Reshaping Change

This book highlights the theoretical and practical value of using a processual perspective to make sense of organizational change. Featuring data collected over 20 years of fieldwork, it does much more than provide a simple overview of theory and change models and instead makes the processual approach understandable and accessible to both researche

This book highlights the theoretical and practical value of using a processual perspective to make sense of organizational change. Featuring data collected over 20 years of fieldwork, it does much more than provide a simple overview of theory and change models and instead makes the processual approach understandable and accessible to both researchers and practitioners. The author's case studies of radical and large-scale change programmes include those from General Motors, Pirelli, Shell, Britax and Laubman and Pank, and considers aspects of processual research, the context, politics, and substance of change and finally the future of the processual perspective. This is an innovative and highly practical study that captures the truly complex processes of the changing organization and illustrates how best to understand them from a processual point of view.

This book highlights the theoretical and practical value of using a processual perspective to make sense of organizational change. Featuring data collected over 20 years of fieldwork, it does much more than provide a simple overview of theory and change models and instead makes the processual approach understandable and accessible to both researchers and practitioners. The author's case studies of radical and large-scale change programmes include those from General Motors, Pirelli, Shell, Britax and Laubman and Pank, and considers aspects of processual research, the context, politics, and substance of change and finally the future of the processual perspective. This is an innovative and highly practical study that captures the truly complex processes of the changing organization and illustrates how best to understand them from a processual point of view.

"The aim of this book is to explore the contribution HR can make to how organizations enact change within the context of an environment of accelerating and increasing complexity driven by global forces for change. In particular the book focuses on the role of HR in creating value for the organization and engaging its stakeholders during transformations. This aim is achieved in several distinct ways. First, a critical perspective is provided of the role of HR in organizational change by examining evidence-based theories, models and frameworks. Second, the book is grounded in empirical evidence from a study conducted by the authors amongst managers and HR professionals across the globe. This provides unique data on the challenges and opportunities which the practice of HR faces within the context of organizational change. Third, consideration is given as to how HR can play an active and constructive role in co-creating sustainable change with managers, employees and other stakeholders. Fourth, the book identifies the capabilities required by HR professionals in order to engage effectively with organizational change. Finally, aware of the dangers of prescriptive lists, the HR practices offered in this book are provided as a basis for amendment, as necessary, by readers depending upon the context of individual organizations. The book will be of value to practicing HR professionals as well as students studying HRM, and change and development in organizations. Our proposal in this book is that since people are of significant importance to the success of change, and HR knowledge and expertise is vital to the experience and engagement of individuals and teams, internal and external to the organization, there needs to be clarity about the role of HR in transformations. We suggest that HR's raison d'etre is to focus on the people aspect of organizational change and that this needs to be done within the context of improving organizational effectiveness and wellbeing"--

This book provides a critical analysis of contemporary theories and models for understanding change. It demystifies some of the new approaches which have emerged internationally, and develops a processual framework. New empirical material is used to highlight some of the major contemporary issues, which surround the introduction of new production and service concepts, such as, Just-in-Time production techniques, new technology, cellular manufacture and Total Quality Management. The majority of books available in the area of change management tend to be either in the form of practitioner-oriented “cookbooks”, couched in the “how to do it” style, or in a more focused form which emphasises particular aspects of certain types of change. The heavy reliance on anecdotes and metaphors in the formulation of neat prescriptive solutions to the problems of managing transitions has tended to cloud the process of organizational adaptation to rapidly changing global demands.

A Pulitzer Prize Finalist, this powerful elegy for our disappearing coast “captures nature with precise words that almost amount to poetry” (The New York Times). Hailed as “the book on climate change and sea levels that was missing” (Chicago Tribune), Rising is both a highly original work of lyric reportage and a haunting meditation on how to let go of the places we love. With every record-breaking hurricane, it grows clearer that climate change is neither imagined nor distant—and that rising seas are transforming the coastline of the United States in irrevocable ways. In Rising, Elizabeth Rush guides readers through these dramatic changes, from the Gulf Coast to Miami, and from New York City to the Bay Area. For many of the plants, animals, and humans in these places, the options are stark: retreat or perish. Rush sheds light on the unfolding crises through firsthand testimonials—a Staten Islander who lost her father during Sandy, the remaining holdouts of a Native American community on a drowning Isle de Jean Charles, a neighborhood in Pensacola settled by escaped slaves hundreds of years ago—woven together with profiles of wildlife biologists, activists, and other members of these vulnerable communities. A Guardian, Publishers Weekly, and Library Journal Best Book Of 2018 Winner of the National Outdoor Book Award A Chicago Tribune Top Ten Book of 2018

The aim of this book is to explore the contribution HR can make to how organizations enact change within the context of an environment of increasing complexity driven by global forces for change. In particular the book focuses on the role of HR in creating value for organizations and engaging stakeholders during transformations. This aim is achieved in several distinct ways. First, a critical perspective is provided of the role of HR in organizational change by examining evidence-based theories, models and frameworks. Second, the book is grounded in empirical evidence from a study conducted by the authors amongst managers and HR professionals across the globe. This provides unique data on the challenges and opportunities which the practice of HR faces within the context of organizational change. Third, consideration is given as to how HR can play an active and constructive role in co-creating sustainable change with managers, employees and other stakeholders. Fourth, the book identifies the capabilities required by HR professionals in order to engage effectively with organizational change. Finally, aware of the dangers of prescriptive lists, the HR practices offered in this book are provided as a basis for amendment, as necessary, by readers depending upon the context of individual organizations. The book will be of value to practising HR professionals as well as students studying HRM and change and development in organizations. Our proposal in this book is that since people are of significant importance to the success of change, and HR knowledge and expertise is vital to the experience and engagement of individuals and teams, internal and external to the organization, there needs to be clarity about the role of HR in transformations. We suggest that HR’s raison d’être is to focus on the people aspect of organizational change and that this needs to be done within the context of improving organizational effectiveness and wellbeing.

This book explores the design, communication and implementation of social change programmes aimed at solving various social problems, from reducing health-risk behaviour to ’green’ consumption or financial literacy. Examining the application of social practice theory as a way of understanding social change, From Intervention to Social Change connects theoretical reflections with empirical research, sample cases and exercises, emphasising the importance of communication and community engagement in the initiation and implementation of social change programmes designed to address social problems and improve quality of life. Adopting a ’communication for social change’ approach and presenting illustrative studies drawn from ’developed’ and rapidly transforming countries, this handbook will appeal to project managers and communication professionals in the public and private sectors, as well as scholars of sociology, anthropology and development studies with interests in social problems and social change.

The field of political demography - the politics of population change - is dramatically underrepresented in political science. At a time when demographic changes - aging in the rich world, youth bulges in the developing world, ethnic and religious shifts, migration, and urbanization - are waxing as never before, this neglect is especially glaring and starkly contrasts with the enormous interest coming from policymakers and the media. "Ten years ago, [demography] was hardly on the radar screen," remarks Richard Jackson and Neil Howe of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, two contributors to this volume. "Today," they continue, "it dominates almost any discussion of America's long-term fiscal, economic, or foreign-policy direction." Demography is the most predictable of the social sciences: children born in the last five years will be the new workers, voters, soldiers, and potential insurgents of 2025 and the political elites of the 2050s. Whether in the West or the developing world, political scientists urgently need to understand the tectonics of demography in order to grasp the full context of today's political developments. This book begins to fill the gap from a global and historical perspective and with the hope that scholars and policymakers will take its insights on board to develop enlightened policies for our collective future.

An interdisciplinary textbook that incorporates case material and theoretical tools for the Earth changers of today and tomorrow.