Contextualist Research and the Study of Organizational Change Processes

On theoretical, methodological, and practical grounds, this paper argues the case for conducting processual studies of organizational change. Such process studies may be conducted through a research approach which is not only longitudinal but also seeks to analyze processes in their intra-organizational and social, economic, political and business context. This paper outlines some of the epistemological and craft features of contextualist research and ends by posing questions about the evaluation of research conducted in a contextualist manner. Contrary to the way the practice of research is often taught and written up, the activity of research is clearly a social process and not merely a rationally contrived act. Furthermore it is a social process descriptively more easily characterized in the language of muddling through, incrementalism, and political process than it is as rational, foresightful, goal directed activity. Indeed it seems naive and two-faced of us to recognize, on the one hand, the now familiar notions that problem solving and decision making processes in organizations have elements of political process (Pettigrew 1973a), incrementalism