ABSTRACT
This focus of this book is an analysis of ways in which research into change management has been conducted and represented in the mainstream academic literature. The analysis is presented through a critique of representations of a seminal book on change management by highly regarded ‘contingency’ theorists. The book, The Management of Innovation (1961, 1966, 1994) by Burns and Stalker, is still relevant for scholars and students, and has raised practical problems yet to be overcome in organisations facing change. This chapter outlines contingency theories, problems regarding the management of change, and critiques of mainstream scholarship which in the main have adopted objectivist, positivist approaches. The value of this study is a detailed comparison between what is written in this text and what has been accepted as common knowledge in academic circles, and critiques of this mainstream scholarship. This book aims to demonstrate the possibility of having scholarship in the field more generally that is pluralist, inclusive of subjectivist approaches and more sustainable, and also more relevant for management practice. A short description is then given of each of the chapters in the book.
