Guest author: Prof.dr.ing. Alfons van Marrewijk (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam)
Projects as agencies for change
The topic of organizational change has been receiving increasing attention in project management. Projects can be perceived to be agencies for change, with a coherent set of change objectives. However, frequently the complex and emergent characteristics associated with the implementation of change is ignored. Therefore, we need to investigate what practitioners actually do in change projects. The meaning of organizational change objectives and change work by project actors is crucial in the process of organizational change. Organizational change studies have investigated the potentially positive intentions that may instigate negative responses to organisational change. Resistance need not necessarily be passive or reactive, but rather can be understood as a way to situationally negotiate meaning that finally results in change (1). Resistance is thus an enactment of alternative power relations in an organization which has the potential to influence the direction of the change process.
Delivering change through interorganizational projects
Due to difficulties and drawbacks in carrying out work independently, organizations are increasingly involved in interorganizational projects. Often, these projects are characterized by the large number of partners, the absence of a clear hierarchical organizational structure among the partners, and internal power struggles (2). Therefore, organizing change through interorganizational projects is challenging.
Change and resistance in the joint construction of subsurface infra-networks
We studied the ‘Innovation Atelier’ a planned change approach signed by the top managers of four utility network operators and five contractor companies to improve their joint process of building networks in the Netherlands. Change can best be done by creating a temporary space with new relationships and new rules, in our case the Innovation Atelier. In weekly meetings, workgroups collectively reflected on collaborative work practices. Collective reflection of employees is an excellent intervention instrument used to change work practices (3). The temporary setting with its new rules to accommodate new collaborative relations worked well, but each of the interorganizational project organizations strongly maintained zones in which they had autonomy over their own interests, practices, benefits, and decision-making processes.
In the Innovation Atelier four change practices of project actors were found; timing, pacing, projectifying, and aligning. These practices both enabled and constrained the change process. The context of the interorganizational project in terms of unequal power balance between the operators and contractors, mutual (negative) images, fear of job losses and the differences between (semi) public and private organizations made this change project complex. Clearly, power differences slowed the Innovation Atelier’s progress.
The change process of the Innovation Atelier has to be understood as a multilevel change, empowering employees to initiate innovations in the joint building process and enabling top management to sign the contract. The suggested innovations made in the project had to be transferred to the permanent operators by the middle managers who found themselves with their hands tied. Middle managers, used the change practices of timing, pacing, projectifying, and aligning to constrain the change process. This made them ‘resisters’. These findings are in line with other studies, which show that resistance not only arises from the work floor but occurs in middle management too.
References
-
Courpasson D., Dany F. & Clegg S.R. (2012). Resisters at Work: Generating Productive Resistance in the Workplace. Organisation Sciences, 23(3): 801-819.
-
Van Marrewijk A.H., Ybema S., Smits K., et al. (2016). Clash of the Titans: Temporal organizing and collaborative dynamics in the Panama Canal Megaproject. Organization Studies, 37(12): 1745-1769.
-
Yanow D. & Tsoukas H. (2009). What is reflection-in-action? A phenomenological account. Journal of Management studies, 46(8): 1339-1364.
Please note that parts of this column have been published in: Van Marrewijk, A.H. (2018).Digging for Change. Change and Resistance in Inter-Organizational Projects in the Utilities Sector. Project Management Journal, 49(3), 34-45
Related Post
