2 - Pace of change Flashcards
Lecture 2 Weick & Quinn 1999
Perspectives on pace of change
Episodic
Continuous
Continuous change perspective of organization
- Organizations are…
- Change is…
- Organizations are: Emergant, selforganizing
- Change is: constant, evolving, cumulative
Episodic change perspecive of organization
- Organizations are…
- Change is…
- Organizations are: inertial
- Change is: Infrequent, discontinuous, intentional
- Labeled “episodic” because it tends to occur in distinct periods during which shifts are precipitated by external events
Continuous change analytical framework
- Change is…
- Change is driven by…
Change is a pattern of endless modifications in work processes and social practice.
Change is driven by organizational instability and alert reactions to daily contingencies.
Numerous small accommodations cumulate and amplify
Episodic change analytical framework
- Change is…
Change is an occasional interruption or divergence from equilibrium.
Change tends to be dramatic and it is driven externally.
Change is a failure of the organization to adapt its deep structure to a changing environment.”
Change phases
- Episodic
- Continuous
Episodic:
- Unfreeze, Transition, Refreeze
- Inertia, triggering of change, replacement
Continuous:
-Freeze, Rebalance, Unfreeze
Episodic change
- focus
- Builds on
Focus on structures and interdependencies between structures,
externally driven change builds on systems perspective on organization
Continuous change:
- Focus
- builds on
Focus on actions and interactions, modification of routines
Internally driven change builds on routines and practices perspective on organizations
Systems perspective on organizations
- resembles what
- builds on what
- Systems
Organizations resemble natural organisms that adapt to their environment
Builds on open systems theory
- Hierarchy of systems
- Embeddedness of systems
> organizations are embedded in higher level
systems (e.g. industries)
> Organizations are a certain kind of organizations
to fit in the system (e.g. a law firm)
- Chances in higher level systems determine chances in lower level systems (e.g. chances industry determines chances in organization)
Linear Systems: machine
Non-linear systems: Organism
Simple linear systems
Assumptions
- Organizations are governed by simple known rules
- Cause-and-effect relationships are know
- Organizations can be controlled and directed by changing the rules to more favorable rules (e.g. changing inertial structures for more flexible ones)
Complex nonlinear systems
Assumptions
- Organizations consist of individual actors who
> make sense of situations based ond existing knowledge
> Adapt to new situations
> Interact with other actors
- Interaction of actors can lead to multiple outcomes on the organizational level (e.g. change resistance)
routines perspective on organizations
- resembles what?
- Definition routines
- Builds on?
- Emerges when?
- Organizations resemble communities that have routines for dealing with shared tasks and issues
Organizations as bundles of routines - repeated patterns
of behavior that are bound by rules
(including norms) and customs - Behavioral theory of the firms & evolutionary economics
- Change of old and emergence of new routines when organizations improvise to be able to respond to new situations
Inertia
The inability for organizations to change as rapidly as the environment
Associated with episodic change
(Inability attributed to: deep structure, first-order change, routines, success-induced blind spots, top management tenure, identity maintenance, culture, complacency, or technology)
First order change:
shared frames of reference may be “bent” when first-order changes produce minor alterations in current beliefs
Second order change
shared frames of reference may be “broken” when second-order changes replace one belief system with another
Changes to cognitive frameworks, to deep structure or to shared schemata
Episodic
