An Improvisational Model of Change Management: The Case of Groupware Technologies

Wanda J. Orlikowski and J. Debra Hofman

Working Paper Series from MIT Center for Coordination Science

Abstract: In this paper, we present an alternative way of thinking about technological change in organizations. This alternative approach is motivated by a recognition that traditional models for managing technological change - in which the major steps of the change are defined in advance and the organization then strives to implement these changes as planned in a specified period of time - are not particularly useful given the more turbulent, flexible, and uncertain organizational situations that many companies face today. Traditional models are also not particularly useful for helping the implementation of technologies such as groupware whose unprecedented, open-ended, and context-specific nature make it difficult to predefine the exact changes to be realized and to predict their likely organizational impact.

We suggest an alternative model of managing technological change, one that reflects the dynamic and variable nature of contemporary organizations and technologies, and which accommodates iterative experimentation, use, and learning over time. We label such a model of managing technological change "improvisational," and suggest that it may enable organizations to take advantage of the evolving capabilities, emerging practices, and unanticipated outcomes that accompany use of new technologies in contemporary organizations.

Date: 1996-02
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