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Organizational Change and the Importance of Embedded Assumptions *
Author(s) -
Palmer Ian,
Dunford Richard
Publication year - 2008
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/j.1467-8551.2008.00568.x
Subject(s) - coaching , organizational change , resistance (ecology) , change management (itsm) , simple (philosophy) , epistemology , knowledge management , sociology , psychology , computer science , public relations , business , marketing , political science , philosophy , ecology , lean manufacturing , biology , psychotherapist
‘Managing change’ appears a simple enough term. However, no common ontological assumption underlies either the notion of ‘managing’ or that of ‘change’. In this paper, we identify different assumptions about both what it means to manage and the nature of change outcomes. From these assumptions we derive six different images of managing organizational change: directing, navigating, caretaking, coaching, interpreting and nurturing. We show how each image is underpinned by different organization theories. We then take each image and show how the differing ontological assumptions about managing and change outcomes are associated with different research agendas. We illustrate this by focusing on three elements commonly associated with managing organizational change: vision, communication and resistance.