Theory and Organizational Change I

January 18, 2010 · Posted in Theory 

At various times I will be posting on some of theoretical issues related to organizational change because I believe that it is necessary to understand the way the concept ‘change’ has developed. Here I outline some of the earliest thinking on change, which still influences discussions about change today.

Among the concepts discussed by the philosophers of ancient Greece was the idea of change. Two schools of thought with respect to change existed among pre-Socratic thinkers, and the differences between them were significant. Parmenides (c. 515-445 BC) used an argument based on language and thought processes to claim that change was not possible: “[Reality] is uncreated and indestructible; for it is complete, immovable, and without end”. He stressed that reality is permanent and unchangeable, and change is illusory. Heraclitus (c. 544-483 BC), who was well known to Plato and Aristotle for his belief in universal change and his doctrine that everything is in a state of flux, took an opposing view: “You cannot step twice into the same river; for fresh waters are ever flowing in upon you”. He argued that there is a continuous process of transformation, so things are in a constant state of becoming, and therefore the world changes and is changeable .

There is no doubt about which of these two arguments is the more influential. Heraclitus is referred to by writers on organizational change as writers on strategy refer to Sun-Tzu. For example, Beer and Nohria (2000) write: “As Heraclitus noted 2,500 years ago: ‘All is flux, nothing stays still.’ Sadly, this is as true today as it was then”.

Tags: , ,

Comments

Leave a Reply