cameron and green making-sense-of-change-management

Emerging inquiriesWhat are the forcesthat keep theorganization in itscurrent patter?Structures? Rules?Habits?1What are thecharacteristics andrules of the newattractor going tobe?How can we remainopen to emergentself-organization?How can smallchanges work togenerate largeeffects?23Figure 9.1 How attractors work in organizationsSource: adapted from Morgan (1998)Power relationsPower is an inescapable influence in organizational life. Within complexsystems, power differences can be described as novel and interesting,creating diversity and therefore giving rise to possible change. Whenthinking about organizations as complex responsive processes of relating,it is possible to see power and communications as very similar entities.Both have the effect of either constraining or enabling people in theirrelationships with each other.Power in organizations generally arises through patterned talking,and that patterned talking leads us to define who is ‘in’ and who is ‘out’.For instance, if measurement and control is ‘in’, then those who areskilled in talking about this way of operating will be ‘in’, while thosewho are more interested in emergence and chaos will be ‘out’, and willhave to find a way of representing their ideas and suggestions in thedominant language, hard though that may be. If they do not do this,they will begin to feel excluded. This in turn may lead to competitionand rivalry. Stacey commentsThe consequent feelings of inclusion and exclusion then have significanteffects on the further evolution of joint cooperation, tending to disrupt itthrough competition and rivalry… Organizational change is a shift in patternsof inclusion and exclusion. It is in this process that organizational identity318