This document summarizes a study that analyzed 68 organizational change initiatives in the UK's National Health Service. The study developed a contingency theory examining how the level of network closure in a change agent's contacts affects the ability to initiate divergent changes and gain adoption. It was found that less closure facilitates initiating more divergent changes by exposing agents to new ideas, while more closure aids in adopting changes by allowing better tailoring to different audiences. The degree of divergence from the status quo also impacted whether higher or lower closure helped or hindered adoption.

1. CHANGE
AGENTS, NETWORKS, AND
INSTITUTIONS:
A CONTINGENCY THEORY
OF ORGANIZATIONAL Paper Review by Akshay S. Bhat, XLRI
CHANGE
Academy of Management Journal
2012, Vol. 55, No. 2, 381–398.
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2. Abstract
Development of a
Structural holes aid
contingency theory
more divergent
for how structural
changes, Hinder
closure in a
Less divergent
network
68 organizational
change initiatives terms of the extent
undertaken in the to which an actor’s
United Kingdom’s network contacts
National Health are connected to
Service were one another,
analyzed
affects the initiation
and adoption of
change in
organizations
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3. Introduction
Political Nature of Organizations
Organizational Changes require premeditated changes
Change Implementation  Social Influence Exercise
Change : attitude/behaviour of one due to
acts of another
Studied : challenges
of Change Not Studied : Characteristics of
Implementation Change Implementation affect
In Organizations
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4. Organizational Change - DOC
• One dimension of variation : Extent to which they break with
existing institutions
• Existing Institutions are defined as patterns that taken for granted
actors perceive them as the only possible ways of acting and
organizing
• Divergent Organizational Changes : Move away from the status quo
(very challenging)
• Iconoclastic
“They require change agents to distance themselves from their
existing institutions and persuade other organization members to
adopt practices that not only are new, but also break with the
norms of their institutional environnent (Battilana, Leca, &
Boxenbaum,2009; Greenwood & Hinings, 1996; Kellogg,2011)”
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5. Article Need
• Examinations of conditions
• Change agents are able to influence other
organization members
• For adoptions of changes with different degrees
of divergence from the institutional status quo
• Key resource : Informal Network
“we focus on how change agents’ positions in
such networks affect their success in initiating
and implementing organizational change”
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6. Network Research
• Structural Closure (degree to which an actors network
contacts are connected to on another)
• SC has important implications for
– Generating Novel Ideas
– Exercising Social Influence
• High SC : More cohesiveness
• Low SC : Creation of structural holes and brokerage
potential
• Higher Structural Holes more novel ideas
• But studies contradict : Whether High or Low network
closure favour change adoption
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7. Illustration
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8. Motivation
• Reconcile findings by developing a
contingency theory
• Will examine the role of network closure in
the initiation and adoption of Organizational
Change
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9. Network Closure and Divergent
Organizational Change
• In order to survive, organizations must convince the public of their
legitimacy (Meyer & Rowan, 1977) by conforming, at least in
appearance, to the prevailing institutions that define how things are done
in their environment
• Forces them to adopt a set of practices
• Organizations facing same institutional pressures tend to adopt similar
practices
• Motivation exists to adopt changes that do not affect the organizations
alignment with existing institutions
• Not all changes will be convergent with the status quo
• The variability in the degree of divergence of organizational changes poses
two questions: (1) what accounts for the likelihood that an organization
member will initiate a change that diverges from the institutional status
quo and (2) what explains the ability of a change agent to persuade other
organization members to adopt such a change.
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10. Network Closure and Divergent
Organizational Change
Network
Studies have focused on the Positions should
And position in the social
change agents formal position in affect the ability
networks
the initiation of divergent change
of the individual
to
• Initiate
divergent
changes
• Persuade others
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11. Network Closure and Divergent
Organizational Change
• Divergent Schools of thought promulgate the there
exists a –ve influence between network closure and
generation of new ideas
• Occupying a hole rich network : non redundant
information, more creative ideas
“creativity is more likely to be engendered by
exposure to non-redundant than to repetitious
information. As for normative pressure, network
cohesion not only limits the amount of novel
information that reaches actors, but also pressures
them to conform to the modus operandi and norms
of the social groups AkshaywhichJamshedpur are embedded”
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12. And therefore Hypothesis 1
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13. Network Closure and Divergent
Organizational Change
• Degree of closure affects the adoption of organizational changes
• Brokerage opportunities may aid adaptive implementation : Ability to carry out
projects and take advantage of opportunities from the ability to detect
opportunities
• But it may help change initiation (incoming benefits) rather than change adoption
(outgoing benefits) #Structural Holes
• Benefits can then be classified as structural reach and tailoring
• Reach concerns a change agent’s social contact with the constituencies that a
change project would affect, information about the needs and wants of these
constituencies, and information about how best to communicate how the project
will benefit them.
• Tailoring refers to a change agent’s control over when and how to use available
information to persuade diverse audiences to mobilize their resources in support
of a change project.
• Being the only connection among otherwise disconnected others, brokers can
tailor their use of information and their image in accordance with each network
contact’s preferences and requirements
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14. Network Closure and Divergent
Organizational Change
• Refer page 383 ~ 384 (Last para to first para)
• Organizations are political arenas
• Not only imp to decide who but when and
how are also important aspects concerning
involvement
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15. Hypothesis 2. The more a change diverges from
the institutional status quo, the more closure in
a change agent’s network of contacts diminishes
the likelihood of change adoption.
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16. Methodology
• Quantitative and Qualitative Study
• 68 Change initiatives in UK’s NHS
• 600 Organizations
– Administrative Units
– Primary Care Service
– Secondary Care Service
• Aim of NHS was to provide free health care
• NHS was highly institutionalized
• Professional groups role division
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17. Sample
• Focal point of study was variability in divergence
and adoption of organizational change initiatives,
population germane to the study was self
appointed change agents
• Self driven and motivated actors
• 68 clinical managers who initiated and attempted
to implement change initiatives out of 95 (27
chose not to respond)
• 35~65 yr old, mid to top management positions
• Unpaired t tests were to control for potential non
response bias
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18. Procedure
• Longitudinal study for 12 months which
focused on collecting demographic
characteristics, formal positions, professional
trajectories and social networks of change
agents
• 20~40 mins taken twice, gap 12 months
• Peer verification
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19. Dependent and Independent Variables
• Will be explained on the blackboard
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20. Results
• Will be explained on the blackboard
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21. Contributions
• Degree of variation from the status quo has
impacts on adoption of change initiatives
• Synthesis of the two anti-theism schools of
thought
• Articulated properly
• Advanced body of work on social networks
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22. Drawbacks
• Ego network
• Time structure
• Kotter not included
• Transformation of organizations is not covered
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