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Although there has been substantial academic and practitioner interest into innovative structural arrangements, the study of structural transformation and the structural practices of small to medium‐sized organizations in traditional industries has been relatively ignored. This article presents empirical evidence of a company that changed its organizational structure from a traditional bureaucracy to a structure that was fundamentally different from those of other firms within its industry. The changed structure was characterized by many novel attributes such as devolved responsibility, empowerment, community orientation and a lack of hierarchy. Although there was some evidence to suggest that the structure had positive performance implications, the study also finds that the content, context and process of change were influenced by a dominant managing director such that the outcomes masked underlying political issues. The article concludes by discussing the theoretical and practical implications of the findings.

This chapter draws on biographical interviews to analyze identity-based interpretations of inequalities by disabled people in France, as these understandings are formed and transformed over the course of their lives. We combined the material from two different studies to create a corpus of 65 life stories from working-age people with contrasting impairments in terms of type, degree, and onset, as well as various profiles in terms of gender, race, and class. When talking about the inequalities they face, respondents commonly made use of identity labels (gender, class, race, disability), among those available in their micro and macro environments. They usually presented these categories as separate and cumulative, and only a few upper-class disabled women developed reflections in line with an intersectional model. This fragmentation of identity categories translated into the framing of each inequality encountered through a single lens. Respondents mentioned race, class, or gender mainly when evoking topics and contexts that the public debate highlights as problematic, while their references to disability covered a variety of disadvantages. Although the interview situation might have fueled this framing, we also showed that certain earlier socialization processes led people to believe that their disability was the source of the inequalities they encountered. Lastly, we identified three turning points that encourage shifts in the interpretation of inequalities; these are the availability of a new label to qualify one's experience, a competing identity-based interpretation for a mechanism, and access to a different, intersectional model of inequality.

The purpose of this article is to show the foundational place that communication theory and its practice occupies in functioning work systems.

This paper defines the word communication in terms of the creation and interpretation of displays, describes what it means to have a theoretical foundation for a discipline, identifies and elaborates on the development driving force of human resource development (HRD), presents and explains a model of a work system in which HRD functions, and elaborates on the role, function, and place of communicative acts in the maintenance of the work system and the work of HRD professionals.

The article posits that communication theory underlies the processes and activities of both scholars and practitioners of HRD. Finally, it argues that courses in communication theory and organizational communication are essential in the preparation of both scholars and practitioners.

Research on the vagaries of communication in work systems may need to focus on identifying the causes of more easily identified symptoms. Researchers must be constantly alert to the changing role of communication as both a symptom and a cause of effective and ineffective work system functioning.

Since human resource development is applied, practiced, and used predominantly in work systems, sensitivity to the fundamental role that communication plays in work systems may allow HRD practitioners to take a communicative perspective in analyzing and solving problems.

This article directs readers to the main, fundamental issue in organizations and highlights the central role of communication in the functioning and development of both the human resources and the work system.

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the debate initiated by the “historic turn.” This debate has seen several rebuttals of the methodologies and conceptual frameworks advocated by proponents of the “historic turn” including ANTi-History. In contributing to this debate, this paper provides a discussion on some of the ongoing debates within the field. The purpose is to neither condemn nor defend – but to clarify and find points of agreement.

The design implied is an overview of some of the themes in the field – locating key concepts of agreement and key aspects of disagreement.

There is a middle ground between the two schools. One is a continued focus on primary sources, the use of new methodologies, understanding context and some new approaches. We must carefully consider context and text and limit the use of concepts that have real limitations.

This is an overview of the field by someone who was considered a critic of the new history. The purpose is to find middle ground.

This paper examines the elements of active scanning as a tool to interpret rapidly changing markets. Active scanning is the concerted effort of an organization to direct its intelligence gathering activities toward its environment, markets and customers by integrating diverse information inputs into a cohesive perspective of rapidly changing markets and emerging opportunities. A Delphi process was used to present these elements to a panel of senior decision‐makers including Directors and Vice‐Presidents from Compaq, AT&T, Microsoft and IBM. The results suggest that the active scanning is important to organizations operating in turbulent environments when future states are unpredictable. The implications include developing new sensing and interpretation skills for managers to help the organization interpret and respond to their environmental pressures.

The purpose of this study is to examine and establish how sensemaking develops among a group of external change agents (ECAs) engaged to disseminate a national quality register nationwide in Swedish health care and elderly care. To study the emergent sensemaking, the theoretical concept of cognitive shift has been used.

The data collection method included individual semi-structured interviews, and two sets of interviews (initial sensemaking and renewed sensemaking) have been conducted. Based on a typology describing how ECAs interpret their work, structural analyses and comparisons of initial and renewed sensemaking are made and illuminated in spider diagrams. The data are then analyzed to search for cognitive shifts.

The ECAs’ sensemaking develops. Three cognitive shifts are identified, and a new kind of issue-related cognitive shift, the outcome-related cognitive shift, is suggested. For the ECAs to customize their work, they need to be aware of how they interpret their own work and how these interpretations develop over time.

The study takes a novel view of the interrelated concepts of sensemaking and sensegivers and points out the cognitive shifts as a helpful theoretical concept to study how sensemaking develops.

Recent research shows that organisational mergers are distressing for managers. This study compares the perceptions of managers who have undergone an organisational merger with those of managers who have experienced other types of job change. An analysis of psychological responses to work and to the organisation suggests that previous reports of adversity are overstated. Managers′ responses to mergers appear to be similar to experiences of other job changes.

The concepts of “historically valuable landscape,” “historical landscape space,” “landscape space attached to an object of cultural importance,” etc. seem to be understood by most landscape professionals, yet these terms are highly abstract with many possible interpretations. The protected zone of cultural monuments prescribed by law helps to ensure the preservation of these historic artifacts and signifiers of local heritage. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

This paper seeks to provide guidelines that can be articulated to protect cultural landscapes. These guidelines are based on a manorial core study was carried out in 2010 to analyze the changes in road networks and spatial systems of manors over the past 150 years. This study is part of a larger research effort on different aspects of Estonian baroque manor gardens.

Many landscapes may contain historically relevant objects and phenomena not protected by law, which, nevertheless form the basis of a unique local landscape. The altering of such a landscape not only changes its natural form, but may directly impact the cultural identity and milieu of the area, thereby affecting how its inhabitants relate to their environment.

Preservation of historic buildings and landscapes plays an important role particularly in relation to manor landscapes. This network has remained well preserved, and the rural landscape based on this Baltic-German manor culture is still strongly reflected in the current landscape through the existing historic landscape elements like housing, viewsheds, roads, etc. Without landscape analysis, it can be challenging for an outsider to understand the spatial context, especially when it has changed and evolved through the years.

Narrative and dialogic modes of theorizing identity are both premised on textuality. However, theories of narrative identity tend towards unity and coherence (in accordance with the notion of narrative as constant and pre‐given), whereas the dialogic mode is more aligned with the postmodern novelistic literature (thus drawing heavily on dispersion, voice, disorder, and otherness). In accordance with the approach of Mikhail Bakhtin, the present study attempts to remedy the shortcomings of narrative identity by proposing change as involving shifting identities that are achieved through the transposition of utterances. Only through the recognition of the undecidable, unfinalizable nature of utterance can change be conceived as being shaped and reshaped through shifting identities. Such an approach reveals the interlocking relation between change and the varied texts people inhabit as they contemplate change.

There is a growing consensus about the role of communication in facilitating employees' acceptance of and support for organizational change initiatives. However, little is known about why communication breakdowns occur during change or how change recipients' cultural values can influence the effectiveness of communication in this context. The study addresses this gap.

The authors develop a theoretical framework that links four purposes of communication during change—disrupting, envisioning, legitimizing, and co-creating—to change recipients' cultural orientations. The authors also develop propositions that highlight how change agents' cultural sensitivity influences the relationship between communication purpose and the change readiness of change recipients.

The study implies that greater awareness and consideration of cultural values can reduce the likelihood of communication breakdowns and promote greater acceptance of and support for change initiatives. The authors conclude by discussing the implications of their theoretical framework for micro-level perspectives on change.

Although failures to change have in the past been linked to poor communication efforts by change agents, less is known about how or why communication breakdowns occur from the perspective of change recipients. The framework teases out issues related to the “what”, ‘how”, and “why” aspects of communication and offers prescriptions on the best approaches to communicate change.

Despite the rise of multicultural workforces and a recognition of the role played by cultural values in influencing leadership practices across cultures, theories of change have neglected these elements. Effective change efforts not only help enable economic and social renewal, they also enable the well-being of employees. Additionally, many change initiatives in the modern era have social implications (e.g. enhancing sustainability, inclusion and diversity).

A key contribution is a synthesis of different bodies of literature that have developed separately from each other. The authors offer some nuanced and counter-intuitive insights into what makes communication effective during change and identify culturally sensitive communication as an antecedent of change readiness.