Title: Researching organisational change in the public sector

Authors: Ljiljana Erakovic

Addresses: Department of Management and Employment Relations, The University of Auckland Business School, Private Bag 92019 Auckland, New Zealand

Abstract: Privatisation includes change in ownership, as well as strategy, structure and culture of state-owned enterprises. This paper demonstrates how two different research techniques can be used to increase the robustness of research on public sector transformation. A combination of content analysis of organisational documents and reflexive interviews leads to the development of the idea of change pathways in public enterprise transition. The research is undertaken using 16 cases from the population of New Zealand corporatised and privatised companies. This study provides an important contribution to the understanding of the dynamics of change in organisations during their ownership transition at the levels of both theory and method.

Keywords: organisational change; privatisation; content analysis; interviews; New Zealand; public sector; qualitative research.

DOI: 10.1504/IJLC.2006.009688

International Journal of Learning and Change, 2006 Vol.1 No.2, pp.201 - 216

Published online: 04 May 2006 *

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