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

Theoretical background
program should confirm that potential “buyers” exist for the program
outputs within the organizational environment.
Previous research has acknowledged that internal change projects and
programs are especially interesting in terms of their interaction with the
organizational context (Johansson et al., 2007). Blomquist and Packendorff
(1998) describe change projects and programs as the most embedded kind
of temporary organizations. An internal change program aims at changing
the parent organization and gains its resources and the entire reason for
existence from it. As Pellegrinelli (1997) states, a program operates on the
existing structures, systems and procedures to transform or replace them.
The managerial structures and procedures of some organizations may also
constrain programs (Ferns, 1991). Furthermore, Huy (2002) notes how it
may be a considerable challenge to balance between achieving change and
maintaining operational continuity during radical organizational
transformation. The attempted change typically requires considerable
efforts from the recipients, as change deals with people’s behaviors, not
only with tangible deliverables (Pellegrinelli, 2002). Adding to the
complexity, the participation in a change program can be part-time
(Eskerod & Jepsen, 2005), and the program staff may themselves represent
the clients or “users” of the attempted change, besides their roles as
planners, “sellers”, and implementers of change (Andersen, 2000). The
present study examines this complex interplay between a change program
and its parent organization in detail.
2.3.4 Integration or isolation?
Within organization theory and management studies, the relationships and
connections between organizational entities have typically been examined
as integration. Integration has been viewed as the process of achieving
unity of effort among the various subsystems (Lawrence & Lorsch, 1967), as
collaboration (Ledwith & Coughlan, 2005), coordination (Martinez &
Jarillo, 1989) and communication (Griffin & Hauser, 1996). Integration
may deal with any of the organization’s components, such as departments,
functions, processes, systems, people, and technology. Integration can be
achieved through diverse solutions and integration mechanisms (Griffin &
Hauser, 1996; Martinez & Jarillo, 1989). Research on organizational
integration has examined integration within and between organizations.
Studies on intra-organizational integration have primarily centered on
integration between organizational units or functions (Griffin & Hauser,
1996; Nihtilä, 1999; Souder & Moenaert, 1992; Turkulainen, 2008), or
integrating knowledge or technologies into an organization (Becker &
Zirpoli, 2003; Carlile & Rebentish, 2003). External integration has been
studied as supplier integration (e.g. Koufteros, Cheng, & Lai, 2007;
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