Radical Organizational Change Research Articles

From Losers to Winners: Overcoming Negative Leader Legacy in Radical Organisational Change

This study examines how a new leader reshapes the negative legacy of a previous leader to influence employee identification during radical organisational change. Drawing on a longitudinal study in one of the world’s oldest airlines, we analyse the organisational discourse surrounding a radical transformation spanning the tenures of two successive Chief Executive Officers (from now on CEO). Our findings show how the first CEO’s coercive discourse of “responsibilisation” led to resistance and conflict, ultimately leading to his departure. Subsequently, the second CEO reframed the negative discursive legacy of the previous CEO into an aspirational identity for the organisation. Our findings elaborate on the conditions these discourses provided for employee identification. We discuss the implications of our study for the literature on leadership legacies and provide new insights into leaders’ restorative use of discourse in the context of organisational change.

Readiness to Change and Change Recipients’ Reactions. An Investigation of the Beneficial Effects of Change Cynicism

ABSTRACT During M&A (mergers and acquisitions), a frequent outcome is the negative reactions of workers, who demonstrate psychological distress and resistance to change. This paper presents an empirical research study carried out in a large Italian university hospital during an organizational restructuring, which led to the merger of several organizational units. The research involved a sample of healthcare operators as change recipients (N = 130), and investigated the relationship between Readiness to Change and change recipients’ reactions. By adopting a Structural Equation Model approach, this study suggests that the relationship between Readiness To Change and Change Cynicism, Change Anxiety and Intention To Quit, is complex and not always direct and linear. Furthermore, this paper shows the role that Change Cynicism plays in mediating the relationship between Readiness To Change and Change Anxiety and between Readiness To Change and Intention To Quit. This study highlights the importance of investigating and systemically addressing the relationship between these factors. MAD statement This article sets out to Make A Difference (MAD) through analysing the mechanisms underlying the affective and emotional reactions of change recipients. It provides an important practical contribution for practitioners, as it suggests how to manage the variables that intervene in a process of radical organizational change in an appropriate manner. This article has significant consequences, also at a societal level. It highlights the factors that should be managed to avoid undesired, negative organizational and corporate consequences such as states of change anxiety and the Intention To Quit.

The Effectiveness of Project Implementation Recognizing the Interaction between LMX and Charismatic Leadership Attainment

The present investigation examines the effectiveness of the implementation facets of the project. This study aims to depict the operational conduct of both followers and leaders within project organizations, specifically in the context of construction companies operating in Thailand’s oil and gas industries, and to explore the effectiveness of their interrelationships. The study examines the impact of charismatic leadership on citizenship behavior, project effectiveness in project organizations, and the point of project implementation. Furthermore, to enhance understanding of the role through a moderated mediation analysis of the theoretical construct within the research paradigm. The study sample comprised 450 individuals who were employed for the project. The study utilized a moderated mediation analysis to collect and analyze the data. The Leader-Member Exchange (LMX) theory provides a theoretical framework for examining the conditional effects of focal predictors at the moderator’s value of LMX. The hypothesis supports the models that the effectiveness of project implementation is more robust when the story of the relationships between charismatic leadership and employees within citizenship behavior and effectiveness be mediation. The findings indicate the leader is optimistic and passionate, which makes followers want to follow and gives them challenging tasks and higher expectations. Under radical organizational change, charisma and trust in a leader are strong. However, research suggests charisma isn’t simple trait leaders have. Accordingly, Leader-Member Exchange did not interact with charismatic leadership’s effect on project implementation through citizenship behavior and effectiveness. Leader-Member Exchange mediates negative affectivity and performance.

Mitigating anxiety: The role of strategic leadership groups during radical organisational change

This article examines the role of strategic leadership groups in radical organisational change. Previous research has focused on how ‘heroic’ individual leaders guide change. In contrast, we argue that strategic leadership groups are indispensable to understanding and supporting radical organisational change. Building on a longitudinal study in a global European company, our research identifies four phases of ‘negotiated order’ that shape group and organisational responses to change. Our findings reveal that strategic leadership groups help manage emotions and understand the shifting authority relations that inevitably arise during periods of change. Drawing upon the psychoanalytic concept of ‘projective identification’, we develop a theoretical framework for understanding the tensions of change. The model shows how emotional coalitions that develop in strategic leadership groups afford a source of political and psychological containment against the anxieties of radical organisational change. These formations offer transitional spaces for change, providing opportunities for progress. The advantage of this new perspective on radical change is that it helps to move the organisation beyond periods of ambivalence and conflict, with positive implications for leadership practice.

Examining internal and external stakeholders’ experiences with radical change in sport organizations

ABSTRACT Research purpose This study compared how internal and external stakeholders experience radical organizational change in sport organizations. Research methods A case study of U SPORTS was built through 32 internal and external stakeholder interviews and organizational documents (e.g. strategic plans, annual reports), and analyzed thematically. Results Findings showed how internal and external stakeholders experienced radical change both positively and negatively but in different ways. For internal stakeholders, themes included planning and preparation, stakeholder involvement, an increased workload, the loss of institutional knowledge, and challenges associated with gaining buy-in and support for the changes. For external stakeholders, themes included communication and consultation, decision-making, stakeholder responsibility and involvement, and the number and pace of change. Implications Findings highlight the importance of knowing and responding to stakeholder concerns, and the criticality of various internal stakeholders (i.e. staff, Board, and committee members) for maintaining institutional knowledge during radical change.

Imagining beyond nature-culture dualism: An exploration of ecological justice

In the face of rising sustainability issues, increasing numbers of organisations are trying to build compromises between their economic purpose and ecological objectives. Organisational studies focus on the analysis of such compromise processes but most studies do not seek to grasp the substantial changes advocated by ecological critiques. Our research is aimed at addressing that gap by clarifying the radical view sustained by ecological imaginary beyond conventional compromise processes. We engage in a qualitative study of biodynamics – an agricultural method based on a radical ecological imaginary – to evaluate its moral underpinnings through Boltanski and Thévenot’s Economies of Worth framework. Our findings help us to grasp the radical moral substance of ecological critique and to extend that framework beyond its dualist assumption. By highlighting antagonisms between meta-conceptions of justice rather than analysing compromises, our research provides insights into the radical organisational changes advocated by ecological critiques.

The Impact of Digitalization on Firms' Business Models: Opportunities and Limitations for Digital Leader

Digital innovations are often disruptive and result in a radical organizational change. To overcome this barrier and remain competitive, companies need to transform their business and adapt towards the new customer and market requirements. Especially with the new possibilities arising from Digitalization, Big Data, Internet of Things, and Industry 4.0 firms need to embrace new technological innovations, reflect on their current strategy, and explore new business opportunities systematically at early stages. To understand the impact of digitalization on firms' business models as well as the role of a digital leader in the business model innovation process, a twofold literature review has been conducted using Scopus as the database. The literature reviews have shown that digitalization has a big influence on companies' business models and forcing them to a digital transformation. To be successful in this changing process, dynamic capabilities as well as a digital leader with certain characteristics are playing an important role. Furthermore, a direct and indirect impact of the digital leader on the business model innovation has been identified. This paper contributes to a more precise and comprehensive understanding of business model innovation, digital transformation, and digital leadership, and proposes future avenues for research.

To innovate is clever, to anticipate is smart: towards new skills in Air Transport

Nowadays, automation is one of the major trends of the air transport industry: as a result, the role of humans in such complex socio-technical systems is due to evolve. People/workers could experience radical changes in their working routines, and in the ways they carry out their tasks. The identification of new skill-sets may be needed at the organisational and operational levels. The importance is not only on new skills for the job but on reskilling and upskilling. It is then vital to support this trend with adequate training addressing specific needs: to achieve an understanding of how the change will impact the context, the humans involved and the practices are essential; how people will perceive the increasing introduction of automation; what skills will be pivotal for the change. This paper presents the backcasting methodology used within the Skill-UP project to actively guide changes in complex contexts through the analysis and the assessment of new trends, future needs and radical changes of Air Traffic Control from a present-to-future perspective. The identification of new skill sets will be presented in section 4. In conclusion, the importance of training as a strategy to cope with the uncertainty of a radical organisational change is presented.

Virtual Learning Environments as a Remedy for Universities Against the COVID-19 Pandemic Crisis

Purpose: The aim of the paper is to assess the level of interest in the Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) during and before the pandemic, as well as to identify and compare solutions implemented at selected Polish universities during the COVID-19 pandemic. Research methodology: The preliminary study was based on bibliometric analysis. The frequency of the VLE notion in the scientific literature was verified. Then a case study was applied. Six universities in Poland were analyzed, which had to make radical organizational changes in a short time, allowing them to conduct classes with students almost exclusively remotely. Findings: The conducted analysis led to the identification of significant similarities in the procedures undertaken and organizational changes of the universities described. Some variation has been observed in terms of the software used that builds the university’s VLE. Research limitations: Only cases of universities in Poland have been described. The choice of the university was intentional. Value: The value of the paper is to draw attention to: on the one hand, the versatility of the VLE, and on the other, certain common features that university VLEs should have in order to ensure the work of the university (and other institutions dealing with education) in a crisis situation.

Aldersro wetland-settlement complex

In southern Scandinavia, the Early Iron Age transition is characterised by radical ideological and organisational changes involving new material practices of sorting, delimiting, depositing and discarding artefacts, humans and nonhumans, in both wetlands and drylands. However, settlements and wetland areas are mostly excavated separately, and the deeper relationship between these practices and associated spheres remains somewhat inconclusive. Aldersro, Eastern Jutland, provides an exceptional opportunity to revisit this relationship. A juxtaposed settlement and wetland activity area spanning more than 1.4 hectares were excavated in 2002-2003. The excavations exposed the structural remains of houses, fences, storage buildings, pits and peat graves. Moreover, they disclosed extensive archaeological remains of more than 800 ceramic vessels, processed wood, stones, burnt organic material, human and animal bones subject to 14C, pollen, archaeobotany, zooarchaeology, osteology, and ceramic analyses. The site has provided vital new insights into the diachronic dynamics of depositional and mortuary practices in the Early Iron Age. The highly fragmented remains of more than eight human individuals were mixed and deposited together with typical settlement debris, and would have been exposed right next to a settlement area.

Shaking Things Up: Disruptive Events and Inequality

This paper develops a theory of how disruptive events could reduce racial and gender inequality in organizations. Despite efforts from regulators and advocates, racial and gender inequality in the workplace remains high. I theorize that because the persistence of such inequality is often reinforced by organizational inertia, disruptive changes that shake up old hierarchies, break down routines, and shift culture could offer an opportunity for racial minority and women workers to advance. To examine this theory, I explore a critical but seldom analyzed organizational event in the inequality literature – mergers and acquisitions. Using a difference-in-differences design on a nationally representative sample covering 37,343 acquisitions from 1971 to 2015, I find that although acquisitions lead to occupational reconfigurations that favor higher-skilled workers, they also reduce racial and gender inequality. In particular, I find improved managerial representation of racial minorities and women and reduced racial and gender segregation in the acquired workplace. This post-acquisition effect is stronger when (a) the acquiring firm had greater racial and gender equality and (b) the acquired workplace lower racial and gender equality pre-acquisition. These findings suggest that certain types of radical organizational change could significantly advance racial and gender equality.

METHODICAL APPROACH TO ENSURING CORPORATE SECURITY OF ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE ENTERPRISE

The article develops and presents a methodical approach to ensuring corporate security of organizational development of the enterprise. According to the results of the analysis of the conceptual basis of organizational development it is determined that the processes of organizational development of the enterprise represent radical changes that provide significant or fundamental changes in the strategy of the enterprise, its production, organizational structure, in many aspects. All radical organizational changes from the standpoint of economic rationality of behavior of economic entities on the basis of the nature of their impact on the enterprise can be divided into two groups: reactive, aimed at partial (local) transformations, are fragmentary measures and aimed at restoring the previous state; proactive changes to avoid deterioration help to increase and maintain growth rates. Traditionally, strategic decisions related to organizational development are considered the most complex, with a high level of risk, conflict of interest of groups involved in corporate relations. The article presents that corporate security should cover all areas of production, economic, financial and commercial activities of the enterprise and solve problems to ensure: compliance with the goals and priority interests of the enterprise, creating conditions for their implementation, reducing the risk of conflict of interest in strategic decisions; internal balance of business processes of the enterprise; staff interest in the implementation of organizational changes. Keywords: corporate security, organizational development, methodical approach, participants of corporate relations, harmonization of interests, strategic tools.

Front-Line Management during Radical Organisational Change: Social Exchange and Paradox Interpretations

External shocks have severely affected the aviation sector with detrimental impacts on airport service employees. Service-sector organizations tend to implement radical organizational change to survive and front-line managers face often-opposing demands. This study aims to shed light on how front-line managers cope by utilizing social exchange-based strategies during radical organizational change. This study uses an exploratory qualitative design and thematically analyses data obtained from 40 semi-structured interviews with senior managers, front-line managers and employees working for an airline services provider operating in a major international airport in Australia. The study finds that front-line managers employ several social exchange approaches to overcome the paradoxical challenge of facilitating change while maintaining current operations. We find evidence of four approaches that the front-line managers utilize that are based on social exchange: (1) building relationships with clients’ representatives; (2) utilizing relationships with experienced employees to facilitate radical organizational change practices; (3) rewarding employees in exchange for helping to manage personnel shortages; and (4) motivating employees by various morale-enhancing techniques. The study contributes to organizational sustainability and change research by developing a deeper understanding of the importance of social exchange in facilitating the work of front-line managers in the airport services sector.

Clarifying rebound effects of the circular economy in the context of sustainable cities

The rebound effect is a crucial and unresolved issue for the circular economy (CE) because it can deteriorate resource efficiency that has been improved by technologies. However, academic discussions on rebound effects mostly focus on environmental issues such as the material and energy rebound. Social aspects of rebound effects including radical organizational changes and damage to workers’ and citizens’ health and rights are relatively ignored. From the perspective of sustainable cities, it is necessary to take care of urban stakeholders and consider both environmental and social justice to prevent different dimensions of impact. Accordingly, this paper serves to broaden academic discourses on the circular economy rebound, proposes a framework to align CE with the context of sustainable cities, and clarifies the linkages between rebound effects and different phases of CE. It is concluded that policy makers should not solely emphasize numeric indicators of resource efficiency; instead, they should articulate the social context of rebound effects and address potential impact in advance to ensure sustainability. Via the integration of interdisciplinary knowledge, open information, and moral responsibility, CE stakeholders including relevant industries, governments, and communities can together establish more socially inclusive policies and regulations in a systematic manner for sustainable cities.

Exploring Network Organizations in Practice: The Duality and Triplicity of Market, Hierarchy and Network

Constructing a network organization for global R&D is presented as a common sense practice in existing literature. However, there are still queries about the network organization, such as the persistence of hierarchies which make a network organization merely a “bureaucracy-lite” organization. Furthermore, in practice, we rarely see radical organizational change towards a network organization that adopts an internal market. The co-existence of market, hierarchy and network triggered research interest. A multiple case study of three transnational corporations’ global R&D organization shows that there are different logical considerations when designing a network organization to facilitate innovation. I identify three types of network organizations: market-led, directed and culture-led network organizations. Different types of network organizations show that organizations are dual and even ternary systems of three coordination modes, i.e. market, hierarchy and network. The three coordination modes are not discrete, but instead are complementary and mutually enhancing. The interactions of the three coordination modes and the dynamism of their interplay over time could be an interesting future research topic.

Tapping on the Rumor Mill: Rumor and Gossip as a Resource in Post-Merger Integration

Extant literature has portrayed a negative image of rumor and gossip. Particularly in situations of radical organizational change, such as Mergers and Acquisitions (M&As), rumor and gossip are often considered undesirable byproducts of organizations that ought to be systematically overcome. Despite recent calls from scholars to place more emphasis on the positive characteristics of rumor and gossip, these aspects have remained underdeveloped. This paper explores how rumors and gossip following a merger can be viewed as a resource affecting employees’ reactions to and understanding of organizational change. We draw on the literature of mergers and acquisitions, organizational change and communication to analyze an in-depth case study of a recent merger between two professional services organizations in the United Kingdom. Through 27 interviews with affected employees, we examine how rumor and gossip help employees better deal with and respond to the uncertainty created by the merger. Our findings suggest three ways in which rumor and gossip act as a purposeful and productive resource: responding to shock, decoding information and synthesizing realities. This paper contributes to management literature by recognizing the positive virtues of rumor and gossip and extending knowledge of their roles as a resource during mergers and change. In ways similar to arguments on resistance to change, we draw implications for research and practice in reframing rumor and gossip away from its pejorative assumptions toward being something more generative and integral to the change process itself.

WITHDRAWN: Understanding the impact of radical change on the effectiveness of national-level sport organizations: A multi-stakeholder perspective

ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to understand how radical organizational change impacts the effectiveness of national-level sport organizations from the perspectives of internal and external stakeholders. A single case study methodology of U SPORTS – the national governing body of university sport in Canada – was employed. Data sources included 32 semi-structured interviews with internal (n = 16) and external stakeholders (n = 16), as well as documentation (e.g., annual reports, financial statements). Results indicated the effectiveness of organizations can be impacted by radical change but can vary in the degree of impact, depending on the organizational effectiveness approach and stakeholder perspective used. Using both internal and external stakeholders contributes to our understanding of radical organizational change, as it demonstrates the outward impact of change on not only the focal sport organization but also its external stakeholders, which are critical for organizational survival.

Organizational change and work stress, attitudes, and cognitive load utilization: a natural experiment in a university restructuring

PurposeThe authors present a quantitative analysis of the effect that organizational change has on work stress, work attitudes and perceptions, and cognitive utilization in a task.Design/methodology/approachFirst, the authors study the role organizational change has on work stress, attitudes and perceptions, including the role of attitudes toward change. The authors do so by examining differences across employees who are and are not undergoing change, as well as across two change phases. Second, the authors take advantage of the ongoing organizational change to study how people's anxiety about such change affects their cognitive utilization. They use an innovative approach to measure attention disengagement in a cognitive utilization task – a proxy for task-related performance – through a letter detection exercise. Third, the authors examine the role of work stress and change-related anxiety on attention disengagement among employees undergoing change. For this test, they use two organizational change-related texts to function as an anxiety-inducing and a calming-inducing prime.FindingsOrganization change is associated with higher work stress, lower job satisfaction and perceptions of institutional effectiveness and support. Further, organizational change-related anxiety adversely affects cognitive utilization, showing that employees undergoing change have higher attention disengagement relative to those not experiencing change. Among employees undergoing change, those receiving an anxiety-inducing prime show better cognitive utilization (lower attention disengagement) than those receiving the calming-inducing prime.Originality/valueThe rare merger of two public universities provides a natural experiment and a source of exogenous variation to examine the effects of radical organizational change on employees' attitudes, perceptions and task performance.

Innovation in the aftermath of downsizing: evidence from the threat-rigidity perspective

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to study how job reductions affect product innovation and marketing innovation in a sample of 2,034 Spanish manufacturing firms in the period 2007–2014.Design/methodology/approachPoisson and logistic regression models with random effects were used to analyse the impact of downsizing on some innovation outcomes of firms.FindingsThe results of this research show that the stressful measure of job reductions may have unexpected consequences, stimulating innovation. However downsizing combined with radical organisational changes such as new equipment, techniques or processes seems to have a negative impact on product and marketing innovation.Originality/valueThis research has two original features. First, it explores the unconventional direction of causality from the planned elimination of jobs to innovation outputs. Secondly, the paper looks at the combined effect of downsizing and other restructuring measures on different types of innovation. Following the threat-rigidity theory, we assume that this combination represents a major threat for survivors that leads to lower levels of product and marketing innovation.

Incremental or radical development? A dynamic approach to organisational changes and growth of Hungarian ICT SMEs

This paper explores the dynamics of organisational change by building on firm life-cycle theory. Extant research assumed that the development of firms follows a certain sequence of stages. Based on the life-cycle model, this study evaluates the speed and extent of changes in organisational characteristics and firm growth during the development of ICT SMEs in Hungary. Hypotheses are tested using multivariate statistical methods. Results show that stagnant firms are not significantly different from the ones undergoing incremental changes, but significant growth coincides with radical organisational changes. Our findings highlight that team-based decision making, complex organisational structures and sophisticated information systems coincide with firm growth.