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Change Management Choices and Trajectories in a Multidivisional Firm
Author(s) -
Stensaker Inger G.,
Langley Ann
Publication year - 2010
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.1467-8551.2009.00657.x
Subject(s) - conformity , contingency , contingency theory , change management (itsm) , context (archaeology) , perspective (graphical) , business , marketing , organizational change , political change , politics , knowledge management , public relations , social psychology , psychology , political science , computer science , lean manufacturing , biology , linguistics , paleontology , philosophy , artificial intelligence , law
This paper draws on a comparative case study of the implementation of a planned change initiative across three different divisions of a multidivisional oil company to investigate the influences guiding division‐level change agents in their choice of a change management approach and the impact of different approaches on change outcomes. While the contingency perspective suggests that change management approaches should be chosen to fit with change content and context, we found that change agents navigated amongst three concerns: substantive concerns related to goal attainment, political concerns related to conformity to corporate demands, and relational concerns concerning relations with employees. We identified three different change management trajectories across the three divisions based on alternative ways of balancing the concerns. The data show that, regardless of the change management approach adopted, change tends to be diluted in implementation. However, the various trajectories have differential consequences for other important dimensions such as corporate approval and relationships with employees.