Boundary activities and readiness for ... - Projekti-Instituutti

Contents
1. INTRODUCTION ........................................................ 1
1.1 Background ..........................................................................................1
1.2 Focus, motivation and context of the research ................................... 5
1.3 Key contributions ................................................................................ 7
1.4 Structure of the thesis ......................................................................... 9
2. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND ............................... 10
2.1 Programs as temporary organizations .............................................. 10
2.1.1 Introduction to the temporary organization perspective ....................... 10
2.1.2 Definition and special nature of programs .............................................. 18
2.1.3 Program initiation ..................................................................................... 23
2.2 Initiating large-scale organizational change ..................................... 27
2.2.1 Introduction to large-scale organizational change ................................. 27
2.2.2 Stages in the change process .................................................................... 35
2.2.3 Successful management of the early stage of organizational change..... 37
2.2.4 Readiness for change program implementation ..................................... 47
2.3 Contextual interplay of change programs ......................................... 49
2.3.1 Contextuality of organizational change ................................................... 49
2.3.2 Contextuality of temporary organizations ............................................... 51
2.3.3 Program-parent organization interplay ................................................... 53
2.3.4 Integration or isolation? ........................................................................... 55
2.4 Organizational boundaries and boundary activities ......................... 58
2.4.1 Introduction to organizational boundaries ............................................. 59
2.4.2 Boundary spanning and its theoretical origins ....................................... 61
2.4.3 Boundary activities in organizations........................................................ 64
2.4.4 Boundary activities during the early stage of change programs ........... 68
2.5 Synthesis of the literature review: Research framework .................. 72
2.5.1 Summary of the literature review ............................................................ 72
2.5.2 Research framework and research questions .......................................... 73
3. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY AND DATA ................ 78
3.1 Nature of the research ....................................................................... 78
3.2 Research approach ............................................................................ 80
3.3 Case selection strategy and description of the selected cases ........... 83
3.4 Data gathering ................................................................................... 85
3.5 Analysis ............................................................................................. 90
3.5.1 The first phase of the analysis .................................................................. 91
3.5.2 The second phase of the analysis ............................................................. 92
3.5.3 The third phase of the analysis ................................................................. 96
4. RESULTS ................................................................ 101
4.1 Description of program initiation in the three cases ....................... 101
4.1.1 Case Center .............................................................................................. 101
4.1.2 Case Bureau ............................................................................................. 106
4.1.3 Case Chain ................................................................................................ 111
4.2 Indicators of the boundary between a change program and its
parent organization .......................................................................... 116
4.2.1 Indicators of the program-parent organization boundary ................... 116
4.2.2 Program-parent organization boundary in the three cases .................. 118
4.2.3 Comparison of the findings across the cases ......................................... 126