Chapter 3 introduces the most prominent approach to change, the rational philosophy. At the centre of the rational philosophy is the presumption that strategy—and strategic theories—should drive change initiatives. Sometimes referred to as a ‘strategic’ approach, the rational philosophy pursues an alignment between an organization’s structure, its competencies, and the environment. The rational philosophy assumes that organizational change occurs because senior managers and other change agents deem it necessary, navigated through linear thinking and performance by objectives, with managers at the helm. Approaches consistent with the rational philosophy give precedence to strategic decision-making and careful planning around organizational goals. The chapter notes that the rational philosophy commands enormous popularity for leaders seeking to impose a new direction upon an organization. It concludes that the rational philosophy’s concepts offer a useful, if too rigid, initial guide. Organizations are not always rational actors in the change process.

Chapter 2 explores how a philosophy’s method for change reveals the inferences it holds about the best way change can be delivered. A philosophy’s theories generate hypotheses and predictions about organizational change. Philosophies may generate numerous different theories, all based on similar assumptions and premises. However, without understanding philosophies, the relationship between theories becomes murky. Theories also evolve, adapt, and are revised or replaced. The chapter examines how change theories change. It begins by considering some basic questions: What is the goal of theory development in organization change? Will one single theory eventually explain all forms of change? Are theories of change subject to replacement or updating? Can two or more theories become interconnected to create a better new theory? Will there always be innumerable theories to explain change? Each question leads to long-standing and contentious philosophical arguments about the nature of theories.

Chapter 5 examines the models philosophy, or the change interventions typically presented by consultants. The chapter introduces the context in which consultants are engaged, and how consulting models are deployed for change. It then details a series of the foundational models as a means to demonstrate their character and effects. The chapter’s aim is not to provide an inventory of recent change models wielded by consultants, but rather to demonstrate how the models philosophy has shaped a kind of thinking and method. Many powerful and predictive models of change exist in literature, and an even greater number of bespoke models have been developed by consulting firms. Each offers up putative insights into ways to direct and initiate change in an organization. The chapter concludes that models must be utilized with care as many are contradictory or supported by minimal evidence, while others are underpinned by unchallenged hypotheses.

Chapter 9 explores the systems philosophy, which looks beyond simplistic causal views of management and the constituent parts of organizations. Organizations are seen as the sum of their parts rather than as a collection of reducible units. Systems theorists appreciate that any change instigates numerous and sometimes multiplied effects across an organization. The chapter explains how the systems philosophy views the entire organization as the unit of change rather than industry, strategy, structure, processes, culture, psychology, or any other element. It concludes with the assumption that organizational change succeeds when interventions are levelled throughout the entire system because the interrelationships between parts mean that everything is affected. The systems philosophy also gives rise to less prescriptive change theories, where planned, rational change surrenders to chaos and complexity, based on the premise that change involves an unmanageable tension between control and chaos. However, the systems philosophy risks ignoring the ‘softer’, human side of change.

Chapter 6 introduces the institutional philosophy, which seeks to explain how external pressures influence organizational structures and practices, and how an organization’s ability to adapt determines its prosperity. Through an exploration of key institutional debates, the chapter illuminates the ways in which institutions evolve, adapt and respond to various social, political and environmental pressures in their struggle for survival, and a progressive move to a social judgments approach. The chapter also highlights several varieties of institutionalism, including ‘new’ institutionalism as well as issues of identity, power and culture. The chapter then reviews institutional entrepreneurship as a force for innovation and change through disruptions to institutional norms. It concludes that the institutional philosophy downplays internal change and the power change leaders hold over their own fates. Organizational change from an institutional perspective is therefore about sensitivity to a forceful institutional context.

Chapter 14 provides a summary of the 12 philosophies examined in the book, as well as the approach used for their analysis. It begins by acknowledging that change can be understood as the movement away from a present state toward a future state. However, change is rarely easy or painless. At the same time the capacity to change to meet environmental challenges is essential for organizational survival. The chapter observes that the best ‘philosophy’ for approaching change is complicated by cautious researchers who focus on describing the complexity of change, and zealous business consultants who favour simplistic but authoritative solutions. It highlights that implementing change with consistent success remains a subject of contention, and is influenced by the fundamental assumptions made about the nature of change and its barriers. The chapter concludes that, in the absence of a consensus or unifying theory, it is instructive to understand the 12 fundamental philosophies of organizational change.

Chapter 4 examines the biological philosophy, which suggests that organizations, industries and sectors ‘live’ and endure vulnerabilities like any fragile, mortal organism. It explains that the biological philosophy houses two major theories. First, the life-cycle model maps the developmental progress of individual organizations, and second, the Darwinian concept of evolution by natural selection describes the process of environmental adaptation and change. Also, based on a combination of these theories, the biological metaphor of an ‘ecosystems’ approach to organizational change, has also experienced a resurgence as technological change has increased the importance of networks and cooperation. The chapter acknowledges that while the ideas that organizations - and the populations of industries that contain them - grow (life-cycle) and adapt (evolution), offer useful metaphors, there remains challenges in translating biological thinking into tangible change action.

This revised and extended second edition evaluates the diverse approaches to organizational change that have defined the field. Explaining the assumptions and implications that accompany these diverse philosophies, this book demystifies the complexities of conflicting perspectives and delivers valuable insights into the research and practice of organizational change.

Chapter 12 describes the innovation philosophy, which arrived as a consequence of rapid changes in globalization, technology and competition. According to the innovation philosophy, the long-term growth of organizations is directly tied to their continual production of new products and services. Organizations embracing the innovation paradigm strive to be flexible, agile, intuitive, imaginative, resilient, and creative in order to stimulate new ideas in the face of increasing complexity and turbulence. The chapter notes that innovation demands risk and experimentation as organizations must push through failure by building momentum and speed through new learning. In addition to outlining the process for fast prototyping of new products, the chapter examines user-centric innovation. ‘Design thinking’ helps organizations focus on a user’s experience of a new product rather than on the organization’s perception of the product’s functional utility. However, as with all aspects of the innovation philosophy, success delivers a significant dividend but comes with implementation challenges, and therefore high risk.

Chapter 13 details the dualities philosophy, which argues to abandon change management decision-making based on an either-or choice between change and stability. Organizational change cannot always be a matter of reducing one kind of activity to offset another kind. In fact, often organizations need more of both change and stability. The chapter explains that a duality can be understood as two opposing poles that can vary between conflicted and complementary as the context changes. According to the dualities philosophy, the challenge lies in encouraging both change and stability at the same time. It explores ‘modular’ and ‘ambidextrous’ theories where competing approaches work together, and difference outperforms one extreme or the other. A dualities approach is also sympathetic to the strategy-as-practice trend wherein strategy transforms into organizing and strategizing, where the latter two embrace a dynamic change employing iterative and reciprocal action. The chapter concludes by observing that the dualities philosophy prescribes few tangible change actions, making its implementation challenging in practice.

Chapter 8 explains the psychological philosophy, where personal responses to change govern organizational success. In the applied social psychology tradition, the psychological philosophy focuses on individual experiences as organizations attempt change. The ‘human’ side of change introduces links with behavioural science, human relations, human development and organizational development, all combating the mechanistic legacy of scientific management. The psychological philosophy assumes that individual employees constitute the most important unit of analyses in studying organizational change. The chapter examines psychological responses to change with particular interest in resistance and empowerment. It considers organizational development as well as its offspring, organizational learning. The chapter culminates by introducing a cognitive dimension; the ‘thinking’ and believing aspects of psychological change. This section examines decision-making and discusses the nature and implications of beliefs, particularly their resistance to change and their immunity to rational interrogation.

Chapter 1 notes that the need for change features prominently in organizational ambitions, as its success or failure can lead to decisive consequences, from transformational improvements in productivity to catastrophic plunges towards insolvency. Research also reveals a discord between organizations’ change ambitions and their tangible effects on organizational performance. Perhaps most concerning, the evidence informing organizational change is scant and tends to rely on unvalidated theories, models, cases and commentaries. The chapter subsequently outlines how this book’s second edition aims to inventory and explain the diverse and pluralistic organizational change approaches that have attracted research and practitioner interest. It reveals the ‘philosophies’ that guide change theories and models on the presupposition that a better understanding of these underpinning perspectives provides valuable insight for the research and practice of change. The approach assumes that organizational change can be best studied and applied when the philosophies that structure an approach are clearly exposed.

In this article, we argue that crisis communication studies can be developed by considering the self-categories speakers use in response to their behavior being scrutinized. The use of such categories in response to reputational threat enables individuals and organizations to draw on associations and meanings to reframe actions that audiences perceived to be offensive. Analyzing statements from sporting personalities accused of complicity in sportswashing by Western Media outlets, we use discursive social psychology to animate how crisis communication rhetoric can draw on specific identities; an approach we label categorical reframing. Specifically, speakers articulated distance from diminished categories (e.g. sportswashers) to reduce responsibility and accentuate closeness to other categories (e.g. parent) to reduce offensiveness complementing distinct crisis communication strategies. Based on our analysis, we provide propositions relating to the congruence between identity and rhetoric for observational and experimental analysis to better understand when and why social categories might be deployed during crisis communication to enhance their effectiveness.

Painkiller (mis)use in sport presents a range of potential health risks to athletes (e.g., injury exacerbation). There is a lack of qualitative data examining the sociological genesis of variations in attitudes toward painkiller use. Focusing on the concept of physical capital, this article explores how attitudes toward painkiller use among professional cricket players in England are socialized by their workplace. Attitudes toward painkiller (mis)use stem from field-level structures that foster employment vulnerability, ensuring physical capital is precarious and legitimating painkiller (mis)use as a method of protecting economic opportunities with the added benefit of accruing symbolic capital by demonstrating toughness. Based on the findings, this article advocates for a sociologically informed harm-reduction approach to pain management in elite sport.

The policy-implementation gap conceptualises how policy intentions and outcomes often differ due to a failure to consider the realities of implementation. The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) directs Olympic anti-doping policy, seeking to harmonise anti-doping policy globally; however, the realisation of consistent implementation has proven challenging. A major cause of inconsistent policy implementation is inter-signatory variation, but the mechanisms of variation are poorly understood. WADA provides an excellent example to explore why policy gaps occur in international sport governance. Consequently, we aimed to analyse the different types of inter-signatory variation in anti-doping policy and identify practical solutions to address inter-signatory variation in anti-doping. Data were collected from the Regional Anti-Doping Programme (RADO), a group of organisations tasked with increasing the capacity of NADOs globally. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 22 RADO staff and board members who were sampled as key informants to discuss how inter-signatory variation affects anti-doping policy compliance. Following reflexive thematic analysis, we identified four thematic categories explaining inter-signatory variation in anti-doping implementation: (1) socio-geographic, (2) political, (3) organisational, and (4) human resources. Based on our analysis, we theorise why the policy-implementation gap occurs and provide recommendations to improve anti-doping policy implementation.

Research question Institutional work by actors (e.g. organisations or individuals) to create, maintain or disrupt institutions requires redefining what is considered legitimate behaviour. Furthermore, research indicates that field-configuring events (FCE), such as conferences, which temporarily unite actors, are important junctures for institutional processes. Research is yet to address how FCE intersect with the effectiveness of institutional work. The aim of this paper is to explore how (i) the legitimacy of an actor at the time of an FCE, and (ii) the co-location of actors at an FCE impact institutional work effectiveness. Research methods: The 1999 Lausanne Conference is used as a case study because it led to significant institutional disruption in the field of anti-doping through the creation of the Lausanne Declaration. To analyse these institutional processes, a qualitative thematic analysis of 624 newspaper articles and archival documents from the conference was conducted. Results and Findings: Firstly, we demonstrate that institutional maintenance can fail if an actor's legitimacy is under challenge at the time of an FCE. Secondly, the co-location of likeminded actors can create a consensus that acts as a cue to enable institutional disruption. Implications: Based on the findings, suggestions are made to inform decision-making processes about institutional work. Initial categorisation of FCE conditions are presented and five propositions are made for future exploration.