When implementation falters: the challenge of having peripheral issues stick in organisations

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to study a class of issues that in spite of recognised needs and explicit managerial demands have proven hard to have stick in organisations (information security is used as an example). It offers a theory-driven rationale why superficially different issue areas can indeed be considered as instances of the identified class, and builds on complexity leadership theory (CLT) to explain how the related strategic challenges can be explained and possibly alleviated. Design/methodology/approach A. Kenneth Rice's notion of organisations' primary task is used to home in on its opposite that is here labelled peripherality. Existing strands of organisation research that can be related to this notion are then revisited to ground the fundamental concept theoretically. The CLT is finally used to provide a detailed understanding of the underlying dynamics. Findings The paper explains how and why certain issue areas seem resistant to common managerial intervention methods even though it would seem that organisational members are in fact favouring proposed changes (a state that would normally increase the chances of success). It also offers ideas how these challenges may fruitfully be approached. Originality/value Problems related to the suggested peripherality class of issues have thus far been approached as wholly unrelated (and for that reason as idiosyncratic). The proposed framework offers a hitherto never attempted way systematically to link these challenges - and so structure and concentrate discussion about possibly common remedies.