Reexamining Turnarounds: Materiality and Cultural Values Amidst Organizational Transformation

Much has been written within organizational scholarship on the topic of turnarounds, or cultural change, and how leaders navigate the uncertainty and resulting conflict that change efforts bring. However, this literature has predominantly focused on the rhetorical strategies by which leaders can implement turnarounds, neglecting a burgeoning literature which has increasingly focused on the role that materiality plays amidst organizational life. This study attempts to demonstrate that organizational materiality is a serious consideration amidst turnaround efforts. In particular, this study asserts that individuals process change efforts materially as well as rhetorically-that an organization’s materiality is deeply associated with certain cultural values and that individuals interpret changes to an organization’s materiality as disruptions of the cultures and values within which they are contextualized. It does so by studying an opera house and the turnaround efforts it implemented in the last few months before its ultimate demise.