Institutional bridging: change projects as creators and carriers of knowledge

Abstract

This is a historical study of organizational change projects based on documents as the primary data source. It covers a period of 15 years (1985–2000) at an offshore construction yard. The study shows that change agents created links between new and former projects when they prepared, introduced, and motivated employees for ‘yet another’ change project, a process coined as ‘institutional bridging.’ The bridges served both as legitimation of the new project and as a means to carry forward practices, values, and knowledge. For practicing managers and change agents, this finding implies that disruptive change may be avoided if one succeeds in building bridges between sequential change projects. Then planned change may serve both as carriers and as creators of organizational knowledge. Theoretically, the study contributes to the discussion of organizational carriers and how organizations continue and develop identity in contexts characterized by uncertainty and change.

Keywords:

• knowledge transfer
• institutional carriers
• change projects
• change agents
• organizational continuity

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Eirik J Irgens

About the author

Eirik J. Irgens is Associate Professor at Nord Trondelag University College, Norway and Researcher at Department of Learning, Danish School of Education, University of Aarhus, Denmark. He received his M.Ed. from UC Davies, his Cand.Polit. from the University in Trondheim, and his Ph.D. from Copenhagen Business School. His research interests cover knowledge and learning in organizations, organizational change, and management and professional education.