Abstract
Theories of organizational design provide limited guidance in the ongoing adjustment to web technologies. There is also a gap between the rather sophisticated theories of change that analyze how and why change occurs and the practice-oriented focus of the implementation and guidance of actual change processes. This chapter attempts to close this gap by illustrating how recent developments in change theory may be useful in understanding the actual adoption and implementation of emergent Internet technologies. Empirically, the paper draws on two surveys of Internet-technology adoption by Nordic banks and manufacturers. The theoretical point of departure is Van de Ven and Poole’s (1995) identification of four basic types of change processes: life cycle, teleological, dialectical, and evolutionary change. These theories all encapsulate planned organizational change in that they can explain actual processes and outcomes, including how organizational change emerges and develop in adapting to Internet technology based on characteristics of organizations at different stages of Internet adoption. They may also help to explain the apparently small impact of participation. In a practical perspective, they can enrich the perceptions of participants in actual projects. On this basis we argue for more comprehensive diagnostic models of organizational change.
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Nielsen, J.F. (2006). Models of Change, Organizational Redesign, and the Adoption of Web Technologies. In: Burton, R.M., Håkonsson, D.D., Eriksen, B., Snow, C.C. (eds) Organization Design. Information and Organization Design Series, vol 6. Springer, Boston, MA . https://doi.org/10.1007/0-387-34173-0_13
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/0-387-34173-0_13
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