Purpose – The aim of the paper is to review and compare traditional and new institutional postulates in order to address some of the criticism that this theory has received. Design/methodology/approach – Throughout this paper, five interesting paradoxes are presented in management contexts...

Organizational change inevitably involves uncertainty and hence some risk taking. Tests the relationship between organizational slack and risk taking in organization decision making, and thus provides some evidence on the role or organizational variables in risk‐taking behaviour. Product...

It is argued that the behaviour of organizational members is influenced to a large extent by characteristics of their work settings. Furthermore, since individuals must change their behaviour in order for organizational improvement to occur, planned organizational change can be viewed as an...

The 1899 book and the 1939 MGM film The Wizard of Oz hold a permanent influence on US culture. In this article we describe how the Wizard of Oz’s story can serve as a metaphor for balancing energies and organizational transformation at all levels. Just as the spiritual transformation of a...

Behaviour resulting from work group normative processes can be examined and changed to increase the productivity of an organisation. A model for exploring the process of work group norm diagnosis that can be used by organisational consultants is developed. Examples of its use are also presented.

Purpose – The adaptation perspective dominates the issue of organizational change and assumes that organizational inertia increases organizational mortality. This assumption is inadequate to analyze organizational change in risky activities. The purpose of this paper is to underline the...

Change has become one of the most studied topics in management research. Although literally hundreds of research initiatives on this theme are carried out annually, there are still important questions in this area that have been left unanswered. There are two, logically possible, modes of change...

The new transformational leadership theories stress the emotional bond between leaders and followers, as opposed to the cognitive‐calculative exchange emphasized by traditional transactional theories. However, very little empirical research has concentrated on the effects of transformational...

Purpose – The growing interest in developing and applying “integral” approaches to organisations has been accompanied by a corresponding increase in different ways of interpreting this term. This article aims to present a set of criteria to help in defining the varieties of integral...