Changing the language of change: how new contexts and concepts are challenging the ways we think and talk about organizational change

Abstract

This article proposes that our current terminology and conceptual language for organizational change make it difficult to address the range of changes confronting contemporary organizations.• Difficulties discussed include ambiguous and imprecise ways of talking about organizational change, changing organizational contexts that require new ways to think and talk about change, and dealing with implicit assumptions about change that may not be relevant in a world of continual change.• A matrix of change scenarios is presented and the term 'morphing' is introduced to describe continuous whole-system change in hyperactive business environments.• Concepts, assumptions and metaphors associated with 'altered consciousness' and self-organizing 'complex adaptive systems' are also discussed as alternative ways to think and talk about transformational change.• Implications discussed include the need to be specific and self-reflective when thinking and talking about organizational change, and to rethink a possible over-reliance on mechanistic, engineering or planned movement concepts, metaphors and word imagery.

Dixon of Dock Green Got Shot! Policing Identity Work and Organizational Change

“…The analyses, understandings and prescriptions on organizational change have a long pedigree in management and organizational theory. Yet despite the considerable amount of research that has been devoted to the topic of ' change management ' , many of the theoretical and practical insights are viewed as inadequate ( Clegg and Hardy 1996;Pettigrew et al 2001;Tsoukas and Chia 2002;Marshak 2002;Collins 2003; Sorge and van Witteloostuijn that change is ' discursively constructed and interpreted ' ( Grant et al 2005 , p. 12). Change is viewed as being open to re-interpretation and re-negotiation and the recipients of change are seen as ' active creators ' rather than merely ' passive benefi ciaries ' of the change process ( Fitzgerald et al 2002;Balogun 2006 ).…”

Emotional intelligence and competitive advantage: examining the relationship from a resource‐based view

“…Based on his philosophies and sure of is change itself (Marshak, 2002). The literature suggests that those organizations that can plan, implement and manage change are more likely to achieve competitive advantage.…”

Information Technology Enabled Organizational Transformation: Toward an Integrative Theoretical Framework

“…Since then, the term 'morphing' has also been introduced in an academic context to describe comprehensive, continuous, dynamic OT. Regardless of whether 'morphing' is the right term, it does have some advantages for describing the emerging context of OT [29]. The idea of continuous morphing is consistent with the emergent paradigm of OT, which emphasizes environmental dynamism and flexibility [28].…”

“…Transformation is described as situated and grounded in continuing updates of social practices [27,28]. The distinctive idea in this perspective is that small, continuous morphing, increased simultaneously across units, can accumulate and create substantial transformation within an organization [29].…”