation is carried out, it allows the definition of the organization's readiness maturity level and to propose a targeted improvement roadmap by focusing the factory's efforts on factors with low or medium evaluation results. The Delphi method is used throughout this process to reach a consensus between the focus group members. The detailed methodological steps are provided in sections 3.3, 3.4 and 3.5.

Fuzzy Analytic Network Process methodology
The Analytic Network Process (ANP) is a generalization of Saaty's Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) (Saaty, 1990). The AHP helps in making a decision across several alternatives and it also helps determine the relative importance of criteria. It relies on the construction of the evaluation index system as a hierarchy, followed by the elaboration of pairwise comparison matrices based on expert's judgements with consistency tests. The AHP relies on the assumption of functional independence of the hierarchy's upper part in regard to its lower parts, and each level criteria. The ANP however, is usually used to take the interdependence of the model's criteria into account. Fuzzy logic helps in dealing with complex problems and with the human's factor inherent uncertainty (imprecision, vagueness, subjectivity…). These are the reasons for the choice of the Fuzzy Analytic network process combined with a fuzzy linguistic variable based evaluation. The steps of the proposed methodology are described below: Step 1: Identification of the goal, factors and sub-factors of the model hierarchically After conducting a literature review on change readiness frameworks and factors and conducting a focus group with three change management experts, the evaluation framework in Figure 1 was developed. The definitions of the proposed factors, their supporting studies and the framework structure justifications are given in Table 1 within the literature review section.
Step 2: Determination of the factors and sub-factors local weights using pairwise comparison matrices, with the assumption of no dependence among the factors.
During the second focus group meeting within the company (the focus group composition is given in Table 2), the triangular fuzzy number-based scale, displayed in Table 3 was used, it is proposed by (Kahraman, et al., 2006) to construct the pairwise comparison matrices.  (Chang, 1996) due to the simplicity of its steps in comparison with other similar approaches (Dag˘deviren, et al., 2008;Britel and Cherkaoui, 2020). The fuzzy synthetic extent value is calculated in regards to the i th object with the formula: With the expression below, the degree of possibility of M̃2 (l2,m2,u2) being greater than M̃1 (l1,m1,u1) is calculated: To compare M̃1 and M̃2, the requirement is to have V (M̃1≥ M̃2) and V (M̃2≥ M̃1). Then the degree of possibility for a convex fuzzy number to be greater than k convex fuzzy numbers is calculated, with i=1,2,…,k : The weight vector is given by the following expression, for k= 1, …, n : W= (min V(S1≥Sk), min V(S2≥Sk),…, V(Sn≥Sk)) T (5) Step 3: Determination of the dependence matrix for every factor with respect to the other ones. The dependence matrix is formed using pairwise comparisons between the factors along with Chang's extent analysis method, with a focus on the impact of each factor on the others.
Step 4: Calculation of the interdependent weights of the factors by multiplying the inner dependence matrix with the factor's local weights.
Step 5: Calculation of the sub-factors global weights by multiplying the sub-factor's local weight with the interdependent weights of its corresponding factor.

Fuzzy evaluation
The fuzzy linguistic variable-based evaluation is carried out through the following steps.
Step 6: Evaluation of the factors and subfactors using linguistic variables. Using Cheng's linguistic variables (1999), with the membership functions and the average values of the variables given in Figure 3, the evaluation is carried out.

Fig. 3. Membership functions for the linguistic values and their means of fuzzy numbers
Step 7: Evaluate the global readiness for change by multiplying the corresponding fuzzy number to the linguistic values and the global sub-factor weights

Maturity model perspective
From a managerial perspective, determining the maturity level of the organization regarding the planned project can be useful for decision-making and easily interpreted. It has two main advantages: the identification of the current maturity level and the identification of improvement areas, in an anticipatory approach before the implementation of the planned change. Thus, improving the chances of success of the project.
Step 8: Definition of the readiness for change maturity level. According to the scale proposed by Britel and Cherkaoui (2020) in Table 4, the readiness for change maturity level (RCML) is determined based on the maturity level (ML) obtained value. It is important to note that for steps n° 2, 3 and 6, obtaining a consensus between the focus group members was necessary, therefore a two-round Delphi methodology was used. The Delphi methodology is well-known for structuring the communication process within a group of experts (in our case, the designated focus group members) with the aim of reaching a consensus concerning a complex problem. It allows the experts to receive feedback reports and gives them the opportunity to improve their opinions based on the received feedback (Dalkey and Helmer, 1963). Two rounds of questioning were used:  In the first round, separate consultation interviews were organized with each member of the focus group.  After this first round, the data collected was synthetized and analyzed (identification of extreme values, major differences...). The obtained results were then returned to the experts with the opportunity to whether justify and maintain their values or improve their propositions. This first round led to initial improved matrices for steps n° 2, 3 and 6.  In the second round of the Delphi methodology, we emailed the improved matrices from the first round to the experts while requiring that they insert their opinions or improvements for each matrix. This led to the obtention of the final matrices thanks to the compromises that some experts have made following the feedback they received in the previous round. For the purpose of providing concise results, only the final matrices emanating from the Delphi methodology are presented in the results section.

Results
In order to measure the organization's readiness for change for the implementation of an energy management system according to ISO 50001, the detailed steps of the described methodology in section 3 were followed. In this section, the obtained results are presented for each step.
The hierarchical model in Figure 1 was adopted for the first step, it comprises the goal of change readiness evaluation, as well as change readiness factors and subfactors, distributed hierarchically across three levels.
In the second step, a no-dependency hypothesis is considered among the framework's factors and subfactors. Relying on pairwise comparison matrices, the factors' and subfactors' local weights are determined. The Delphi method is used to reach a consensus among the participants. For level 1 factors, the obtained pairwise comparison matrix is displayed in Table  A Tables B 1.1, B 1.2, B 1.3,   B 1.4, B 1.5, B 1.6, B 1.7, B 1.8 in appendix B. The factors' and subfactor's local weights are then calculated using the steps of Chang's extent analysis method.
For the construction of the dependency matrix (step 3), the pairwise comparisons conducted are presented in Tables C 1.1, C 1.2, C 1.3, C 1.4 in appendix C. Using Chang's extent analysis method, the dependent weights are determined and constitute the dependency matrix displayed in Table C 1.5. The interdependent weights are then calculated by multiplying the dependence matrix and the obtained level 1 local weights (step 4). The results are displayed in the column corresponding to level 1 interdependent weights in Table 5.
In step 5, the subfactors global weights are calculated by multiplying the sub-factor's level 3 local weight with the interdependent weights of its corresponding 1 st level factor and with the corresponding 2 nd level local weight, the obtained global weights are given in the column referring to level 3 global weights in Table 5.
Using Cheng's linguistic variables in Figure 3, the evaluation of the factors and sub factors is carried out (step 6), the results are provided in the column corresponding to linguistic variables in Table 5. In step 7, for each subfactor, its global weight is multiplied with the fuzzy number corresponding to the given linguistic variable in the evaluation (in column scale value in Table 5), the obtained results are given in column GW*SV in Table 5. The global readiness for change maturity level is then identified by summing the results of the GW*SV column.
The obtained Maturity level ML= 0.578 refers to an average readiness for change maturity level regarding the adoption of an ISO 50001 based EnMS.
After calculating the expected average priority value for all sub-factors, the obtained average is 3.03% (1/33*100=3.030). This step will determine the most significant subfactors by only considering the ones with a value higher than the calculated expected average (twelve subfactors).

Discussion
From the obtained results, it appears that the subfactor with the highest importance (0.130) is the attitudes of top management. Indeed, among the barriers identified for a successful implementation, we find the low priority attributed to energy management (Cagno and trianni, 2014;Trianni, et al., 2016). Several studies have highlighted the importance of top management commitment and leadership in ensuring the continuity of the EnMS (Carbon trust, 2015; EDF Climate corps, 2015 ;Finnerty, et al., 2017), by providing the necessary resources to the implementation process and by creating cross-functional teams with an energy focus, with dedicated communication channels to surpass company silos (Fuchs, et al., 2020).
Participation of employees (0.081) is also considered a key component for a successful implementation, by involving employees in energy management (Jovanović and Filipović, 2016) and raising their awareness to the importance of their contribution through communication and transparency. Especially since cultural resistance and difficulty in employee education in energy related matters is a recurrent challenge for several companies (Fuchs, et al., 2020).
The third subfactor is the availability of the necessary organizational resources and structure (0.080), through procurement and investment (the availability of an energy information system and investment decision support) (Finnerty et al., 2017).
The fourth subfactor is organizational commitment (0.056), which is usually expressed through the communication on the organization energy policy (Finnerty et al., 2017) and drives all energy management efforts. A well-documented and communicated energy policy serves at clarifying the company's energy commitments and provides grounds for future accountability. Ensuring transparency in the communication of the achieved results is crucial to maintain the company's credibility.
On the fifth position, there are both organizational valence (0.054) and appropriateness of the change (0.054). Therefore, an internal communication on the advantages of the implementation of an EnMS and its appropriateness is essential to enhance these two factors, focusing on the expected benefits of the approach such as financial savings, the company's image, competitive advantage and improved operational efficiency (Finnerty, et al., 2017;Fuchs, et al., 2020;Karcher and Jochem, 2015). Especially since the Moroccan Agency for Energy Efficiency estimates energy savings from the adoption of an EnMS up to 25% (Moroccan Agency for Energy Efficiency, 2020).
For the seventh subfactor, the vision for change (0.040), it refers to a long-term energy strategy for the company and focuses on continuity, it is a driver for strategic energy initiatives (Finnerty et al., 2017). Having a vision that takes the national context into consideration is important to the perennity of energy related efforts. For instance, in 2019, a mandatory energy audits decree was adopted in Morocco. It concerns industries whose total final energy consumption exceeds 1500 tons of oil equivalent (toe) per year and the tertiary sector organizations that exceed 500 toe/ year. For the concerned industries or organizations, a declaration to the Moroccan Agency for Energy Efficiency is mandatory as well as the elaboration of an energy audit with a suitable action plan submitted to the same agency's approval. For organizations that already have a certified energy management system, they are exempt from the mandatory energy audit during the validity period of their certificate. This particularity of the Moroccan context has encouraged some companies towards the adoption of an energy management system, given that it is a standard that can easily be integrated within other management systems.
The following factors are expertise (0.037), knowledge (0.030), skills (0.030) ability alignment (0.030) and personal valence (0.030) which highlight the importance of training and investing in people (Finnerty et al., 2017). Especially since specific technical expertise is considered crucial for the success of the approach (Karcher and Jochem, 2015).
A final workshop was carried out, with all members of both focus groups, to share, present and discuss the obtained results, and to prepare for the construction of the pre-implementation improvement roadmap.
The discussions maintain that to achieve a better readiness for change for the implementation of the EnMS within this Moroccan factory, the organization will need to ensure the continuity of top management energy leadership and organizational commitment by actively participating in the system's review and appointing internal energy champions. According to the focus group, the challenge lies in the difficulty to communicate and coordinate cross-entities and top management has an essential role in ensuring and fostering effective communication channels (communication forums, collaborating platform, regular coordination and monitoring committees…).
Another improvement point revolves around the participation of employees, this can be achieved through continuous communication and transparency in sharing results, as well as, involving the employees by appointing energy use control assistants and internal energy champions across the organization, leading to the creation of an employee network to share and discuss energy related best practices. In addition to the organization of energy awareness campaigns and special energy related events (energy saving day, conferences, seminaries, energy challenge...) and the implementation of an energy suggestion bow within the factory to collect the employees' improvement ideas.
Finally, communication on personal and organizational valence should also be enhanced to improve employee's perceptions of the benefits of the approach, some participants hinted to the possibility to incorporate a symbolic financial sustainability bonus related to the achievement of the company's fixed energy objectives.
Based on the evaluation results and the different discussions regarding the readiness for the implementation of an Energy Management System within the factory, a pre-implementation improvement roadmap was elaborated to reduce potential failure risks prior to the project's launching, it is displayed in Table 6. The responsible actors for each action and the proposed deadlines are included within the initial proposed roadmap, however for relevance purposes, they are omitted in Table 6.

Conclusion
This study aims to develop a readiness for change maturity model that allows decision makers to determine the maturity of their organization regarding a planned change. Ensuring the readiness for change of the relevant stakeholders is essential for the success of any change initiative, since it generates supportive behaviors from employees and favors cooperativeness and persistence. The provided case study focused on the implementation of an energy management system according to the ISO 500001 standard within a Moroccan factory operating in the automotive sector. Contrary to the classical approaches that revolve around technical aspects, the organizational dimension was addressed from a readiness for change perspective. The proposed methodology is based on the Fuzzy Analytic Network Process with a linguistic variable-based evaluation along with a maturity model's approach. It has the benefit of considering the proposed factors' interdependencies and the human factor's inherent uncertainty and imprecision while providing clear conclusions to management. The obtained maturity level from the case study refers to an average readiness for change for the implementation of the Energy Management System within the studied factory and requires the definition of an improvement roadmap. The obtained results highlight the importance of top management attitudes, participation of employees, the availability of organizational resources and structures, organizational commitment, internal perceptions of the organizational valence and appropriateness of the change. These elements are essential for reaching a positive readiness for change across the organization. The limitations of this study concern the research and analysis of other change readiness factors such as cognitive and affective factors to enrich the proposed framework, as well as confronting the obtained results with post-implementation studies to assess the accuracy of the framework in practice. Future research could address the generalization potential of the proposed maturity model by conducting longitudinal studies, as well as exploring groups differences in terms of change readiness to conduct targeted improvement actions for the groups that display low readiness levels across the organization.     This appendix contains the pairwise comparison matrices necessary for the construction of the dependency matrix