Experiencing Directed Change during the Action and Maintenance Stages in a “Loose-Tight” Coupled Organization
Open AccessAbstract of the DissertationExperiencing Directed Change during the Action and Maintenance Stages in a “Loose-Tight” Coupled OrganizationThis dissertation addresses several gaps in current literature on organizational change. These gaps are: 1) the reaction(s) to change specifically during the period after the change has been implemented or during the action and maintenance stages; 2) the challenges associated with changing loosely coupled systems and, more specifically, changing complex organizations which display both “loose” and “tight” characteristics; and 3) the experiences of applying a directed change approach to a loose-tight organization. This dissertation explores a deeper understanding of these areas of change using phenomenography as a methodology to capture the experiences of change recipients undergoing or living through directed change.This phenomenographic study involved 15 participants who were faculty and staff members of a graduate-level defense university composed of military and government civilian students. Interview participants included male and female members from the military and civilians representing the uniformed services, government, and the interagency (Appendix D). The goal of this research is to generate a deeper understanding of the experiences of organizational change that recipients undergo during the period after the change has begun. Phenomenography is rarely used in organizational change studies; however, it has provided an informative approach to achieving generalizable themes about change based upon individual human experiences. The primary discoveries in this study were: 1) directed change is likely the best approach to changing complex, loosely coupled systems; 2) when change agents choose to employ a directed change approach, they must be willing to, at least temporarily, sacrifice the strength or integrity of the organization to achieve expedited change; and 3) change agents in loose-tight organizations should expect organizations to strive to achieve balance between pre-change and post-change operations when using a directed change approach.
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