Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Leadership of Change Narratives: An Alternative Voice

  • Chapter
The New Public Leadership Challenge

  • 1683 Accesses

Abstract

Public sector reform initiatives have had a chequered history with probably more black squares than white. The private sector has not fared much better. According to some researchers the failure rate of change initiatives across the board is 60–80% (Kallio et al. 2002). This suggests that current conceptualisations of change and their applications are missing something significant in their understanding of what organisational change means. The research summarised sets out to discover what is missing by drawing directly on the accounts of managers in the midst of leading the latest round of reforms to the NHS in England.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 109.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 139.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 139.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  • Berger, P.L. and Luckmann, T. (1967) The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge. Allen Lane.

    Google Scholar 

  • Boje, D.M. (1995) ‘Stories of the Storytelling Organisation: A Postmodern Analysis of Disney as “Tamara-Land”’, Academy of Management Journal, 38/4: 997–1035.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bruner, J. (1991) ‘The Narrative Construction of Reality’, Critical Inquiry, 18: 1–21.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cameron, M., Cranfield, S., Iles, V. et al. (2001). Managing Change in the NHS: Making Informed Decisions on Change: Key Points for Health Care Managers and Professionals. Booklet produced by NHS NCCSDO. London: LSHTM.

    Google Scholar 

  • Casey, C. (1999) ‘“Come, Join Our Family”: Discipline and Integration in Corporate Organizational Culture’, Human Relations, 52(2): 155–178.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Czarniawska, B. (1997) Narrating the Organisation: Dramas of Institutional Identity. Chicago: UCP.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dawson, P. (2003) ‘Organisational Change Stories and Management Research: Facts or Fiction’, Journal of the Australian and New Zealand Academy of Management, 9(3).

    Google Scholar 

  • Dawson, S. (1999) ‘Managing, Organising and Performing in Health Care: What Do We Know and How Can We Learn’, in Mark, A.L. and Dopson, S. (eds), Organisational Behaviour in Health Care: The Research Agenda. London: Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Department of Health (2008) High Quality Care For All: NHS Next Stage Review Final Report, known as the‘Darzi Report’. London: DoH.

    Google Scholar 

  • Downing, S.J. (1997) ‘Learning the Plot: Emotional Momentum in Search of Dramatic Logic’, Management Learning, 28(1): 27–44.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • du Gay, P. (2003) ‘The Tyranny of the Epochal: Change, Epochalism and Organizational Reform’, Organization, 10(4): 663–684.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fleming, P. and Spicer, A. (2003) ‘Working at a Cynical Distance: Implications for Power, Subjectivity and Resistance’, Organisation, 10(1): 157–179.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ford, J.D. (1999) ‘Organisational Change as Shifting Conversations’, Journal of Organisational Change Management, 12: 480–500.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gabriel, Y. (2000) Storytelling in Organisations: Facts, Fictions and Fantasies. London: OUP.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Iles, V. and Sutherland, K. (2001) Managing Change in the NHS: Organisational Change — A Review for Health Care Managers, Professionals and Researchers. Literature Review produced by Cambridge University Judge Institute for the NHS SDO. London: LSHTM.

    Google Scholar 

  • Iles, V. and Cranfield, S. (2004) Managing Change in the NHS: Developing Change Management Skills — A Resource for Health Care Professionals and Managers. Literature Review Sponsored and Distributed by NHS SDO. London: LSHTM.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kallinikos, J. (2006) The Consequences of Information: Institutional Implications of Technological Change. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Kallio J., Saarinen, T. and Tinnila, M. (2002) ‘Efficient Change Strategies: Matching Drivers and Tracers in Change’, Business Process Management Journal, 8(1): 80–92.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kunda, G. (1992) Engineering Culture: Control and Commitment in a High-Tech Corporation. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Learmonth, M. (2003) ‘Making Health Services Management Research Critical: A Review and a Suggestion’, Sociology of Health & Illness, 25(1): 93–119.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lewin, K. (1951) Field Theory in Social Science. London: Tavistock Publications.

    Google Scholar 

  • MacIntyre, A. (1981) After Virtue: A Study in Moral Theory. London: Duckworth.

    Google Scholar 

  • MacIntyre, A. (1988) Whose Justice? Which Rationality? London: Duckworth.

    Google Scholar 

  • McCann, D.P. and Brownsberger, M.L. (1990) ‘Management as a Social Practice: Rethinking Business Ethics after MacIntyre’, in Yeager, D.M. (ed.), The Annual of the Society of Christian Ethics, 223–245. Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Moore, G. and Beadle, R. (2006) ‘In Search of Organisational Virtue in Business: Agents, Goods, Practices, Institutions and Environments’, Organisation Studies, 27(3): 369–389.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pettigrew, A.M. et al. (2001) ‘Studying Organisational Change and Development: Challenges for Future Research’, Academy of Management Journal, Vol. 44, Issues 4, p. 697, 17p.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Piccone, P. (1978) ‘The Crisis of One-Dimensionality’, Telos, 35: 43–54.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Propp, V. (1928) Morphology of the Folktale. Austin: University of Texas Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ricoeur, P. (1983–1985) Time and Narrative (Temps et Récit), 3 vols. trans. Kathleen Laughlin and David Pellauer. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Skoldberg, K. (1994) ‘Tales of Change: Public Administration Reform and Narrative Mode’, Organisational Science, 5(2): 219–238.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Smith, J., Walshe, K. and Hunter, D.J. (2001) ‘The “Redisorganisation” of the NHS’, British Medical Journal, Vol. 323: 1263–1264.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sturdy, A. and Grey, C. (2003) ‘Beneath and Beyond Organizational Change Management: Exploring Alternatives’, Organization, 10(4): 651–662.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Watson, T.J. (1982) ‘Group Ideologies and Organisational Change’, Journal of Management Studies, 19(3): 259–275.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Weick, K.E. (1979) The Social Psychology of Organizing, 2nd edition. Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley Pub. Co.

    Google Scholar 

  • White, H. (1981) ‘The Value of Narrativity in the Representation of Reality’, in Mitchell, W.J.T. (ed.), On Narrative. Chicago: Chicago University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Willmott, H. (1993) ‘Strength is Ignorance; Slavery is Freedom: Managing Cultures in Modern Organizations’, Journal of Management Studies, 30(4): 515–552.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zizek, S. (1989) Sublime Object of Ideology. London: Verso.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Authors
  1. Mervyn Conroy
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Manchester Business School, UK

    Stephen Brookes (Senior Fellow in Public Policy and Management) (Senior Fellow in Public Policy and Management)

  2. Institute of Governance and Public Management, Warwick Business School, UK

    Keith Grint (Professor of Public Leadership & Management) (Professor of Public Leadership & Management)

Copyright information

© 2010 Mervyn Conroy

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Conroy, M. (2010). Leadership of Change Narratives: An Alternative Voice. In: Brookes, S., Grint, K. (eds) The New Public Leadership Challenge. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230277953_15

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation