Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to shed some light on the reasons and circumstances why strategic change initiatives based on new public management and managerialism go wrong. In particular, how such change initiatives are being justified, communicated, perceived, and implemented within...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the imputed “fall” and subsequent “reinvention” of the BBC during the 1990s, relating a managerialist “politics of forgetting” to the broader ideological narratives of “the post bureaucratic turn”....

Purpose – This paper aims to explore the relationship between aspects of aesthetics and the performance of organizations. It outlines a research agenda for studying the impact of aesthetic factors upon organizational design and change. Design/methodology/approach – In the paper, a set of...

Purpose – The purpose of this conceptual paper is to discuss the relevance of Lacanian psychoanalysis for thinking on organizational functioning and organizational change. Design/methodology/approach – First, the authors discuss basic Lacanian ideas with regard to the notion of the...

Purpose – Change receptivity is recognised as an important factor in successfully implementing organizational change strategies. The purpose of this paper is to examine the process of change in the initial stages of a change agenda within a public sector organization and analyze the...

Purpose – To explain how an organization has been able to use seismic changes in its wider external environment to transform its performance without the need for radical internal restructuring or coercive forms of leadership. Design/methodology/approach – This paper utilises a three year...

Purpose – To explore a musical metaphor in making organizational change a potentially pleasurable experience to participants. Design/methodology/approach – The paper begins by challenging ideological assumptions behind classical change metaphors. To build an alternative, the paper employs...

Purpose – This paper seeks to explore notions of enterprise as an instance of organizational change within university business schools, using a theoretical approach drawn from the discourse theory of Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe. Their concept of articulatory practice is useful for...

Purpose – Consulting work aims to bring about changes in organizational performance. In OD‐consulting practices, changes are to be sought through conversational settings created for these purposes. The purpose of this paper is to take a discursive approach to change work and ask how...

Purpose – To better understand the process of organizational change by broadening Goffman's dramaturgical analysis to apply to the organizational level. Design/methodology/approach – It is a case study of a failed organizational change effort focused on racial and gender harassment and...