Reframing resistance to organizational change

We examine the literature on resistance to organizational change and identify two dominant yet contrasting approaches: the demonizing versus the celebrating of resistance to change. We show that both of these approaches fail to address power relations adequately and, in so doing, raise practical, ethical and theoretical problems in understanding and managing change. We propose an alternative, more critical approach, which shows how both power and resistance constitute organizational change. We highlight how power-resistance relations lie at the heart of organizational change.     

Implementation costs of IS-enabled organizational change

Organizations incur substantial costs in managing organizational changes associated with the implementation of information systems (IS). However, the relationship between organizational changes and IS implementation costs is not well understood. Extending current research on IS-enabled organizational change, we draw on configuration theory to develop propositions identifying drivers of IS implementation costs. To test the propositions, we analyze the changes and implementation costs involved in three IS implementation initiatives. The analysis confirms that interdependencies between changes are key drivers of IS implementation costs. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.     

Employee acceptance of organizational change:the role of organizational commitment

This study tests a causal model that predicts the acceptance of organizational change using a sample of 761 employees from a large public hospital in the state of Victoria, Australia. The LISREL results indicate that employee acceptance of organizational change is increased by organizational commitment, a harmonious industrial relations (IR) climate, education, job motivation, job satisfaction, job security and positive affectivity, and is decreased by union membership, role conflict, tenure and environmental opportunity. Organizational commitment was found to act as both a determinant and mediator in the change process. Implications for the management of organizational change using human resource (HR) strategies and policies are discussed.     

Dissecting aggregate output and labour productivity change

This paper is about the relation between output and labour productivity measures for individual production units and for aggregates such as industries, sectors, or economies. In the framework of discrete time periods several useful, symmetric expressions are derived and confronted with results from the literature.     

A longitudinal study of supply organizational change

This research examines the high level of change in supply organizations of large North American companies using data collected from 51 large North American supply organizations in 1987, 1995 and 2003. Analysis is supplemented by an additional 55 companies for which data were collected in 1995 and 2003. The availability of longitudinal data from individual companies over a 16-year period provided a unique opportunity to trace changes made to each company's supply organizational structure and their roles and responsibilities. Findings suggest that the respondents made major changes in supply organizational structure, supply chain responsibilities, use of purchasing teams, supply involvement in major corporate activities (MCA) and CPO reporting line, title and background.     

The myth of flexibility in organizational change

In this article we examine the complex nature of organizational flexibility. We question the myth of flexibility as exclusively a top management interpretation of constant adaptiveness to environmental change by exploring the various rigidities involved in a seemingly adaptive organization. Our long-term study of a major Finnish commercial bank under deregulation identified several dominant forms of temporal flexibility–rigidity configurations: formal rigidities, flexible rigidities, rigid flexibilities and defensive rigidities. These configurations were revealed by focusing on the structural tensions which emerge between different levels of management and on the different interpretations given by competing groups to the notion of “organizational flexibility” within a process of change.     

The impact of ICT on the demand for skilled labour: A cross-country comparison

This paper provides a unique cross-country comparative perspective on the impact of information and communication technology on the demand for skilled labour. It employs panel data for the US, the UK and France, comprising several skill categories for each country for the 1980s and 1990s. The paper considers the issue of whether skill bias is transitory or permanent both by considering changes through time and by dividing the highly skilled into IT specific and other occupations. The results indicate that the impact of technology on the demand for skilled labour is slowing down, at least in the US, supporting a transitory interpretation.     

制度变迁与城市规划的组织变革

为降低交易费用、促进分工、推动经济增长,社会发生从计划经济体制向市场经济体制的制度变迁.在制度变迁过程中,城市规划也需要支付必要的市场交易成本.政府要在招商引资中通过城市规划主导城市空间演化方向,在城市经营中加强成本意识、营销意识.为适应制度变迁和公共服务的要求,城市规划的管理和编制都面临组织变革.     

Factors influencing processes of radical change in organizational belief systems

The recent development of a cognitive, interpretive approach to organizational analysis has helped to increase our understanding of organizational action. This paper discusses the relationship between organizational beliefs and organizational change. Based upon a review of empirical studies of strategic reorientations, the article presents a model of factors that influence processes which lead to changes in organizational belief systems. It is argued that radical changes in organizational belief systems are influenced by organizational results, by characteristics of the organizational environment, by intra-organizational factors, and by characteristics of the current organizational belief systems. These factors are discussed and some ways to further augment our knowledge of this phenomenon are indicated.     

The search for legitimacy and organizational change: The agency of subordinated actors

This article investigates the organizational changes triggered by the implementation of certified management systems (CMS) in Denmark and explores how institutionalized organizational practices change over time. The study shows that improvements in performance were not significant in the implementation of CMS, though in most cases its adoption implied organizational changes. The study also shows that the search for external legitimacy was appropriated by various internal organizational actors, other than management. When internal actors share the institutionalized beliefs and norms of the wider society, they implicitly strive to reduce decoupling. We argue that understanding the social dynamics of legitimacy in organisations requires paying attention to the agency of superordinated as well as subordinate actors.     

Beyond traditional paternalistic and developmental approaches to organizational change and human resource strategies

This paper assumes that a critical determinant of success in the repositioning of an organization's corporate and business strategies is the internal capability of the organization to implement change through an effective management process. To overcome entrenched interest groups, tender-minded, incremental approaches may be contrasted with the tough-minded strategic orientation of those who advocate radical change. The argument of this paper is that contingent rather than universalistic approaches are required. ‘Soft’ and ‘hard’ approaches are not irreconcilable but are rather parts of a broad set of contingent choices available to decision makers.     

Performing catharsis: The use of online discussion forums in organizational change

Online discussion forums have been used to both support and resist organizational change. Our empirical study examined how employees in one organization used an online forum to help them deal discursively with changes that they perceived as threatening to their identity. In particular, we found that the postings of one key individual were central in framing the organizational changes in a way that had powerful cathartic consequences for employees’ feelings of anger and loss of face. Paradoxically, however, we also found that such use of the online forum had the contradictory consequence of helping to facilitate the very changes that employees perceived to be problematic.     

Affection not affliction: The role of emotions in information systems and organizational change

Most IS research in both the technical/rational and socio-technical traditions ignores or marginalizes the emotionally charged behaviours through which individuals engage in, and cope with the consequences of, IS practice and associated organizational change. Even within the small body of work that engages with emotions through particular conceptual efforts, affections are often conceived as a phenomenon to be eradicated – an affliction requiring a cure. In this paper, I argue that emotions are always implicated in our lived experiences, crucially influencing how we come to our beliefs about what is good or bad, right or wrong. I draw from the theoretical work of Michel Foucault to argue for elaborating current notions of IS innovation as a moral and political struggle in which individuals’ beliefs and feelings are constantly tested. Finally, I demonstrate these ideas by reference to a case study that had considerable emotional impact, and highlight the implications for future work.     

Supply chain variability,organizational structure,and performance: The moderating effect of demand unpredictability

Supply chain process variability is the level of inconsistency, or volatility, in the flow of goods into, through, and out of a firm. The research investigates the links among organizational structure (formalization and integration), supply chain process variability, and performance as moderated by environmental uncertainty. We found that in a predictable demand environment, only formal control affects supply chain process variability, leading to improved financial results; but in an unpredictable demand environment, only cross-functional integration affects supply chain process variability, leading to improved financial performance. We also examined whether supply chain process variability is a complete or partial mediator of the relationship between organizational structure and performance, and found that: (1) in a predictable demand environment, supply chain process variability completely mediates the relationship between formal control and performance and (2) in an unpredictable demand environment, supply chain process variability partially mediates the relationship between integration and performance. Supply chain process variability has an inverse relationship with financial performance, regardless of the demand environment; and organizational structure provides managers with the mechanisms to mitigate this variability's detrimental impact on financial performance.