Phase One: the Tipping Point

Abstract

As we’ve seen from the previous chapter, most large complex organisations are fairly inert in terms of developing a radical change process. What is needed is an external shock to move the organisation away from its equilibrium conditions and into a period of radical change (Gersick 1991; Dawson 2003b; Buchanan 2011). For the RUC that ‘shock’ came in the form of the IRA and loyalist ceasefires of 1994. These ceasefires changed the political landscape of Northern Ireland and, for the first time in decades, gave room for the possibility of genuine political progress. They also brought policing to the fore of the debate about peace and the future of the region. This chapter and the three that follow it track the process of change within the organisation itself, from the ceasefires in 1994, through to renewed turbulence in 2011. Each traces one stage in the process and moves through inflections in power, decision-making and strategy. They provide a portal into the realities of how such transitions instigate, develop, gather momentum and sometimes stall in the face of complexity and resistance. This first phase tells the story from the ceasefires in 1994, through the development of a ‘Fundamental Review’ in 1996 and the consultation over the Patten proposals in 1999–2000. It also covers a period during which the organisation had a very significant change in leadership.