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Background. Change management is a demanding and complex concept, which has recently gained great popularity among organisations. Managers have become aware that change is an inevitable part of the business. Nevertheless, even if they are able to manage the change process properly, they often face a problem with the measurement of its results. Research aims. The main goal of this paper is to propose a praxeological approach to the measurement of the effects of a change management process. We also try to discuss some statistical issues concerning the measurability of change management effects, perceiving a change as a distance in metric categories. Methodology. The paper is of a theoretical and methodological nature. The research is mainly based on a literature review in the field of change management, praxeology, and statistics. Key findings. The distinction between a change measurement and a measurement of change management performance on the background of praxeology in the evaluation of the change management process is substantive. The former refers to the effectiveness and the latter to the efficiency in the praxeological meaning. For the evaluation of the change management process, the perception of a change as a distance in metric terms and the inclusion of inputs in the analysis is also justified. This results from the fact that a planned and conscious change requires input, and therefore, it has to be managed.

For several decades, pension systems across the world have been undergoing reforms. The main reasons for this are demographic changes and increasing life expectancy. To make these reforms more effective and ensure that they are based on the best benchmarks, the European Union (EU) has introduced the Open Method of Coordination (OMC) in the field of pensions. This study investigates whether European pension systems have become more similar and convergent in terms of the three main objectives of the OMC: adequacy, sustainability, and modernization of pensions. Our methodology is based on multivariate statistical analysis, and employs synthetic indicators as well as agglomerative hierarchical clustering. We analyze 27 countries in the years 2005, 2010, and 2015. The article contributes to the existing literature on pension reforms through investigation of the convergence of EU pension systems in terms of the three OMC objectives, in order to evaluate the effectiveness of this public policy concept. Our approach differs from that generally found in the literature, especially in terms of the methodology employed. The results support the view that the OMC is not an effective means of making European pension systems more convergent and better in terms of adequacy, efficiency, and modernization. Any improvement in OMC performance in the field of pensions, even if observed, is not as significant as expected.The Open Method of Coordination (OMC) is a method of soft governance based on voluntary cooperation between the member states of the European Union (EU) in different areas of socioeconomic policy. It was established as a response to the need for the creation of an additional method enabling greater European integration in fields where traditional community and intergovernmental methods did not deliver the expected results or were subject to legal constraints. It can be used in areas where, due to a lack of explicit competences at the EU level, it is difficult or even impossible to apply mandatory acts such as regulations or directives. The OMC seems to work better than some traditional methods for the achievement of European integration, in three types of cases. The first relates to situations where the subject matter is closely connected with national identity, history, or culture. The second concerns cases where the national arrangements are too varied. The last refers to situations where the member states are not prepared to embrace common legislation in certain areas and require extra time for preparation (European Commission Working Group 4a, 2001). With this in mind, the OMC was applied to pension systems, which form part of national, social policies. There were defined three main objectives which should be realized by pension systems in the long term and which can be used to evaluate their progress. These are: adequacy of pensions, financial sustainability, and modernization of pension systems. In our further considerations, we treat these objectives as three different dimensions of the OMC. However, adequacy ...

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