Dynamics of Drivers of Organizational Change

Accomplishing organizational change is a challenging managerial task. Often, organizations have difficulties in recognizing the need to change. Nicole Zimmermann investigates the barriers to, but also in particular the drivers of organizational change. Sh

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GABLER RESEARCH

Nicole Zimmermann

Dynamics of Drivers of Organizational Change With a foreword by Prof. Dr. Dr. h. c. Peter Milling

RESEARCH

Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data are available in the Internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de.

Dissertation University of Mannheim, 2010

1st Edition 2011 All rights reserved © Gabler Verlag | Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH 2011 Editorial Office: Stefanie Brich | Nicole Schweitzer Gabler Verlag is a brand of Springer Fachmedien. Springer Fachmedien is part of Springer Science+Business Media. www.gabler.de No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the copyright holder. Registered and/or industrial names, trade names, trade descriptions etc. cited in this publication are part of the law for trade-mark protection and may not be used free in any form or by any means even if this is not specifically marked. Cover design: KünkelLopka Medienentwicklung, Heidelberg Printed on acid-free paper Printed in the Netherlands ISBN 978-3-8349-3051-4

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Foreword The design of organizational change has become a permanent managerial task in order for organizations to adapt to their environment or to exert influence on it. Accordingly, change in organizations can be reactive and proactive; either as a response to new demands which exert influence on the organization from outside, or as a deliberate measure to gain competitive advantage. Drivers of change and its management are the focus of Nicole Zimmermann’s dissertation. It explains change in organizational structures and processes by the interaction of internal and external stimuli. Here, it addresses the question of why some organizations are able to recognize new challenges early on and face them adequately, while others persist in their habituated structures and behavior patterns and are finally driven out of the market. Two major research questions are at the core of the investigation: (i) what are the drivers of organizational change, and (ii) is a history of successful change processes helpful or obstructive for further change? As such, problems are investigated as to why companies in a more specific sense and organizations in a more general sense have difficulties to change their strategies which have proven successful in the past whenever circumstances change. It is an important methodological characteristic of the stated problem and indeed a trivial fact that organizational change is a highly dynamic phenomenon. However, much research that addresses this topic employs methods that are adequate for static subjects of study. Often, this results in considerable differences in organizational theories and in their statements concerning change. The example of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) represen