From a new workplace to a new way of working: legitimizing organizational change
Qualitative Research in Organizations and Management
ISSN: 1746-5648
Article publication date: 26 July 2019
Issue publication date: 4 August 2020
Abstract
Purpose
Several studies have recently documented projects of organizational transformation and modernization which, commonly clustered under the umbrella term “New Ways of Working” (NWoW), simultaneously entail material, technological, cultural and managerial dimensions. Academic contributions, however, have paid little attention to the mechanisms allowing such projects to progressively become legitimized in organizational discourses and practices. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the distinctive features of the legitimation process underlying the implementation of NWoW projects.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper relies on a longitudinal, three-year analysis of a large insurance company. Data were collected through qualitative methods including semi-structured interviews (48), periods of observation (3 months) and document analysis (78).
Findings
The paper develops a grounded and integrative framework of legitimation processes underlying “NWoW” change projects. The framework emphasizes four decisive operations of translation in “NWoW” design and implementation: translating material constraints into strategic opportunities; translating strategic opportunities into a quantitative business plan supported by the top management; translating compelling discourses around “NWoW” into an organizational machinery; and translating a transformation project into discourses of unequivocal success, conveyed by legitimate spokespeople within and beyond the organization.
Originality/value
Besides contributing to the understanding of a managerial fashion, which has received little academic attention so far, the paper also offers an original integrative framework to account for legitimation processes that combines two theoretical approaches – the sociology of translation and research on institutionalist work.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors wish to thank the QROM associate editor and the three anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments, which have greatly contributed to the development of the paper.
Citation
Jemine, G., Dubois, C. and Pichault, F. (2020), "From a new workplace to a new way of working: legitimizing organizational change", Qualitative Research in Organizations and Management, Vol. 15 No. 3, pp. 257-278. https://doi.org/10.1108/QROM-10-2018-1690
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2019, Emerald Publishing Limited