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Power relations in organizational change: an activity-theoretic perspective

Frank Schirmer (Department of Organization Studies, Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, Germany)
Silke Geithner (Department of Human Resource Management, Wilhelm Löhe University for Applied Sciences, Fürth, Germany)

Journal of Accounting & Organizational Change

ISSN: 1832-5912

Article publication date: 5 March 2018

1707

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to develop a multi-level and politically informed perspective on organizational learning and change based on the cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT) in order to contribute to a less managerialist and more multi-voiced understanding of change. The authors aim for a better understanding of the links between expansive learning, contradictions in and of activity systems and episodic and systemic power.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors develop a framework on expansive learning, integrating the concept of faces of power. The framework is applied to a case study.

Findings

The authors show productive and restrictive effects of episodic and systemic power for dealing with contradictions in expansive learning and organizational change. The productive role of change critics and non-managerial actors is shown.

Research limitations/implications

The case study is illustrative and findings need to be validated and expanded through more detailed empirical investigations. Future studies should particularly investigate how patterns of power could itself become the object of expansive learning.

Practical implications

The framework fosters an understanding of organizational change as multi-voiced, decentralized and driven by contradictions. Emancipation of actors and protected social spaces are essential for unfolding the productive potential of multi-voicedness against the backdrop of asymmetric power relations in organizations.

Originality/value

The authors step back from a managerialist perspective on organizational change by developing a politically informed, activity theoretic perspective on learning systems. The paper contributes to a better understanding of contradictions, related multi-voicedness and effects of episodic/systemic power in expansive learning and change.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

The authors are very thankful for the critical and helpful comments of two anonymous reviewers and the care of the editors of this special issue. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the OLKC 2017 in Valladolid, and the authors are grateful for the comments and suggestions offered by the participants of the symposium on “Power, Politics and Emotions in Organizational Learning and Knowing”. They are especially thankful for the comments of Reijo Miettinen and Yrjö Engeström on an early draft of this paper.

Citation

Schirmer, F. and Geithner, S. (2018), "Power relations in organizational change: an activity-theoretic perspective", Journal of Accounting & Organizational Change, Vol. 14 No. 1, pp. 9-32. https://doi.org/10.1108/JAOC-11-2016-0074

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2018, Emerald Publishing Limited

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