OPPapers.com

Management

Annu. Rev. Psychol. 1999. 50:361–86 Copyright ã 1999 by Annual Reviews. All rights reserved

ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE AND DEVELOPMENT
Karl E. Weick and Robert E. Quinn
University of Michigan Business School, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109; e-mail: karlw@umich.edu; requinn@umich.edu
KEY WORDS: adaptation, learning, intervention, transformation

ABSTRACT
Recent analyses of organizational change suggest a growing concern with the tempo of change, understood as the characteristic rate, rhythm, or pattern of work or activity. Episodic change is contrasted with continuous change on the basis of implied metaphors of organizing, analytic frameworks, ideal organizations, intervention theories, and roles for change agents. Episodic change follows the sequence unfreeze-transition-refreeze, whereas continuous change follows the sequence freeze-rebalance-unfreeze. Conceptualizations of inertia are seen to underlie the choice to view change as episodic or continuous.

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . CHANGE AS A GENRE OF ORGANIZATIONAL ANALYSIS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . EPISODIC CHANGE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Basic Metaphors: Organizing For Episodic Change . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Analytic Framework: The Episodic Change Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ideal Episodic Organizations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Intervention Theory in Episodic Change . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Role of Change Agent in Episodic Change . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . CONTINUOUS CHANGE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ....