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Champions Of Change And Strategic Shifts: The Role Of Internal And External Change Advocates

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  • Ari Ginsberg
  • Eric Abrahamson

Abstract

Change advocates who participate in the process of strategy‐making can play an important role in enabling organizational adaptation. To examine the nature of this role, this article investigates the influence on strategic shifts of two such participants ‐ new members of the top management team and management consultants. Empirical findings suggest that managers see these two types of change agents as having two different kinds of influence on strategic shifts. Specifically, the change agent role of management consultants is viewed as one that creates pressure for change by helping to shape new managerial perspectives of the environment. In contrast, the change agent role of new members of the top management team is viewed as one that counteracts inertial forces that may block the implementation of change. These results suggest that management consultants may be much more useful in stimulating changes in the ways executives think about their environment than they are in implementing radical strategic changes. To overcome institutional resistance to extreme strategic shifts, organizations may need to resort to stronger political and symbolic actions, such as promoting or hiring new top executives in key leadership roles.

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  • Ari Ginsberg & Eric Abrahamson, 1991. "Champions Of Change And Strategic Shifts: The Role Of Internal And External Change Advocates," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(2), pages 173-190, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:jomstd:v:28:y:1991:i:2:p:173-190
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-6486.1991.tb00276.x
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    1. Blatter, G. & Feigel'man, M.V. & Geshkenbein, V.B. & Larkin, A.I. & Vinokur, V.M., 1993. "Vortices in high temperature superconductors: the statistical mechanics and dynamics of strings," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 200(1), pages 341-350.
    2. Berthoin Antal, Ariane, 1992. "Lerntransfer: vom Individuum zur Organisation. Wie kann Organisationslernen gefördert werden?," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, pages 85-102.
    3. Angelidou, Sofia & Mount, Matthew & Pandza, Krsto, 2022. "Exploring the asymmetric complementarity between external knowledge search and management innovation," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 115(C).
    4. van den Oever, Koen, 2017. "Uncharted waters : A behavioral approach to when, why and which organizational changes are adopted," Other publications TiSEM 0136c8c2-ecdd-4f82-8ca7-d, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    5. Berthoin Antal, Ariane & Krebsbach-Gnath, Camilla, 1998. "Consultants as agents of organizational learning: the importance of marginality," Discussion Papers, Research Unit: Organisation and Technology FS II 98-109, WZB Berlin Social Science Center.
    6. Wright, Christopher & Sturdy, Andrew & Wylie, Nick, 2012. "Management innovation through standardization: Consultants as standardizers of organizational practice," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 41(3), pages 652-662.
    7. Clercq, Dirk De & Menguc, Bulent & Auh, Seigyoung, 2009. "Unpacking the relationship between an innovation strategy and firm performance: The role of task conflict and political activity," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 62(11), pages 1046-1053, November.
    8. Ginsberg, D.M. & Dudey, R.L., 1993. "Temperature dependence of the Hall effect in high-temperature superconductors above and below Tc," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 200(1), pages 351-356.
    9. Tobias Frese & Ingmar Geiger & Florian Dost, 2020. "An empirical investigation of determinants of effectual and causal decision logics in online and high-tech start-up firms," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 54(3), pages 641-664, March.

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