Nadja Sörgärde

There is a vast amount of normative literature on change, which primarily focuses on how to manage change in an efficient and successful manner. What actually happens when management attempt to put their plans into practice is more seldomly investigated. Moreover, the prevailing literature on change primarily takes a management perspective. Other organizational members are usually treated as supporting actors or even walkers-on, even though they might play an important part in the outcome of a change initiative.

In response to these shortcomings, this interpretative study presents a rich and nuanced picture of the events following reorganization attempts in an IT company. The ethnographically inspired study pays attention to various actors' points of view, not only those of management. The social dynamics that might arise from change attempts (which affect the possibility of implementing the change) are the focus of the investigation. Furthermore the conception of "resistance to change" is problematized and an alternative framing - identity dramatization - is proposed.