The Rhetoric of Organizational Change
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 9890431 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Nils Finstad (Bodo Regional University, 8002 Bodo, Norway., corresponding author) |
| Year | 1998 |
| Volume | 51 |
| Issue | 6 |
| Pages | 717-740 |
| Publication date | 1998-06-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Human Relations (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0018-7267 • E-ISSN: 1741-282X |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/001872679805100602 |
| OpenAlex | W2161160088 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 7 |
| References cited | 36 |
This study is a discussion of change strategies: the contextual aspects of change and the rhetoric of change. Change is analyzed along two dimensions: (1) the context of the change initiative in the organization, (2) the relations of the change project to the institutional environment. Four cases are used as examples of inducing change in municipal services. The four cases are part of a national reform project. In Norway, municipalities are important institutions both as arenas for political decisions but also as decentralized instruments for distributing local services. The main purpose of the reform project was to achieve better adjusted services through more interdisciplinary work and local responsibility. Change efforts may be forced on the organization, e.g., by laws, instructions, and frame budgets or they may be triggered by different voluntary mechanisms. The idea of "isomorphism" describes a passive or incremental adaptation to "signals" and from structure imposed by the environment. The idea of eruptive change implies enactment and entrepreneurship in relation to the environment based on signals from within. The contexts for change at different levels in the municipality are associated with different rhetorics. Context variables describe the situation or background on which the change initiatives are interpreted by the institutional actors. The rhetoric of change is the symbolic expression which defines the change process
Business · Change management (ITSM · Context (archaeology · Geography · Isomorphism (crystallography · Organisational change · Organizational change · Political science · Politics · Public relations · Rhetoric · Sociology · Work (physics · Accounting and Organizational Management · Law · Management and Organizational Studies · Marketing · Public Administration · Public Policy and Administration Research
Organizational Change
Un‐entwining monological narratives of change through dramaturgical and narrative analyses
Much Ado About Nothing? An Analysis of Prioritization at Six Canadian Universities
Cross-agency coordination of offender reentry
Things fall apart? Discourses on agency and change in organizations
Change Management—Strategy and Values in Six Agencies from the Australian Public Service
Exploring the military mindset
Sensemaking in organizations
Ambiguity and choice in organizations
Permanently failing organizations
Institutional patterns and organizations
The New Public Management in Action
Isomorphism and External Support in Conflicting Institutional Environments
The Antecedents of Deinstitutionalization
The social construction of reality
Postmodernism and organizations
The Reforming Organization
Communication, Power and Organization
The Bureaucratic Phenomenon
Mind over machine
The Logic of Practice
Administrative Science Quarterly
A Theory of Public Bureaucracy
Emerging Varieties of Action Research
Organizational Learning
Institutionalized Organizations
Organizations and Output Transactions
| Citations per year | 0.26 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 1999 - 2019 (21) |
| Highly cited | No |