Journal of Organisational Transformation & Social Change Volume 1, 2004 - Issue 2, p163-177 -
This paper uses the concepts of complexity and variety to analyse the widespread failure of some common approaches to large-scale organisational change. It is based on field research of organisation-wide change programmes in which three common approaches to change are assessed, including their inherent contradictions and their weaknesses in practice. Where change was successful, it was by the accidental adoption of a more organic approach to change, after planned programmes failed. The author relates this finding to the concept of mosaic transformation in biology, goes on to develop a new approach to organisational change designed around the viable systems model and an organic approach to structuring change processes.
