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Throughout the present paper we discuss the relationship of organizational change and innovation within business companies. Within the first section of the paper we review the main features of the organizational change concept and we emphasize the source for the need of organizational change. Throughout the second part of the paper we present the managerial issues related to coordinating organizational change. Thus we discuss from managerial point of view the importance to acknowledge the effects of change and the necessary actions for each stage of the change process. Considering nowadays turbulent environment, managers worldwide have reached the conclusion that the success of their companies depends to a great extent directly to their management of change. The content of the third section is allocated to presenting the role of innovation within companies. We discuss about the implications of innovation at a micro level, within companies, and also at a macro level, within the knowledge-based economy, related to which is considered as a pillar. In this context, the elaboration and implementation of the right strategy, whether based on organizational change or organizational innovation, depends mainly on the leader’s managerial skills. In conclusion, we argue that innovation and change are interdependent and form a dynamic relationship which makes it difficult to argue which of them generates the other. Throughout this work we emphasize that management of change and innovation within organizations should consider the managerial approach of people, resources and processes.

The advent of new ICTs brought a lot of new assumptions about radical changes in our society. In the context of the arrival of a new society, public administration was supposed to witness (and to address or implement) changes at different levels, such as:• citizenship (citizens becoming participants in governance or even a shift to e-democracy);• the nature of public service jobs (in terms of skills, work processes and job design);• organizational changes (from a hierarchical to a more horizontal structure, to network or even virtual organizations); and• the entire government (from classic bureaucracy to New Public Management and to network and digital governance). Technological change cannot be judged outside the social, economic and political frameworks. The massive change in our society cannot be explained only by technological (especially ICT) factors. Excluding other factors may help us predict easier (but not more accurately) future evolutions but as a scientific effort it is a bad practice. Much of the assumptions about technological change came from hasty generalizations. The changing nature of some collective actions, jobs in certain areas of the economy or organizations were considered as optimal (and necessary) paths for the entire society (from individual to national levels). Public administration reforms are far from being a consequence of new technologies. Moreover public administration reforms do not embed ICTs and do not have a happy marriage with e-government.

This paper proposes an analogy between rational biological model and the organizations’ development during their existence. So, organizations’ "birth" or creation are considered the result of genetic algorithms, transformations are identified with changes that aim the adapting to the environment, and finally the ”death” treats the state of crisis and bankruptcy. In every stage of life there are proposals to increase it, by extension of states identified in the human area and not taken into account in the artificial one, which must learn from the first system, which we consider superior in the process of evolution. Although the authors’ approaches, do not build operational models to support the thesis presented, ask questions and focus on elements of management philosophy that "tomorrow" will certainly be resolved.

This article aims to demonstrate the analytical power of the imagery concept for an organizational analysis. The gaps in organizational studies justify building new reference pictures in the organizational culture, with imagery as a starting point, considering subjectivity as an object of the phenomenology investigation and imagery as an object of anthropology and sociology. The analytical perspective follows the sociology of the knowledge and, in this context, applications of anthropology, general sociology, analytical and social psychologies are presented. The result is an organizational imagery accessed by the objectivity of the subjects, through the language, where the images attributed to the reality emerge.

A no-blame culture is widely accepted as a collaboration driver yet we see surprisingly scant literature on the theoretical underpinnings for the construction and project management context. A no-blame culture in project alliances, as conducted in Australasia, promotes innovative thinking in action. Innovation is dependent upon collaboration and true collaboration is inextricably linked with behavioural drivers. Foremost of these is a culture of openness and willingness to share the pain and gain from experimentation, one that requires that collaborators be protected from the threat of being blamed and held accountable for experimental failure. The Australasian project alliance procurement form has a unique ‘no-blame’ behavioural contract clause that can result in the type of breakthrough thinking crucial in developing a collaborative culture where innovation can evolve through a process of trial and error. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Purpose - This work aims to develop a process model for the migration of the traditional firm to an appropriate e-business strategy and architecture. Design/methodology/approach - The work is based on a range of published works and professional experience, combining narrative with analysis. Findings - This complex model addresses the multiplicity of factors that must be included in effective e-business migration. The model addresses technology, business processes, strategy and the consequent organizational change. Originality/value - Focuses on a model that can serve as a basis for dispelling a number of myths reflected in current e-business migration and implementation efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - To introduce the special issue on organizational transformation and e-business implementation. Design/methodology/approach - Provides a brief review of the papers within the issue. Findings - The organization transformation brought on by the internet and the adoption of e-business approaches are fertile ground for continuing work. Virtually, all aspects of the structure and process within the organization are affected. Originality/value - Provides a summary of the perspectives considered within the issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The global business world is infected by a virus that induces a permanent need for organizational change, which is fed by the management consultancy industry. The nature of the organizational change hype changes colour frequently, through the emergence of new universal management fashions. An urge to change is understandable from the perspectives of the consultant and the manager, but often organizational changes are ineffective or counter-productive when implemented. In this context, this article's purpose is threefold. First, on the basis of an interpretation of different literatures, we flesh out an argument about the nonsense of organizational change that is driven by sick consultancy metaphors. Second, we argue that the application of healthy organization theories offers ample guidelines for organizational change initiatives that make more sense than prominent management consultancy rhetoric. Third, puffing both strings together, we plead for the development of an evidence-based (change) consultancy practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objects are produced within, and simultaneously affect, the process of organizing as a consequence of their interaction within social collectives. This paper discusses the impact and influences of the growth of post-social relations, between human and technological objects, on social and organizational arrangements. The paper presents a discussion largely at the conceptual level and draws from a variety of literatures, including the burgeoning sociology of science literature. The discussion in this paper is based on a view that posits the growth of intimate links with epistemic objects within organizations and society. Organizing through networks of post-social relations increasingly comes to affect the manner in which differing groups of organizational participants, and particularly various categories of knowledge workers, experience time and spatial arrangements within organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One key to why organizations have been less successful at integrating a work family agenda into their organizational cultures is that workplaces have failed to consider how gender assumptions influence workplace practices, policies and cultures. This paper presents a theoretical framework for considering how gender role assumptions have prevented organizational attempts to become family friendly. Further, this paper uses an organizational case study to illustrate this point. Specifically, a theory of gendered organizations is used to frame an analysis of 30 employee interviews. Data suggest that gendered organizational assumptions inherent to several workplace policies and practices contribute to employee strain associated with negotiating the demands of life on and off the lob. Further, the findings show that these gendered organizational assumptions prevent organizations from developing workplace cultures responsive to employees' work, family and personal needs. A brief review of the interdisciplinary work family field is presented, followed by a discussion of gendered organizations. Then, using interview data collected from management and 'front-line' female and male workers employed at a municipal government, this paper examines how workplace practices, presumably gender neutral, affect employees and the organizational culture in which they work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contributes a collaboration approach for achieving the goals of helping an organization transform itself and expanding the body of knowledge. To support these goals, the collaboration must meet four knowledge objectives: create, assimilate, disseminate, and apply knowledge about organizational change and transformations. Four operating principles help achieve these outcomes. Enacting three functions (i.e. technical assistance, training/education, and research) accomplish the desired goals and objectives. Within this collaboration, an applied research strategy is described with five dimensions: paradigm (i.e. action research and case study), timing (i.e. initial, ongoing, post), data sources (i.e. internal, external, and literature), data collection method, and research stage (i.e. pre, central, follow-up). Reflection on the implementation of the approach with ongoing projects at the Kennedy Space Center provides a description of the researcher's role and lessons learned. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Constellations--alliances among multiple firms--are used to perform complex, customized work in professional service. We examine two tensions inherent in multi-party collaborative work: managing hybrid systems, which are composed of individual and group tasks and outcomes, and aligning partners' logics of action, These two tensions provide firms the strategic choice with emphasizing individual or collective advantage. When constellation members pursue an individualist strategy, they employ an entrepreneurial logic. Constellations are a vehicle for honing their firm-distinctive expertise and enhancing their own opportunities. Given these firms' need for exposure to new learning and new markets from different partners and clients, the stability of the constellation is not of primary importance. This strategy promotes membership shifts in constellations and requires governance mechanisms for coordinating interactions among relative strangers. When constellation members pursue a collectivist strategy, they focus on their mutual benefits and employ a relational logic. Given these firms' need for intensifying relations with partners and clients, constellation members restrict interactions to certain select partners and clients and intensify their interactions. This strategy promotes stability in constellation membership and allows governance mechanisms specific to partners to develop. Due to positive feedback, these strategies develop certain capabilities and create specific relational patterns, which reinforce prior choices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we argue for the need to develop a gendered understanding of processes of organizational change. However, this should not simply be seen as a question of the proportions of women and men at different levels in the hierarchy. Organizational culture and the gendered metaphors and rhetorics that are used within the organization are also shown to be significant. Our analysis focuses upon a single case, a historical and sociological study of Relate, formerly the National Marriage Guidance Council. This case is especially interesting in that issues of gender inevitably enter into its primary task, the treatment of matital difficulties, and that as a voluntary organization it has employed a high proportion of unpaid women in the key activity of counseling, while the managerial positions have been dominated by men. This organization experienced a period of crisis in the 1980s culminating in the commissioning of a report from a firm of management consultants. We argue that the analysis of organizational difficulties at this time was considerably weakened by the failure to develop an understanding of complex issues of gender. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores the attitude of managers toward their careers in the context of restructuring processes which limit opportunities for hierarchical advancement and which also reduce job security. For managers in large-scale organizations, careers have traditionally provided a set of organizing principles around which they have been able to structure both their private and professional lives. Through them, they have been able to experience a sense of security, stability, and order. Personal feelings of growth and advancement have been achieved through jobs which provide not only the opportunities for the completion of specific tasks but also a mean whereby longer-term personal goals can be achieved. The article presents a survey of managers employed in six major corporations in Great Britain. In all, 374 managers completed questionnaires. A representative group of 80 men and women were then chosen for further in-depth interviews which were conducted in the respondents' homes, tape recorded, and later transcribed. The article found among other things that, for men and women in every age band and for men at all levels of seniority, the promotion gap represents the most significant potential source of job dissatisfaction.