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Shabazz Rah-Khem Dissertation 10.pdf (2.54 MB)

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DEALING WITH THE COMPLEXITY OF ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE: THE MIDDLE MANAGERS’ ROLE IN CONTRIBUTING TO PLANNED AND EMERGENT CHANGE

Rah-Khem, Shabazz A
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1504813145895963

Abstract Details

2018, Doctor of Philosophy, Case Western Reserve University, Management.
Mid-level managers often face complex tasks when they are implementing strategic plans at the local level and monitoring related change initiatives. Yet, little is known about how these middle managers navigate such complexity and how their interactions within their local organizational networks create innovative responses to unforeseen turbulence during plan implementation. One challenge is that middle managers confront daily competing priorities such as how to tease out new local efficiencies, improve quality, leverage new technology, enter new markets, and comply with new regulations. We examine which specific elements influence adaptability in local settings, in the face of overarching strategic imperatives, and the bottom-up process of the middle-managers’ initiation and/or participation in adaptive responses to turbulence. Understanding these elements can contribute to better implementation of strategies that facilitate organizations’ successful responses to emergent opportunities. We conduct three studies to examine such factors. We focus specifically on their effects on individual mid-level managers’ decision effectiveness, as the managers seek to balance formal plan implementations with environmental turbulence. The first qualitative study conducts 33 interviews of managers, employees and union representatives which solicit two factors that contribute to managers’ local adaptive responses to turbulence. These are: (a) dynamic actions facilitating feedback and collaboration with stakeholders, and (b) adaptability facilitating informal interactions and related informal knowledge exchange. The second study (quantitative) validates a model which posits that middle managers’ networks of interactions, conflicting constraints, and dynamic actions, with planned change implementation as a moderator, have positive effects on perceived organizational innovativeness. The analysis is comprised of 510 self-reported surveys collected from mid-level managers. The third study sharpens the focus on adaptability during change. It quantitatively tests the extent that middle managers’ networks of interactions, conflicting constraints, technology turbulence, and market turbulence are mediated by planned change and perceived organizational innovativeness, and the extent of positive impact on adaptability. Adaptability is defined on the individual level as a second order factor comprised of feedback orientation, collaboration, informal knowledge dynamics and coordinated actions. The study is comprised of 794 self-reported surveys collected from a new sample of mid-level managers. The integrated results empirically demonstrate that: (a) middle managers’ participation in formal organizational networks significantly increases adaptability during change, implementation success of plans of change and perception of organization’s innovativeness, (b) middle managers’ level of exposure to conflicting agendas significantly decreases their positive influence towards adaptability, implementation success of plans of change and perception of organization’s innovativeness, (c) middle managers with a higher awareness of nascent technologies can significantly contribute to adaptive outcomes and cause these managers to perceive their organization as more innovative, (d) middle managers with higher awareness of market shifts possess more positive perception of their organization’s innovativeness, and (e) middle managers with a deeper understanding of the organization’s plans for change can better incorporate unplanned adaptive responses resulting in more adaptive outcomes. The results identify several research directions and generate new recommendations for middle management. More importantly, it validates the idea that organizations should invest in ways for middle-management to discover new and alternative ways of fostering an adaptive “space” to heighten: feedback orientation, collaboration, informal knowledge dynamics and coordinated actions. Better understanding the bottom-up flow from mid-level managers, throughout the complex process of change can improve their willingness to participate and/or initiate innovative responses. By routinizing middle managers’ decision-making activities into the strategic plans of change and allowing them to contribute to local disruptions through experimentation and adaptation for emergent outcomes, increases the resiliency of the entire organization. These findings should interest scholars and practitioners in competitive environments.
Kalle Lyytinen (Committee Chair)
David Aron (Committee Member)
Kathleen Buse (Committee Member)
Roger Saillant (Committee Member)
177 p.
Business Administration; Design; Labor Relations; Management; Systems Design; Transportation
complexity; planned change; perceived organizational innovativeness; informal networks; adaptability; emergence

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Rah-Khem, S. A. (2018). DEALING WITH THE COMPLEXITY OF ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE: THE MIDDLE MANAGERS’ ROLE IN CONTRIBUTING TO PLANNED AND EMERGENT CHANGE [Doctoral dissertation, Case Western Reserve University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1504813145895963

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Rah-Khem, Shabazz. DEALING WITH THE COMPLEXITY OF ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE: THE MIDDLE MANAGERS’ ROLE IN CONTRIBUTING TO PLANNED AND EMERGENT CHANGE. 2018. Case Western Reserve University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1504813145895963.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Rah-Khem, Shabazz. "DEALING WITH THE COMPLEXITY OF ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE: THE MIDDLE MANAGERS’ ROLE IN CONTRIBUTING TO PLANNED AND EMERGENT CHANGE." Doctoral dissertation, Case Western Reserve University, 2018. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1504813145895963

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

case1504813145895963
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This open access ETD is published by Case Western Reserve University School of Graduate Studies and OhioLINK.