مقاله انگلیسی رایگان در مورد پیش بینی تغییر سازمانی – امرالد 2018

Purpose – Existing research on the organizational implications of the introduction of new information technology (IT) has neglected to focus on the anticipation of organizational change. In this paper, the author examines the extended pre-implementation phase prior to the introduction of the largest-ever health IT (HIT) implementation in Denmark. The purpose of this paper is to expand the conceptualization of organizational change to include the neglected pre-implementation phase preceding large-scale organizational change projects. Design/methodology/approach – The research is based on qualitative data consisting of interviews, documents and observations gathered during a three-year research project in the Danish health sector. An important source of methodical inspiration has been grounded theory, which has allowed the pertinent interview themes to evolve and allowed for the gradual development of a theoretical framework. Findings – The main finding of this paper is that the anticipatory pre-implementation phase is not simply passive waiting time for organizational members. Evidence from a three-year research project demonstrates how organizational members engage in recurring patterns of sensemaking, positioning and scripting of possible futures in preparation for the organizational changes that next generation HIT imposes. The study argues that resistance to organizational change may be better understood as resistance to having to give up institutionalized rights and responsibilities. Originality/value – The paper offers a conceptual model—the anticipation cycle—that enables the systematic analysis of the relational mechanisms at work when organizational members are preparing for pending organizational change. Early analysis based on the anticipation cycle enables organizations and scholars to bring previously black-boxed anticipatory patterns into the equation of organizational change.

Introduction

It is well established in organization studies that technology and information technology (IT) implementations affect relationships in organizations (e.g. Barley, 1986; Orlikowski, 1992; Perrow, 1967) and that for an IT implementation to be successful, the receiving organization needs to adapt (e.g. Burton-Jones and Grange, 2013; Orlikowski, 2000). The successful organizational implementation of new technologies is not merely a question of plugging in hardware, installing software and training users. From a health informatics perspective, focus has, e.g., been placed on the organizational consequences of the implementation of electronic health records (e.g. Berg, 2001; Greenhalgh et al., 2013; Lorenzi and Riley, 2010). A shared characteristic of the studies mentioned above and of the majority of the existing studies in organization studies, IT studies and health studies are, however, the focus on completed or ongoing implementations. I argue that by focusing exclusively on the experiences of past and present technology implementations, an important aspect of the implementations of new technology is missed. What about the months and years that precede the “go-live” of large-scale IT solutions, where organizational members know that changes are coming but know little or nothing specific about how they will be affected? What about the future? What can be learned from people’s anticipations and the antenarratives (Boje, 1991, 2001) of those on the receiving end of health IT (HIT)? I propose that organizational change projects that neglect to take anticipation adequately into consideration are at risk of creating blind spots and thus sowing the seeds of future problems when progressing from ideas and plans to action and actual change.