ABSTRACT
In earlier chapters we explored the economic shock and crises which have rocked Western economies over the last few decades. We observed that as a result of these shocks and crises the field of management and, indeed managers generally have suffered some degree of dislocation (Huczynski, 1993). Indeed we saw that in reacting to this dislocation, managers have turned to consultants and business school academics for advice and for solutions to the problems which threaten to swamp them. In recent times these solutions have taken what might be called a ‘cultural turn’ such that the shared conviction among managers, consultants and many business school academics now seems to be that business success requires management attention be directed to the ‘soft’, cultural and humanistic aspects of organization. Indeed it has been argued that the cultural management of organizations carries with it the requirement for a new paradigm of management and, by implication the requirement for a new paradigm by which to research the management of change and the management of organizations more generally. Recognizing this dual role for theoretical analysis and reflection, this chapter will assess the nature of, and the validity of the claims made about a variety of approaches to the study of change and its management which have been labelled as new paradigms of/for change.
