"This book is about organizational change, a topic I've been preoccupied with for years, from working in the corporate world and academically when researching as a Ph.D. student. My initial curiosity came from practice when my job was to keep a people perspective while the organization kept changing strategically and structurally. Regardless of the outcome of the changes, the remaining question was how to be an employee or leader in an organization that kept changing. That was also my main argument when I suggested a research project on organizational changes to top management in the organization. Luckily, they saw a need to get an answer to that question. So, the starting point was the practice perspective, which is also the book's essence. To give academia a glimpse into the practice perspective of organizational change and, simultaneously, provide the practice a theoretical perspective on the organizational changes they experience. Theoretically, the book is grounded in a process perspective, particularly a process philosophical approach to change. A field that brings in a crucial and often neglected aspect of the organizational changes that matter most to employees, namely micro changes"--
Micro Changes is a book about the changes we experience at work. Typically, the changes that influence our well-being the most are the ones that change something in our everyday work, such as getting a new leader, another IT program, shifting from face-to-face meetings to online, or simply the office coffee taste different. These are micro changes, and the book aims to unfold what they look like in practice, why they are essential, and how to handle them. The book is a mix of examples and cases from practice, process theories, and reflection exercises that inspire how to work with micro changes in the future.
Micro Changes: A Process Perspective on Organizational Change explores the organizational changes that are part of the organization's everyday work activities and micro processes. These are the ones that employees experience as the most radical, rather than the strategic ones we tend to focus on both in the literature and practice. Grounded in process theories and particularly process philosophy, the book unpacks organizational changes, showing that changes are fluid, pervasive, and always in a state of becoming, making them difficult to pinpoint and handle as they are everchanging.
To unfold what micro changes are, why they are critical, and how to work with them, the book zooms in on five types of micro changes: Everyday, physical, routine, relational, and identity changes. Through empirical cases and examples, the reader gets a unique and realistic insight into how micro changes influence organizations and are crucial to employees' well-being and engagement at work. Theoretically, the book draws on process theories, and each chapter includes reflection exercises or dialogue tools to inspire on how to continue working with micro changes, either in practice or academically. Thus, the book is relevant for academics, students, and practitioners as it gives a rare glimpse into micro changes, an often neglected and forgotten kind of organizational change.
