Managing Dualities in Planned Change Initiatives

Abstract

Dualities play an important role in creating the conditions for change and managing planned change initiatives. Building on Seo, Putnam, and Bartunek's (2003) work, this study focuses on the dualities associated with managing change processes. A case study of a planned change process called the Circle of Prosperity Initiative, a multi-stakeholder dialogue designed to bring information technology to Indian country, was analyzed. Three dualities emerged regarding the structuring and management of the change initiative: (1) inclusion–exclusion, (2) preservation–change, and (3) centrality–parity. The findings suggested that these dualities were managed using Seo et al.'s (2003) strategy of connection. Notably, the strategy of connection relied heavily on the ability of change agents to set context within and between the different phases of the initiative and involved three specific practices for setting context setting: (1) commonplacing, (2) bounded mutuality, and (3) reflexive positioning.

Keywords:

• Organizational Change
• Organizational Development
• Dualities
• Connection
• Context
• Reflexivity
• Identity
• Simulation Games

An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 2004 Annual Meeting of the National Communication Association, Chicago, IL.

An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 2004 Annual Meeting of the National Communication Association, Chicago, IL.

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Kathy Domenici, Debbie Dougherty, and Stephen Littlejohn for comments on earlier drafts of this essay. We would also like to thank the American Indian Higher Education Association and Carrie Billie for their sponsorship of this research.

Notes

An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 2004 Annual Meeting of the National Communication Association, Chicago, IL.

1. Given that the defining characteristic of a duality is the notion of opposition, researchers who self-identified their studies as using either dialectics (Medved et al., 2001) or tensions (Sherblom, Keranen, & Withers, 2002) were included in the review. Dialectics may be viewed as a specific form of duality that involves contradiction (see Baxter, 2004), whereas tensions may be viewed as synonymous with dualities as they broadly refer to a clash of ideas, principles, or actions (Stohl & Cheney, 2001).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

J. Kevin Barge

J. Kevin Barge (PhD, University of Kansas) is Professor of Communication at Texas A&M University

Michael Lee

Michael Lee (PhD, University of Minnesota) is an Assistant Professor of Communication at the College of Charleston

Kristy Maddux

Kristy Maddux (PhD, University of Georgia) is an Assistant Professor of Communication at the University of Maryland

Richard Nabring

Richard Nabring (MA, University of Georgia) is an independent scholar

Bryan Townsend

Bryan Townsend (PhD, University of Georgia) is an Assistant Professor of Speech at Louisiana Tech University