TY - JOUR

T1 - Taking the long view: A cultural analysis of memory as resisting and facilitating organizational change

AU - Mccabe, Darren

PY - 2010

Y1 - 2010

N2 - Purpose – This paper aims to enhance understanding of organizational change by countering managerial and critical assumptions that it is possible to break with the past. Design/methodology/approach – A qualitative, case study approach involving interviews with 50 staff, ten supervisors, eight deputy supervisors, four assistant managers, two departmental managers plus the IT, training and personnel managers. The paper focuses on the experiences of supervisors and deputy supervisors. Findings – That culture cannot be so readily forgotten or reinvented as management gurus assume or critics fear. Memories are stubborn and culture is constituted through them in ways that lead to continuity and change. Research limitations/implications – Limitations leading to future research include that the study explores only one organization. Second, consultants are not used. Third, the reengineering only focus on a part of the organization. Fourth, the findings can be contrasted with an organization that is considered leading edge. Originality/value – The qualitative findings provide a complex understanding of change especially in terms of how memory can serve to both facilitate and hinder change initiatives and how attempts to introduce more “informal” cultures simultaneously reproduce “formality".

AB - Purpose – This paper aims to enhance understanding of organizational change by countering managerial and critical assumptions that it is possible to break with the past. Design/methodology/approach – A qualitative, case study approach involving interviews with 50 staff, ten supervisors, eight deputy supervisors, four assistant managers, two departmental managers plus the IT, training and personnel managers. The paper focuses on the experiences of supervisors and deputy supervisors. Findings – That culture cannot be so readily forgotten or reinvented as management gurus assume or critics fear. Memories are stubborn and culture is constituted through them in ways that lead to continuity and change. Research limitations/implications – Limitations leading to future research include that the study explores only one organization. Second, consultants are not used. Third, the reengineering only focus on a part of the organization. Fourth, the findings can be contrasted with an organization that is considered leading edge. Originality/value – The qualitative findings provide a complex understanding of change especially in terms of how memory can serve to both facilitate and hinder change initiatives and how attempts to introduce more “informal” cultures simultaneously reproduce “formality".

KW - Memory

KW - Organizational change

KW - Organizational culture

U2 - 10.1108/09534811011049581

DO - 10.1108/09534811011049581

M3 - Journal article

VL - 23

SP - 230

EP - 250

JO - Journal of Organizational Change Management

JF - Journal of Organizational Change Management

SN - 0953-4814

IS - 3

ER -