Summary of all articles of the course Perspectives on Organizational Change (E_BA_TOC), part of the MSc program Business Administration - track Leadership & Change Management. Academic year 19/20.
Summary Perspectives on Organizational Change
Table of content
Episodic vs continuous organizational change............................................................................................................ 2
Organizational Change and Development – Weick & Quinn (1999) ......................................................................2
Radical vs incremental organizational change ............................................................................................................ 2
Understanding Radical Organizational Change: Bringing Together the Old and New Institutionalism -
Greenwood & Hinings (1996) ..................................................................................................................................2
On Organizational Becoming: Rethinking Organizational Change - Tsoukas & Chia (2002) .................................3
Top-down organizational change ................................................................................................................................ 6
Crossan and Berdrow (2003) – organizational learning and strategic renewal .....................................................6
Choice, chance and unintended consequences in strategic change: a process understanding of the rise and fall
of Northco automotive - MacKay & Chia (2013) .....................................................................................................8
Bottom-up organizational change ............................................................................................................................. 10
Radical change accidentally: the emergence and amplification of small change – Plowman et. al (2007) ....... 10
Hot lights and cold steel: cultural and political toolkits for practice change in surgery – Kellogg (2011) .......... 11
Middle-in and middle-out organizational change..................................................................................................... 13
Strategizing throughout the organization: managing role conflict in strategic renewal - Floyd & Lane (2000) 13
Strategy as vector and the intertia of coevolutionary lock-in - Burgelman (2002) ............................................. 16
Organizational change as the development of new routines and practices ............................................................ 17
Creative projects: a less routine approach towards getting new things done - Obstfeld (2012) ........................ 17
Coerces practice implementation in cases of low cultural fit: cultural change and practice adaption during the
implementation of six sigma at 3M- Canato Ravasi & Philps (2013) .................................................................. 19
Organizational change as the transformation of cognitions and identities ............................................................. 22
Capabilities, cognition and intertia: evidence from digital imaging - Tripsas and Gavetti (2000) ...................... 22
Business Planning as Pedagogy: Language and Control in a Changing Institutional Field – Oakes, Townley &
Cooper (1998) ....................................................................................................................................................... 24
Organizational change as the transformation of power relationships ..................................................................... 25
From support to mutiny: shifting legitimacy judgements and emotional reactions impacting the
implementation of radical change – Huy, Corley & Kraatz (2014) ...................................................................... 25
Episodic and Systemic Power in the Transformation of Professional Service Firm – Lawrence, Morris &
Malhotra (2012).................................................................................................................................................... 28
,Episodic vs continuous organizational change
Organizational Change and Development – Weick & Quinn (1999)
Organizational change wouldn’t be necessary if people had done their jobs right in the first place
(Dunphy 1999).
First there were losses, then there was a plan of change, and then there was an implementation, which
led to unexpected results (Czarniawska & Joerges 1996:20).
● An important emerging contrast in change research is the distinction between change that is
Episodic and change that is Continuous. It reflects differences in the perspective of the
observer.
● Episodic change occurs during periods of divergence when organizations are moving away
from their equilibrium conditions.
● Continuous change is the realization of a new pattern of organizing the absence of explicit a
priori intentions. It is situated and grounded in continuing updates of work processes and
social practice.
Episodic change: Unfreeze – Transition – Refreeze
● Inertia (tendency to normalization), Triggering (temporal milestones), Replacements
(Substituting expert practices for novice practices)
● Change is infrequent, discontinuous, and intentional
● Dramatic and externally driven
● Macro, distant and global perspective; emphasis on short-run adaptation
● Change agent: Prime mover who creates change
● Focuses on inertia and seeks points of central leverage. Speaks differently, communicates
alternative schema, reinterpret evolutionary triggers, builds coordination and commitment
Continuous change: Freeze – Rebalance – Unfreeze
● Improvisation, Translation, Learning
● Change is constant, evolving, and cumulative
● Driven by organizational instability and alert reactions to daily contingencies
● Micro, close, local perspective; emphasis on long-run adaptability
● Change agent: Sense maker who redirects change
● Change starts with failures to adapt, and that change never starts because it never stops
● If organizational change in the context generally occurs in the context of failure to adapt, then
the ideal organization is one that continuously adapts.
Radical vs incremental organizational change
Understanding Radical Organizational Change: Bringing Together the Old and New
Institutionalism - Greenwood & Hinings (1996)
Purpose of this article: set out a framework for understanding organizational change from the
perspective of neo-institutional theory.
Old, New and Neo Institutionalism
- Old: issues of influence, coalitions and competing values are central
- New: legitimacy, embeddedness of organizational fields
, - Neo: impact institutional context, templates of organizing and intraorganizational dynamics
Radical & Convergent change: Busting loose from an existing orientation vs. Fine-tuning an existing
orientation
Evolutionary & Revolutionary pace: slow and gradual change vs. Swift change affecting all parts of the
organization simultaneously
Competitive & Reformative value commitment: some groups vs. all groups are opposed to template-
in-use
Institutional context: normative embeddedness bigger: radical change more problematic and change
is more likely to be revolutionary.
Market context: loosly coupled fields as app industry; have more radical change (= less problematic).
More evolutionary change (geleidelijker). In a more impereable field radical change will be in more
revolutionary pace.
Value commitments: if some groups disagree with the values than radical change is likely to occur.
Reformative commitment = revolutionary change (everybody disagrees). Competitive commitment =
evolutionary (competition)
Interest dissatisfaction: with dissatisfaction and value commitment, change could occur. Only
dissatisfaction will not lead to change.
Power dependencies: bij reformative commitment; there have to be a difference in power otherwise
there won’t happen anything.
Capacity for action: capacity for change must be both available and mobilized
On Organizational Becoming: Rethinking Organizational Change - Tsoukas & Chia
(2002)
We are lacking the vocabulary to meaningfully talk about change as if change mattered – to treat
change not as a mere curiosity or exception, but to acknowledge its centrality in the constitution of
socio-economic life. A shift in vocabulary from ‘change’ to ‘changing’ will make theorists and
practitioners more attentive to the dynamic, change-full character of organizational life.
What would be the benefits if "organizational change," both as an object of study and as a
management preoccupation, were to be approached from the perspective of ongoing change rather
than stability?
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