Why Some Practices are Harder to Change than Others?

Abstract

We address a persistent question in organizational change research that has proven practically and theoretically generative: Why is it often so difficult to bring about planned organizational change? We argue that even ostensibly minor change initiatives typically involve the need to transform a bundle of different organizational practices at the same time. These practices are reproduced in different ways and for different reasons, making some more amenable to particular change strategies than others. To be effective, change interventions therefore need to take into account the varied process histories of the specific organizational practices involved. We introduce a theoretical framework for systematically analysing this practice specificity of organizational change. Through an illustrative application of this framework to the Cambridge University Boat Club (CUBC) we show how it can enable a substantively contingent understanding of organizational change to complement existing approaches.