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Much has been theorized about what change strategies to employ given particular types of organizational change. Organizational theorists have linked participative strategies with culture change, strategies based on logic and reason with new technology implementations, and power strategies with the introduction of new laws and legislation. However, to what degree are these suggested recommendations carried out in organizations? In this paper, we explored the extent to which change recipients perceive the use of theorist recommended strategies when undergoing specific types of organizational changes. Using survey research (N = 88), we investigated the perceived relationship between two components of change: change content and change strategy. The results partially follow the ideals proposed by previous theorists, but they also highlight a significant relationship between power-coercive strategies and episodic change events that is contrary to those ideals. For practitioners, our findings draw attention to the connection between change content and change strategy in the hope of offering some guidance to those change agents who must determine how to lead a particular change initiative. Additionally, since our investigation is original and exploratory, we incite future research aimed at understanding the congruency between change content and change strategy formulation.

Robots face fundamental challenges in achieving reliable and stable operations for complex home service scenarios. This is one of the crucial topics of robotics methods to imitate human beings’ advanced cognitive characteristics and apply them to solve complex tasks. The purpose of this study is to enable robots to have the ability to understand the scene and task process in complex scenes and to provide a reference method for robot task programming in complex scenes.

This paper constructs a task modeling method for robots in complex environments based on the characteristics of the perception-motor memory model of human cognition. In the aspect of episodic memory construction, the task execution process is included in the category of qualitative spatio-temporal calculus. The topology interaction of objects in a task scenario is used to define scene attributes. The task process can be regarded as changing scene attributes on a time scale. The qualitative spatio-temporal activity graphs are used to analyze the change process of the object state with time during the robot task execution. The tasks are divided according to the different values of scene attributes at different times during task execution. Based on this, in procedural memory, an object-centered motion model is developed by analyzing the changes in the relationship between objects in the scene episode by analyzing the scene changes before and after the robot performs the actions. Finally, the task execution process of the robot is constructed by alternately reconstructing episodic memory and procedural memory.

To verify the applicability of the proposed model, a scenario where the robot combines the object (one of the most common tasks in-home service) is set up. The proposed method can obtain the landscape of robot tasks in a complex environment.

The robot can achieve high-level task programming through the alternating interpretation of scenarios and actions. The proposed model differs from traditional methods based on geometric or physical feature information. However, it focuses on the spatial relationship of objects, which is more similar to the cognitive mechanism of human understanding of the environment.

Strategic changes in an organization will face challenges not only related to the changes as such but also with regard to how the vision of the future is interpreted and understood by the organization. Visual management is a field of research that could contribute to change management research as a means to facilitate management of the dynamics in a change process and to facilitate the process of communication. The purpose of this paper is to problematize episodic change processes with regard to communication and to contribute with a proposed model on how to facilitate dynamic strategic change management using visual management.

The paper uses an interdisciplinary approach by linking change management literature to visual communication to be used for visual management.

A proposed model presents how a dynamic episodic change process can be managed in terms of visual management, potential pitfalls to avoid, and what ambidextrous capabilities are needed throughout the complete episodic change.

The proposed model is still yet theoretical, based on a literature review of dynamic change management and visual communication. Future research will validate the model in practice to confirm its robustness.

An implementation of visual management in Kotter’s (1995) eight steps on how to strategically manage change in combination with theories on ambidexterity and episodic change is suggested.

The paper contributes to how visual management can support change management by combining visual communication and change management.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the effect that training and development have on employee burnout during episodic organizational changes. Moreover, it investigates the mediating role of overall job satisfaction (OJS) in conjunction with the moderating role of personal computer (PC) literacy.

The study took place in Greece, in four branches of a public organization which adopted a new information technology (IT) system. Statistical analyses include exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis for instrument testing and multiple regressions for mediated moderation.

The findings provide partial support to the hypotheses. It appears that employee training and development are significant predictors of burnout, indeed. However, OJS mediates the effect of one dimension of each, namely training effectiveness and support. Concerning PC literacy, a full-mediated moderation was revealed in the case of training effectiveness and a partial-mediated moderation in the case of support.

As with most studies examining change initiatives, the main limitations of this study are the cross-sectional design, the possible self-selection bias, and the limited sample size.

The findings are important for preventing burnout during IT-related episodic changes, facilitating the successful implementation of change.

To the best of knowledge, this study is the first to examine burnout in a changing public setting. Additionally, no previous direct evidence exists regarding the relationship between training and development and burnout while the evidence on the impact of organizational resources on burnout is scarce.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a dynamic, multi-faceted and multi-temporal model of organizational change capability (OCC) to better grasp the complexity of this construct which is still mainly defined through its facilitating conditions rather than its own characteristics.

Building on the literature on organizational learning, punctuated equilibrium, continuous transformation, organizational ambidexterity and dynamic capabilities, this paper critically analyzes the OCC construct by challenging the ways it is currently studied.

This paper highlights that OCC contains five dynamically and temporally interrelated dimensions: learning from past change experience, managing continuous change, managing episodic change, managing change without compromising core organizational activities as well as anticipating future change. A set of propositions that link the construct to its facilitators and outcomes are also suggested.

This conceptual analysis shows that recognizing the existence of tensions in change management constructs is crucial to gaining a deeper understanding of the complexities that organizations are facing today. In addition, by proposing a model both in continuity with the literature by adopting a dynamic conception of OCC, but also in discontinuity by shifting the focal point of analysis towards the essence of the construct rather than its peripheral variables, this research takes a step forward to tackle the remaining misconceptions around the interpretation of change capability.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a process model on how mindfully performed organisational routines can simultaneously enable organisational stability and organisational change.

Via conceptual analysis, the authors develop several propositions and a process model integrating the theory of mindfulness and performative aspects of organisational routines with organisational stability and change. To do so, the authors review the literature on organisational routines, mindfulness, stability, inertia and change.

First, the authors demonstrate that, based on levels of mindfulness employed, performative aspects of organisational routines can be categorised as mindless, mindful and collectively mindful (meta-routines). Second, in the process model, the authors position the mindless performance of routines as enabling organisational stability, mediated through inertial pressure and disabling change, mediated through constrained change capacities. Finally, the authors state that engaging routines with mindfulness at an individual (mindful routines) or collective (meta-routines) level reduces inertia and facilitates change. Such simultaneous engagement leads to either sustaining stability when required or implementing continuous organisational change.

The framework uses continuous, versus episodic, change; future research can consider the model’s workability with episodic change. Future research can also seek to empirically validate the model. The authors hope that this model informs research in organisational change and provides guidance on addressing organisational inertia.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to categorise the performative aspects of organisational routine based on the extent of mindfulness employed and propose that mindfulness-based practice of routines stimulates either inertia-induced or inertia-free stability and continuous change.

The purpose of this study is to show how the presence of change caused a shift in the roles and responsibilities of the internal audit function (IAF).

The methodological design/approach was constructed by combining specific aspects of widely known management accounting and organizational change frameworks. The theoretical premise was based on the old institutional economics component of institutional theory. As such, this study used the case study method to examine and analyze the impact of this change in eight specific organizations using the new two-tiered organizational change framework.

This new framework analyzes the multidimensional facets of organizational change in the IAF. From the findings, it was observed that the change can be evolutionary, episodic, continuous and/or teleological, and people, organisms and organizations that are subject to it will react or respond to that change in a myriad of ways.

Moreover, the implications of change can be environmental, socioeconomic and political.

This study makes an intellectual contribution by introducing a new two-tiered organizational change framework to explain the IAF’s response to the environmental change factor of regulation.

Despite considerable conceptual interest in the relationship between organizational culture and various types of organizational change, empirical evidence regarding this relationship at different levels and types of change is surprisingly absent. This study examines whether organizational culture perceptions differ in frequently versus infrequently changing organizations, and whether this relationship is moderated by members' hierarchical level in the organization (i.e. staff, manager, executive).

Study includes culture survey data for 904 staff, managers and executives from one frequently changing and two infrequently changing organizations in the education sector.

Results show multiple non-monotonic organization-by-organizational level interaction effects on cultural style scores. In the frequently changing organization, executives report lower constructive cultural style scores and higher defensive cultural style scores than do managers and staff. In the infrequently changing organizations, executives, managers and staff report similar constructive and defensive style scores.

In frequently changing organizations, leaders are more likely to be discontent with the status quo and continuously encourage change efforts, while lower level members' have considerable experience with change and are empowered to continuously create change. The result is systematic differences in culture perceptions across levels, but also an agile organization capable of pursuing opportunities to improve organizational performance.

The authors’ findings show that systematic differences in perceptions of cultural styles across organizational levels relate to organizational change frequency. This contrasts with existing literature emphasizing the importance of culture perceptions being pervasive throughout the organization.

Complexity theorists propose that organizations are made up of complex responsive processes in which people create and recreate organizational forms through dynamic micro-level interactions. Social constructionists add that conversations are the means by which these interactions occur. Our analysis illustrates how the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) engaged a wide range of stakeholders in a successful dialogue process to recreate a new system for monitoring nuclear reactors. The success was due, in large part, to the conversational qualities tacitly and explicitly agreed to by those involved in the process which included a spirit of freedom, inclusion, inquiry, spontaneity, and possibility. Using a grounded theory building process, we show how these qualities produced transformative change by increasing levels of interconnectivity, shared identity, and collective capacity among participants. These findings provide the beginnings of a model for understanding continuous and transformative change and demonstrate the value of engaging the “whole system” in sustained dialogue, even in complex, highly regulated environments.

The purpose of this paper is to establish a link between Six Sigma and organizational change theory. Specifically, a framework that aligns Six Sigma critical success/hindering factors and the antecedents of successful organizational change process.

A theory‐derived framework containing Six Sigma's critical success and hindering factors at each stage of Lewinian change process is first proposed. Then, the framework is compared against the findings from a case study of Six Sigma improvement project in a UK, make‐to‐order, small to medium‐sized enterprise (SME).

There is a great deal of congruence (consistency) between Six Sigma's critical success factors and the antecedents of successful organizational change. Addressing people's “soft” skills (e.g. commitment, involvement, and communication) is necessary to “unfreeze” the equilibrium. The actual change and confrontation, which occur during “move” stage, requires a combination of both “software” and “hardware” of the organization (i.e. teamwork, methods/tools, organizational structure and culture). It is important for SMEs to provide resources during the “freeze” stage and justify the benefits of change, in order to sustain the change efforts.

This research was based on a single case of Six Sigma improvement project. However, future research will be conducted as a longitudinal study, to capture richer insights from the change process.

This paper offers a practical overview of how Six Sigma can be utilized as a change driver in SMEs and the enablers and barriers of success to be considered, especially during the early stage of adoption.