Intrapreneurship, local initiatives in organizational change processes

Abstract

PurposeThis paper has its focus on local initiatives in developing the work organization. Local initiatives describe how shop floor workers and middle managers initiate organizational change by developing ideas emerging in the daily operations. The purpose of this article is to elaborate on how and why such local initiatives emerge and develop.Design/methodology/approachThe paper combines theories about entrepreneurship and organizational change as a framework to understand local initiatives. Local initiatives contribute to the understanding of organizational change processes by emphasizing not only the voice of the managerial discourse but also the voice of local actors. The empirical findings are based on interviews in a paper pulp plant.FindingsLocal initiatives are a way for shop floor workers and middle managers to translate work procedures into something that makes sense in their own context of daily operations. The intrapreneur acts not as a change agent for someone else's intentions but as a self appointed actor who initiates and drives the process of creating unequivocal interpretations of equivocal events.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings are based on a single case study.Practical implicationsThe paper stresses the importance for managers to find ways to deal with local initiatives. Generating and collecting ideas is the easy part, the challenge is to do something with the ideas received.Originality/valueA model is suggested that describes four different approaches to organizational change.