ABSTRACT
Central to understanding the post-industrial (Block 1990), postbureaucratic (Heckscher and Donellon 1994) workplace is a recognition that organizations need to be fl exible and responsive in their structures and operations. In other words, the very nature of what it is to be a contemporary organization now involves ongoing change. The kinds of changes most often outlined, discussed and written about in management and organizational texts are those associated with economic restructuring: the adoption of a global orientation; a shift of business functions to remote sites; a reduction in the size and composition of the workforce; and a reorganization of the remaining workforce into cross-functional, teambased, work units. We contend that a focus on changes at the macro level
can often overshadow or obscure the micro processes that simultaneously constitute, and are constituted by, these macro level changes.
