Readiness for Change: An Institutional Perspective

Abstract

Drawing on a case study of an ongoing consolidation of two US school districts, this article examines the potential contribution that institutional theory can make to our understanding of change readiness. In so doing, it suggests that an institutional perspective provides three major opportunities for advancement in this area. First, it allows a shift from individual to collective cognitions, thereby offering the opportunity to apply the concept of readiness to new levels of analyses. Second, the article brings to the fore the interactive and recursive influences of institutions on the readiness for change of organizational constituents. Finally, in bringing attention to the role of discourse in institutional change processes, the role of power in creating change readiness is examined, an issue that is strikingly missing in the literature on change in general, and change readiness in particular.

Keywords:

• change readiness
• organizational change
• public sector change
• collective cognitions
• institutional theory
• school consolidation
• power

Notes

There were some members of the Memphis community who were not in favour of consolidation. The most high-profile, and influential, of these were religious and political leaders who had been involved in the Civil Rights movement and who argued that in relinquishing control of ‘their own’ school system, the MCS Board was giving up its power to self-govern, a cornerstone of the Civil Rights struggle. While such voices were quite prominent early on in the debates regarding whether or not consolidation should be pursued, they became fewer and less influential over time.