Fixing the language of change? A response

Abstract

Offers a response to a discussion of the language of change, which appeared in an earlier issue ofJOCM(Vol. 14, 2001).While applauding any attempt to develop an appreciation of the fluidity of the processes and politics of organizational change offers a critical response to the account of the language of change, which was prepared by Butcher and Atkinson. This critical response argues that Butcher and Atkinson's attempt to adjust and correct the language of change produces a rather conservative modelling of both management and organizational dynamics. Taking issue with this analysis argues that: Butcher and Atkinson continue to impoverish our understanding of organizational dynamics because they mix (and muddle) opposing and contradictory accounts of language in an attempt to refine an essentially managerialist change agenda; and their account of organizational dynamics produces a fixed and overly‐stabilized appreciation of change, which restricts and diminishes our understanding of the processes of change.