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Organizational change in risky environments: space activities

Victor Dos Santos Paulino (Toulouse Business School, Toulouse, France)

Journal of Organizational Change Management

ISSN: 0953-4814

Article publication date: 22 May 2009

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Abstract

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 relevance of organizational inertia when organizations face risky environments.

Design/methodology/approach

A conceptual framework was built that combines the adaptation and selection perspectives from the evolutionary approach and the high‐reliability organizations literature and apply it to space activities.

Findings

First, it was found that to prevent catastrophic failures, space organizations reproduce routines validated in previous successful programs, which leads to situations of organizational inertia; and second, the opposing perspectives of selection and adaptation become complementary when the author focus on the level of risk faced by organizations.

Research limitations/implications

This paper focuses on space organizations and not more general types of organizations. However, the findings could be generalized to organizations manufacturing complex products and systems.

Originality/value

The originality of the paper is based on the new empirical and theoretical frameworks provided to analyze organizational inertia. Organizational inertia may be a satisfying response to environments favoring organizations with high levels of reliability. This new way of viewing inertia would be of value to scholars studying organizations in which errors can have catastrophic consequences.

Keywords

Citation

Dos Santos Paulino, V. (2009), "Organizational change in risky environments: space activities", Journal of Organizational Change Management, Vol. 22 No. 3, pp. 257-274. https://doi.org/10.1108/09534810910951050

Publisher

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Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2009, Emerald Group Publishing Limited

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