Learning barriers: a framework for the examination of structural impediments to organizational change

The body of knowledge on organizational learning is believed to be large and fragmented. Therefore, this knowledge seems to be of limited use to practitioners. We, however, present an alternative review of the most important publications on organizational learning that deals explicitly with learning barriers. The structural causes of problems with organizational learning are related to malfunctioning components of the cybernetic learning system of the organization. Thus, it became clear that the body of knowledge on organizational learning is less fragmented and does not contain any contradictions. This resulted in our construction of a framework in which the major contributions on organizational learning are integrated. It allows practitioners to use strengths of multiple theories to analyze change management problems. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

The role of change agent as mediator in the relationship between HR competencies and organizational performance

Human resource (HR) practitioners, as change agents, are responsible for easing the impact of changes in their organization and to protect employees against the side effects of these inevitable changes. Sometimes, the change helps to produce a significant increase in performance and the company can boost sales and production without additional cost. Several vital competencies that are reviewed in this paper include business knowledge culture management, effective relationship and human resource development skills. Based on the findings of this study, not all competencies are related to the role of change agent. HR practitioners who are unable to function as change agents will inevitably create a barrier against their becoming a well-integrated strategic partner. Therefore, the role of change agent also mediates the relationship between certain HR competencies and organizational performance.     

When do threats mobilize managers for organizational change toward sustainability? An environmental belief model

In pursuit of counteracting today's environmental problems, corporate management will have to implement organizational changes factoring in sustainability, which is why it is important to understand exactly what leads managers to initiate these changes. It has been established that managers' personal values are critical for their behavior and that threats to these values can mobilize managers to change their actions. However, when confronted with environment-related threats, managers may face value conflicts and various tensions between their aim to implement sustainable changes and their desire to fulfill business requirements of their job positions. Only recently have researchers begun to investigate the underlying beliefs that may lead managers to initiate organizational change toward sustainability. Borrowing theoretical assumptions from the domain of health psychology (from the well-established health belief model), the present conceptual article develops an environmental belief model that specifies when exactly threats lead managers to initiate organizational change. The environmental belief model proposes that environment-related threats trigger change (i) when managers believe that their firms are susceptible to these threats, (ii) the threats are considered as serious for the company, (iii) the perceived benefits of the change outperform (iv) the perceived barriers, and when there is (v) an external cue (e.g., an information campaign). All these propositions are supported with empirical findings from business contexts. Besides theoretical advancement on the role of environmental threats as precipitators of organizational change, the model provides guidance on how to frame environment-related threats that will mobilize managers for organizational change toward sustainability.     

Implementing Change in Public Organizations: The relationship between leadership and affective commitment to change in a public sector context

We propose and test a theoretical framework concerning the relationship between transformational leadership behaviour and affective commitment to change in a public sector context. We apply change management theory to explain how direct supervisors contribute to processes of organizational change, thereby increasing affective commitment to change among employees. While the change leadership literature emphasizes the role of executive managers during change, we conclude that the transformational leadership behaviour of direct supervisors is an important contribution to the successful implementation of change. Furthermore, the results show how the specific context of public organizations determines the transformational leadership behaviour of direct supervisors.     

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.     

Accounting,organizations & institutions. Essays in honour of Anthony Hopwood

In this article we discuss the motivation for and role of theory in management accounting. We argue that theories in an applied field such as management accounting research should provide explanations that are useful for those we study – managers, organizations and society. We evaluate the nature of theories currently used and developed. Those theories that are considered theories by the research community are largely imported from other disciplines, but have hardly anything that makes them unique to management accounting. Those theories that are not currently regarded as theories by many of our colleagues attempt to explain how to apply management accounting to achieve superior performance. We argue that both forms of theories, at present, largely fail to provide valid support for practitioners. We contend that management accounting theory should help us to answer questions of what kind of management accounting systems we should apply, how, in what circumstances, and how to change them. We provide suggestions on how management accounting research could proceed to produce better theories in this regard.     

Organizational transition management of circular business model innovations

Scholars and practitioners across fields increasingly recognize that business models for the circular economy may be an effective lever for solving ecological persistent problems such as climate change, biodiversity loss, and growing natural resource scarcity. Despite a growing interest in the potential of circular business models, interconnections between the organizational dimensions of firms and their business model innovation processes remain underexplored. Based on problem‐centered expert interviews with business consultants experienced in circular business development, this study creates a conceptual model that offers structured knowledge about why firms steadily reproduce linear BMs and how incumbents manifest themselves as a constant linear‐oriented value creation system. The model also demonstrates organizational conditions and management strategies that frustrate the reproduction of linear BMs and, thus, enable initial moves towards CBM innovation. Building on this, the article provides a set of propositions on how an organizational transition management may be configured and what incumbents require to successfully navigate circular business model innovation. The findings provide a foundation for a contemporary understanding of circular business model transition management, which simultaneously serve as impulses for future research investigations.     

Superior–subordinate communication during organizational change: under which conditions does high-quality communication become important?

Restructuring and organizational change have become ever-present across all industrial countries. Based on conservation of resources theory, this study explored a buffering effect of superior–subordinate communication (SSC) in the relationship between management support for the change and both job satisfaction and work-related irritation. It was also assumed that dispositional resistance to change (RTC) would further impact this buffering effect. We tested these assumptions in a sample of 119 employees from eight organizations in which change had occurred. A buffering effect of SSC was supported for job satisfaction but not for irritation. In case of irritation, an interaction effect of RTC, SSC and management support was found. For irritation, the quality of SSC and the degree of management support are relevant only under the condition of high RTC. In our study, RTC was found offer a valuable approach for a successful implementation of organizational change. Practical approaches should refer to communication processes between superior and subordinates, especially when employees are high in RTC.     

A change management perspective on public sector cutback management: towards a framework for analysis

The financial crisis forces public managers to implement cutbacks within their organization. We argue that adopting a change management perspective contributes to our understanding of cutback management by adding a focus on managerial behaviour regarding cutback-related organizational changes. Relying on change management literature, this paper develops a framework for the analysis of cutback management connecting the context, content, process, outcomes and leadership of cutback-related change. From this it follows that managers can be positioned at the intersection of various imperatives, both externally and internally, such as their political leaders and their own subordinates. A research agenda is proposed.     

Availability‐impact analysis of project management trends: Perspectives from allied disciplines

The goal of this research was to analyze current and future trends of the allied management disciplines that influence project management. We asked academicians and practitioners about the availability of knowledge and the potential impact of allied disciplines on project management. We were able to assess where the allied disciplines currently stand in terms of availability and impact as well as make predictions about the future. The thoughts and visions collected from this research provide valuable insights for identifying trends in the allied disciplines and their impact on the future of project management, as well as opportunities, challenges, and obstacles.     

组织架构变革推动公司可持续发展影响研究

论文重点分析了企业组织架构变革的动因和变革过程中应该注意的问题,在对案例进行系统剖析研究的基础上,对组织架构变革如何适应并推动公司可持续发展、变革的主要动力、变革的主要策略等方面进行了系统研究,并以此为基础,提出了企业组织架构变革的相关建议。     

The role of leadership in successful international mergers and acquisitions: Why Renault‐Nissan succeeded and DaimlerChrysler‐Mitsubishi failed

This article compares and contrasts the Renault‐Nissan and DaimlerChrysler‐Mitsubishi mergers to consider the relative and combined effects of national and organizational culture on the performance of Nissan and Mitsubishi. It also examines the reasons why the Renault‐Nissan merger was successful and the DaimlerChrysler‐Mitsubishi merger failed. It finds that Japanese national culture influenced organizational culture and HRM practices, which created organizations that had no sense of urgency, profit orientation, or accountability and led to poor market and financial performance. It also finds that leadership was a major factor impacting on the success of the turnaround efforts of these two organizations. These findings have implications for leaders and human resource management practitioners engaged in international business and are of particular relevance to Western organizations working with organizations in high‐context countries with a collectivist rather than individualist orientation. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Planning knowledge for phased rollout projects

This paper explores how projects that can be considered as repeatable and replicable in a sequence of deliverables over a period of time can be planned and executed (rolled out) in a way that maximizes knowledge transfer and production from one execution to the next. A variety of management disciplines were reviewed to understand the way that project and program rollouts are treated in IT, product development, organizational learning, and manufacturing literature. These reviews enabled the development of a conceptual model to describe how planning and implementing the rollout of a product or service can be more knowledge‐focused and an accompanying capability maturity model. Several examples from real life, including one experienced by one of the authors, were used to illustrate and test the conceptual model. The model integrates knowledge management, change control, and planning in a way that can develop organizational learning and the authors assert that this can improve productivity and both tangible and intangible returns to those that follow the model. An accompanying capability maturity model is also presented. The conceptual model, while initially tested against several real‐life cases, needs to be tested against a new set of projects as an action learning research project in order to more fully develop knowledge of the dynamics of learning and improvement in rollout projects. The implication is that when project managers undervalue important learning aspects of phased rollouts, they may miss important organizational learning opportunities.     

Managing human reources for learning and innovation: a comparative study of Brazilian,Japanese and Korean firms

In this paper we develop a comparative study of the processes of organizational change which leading-edge technology firms are experiencing, particularly in terms of human resources management, which favour the learning and development process of employees and of organizations themselves. It focuses on the telecommunication industry in three countries: Japan, Korea and Brazil where qualitative research was conducted in eleven companies. The outcomes of the field research reveal innovative policies and practices in human resouces management, even though these are specific to each country. The specificities are mainly justified by the stage of development of each industry in the scenary of global competition. Nevertheless, all companies considered already show the traces that are required to consider them as learning organizations.     

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.     

‘Managing successful change in the public sector’: a view from the consultants’ world

Our paper presents the results of a survey on the perceptions of 680 Italian public-sector consultants on the drivers of successful organizational change according to Fernandez and Rainey’s model. The results show that the consultants mostly confirm the model, though recognizing that the various drivers have different degrees of relevance. A clear vision and plan for change and the top management’s commitment are seen as central in change processes, whereas interestingly, resource availability and a comprehensive approach to change appear to play a less relevant role.     

管理会计的射程与边界

管理会计的射程与边界即管理会计学科研究的范围。射程问题是由管理会计功能引发的发展问题。边界问题主要是由学科之间的关系引发的联系问题,可从横向和纵向两个角度考察。横向边界研究涉及管理会计学与会计学内部各学科及其与管理学、经济学之间的关系。纵向边界研究包含管理会计学科理论层面的扩展,以及基于供应链的管理会计发展。本文指出：随着管理会计工具的不断创新与整合,管理会计的发展已经进入了“价值创造的管理会计”阶段,具有“经济计算和信号传递”以及“生产、技术导向和组织结构”两种系列功能。应该通过研究管理会计学科的内外部关系,来有效规范和控制管理会计的边界,同时要针对经营控制逆反性,寻求平衡与发展。     

Organizational capacity for change and firm performance in a transition economy

This study explored some human resource and human systems' aspects of the competitive dynamics for firms attempting to survive and prosper within Russia, a highly volatile transition economy. Overall, this study adds to our understanding of international strategic human resource management, dynamic capabilities, and the generation of competitive advantage within transition economies.

We found that a relatively new construct derived from the dynamic capabilities and organizational change literatures, known as ‘organizational capacity for change,’ is positively associated with firm performance within a wide variety of Russian firms. Furthermore, we find that the relationship between organizational capacity for change and firm performance is stronger when there are relatively high levels of uncertainty with the task environment. Finally, we found that organizational capacity for change is an important attribute in all sizes of organizations, not just for large organizations as hypothesized.     

Blowing the Whistle on Less Serious Forms of Fraud: A Study of Executives and Managers

A whistleblowing survey was completed by 725 executives and managers. A variety of individual, organizational, and moral perception variables were examined and hypotheses developed with respect to the likelihood of their blowing the whistle on less serious fraud. Major determinants of blowing the whistle on less serious fraud were identified by means of a stepwise multiple regression analysis. Results are presented and recommendations made for practitioners and future research.     

Organizational remembering as a trigger for cultural change: Exploring the episodic memories of a financial scandal

Organizational memory research has developed from the 'storage bin' model of memory towards emphasizing collective remembering. We advance this view by proposing organizational remembering not just as the process of evoking past events to reproduce traditions but also as a projection into the future using imagination. Empirically this is illustrated through the qualitative analysis of 27 episodic interviews with employees of a global financial institution, documents and the media coverage of the organization’s involvement in two well-publicized financial scandals. We explore the impact of the episodic memories of those events on employees' readiness for the cultural change programme launched by management after the scandals. The analysis shows how the negative media coverage of the organization generated a powerful dis-confirmation of its working practices among employees and how this was amplified by the strong emotional reactions remembering those events provoked. Management used both to re-frame the past in a narrative used to increase receptiveness to change. Yet the past was brought differently into the present by different organizational groups depending on the future each group imagined, counteracting the impact of the generic management narrative. The findings illustrate the collective, emotional and imaginative qualities of organizational remembering and provide new insights into the process of cultural change through the lens of memory showing how while memories may be shaped by management to respond to crisis, they can also become part of prospective and transformative change processes.