This paper examines management reaction to strategic change in organizations based on the findings from a study of management responses to environmental change in further education. The paper sets out a number of propositions about the key factors required for successful strategic change in a public sector organization based on a national survey of colleges of further education in England in the six years after incorporation, which was followed up by case studies to investigate the key variables in greater detail. The analysis of strategic change in these public sector institutions highlights the importance of leadership and environmental assessment while the development of a conceptual model to underpin the research illustrates how private sector approaches can be adapted to the public sector. (Contains 1 table.)