Title: Content matters: an alternative view on organisational change

Authors: Sijko J. Wierenga

Addresses: Department of Organizational Sciences, VU University of Amsterdam, De Boelelaan 1081, 1081 HV Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Abstract: This case study shows how the content of a change initiative can be used to predict the extent to which this initiative will activate the learning process of employees and, consequently, cause them to change their working methods. The object of this case study is a school for secondary education in The Netherlands. Its management team wants to improve school results and has formulated the content of the change as an elaboration of the ideology of professionalism. Both the change content and the employees' cognitions are analysed by means of a mixed-method approach that is based on notions and techniques of cognitive anthropology. The results show that the envisioned change lacks cognitive relevance, as a result of which a change of working practice is not likely to occur, a conclusion that is claimed to be valid for organisational change processes more generally. This paper concludes that an analysis of the cognitive relevance of the content of a change enhances the quality of the predictions of success or failure of organisational change in concrete cases, and can be used alongside more conventional change approaches that focus on processual factors.

Keywords: organisational change; educational change; professionalism; NPM; working practices; cognitive anthropology.

DOI: 10.1504/IJLC.2021.118478

International Journal of Learning and Change, 2021 Vol.13 No.6, pp.590 - 608

Received: 10 Mar 2019
Accepted: 27 Oct 2019

Published online: 27 Oct 2021 *

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