Context Of Organizational Change Research Articles

Effect of Practitioner Self-Care and Anxiety on Relationships within the Context of Organizational Change

This paper reviews the literature and suggests a causal model of the relationships between practitioner anxiety and effective caring practitioner – patient and practitioner – practitioner relationships within the context of organizational change through introduction of an electronic healthcare record. In the authors’ model, self-care is introduced as a mediating variable using a conceptual framework of Relationship-centered Care. Engaging in frequent and regular self-care interventions has been shown to be related to practitioner – patient caring ability and caring efficacy. According to a published model of Relationship-centered Care, it is anticipated that self-care will mediate the effect of practitioner anxiety on the ability to engage in effective therapeutic relationships with patients and other practitioners. Through this lens and within the context of organizational changes such as implementation of the electronic health record, a conceptual model for research is proposed, research hypotheses are stated, and methodology for a future stream of research is discussed.

Follower perceptions of the emotional intelligence of change leaders: A qualitative study

We present and explore a follower-centric model of how employees perceive the emotional intelligence (EI) of change leaders. Qualitative investigations of EI are rare and have not explored the field of organizational change leadership. Accordingly, we analyse qualitative data from a series of interviews set within the context of organizational change. We examine follower attributions about the abilities of their leaders to manage and express their own emotions and to respond appropriately to the followers’ emotions. The findings reveal that the ways in which leaders deal with emotion might be the key to followers sharing their own emotions with them. The impact of perceived leader EI on follower responses to change is also discussed. The complexity and ambivalence of our participants’ perceptions of the EI of their change leaders highlight the utility of a qualitative investigation.

The Dynamics of Change in eService Implementation: The Case of Australian Local Government

Human resources management is becoming an increasingly critical factor in implementing eService into the local government sector. The movement towards eServices is a viable, sustainable option for improving service delivery. Within the context of technologically-driven organisational change, using data from 23 face-to-face interviews in 5 diverse City Councils, this research presents key barriers in adopting eServices as perceived by strategic leaders and employees in Australian local government, and describes strategies to overcome these barriers, recognising the role of strategic leaders and employee commitment to the change process.

Developing Chinese HRM under organizational change and entrepreneurship context

Developing Chinese HRM under organizational change and entrepreneurship context

Stakeholder Constructions of Leadership in Intercollegiate Athletics

Leadership research, particularly in sport management settings, is characterized by post-positivist approaches that are permeated by quantitative designs, largely neglecting the role of context and stakeholders. Leadership is socially constructed by agents in relation to their experiences and understandings of the situation. Social constructivism was adopted in this case study exploring individual stakeholder constructions of leadership within the context of organizational change in intercollegiate athletics. Interviews with 57 stakeholders of a mid-western university athletic department were conducted. The findings suggest that stakeholders' perceptions of leadership were broadly defined, accounts were embedded within the context, and articulated dependent on stakeholder experiences and relationships within the athletic department. The implications are that leadership is shaped and constructed by stakeholders in relation with their experiences with organizational processes. Furthermore, in order to facilitate organizational change, a shared approach to leadership may prove effective.

Self-confessed troublemakers: An interactionist view of deviance during organizational change

This article provides an alternative lens for examining organizational deviance within the specific context of change, by drawing upon an interactionist approach. We focus specifically on labelling theory and argue that definitions of deviance can be constructed through social interaction regardless of the behaviour in which individuals engage. This study differs from current literature by shifting emphasis away from acts of norm-breaking and on to the social circumstances in which individuals might define others, or come to be defined, as deviant. The application of labelling theory can advance understanding of how individuals, within the context of organizational change, might come to be defined as deviant without changing their behaviour or engaging in specific norm violations. This approach also enables researchers to contribute to discussions surrounding the construction of organizational norms and explore whether these are developed and enforced by those in powerful positions on the basis of their own values and morals.

Looking ahead in times of uncertainty: The role of anticipatory justice in an organizational change context.

Our study drew on past theorizing on anticipatory justice (D. L. Shapiro & B. L. Kirkman, 2001) and fairness heuristic theory (K. Van den Bos, E. A. Lind, & H. A. M. Wilke, 2001) to build and test a model of employee reactions to a smoking ban. The results of a longitudinal study in a hospital showed that employee levels of preban anticipatory justice were predicted by their global sense of their supervisor's fairness. The combination of anticipatory justice and global supervisory fairness then predicted the experienced justice of the ban 3 months after its implementation, with the effects of the 2 predictors dependent on perceptions of uncertainty and outcome favorability regarding the ban. Finally, experienced (interpersonal) justice predicted significant other ratings of employee support for the ban.

Are we practitioners rather than scientists? A survey of research activity in a psychology department

This article reports the findings of a recent survey of audit, service evaluation and research in a multi-specialism department. It examines some of the reasons why not all psychologists are research active within the context of current policy and organisational change.

In the Same Boat? On Metaphor Variation as Mediating the Individual Voice in Organizational Change

This paper discusses the notion of metaphor variation, and argues that it may play a significant role as a linguistic tool for positioning the subjects in a given organizational change. More specifically, it is argued that metaphor variation enables the subject to corroborate the organization's centripetal forces on the one hand, and to express the centrifugal forces that make room for individuality and divergence from the organization's official voice, on the other. This thesis is theoretically developed and illustrated by examples drawn from the context of organizational change in education.

In‐House Design: How Do Design Managers Manage Change?

AbstractThis study examines new directions in design and management theory and practice, and illustrates how design managers in large corporations are responding to organizational change and new contexts for design. The paper will re‐visit design managers who have initially trained as designers and whose career flowed naturally into this field, as well as those design managers who undertook specific post‐graduate training in order to enter the field.Companies such as BAA, Nokia, and Procter & Gamble are represented in order to provide a picture of the evolutionary changes taking place within these organizations and how the work of design managers is affected.Interviewees were asked to comment on the changes they have experienced in their companies over a period of several years and comment on the increasing overlap of their work with that of their management colleagues. In conclusion, the paper discusses potential opportunities for new design roles and the advanced education needed to train effectively for those roles.

Organizational Change Content, Process, and Context: A Simultaneous Analysis of Employee Reactions

This study examines the relationship between three attributes of organizational change (that is, content, process, and context) in a Fortune 500 telecommunications firm. While researchers acknowledge the importance of the three attributions of organizational change, there is sparse empirical evidence of the systematic and simultaneous assessment of these attributes in organizational change efforts. The investigation undertaken in this study follows a design encompassing content, process, context and outcome variables. Results, utilizing quantitative and qualitative data, reveal that organizational change (an employee outcome variable) is strongly related to the impact of the change on employees (a content variable) and organizational communication media (a process variable). Furthermore, the results of this study indicate that the extent to which employees perceive an organizational change as justified is influenced by their perceived organizational support (an organizational context variable). Implications for practitioners and future research are offered.

Inquiry as Intervention

Social science can be practiced as a decidedly action-oriented and applied phenomenon, in particular within the context of organizational change and development. These practices are often prefaced by assumptions concerning the social construction of reality, the role of the researcher as an active agent for change, and the capacity of organizations to learn. This article recounts the attempts of social science researchers to employ an action research process to promote and support organizational learning within a public school setting. Addressing concerns with regard to the methodological challenges of translating individual perceptions into organizational themes or problems, the authors discuss the use of intersubjectively constructed accounts to support organizational learning.

Assuming positions: Organizational change as mediated through metaphors

This paper presents the notion that a metaphor is one of the discursive tools whereby people position themselves with regard to a change process. Based on Sebeok and Danesi's theory, I analyze two ‘root’ metaphors (articulated by an interviewee) to illustrate the assumption of positions and counter-positions and the way metaphors mediate this positioning. The paper suggests that in the specific context of organizational change, positioning plays the social role of denoting for people (who are considered members of this new social experience) the expected modes of behavior.

The Long-Term Care Workforce Crisis: Dementia-Care Training Influences on Job Satisfaction and Career Commitment

The present study compares changes in job satisfaction and career commitment among Alzheimer's care staff participating in a two-phase, state-level training collaborative to improve dementia care. Results reveal an increase in extrinsic job satisfaction and a decrease in career commitment. Findings could be related to the effects of both the training interventions and the time lag in data collection. Decreases in career identity depended on whether participants showed a deeper involvement in aging concerns with respect to future employment. Implications for the implementation of future interventions for direct-care staff within a context of organizational and systems-based change are discussed.

Linking environmental activity and environmental disclosure in an organisational change framework

PurposeOver the past decades, a plethora of papers have been written describing organisations' reaction to pressure on them to change their practices regarding the natural environment. These papers can broadly be classified into two groups, those research papers interested in organisations' activities and strategies to deal with environmental issues, and those concerned with the external reporting or disclosure of information regarding organisations' effects on the environment. What appears to be missing in this research is very much detailed analysis of the link between these two areas. This paper aims to address this issue.Design/methodology/approachThis paper, while calling for empirical work to be carried out to investigate this link further, discusses the assumptions made about this link in previous research and then theorises what our expectations for this link might look like given our current knowledge of reporting practices, and the abundance of reporting frameworks and guidelines that currently exist.FindingsThe paper augments a model developed by Gray et al. in 1995 that suggests a hierarchy of responses to environmental pressures, within the context of organisational change. The augmentation adds an accounting element to the model by considering the reporting that organizations may undertake depending on their location in the change process.Research limitations/implicationsThe model provides a basis for investigation of the link between organisational change as a result of environmental pressures, and reporting. The paper suggests a number of future research projects, using the model as a basis for empirical investigations.Originality/valueThis paper extends an existing model to produce a comprehensive framework that provides a basis for further investigation of the relationship between accounting (albeit a broad definition of accounting to include environmental reporting) and organisational change.

Context of change in community mental health occupational therapy: Part one

Mental health services have experienced radical changes over the past 20 years. There has been a shift from institutional to community care and different professions have been brought together to work in teams. More recently, these teams have been aligned to geographical boundaries, not by profession, and have one manager from any professional background. The working relationships between the professional groups in the teams can be an area of difficulty and the individual clinician can experience role confusion and stress. This two-part study used focused ethnography to explore an occupational therapist's role in a community mental health team. It found that the occupational therapist was trying to develop her role both as a mental health worker and as an occupational therapist and that the context of organizational change was an important influence on these roles. This article describes the background literature, methodology and findings. Part two covers the data analysis, discussion and recommendations for further research and practice.

BUILDING AN ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE COMMUNICATION THEORY.

The difficulty of communicating during organizational change has intensified with the prevalence of continuously changing organizations (Buchanan, Claydon & Doyle, 1999). The difficulty faced by managers is compounded by the lack of studies examining organizational communication within a context of organizational change (Eisenberg, Andrews, Murphy, & Laine-Timmerman, 1999; Lewis & Seibold, 1996). Not surprisingly then, is there a paucity of organizational change theory to guide further research and practitioners. This paper addresses the lack of organizational change communication research and contributes to theoretical development of communication during organizational change. A model of change communication during continuous change is presented from the analysis of two longitudinal empirical studies. Central constructs of the model are the monologic change communication, the dialogic change communication and the background talk of change. Further Van de Ven and Poole's (1995) Process Theories of Change are extended to consider the sequencing of the three constructs. The findings suggest that the sequencing of the dominant change communication approaches is informed by an alignment of individual communication competences and organizational change communication expectations.

Defined by our strategy or our culture? Hierarchical differences in perceptions of organizational identity and change

While theory and research have identified the possibility for multiple organizational identities to exist within an organization, there is little empirical evidence on how differentiation occurs or what its implications are for the organization. In the course of inductively studying an organizational spin-off, evidence of identity differentiation based on hierarchy level emerged in interview-, documentation-, and observation-based data. Higher levels of the hierarchy tended to see identity in light of the organization’s strategy, whereas lower aspects of the hierarchy saw it in relation to the organization’s culture. This identity differentiation was evident in marked differences in the perceptions organizational members had about: (i) the nature of organizational identity; (ii) the most salient identity-based discrepancies; (iii) the basis for organizational identity change; and (iv) how identity change can be implemented. After examining how and why this hierarchical differentiation occurred, I discuss the implications for our understanding of organizational identity and situate it in the larger context of organizational change.

Applying psychological type and “gifts differing” to organizational change

This paper applies concepts from the Myers‐Briggs type indicator (MBTI) to the context of organizational change. A brief history and explanation of type theory and the MBTI is provided. Psychological type is measured using four bipolar scales, each dealing with individual preferences (extroversion‐introversion, sensing‐intuition, thinking‐feeling, and judgement‐perception). A total of 16 possible type combinations are derived from the results; subsequent arrangement of the type combinations within standard type tables facilitates recognition of patterns. Knowledge related to the four mental functions is specifically linked to organizational change issues, including implications related to both the dominant and inferior functions, and a recommended problem‐solving model. Opposite preferences are highlighted as “gifts differing” for their relevance to communication, conflict management, and teambuilding issues. Finally, type concepts are integrated with topics related to organizational change interventions.

Conceptualizing leadership with respect to its historical–contextual antecedents to power

An attempt is made here to build on the ideas and arguments presented in a recent Leadership Quarterly journal article written by Hunt and Dodge [Leadership Q. Yearly Overview Leadership 11 (2000) 435]. In their article, these authors argue that contemporary leadership researchers tend to neglect the historical–contextual antecedents of the field and as a result are developing many theories that reflect little more than a form of “academic amnesia” and “leadership déjà vu”. The importance of Hunt and Dodge's argument is reinforced through the use here of a form of deconstruction to reveal a lacuna in the leadership literature—the insufficient coverage of power, particularly at what is termed a deep structure level. With the current context of organizational change in mind, this lacuna is shown to have problematic consequences for leadership theory in general. More specifically, the increasing use of dispersed leadership strategies is shown to be particularly problematic. The article proposes a new conceptual framework that begins to address these problems and in so doing provides ideas and challenges for future research in the field.