Paralysing parallelism? Co‐existing agile and traditional organisational paths in large‐scale telecommunications

Abstract

AbstractPrevious research on co‐existing paths has usually revolved around the development of a novel path that finally supersedes an existing path. In contrast, this study introduces an empirically grounded conception of the dynamic interplay between two intentionally co‐existing organisational paths, one path persisting although in decline and one emergent path, where parallelism between the paths prevails. Our research is based upon a longitudinal, explorative case study at a large‐scale telecommunications corporation, which tackles the challenge of introducing a new organisational path (i.e. an agile approach) while at the same time—intentionally and for good reasons—sticking to an older, well‐established organisational path for some of its operations (i.e. a traditional management approach), leading to a fadeaway from the old path. We contribute to the literature by elucidating the evolving interaction dynamics of two parallel paths and how they give rise to a phenomenon we term paralysing parallelism in organisational paths. Towards this end, we elucidate the role of endogenous and exogenous self‐reinforcing mechanisms.