Organizing Frameworks in Emerging Organizations: A Cognitive Approach to the Analysis of Change

Abstract

This article presents a study designed to relate the way decision makers think about organizing to emerging changes in organizations. The complexity and content of the organizing frameworks of key actors in three cases of introduction of computer aided design were analyzed. This resulted in a typology describing actors as analysts, facilitators, or organizers. A correspondence was found between the way these actors thought about organization and the emerging organizations observed in three cases. The study is used to develop a cognitive actor's approach to organizational change.