It is often stated that some 70% of all change projects fail. Though this figure can be disputed, it is nevertheless clear that managing change is one of the most difficult tasks facing organizations today. In response to this, writers offer a wide range of theories and advice designed to aid managers and scholars in understanding and managing change, but which seem merely to overwhelm them with a profusion of competing and conflicting advice and approaches. In many respects, change is a field which epitomises the ‘rigor-relevance’ debate. We have many approaches to change which are built on sound research and robust theories, but which appear to lack relevance for managers. We also have a vast array of nostrums, practices and tools which managers use, but which appear to lack methodological or theoretical foundations.
The aim of this series is to cut through the confusion surrounding the study and practice of change by providing comprehensive and in-depth studies of existing and emerging approaches to change. The rationale for the series is that we cannot understand organizational change sufficiently nor implement it effectively unless we can evaluate the various approaches in terms of the evidence which underpins them, what they seek to achieve and how and where they can be applied. In particular, the series seeks to address, but is not limited to, the following questions:
Edited
By Bernard Burnes, Julian Randall
August 06, 2018
Despite the plethora of books on change, there appears is a notable gap in the field; rarely is the authentic and candid voice of change practitioners heard. Seldom are those most closely involved in the management of change given (or seek) the opportunity to write about their personal experiences ...
By Anne Clare Gillon
May 16, 2018
The nature of contemporary Organisation Development (OD) is often written about by both scholars and practitioners, yet there is little evidence of these descriptions (or debates on key issues) having been based on reliably collected data. This book compares academic and practitioner perspectives ...
Edited
By Jean Bartunek, Jane McKenzie
July 11, 2017
While executives are keen to harness organizational knowledge and improve business performance, the topic of how academics can produce rigorous and relevant theory in working relationships with practitioners is a much contested topic. Many aspects of this knowledge co-creation can create tensions, ...
By David White
April 10, 2017
Organizational or corporate ‘culture’ is the most overused and least understood word in business, if not society. While the topic has been an object of keen academic interest for nearly half a century, theorists and practitioners still struggle with the most basic questions: What is organizational ...
Edited
By David Denyer, Colin Pilbeam
October 13, 2016
Big mistakes, misconduct, serious accidents and other disasters are normally followed by investigations which explore what went wrong. These produce recommendations to limit the damage from a future event, or to prevent it altogether. In many cases, this doesn’t happen, and ‘repeat crises’ occur. ...
By Steven ten Have, Wouter ten Have, Anne-Bregje Huijsmans, Maarten Otto
July 19, 2016
Despite the popularity of organizational change management, the question arises whether its prescriptions and dominant beliefs and practices are based on solid and convergent evidence. Organizational change management entails interventions intended to influence the task-related behavior and ...
By Patrick Dawson, Christopher Sykes
April 28, 2016
Organizational Change and Temporality: Bending the Arrow of Time looks to address the important area of time and temporality, especially as it relates to frameworks and studies for explaining change processes in organizations. It commences with a selective history on the science and philosophy of ...
By Muayyad Jabri
December 21, 2015
Rethinking Organizational Change: The Role of Dialogue, Dialectic & Polyphony in the Organization makes an important scholarly contribution to our understanding of dialogue applied to the management of change. Muayyad Jabri offers an involved assessment of the differences between 'dialogue’ and...
By Mark Hughes
October 05, 2015
Understanding both leadership and change have been recurrent and popular themes within the business, management and organization studies literature. However, our understanding of leadership and organizational change in combination is far more limited. The Leadership of Organizational Change offers ...
By Tonya Henderson, David M. Boje
August 11, 2015
This book offers a fresh perspective on organizational development and change theory and practice. Building on their recent work in quantum storytelling theory and complexity theory, Henderson and Boje consider the implications of fractal patterns in human behavior with a view toward ethics in ...
Edited
By Rune Todnem By, Calum Macleod
August 21, 2012
Forming part of the Understanding Organizational Change series, Managing Organizational Change in Public Services focuses on the organizational dimension of change management in public services. Combining aspects of change management theory with ‘real life’ practice in the form of ...
Edited
By David A. Buchanan, Louise Fitzgerald, Diane Ketley
December 19, 2006
This important book examines issues affecting the sustainability and spread of new working practices. The question of why good ideas do not spread, ‘the best practices puzzle’, has been widely recognized. But the ‘improvement evaporation effect’, where successful changes are discontinued, has ...