Critique and comment. The concept of revolutionary change: Rejoinder to Ramaprasad

Abstract

The concept of revolutionary change in organizations is explored by taking Ramaprasad's (1982) recent discussion as a point of departure. It is argued a) that Ramaprasad has misinterpreted Miller and Friesen's (1980) concept of revolution; b) that the processes of revolution and evolution have vastly different repercussions for organizational design; c) that it is necessary for theoretical clarity to distinguish among the causes of the revolution, the revolution itself, and its consequences; and d) that there are crucial differences between conceptual and structural revolutions.