Episodic Organizational Change and Social Drama – Liminality and Conflict in the Change Process
- 16 December 2021
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Taylor & Francis Ltd in Journal of Change Management
- Vol. 22 (2), 147-162
- https://doi.org/10.1080/14697017.2021.2013298
Abstract
This conceptual paper draws upon Victor Turner’s understanding of social change as social drama. It develops an interpretive framework for episodic organizational change as a period of liminal transition that is triggered and driven by conflict. Emphasizing the liminal quality inherent in change processes, the social drama is used to generate a conceptual frame to investigate the opportunities and threats in liminal transitions, the various ways to re-establish social order in organizations and the associated role of leaders in liminal times. Promoting conflict’s productive nature for organizational change, the social drama is further used to provide a frame to investigate how social reality in organizations is challenged, developed, crafted, transformed and finally re-constituted through conflict. The article argues that the social drama perspective has the capacity to further reflexive thinking about change processes in organizations.Keywords
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