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Punctuated and Continuous Change: The UK Water Industry[Note 1. We acknowledge assistance from Alan Smith and other members ...]
Author(s) -
Dean Alison,
Carlisle Ysanne,
BadenFuller Charles
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
british journal of management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.407
H-Index - 108
eISSN - 1467-8551
pISSN - 1045-3172
DOI - 10.1111/1467-8551.10.s1.2
Subject(s) - punctuated equilibrium , discontinuity (linguistics) , organizational change , economics , political science , public relations , biology , mathematical analysis , paleontology , mathematics
Punctuated change is usually defined as a discontinuity in organizational development and is traditionally associated with environmental turbulence; it is also associated with step changes in the performance of an organization. Starting from Gersick (1991), we discuss the foundations of the punctuatedÃincremental change paradox, and lay out hypotheses regarding the moments when such change is adopted and its economic effect. We explore these ideas through a study of the UK water industry: a contrived macro experiment. Following privatization, the ten major companies all faced similar pressures to adjust, but adopted widely differing responses. We find that the response to privatization was not always punctuated change, and that punctuated change processes were not necessarily superior to continuous processes. We contrast our findings with Romanelli and Tushman (1994), exploring the reasons why our results are so dissimilar.