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The objective of this paper is to provide insight beyond the internal dynamic of organizational change and explore how organizations contribute, at the symbolic and aesthetic level, to the experiential stabilization of spatio‐temporal change within society more generally. As such, the paper seeks to contribute to critical debates surrounding the relationships between organization and society, particularly in terms of understanding change as an outcome of organizational activity within the broader socio‐cultural environment.

Concerned as it is with the critical interpretation of visual image and composition, the paper adopts a broadly structural‐hermeneutic framework directed at the semiotic analysis of a sample of organizational artifacts; in this instance, a sample of company documents chosen by virtue of their communicative intent and rich symbolic and aesthetic content.

It is argued in the paper that several recurring or generic constellations of meaning can be identified across the documents; vitality, ephemerality, subordination and authenticity, each of which represents an attempt to mediate the experiential tensions that emerge both from the dynamic and spatio‐temporal instabilities generated by the socio‐economic relations of modernity and the mode of organization which predominates within it.

Generated from an intensive sample, employing a subjectivist mode of analysis the paper does not seek to offer an exhaustive or unduly generaliseable overview of the content of organizational documentation. Rather, it aims to present a plausible account, given the broader socio‐cultural context within which they are generated, of a range of recurring themes or genres which indicate a significant relationship between organizational visual culture and the wider stabilisation of socio‐psychological relations within modernity.

This paper provides an interesting insight into the internal dynamic of organizational change.

Radical notions of recognition at work have not been considered widely in respect of organizational change. This article examines the introduction of a change programme across two UK police departments, during which front-line officers were actively involved and consulted throughout its pilot phase. The purpose of this article is to consider the question of whether or not a perceived sense of recognition amongst officers contributed to the success of this initiative.

The research utilizes qualitative data derived from individual interviews, focus groups and observations, gathered over one year, within two UK police departments. The data was analysed thematically. Reflection, and an ongoing discussion with officers, led to a theoretical exploration of recognition in order to explore the apparent success of the programme.

Recognition, consisting of a sense of love, respect and esteem, appears to offer a notable impetus to the acceptance of a change programme within a traditionally change averse organization. Resistance to organizational change may be better addressed through a strategy that seeks to actively promote the claims to recognition of organizational members, particularly through the extension of a right to participate within the context of a supportive and protective culture of engagement.

The article utilizes the novel, but increasingly utilized, theory of recognition to analyse and explain positive employee involvement in a change programme within the police. An approach that helped to achieve change in a widely acknowledged change-resistant organization.

The paper aims to introduce the manner in which management and organization theory have viewed space and time as significant resources and to put forward a number of more contemporary views as to how space and time is both managed and experienced.

The paper adopts a postmodern approach in assembling what it regards as “fragments” from a variety of disciplinary discourses on space and time. Each fragment presents, putatively, a different voice, theme or motif which are intended to help the reader better understand the trajectories contained in the other papers in the volume.

The paper finds that conceptions of space and time are fundamental to the manner in which organizations are managed and organized and are a symbolic order inter‐related to themes of power and control. The manner in which we experience space and time is open to manipulation and specifically a form compression that displaces critical reflection and may make individuals prone to external locus of control. The manner in which time and space are linked to the suppression of human agency and the imperatives of capitalism cannot be overestimated and require reflexive consideration.

The paper, and the volume as a whole, recognises time and space as social constructions and thus open to “reconstruction”. Space and time are not simple a priori categories that are fixed, immutable absolutes and knowable entities. The recognition of the intersubjective “nature” of space and time is shown to help us better appreciate the different manner in which space and time is experienced and the manner in which space and time are used in the management of change.

This paper aims to explore the ways in which recent “managerial” changes in Australian universities affect academics' experiences of their working lives; and the significance of time and space in academics' resistance to managerialism.

This paper draws on interviews with 27 academics from eight Australian universities, in which they explored their experiences of managerialism. The analysis reported here focuses on academics' experiences of time and space in the managerial university. A Foucauldian approach to power and resistance underpins the overall research approach employed in this study.

The paper finds that academics in this study argued that managerial practices in their universities imposed significant time‐burdens in already full workloads. However, many of them also employed time and space – often in highly creative way – in resisting these same practices. Much of this resistance involves academics “fiddling” time and space from themselves in order to fulfil their obligations as teachers and research. Such resistance has implications for further academic demoralisation and burnout.

While other studies have acknowledged academics' opposition to managerialism in their universities, this study focus specifically on the ways in which this opposition is enacted in resistance.

This paper aims to examine how metaphors mediate organizational change across space and time.

The data consist of 113 speeches by vice‐chancellors of a distance learning university, recorded in texts. Texts are apposite for this research as they transmit meaning across time and space. Hermeneutics is an appropriate methodology because it enables interpretation across temporal and spatial distance.

The paper finds that textual metaphors mediate organizational change across space and time in five ways: transferring from familiarity to strangeness, providing coherence, “breaking distance” changing reality through changing language, and recontextualising.

The study focuses on formal organizational texts and excludes informal texts and conversation. Change outcomes are not studied; there should be further research on how metaphors affect change over time and space.

Metaphors enable managers to communicate change across time and space. Textual metaphors are continuously available and interactive, enabling dialogue between managers and staff across space and time.

The paper furthers our knowledge of how metaphors mediate change across both space and time. Metaphors translate the organization across distance, fusing spatial and temporal horizons, effecting organizational change by changing language. The organization becomes a metaphor of itself, recontextualising across time and space.

This paper aims to investigate the shifting boundaries between two experiential categories – home and work – for office workers. The boundaries are both spatial and temporal, and the paper seeks to analyse how certain kinds of mobile technology are being used in such a way as to make these boundaries increasingly permeable.

The research involved both the collection of quantitative data using a survey tool, and the gathering of qualitative data through in‐depth interviews.

The paper finds that the mobile technology discussed enables work extension – the ability to work outside the office, outside “normal” office hours. This provides flexibility with respect to the timing and location of work, and makes it easier to accommodate both work and family. But at the same time, of course, it also increases expectations: managers and colleagues alike expect staff to be almost always available to do work, which makes it easier for work to encroach on family time, and also leads to a greater workload. The ability to perform work extension is, then, a dual‐edged sword.

The paper provides both managers and non‐managers with insight into the effects of providing mobile technology to office workers, and suggests some mechanisms to mitigate negative effects.

The paper explores the impact of mobile technologies on non‐mobile office staff.

The purpose of this paper is to question extant categorizations of organization and to introduce the concept of the hypermodern organization. In so doing, it aims to contribute to the understanding of the hypermodern organization by means of a case study of the accelerated appearance and disappearance of Enron.

Consideration is given in the paper to organization and its various forms, namely, the premodern, the modern and the postmodern organization. The hypermodern organization is then introduced and elaborated upon. To demonstrate the contemporary relevance of the hypermodern organization the increasing speed of both the appearance and disappearance of Enron is reviewed. The contribution of an increase in velocity to the disintegration of the hypermodern organization of Enron is considered.

Existing approaches to organizations and organizational change in the main fail to recognize the context and impact of hypermodernity. To address this, the paper introduces and develops the concept of the hypermodern organization. The relevance of the hypermodern organization to an appreciation of organization and organizational change is demonstrated through an analysis of the accelerated appearance and disappearance of Enron.

The paper introduces a new conception of organization and organizational change. Further research is necessary to verify and build on the findings.

The paper contributes to the understanding of organizations and organizational change. It argues that the information and consumer‐driven societies of the advanced countries are characterized by hypermodernity. Existing approaches to organizations and organizational change essentially disregard the significance and impact of the hypermodern organization. The paper suggests that one of the results of the hypermodern organization is the accelerated appearance and disappearance of business organizations.

The aim of this paper is explore consequences of ambivalence and ambiguity on self‐concept, decision‐making, and quality of interrelationships between management and employees in one for‐profit organisation.

Data were re‐read to reveal that organisational members were constantly engaged in the process of changing their perceptions of “who” and “what” were “good” and “bad” in reaction to environmental change impacts.

The paper finds that philosophically, “splitting” is an age‐old form of decision‐making; psychodynamically, “splitting” is not necessarily a signal to a pathology but instead is merely an initiator of ambiguity and ambivalence that leverages change; from a change management perspective, “splitting” can reinforce polarisation that can impede the desire to engage in continual change; and predictions and perceptions of change consequences underscore both the quality and quantity of “splitting” in regard to polarisation. “Splitting” is an integral defense and offense change mechanism that occurs in all decision‐making, so practical implications are that its affects on self and other concepts need to be understood. To establish equalising and non‐polarised interrelationships between “employer” and “worker” and to negate the line between management and employee, exercises in recognition of mutual causation such as servant leadership practises can be introduced.

Unparalleled synthesis of seemingly divergent theoretical and practical studies, this paper is a valuable ontological and epistemological tool for ongoing investigation into complexity theory, including self and other organisation.