Slawek Magala’s view on management of meaning and organisational change

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to show that Slawek Magala’s theory of management of meaning in organisations can be considered as a step towards a generic theory of organisational change. Design/methodology/approach – The authors are integrating Slawek Magala’s views on the processes, which play a role in changing organisations (i.e. framing, reflecting, negotiating, and seeking new windows of opportunities) with the related types of narratives as developed by David Boje (2001, 2008) and with further extensions by Fink and Yolles (2012), which are based on a model of paradigm change. Findings – The authors develop a theoretical framework, which might serve as a basis for analysis of change processes emerging from different contexts within or outside a firm and offer some reflections about comparing research into issues of organisational change. Research limitations/implications – This is a theoretical viewpoint paper. Practical implications – The extension of Magala’s model offers a practical guide for research into organisational change processes. Social implications – Magala’s model offers a deeper understanding of actual change processes. Originality/value – To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first time where a concept about emergent causality deriving from interaction between two conflicting agents (i.e. involved parties as, e.g. managers and subordinates) is applied to emerging stages in change processes.