The evolving role of managers and non-manager professionals in a dispersed change management context: issues and implications

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Doyle, M, 2008. The evolving role of managers and non-manager professionals in a dispersed change management context: issues and implications. PhD, Nottingham Trent University.

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Abstract

This study carries forward earlier research by the author into the management of change and the evolving role of managers and professionals who now find themselves involved or implicated in the process of organisational change. The conceptual focus for the study is the dynamic interplay between the structures that are generating the distribution of change management responsibility and the freedom of social actors to make intentional choices and decisions about how they will or will not assimilate that responsibility into their role, and the consequential effects this produces for them and the change process. The case study method was employed to investigate the roles of managers and professionals in two contrasting organisations: one a large Primary Care Trust, the other, a small Research and Technology company. A total of forty-four semi-structured interviews were conducted with a non-probabilistic sample of managers and professionals in both organisations. The data were supplemented by observation and an in-depth analysis of documentary data sources which were used to define and describe the substance and context of the change processes under investigation. Analysis of qualitative data was based on a modified grounded theory approach. The findings suggest there are challenges to the sustainability of rational, centred, top-down, hierarchical models of change management when they are confronted by the discontinuities and instabilities of contemporary change scenarios where hierarchy and status are arguably less meaningful and important and where control and certainty become more problematical. Arguments are made that senior managers, as change strategists, may have to learn to modify or even discard existing models of directive control. Instead, they will look to make second-order interventions that generate the receptive contexts for successful change.

Item Type:	Thesis
Creators:	Doyle, M.
Date:	2008
Rights:	This work is the intellectual property of the author, and may also be owned by the research sponsor(s) and/or Nottingham Trent University. You may copy up to 5% of this work for private study, or personal, non-commercial research. Any re-use of the information contained within this document should be fully referenced, quoting the author, title, university, degree level and pagination. Queries or requests for any other use, of if a more substantial copy is required, should be directed in the first instance to the author.
Divisions:	Schools > Nottingham Business School
Record created by:	EPrints Services
Date Added:	09 Oct 2015 09:33
Last Modified:	09 Oct 2015 09:33
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/17