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PurposeThis article summarizes practitioner observations on three research questions. First, the factors that lead to the emergence and persistence of such teams. Second, the repercussions of siloed teams. And third, practical suggestions and recommendations that practitioners can employ to prevent silo formation or address existing silos. This article thus complements recent academic work that has previously explored the formation of silos.Design/methodology/approachThe authors used the input of current team leads from a focus group along with their consulting experience to explore these three research questions. The team lead input and consulting expertise are integrated with academic research on silos.FindingsThe emergence and persistence of silos was mostly attributed to company characteristics (size, growth and stakeholder management) as well as communication inefficiencies (lack of role clarity and ownership within teams), which in turn were impacted by situational variables (pandemic and turnover). The authors noted the effect of team composition effects, team competition and organizational changes (rapid growth and restructuring) as potential contributors to the formation and persistence of silos. The team lead experts and our consulting experiences were congruent with the literature focused on repercussions of silos, from poor information exchanges to inefficiencies, divisions and perceived isolation of teams from the organization. Solutions focused on project organization and documentation as well as the adoption of new decision-making tools and practices, and the creation of more exchange and learning opportunities. The authors added additional options to promote more visibility, appreciation, proactive monitoring within teams and organizational identification initiatives.Originality/valueThe current article adds a pragmatic perspective to silos and how organizations can address these when they become problematic and hinder performance and collaboration.

This inquiry aims to highlight the philosophical perspective of Aristotle’s “business” priority of the organization over the individual in combination with Heraclitus’ flux theory and the unity of opposites to alternatively approach organizational resilience. While current literature on organizational resilience argues that disorganization and gradual decaying are probable but not certain, they can be predicted and managed. In contrast, the combined analysis of Aristotelian and Heraclitean philosophical theories points out that organizational disorganization and the fluctuation of resilience are a certainty and not a probability, constituting an automation embedded in a circular, repeatable pattern for organizations and businesses. In this project, organizational and entrepreneurial scientific realism meets with the philosophical synthesis of Heraclitus’ and Aristotle’s thought on organizational resilience. The intended outcome of this “encounter” is to contribute an applicable perceptual “intellectual tool” that will foster a deeper understanding of resilience, organizationally and individually.

Fully revised, this second edition offers a proven strategy for using ambidexterity to build discontinuous growth for mature organizations, and the flexibility to adapt in fast-changing environments.Why do successful firms find it so difficult to adapt in the face of change - to innovate? In the past ten years, the importance of this question has increased as more industries and firms confront disruptive change. The pandemic has accelerated this crisis, collapsing the structures of industries from airlines and medicine to online retail and commercial real estate. Today, leaders in business have an obligation not only to investors but to their employees and communities. At the core of this challenge is helping their organizations to survive in the face of change.The original edition summarized the lessons that the authors as researchers and consultants had learned over the previous two decades. Since then, they have continued to work with leaders of organizations around the world confronting disruptive change. With updates to every chapter, including new examples and analysis, this fully revised edition incorporates the lessons and insights that the authors have gained in the past five years. Two new chapters critically examine the role of organizational culture in promoting or hindering ambidexterity and its underlying fundamental disciplines. Using examples from firms such as Microsoft, General Motors, and Amazon, O'Reilly and Tushman illustrate how leaders can align their organization's cultures to fit the needed strategy, and how ideation, incubation, and scaling approaches, when used altogether, can successfully develop new growth businesses.

Emotional intelligence and organizational development and change are two topics that have become increasingly relevant as organizations have begun to focus more on their people. Change is a feared word, but it is inevitable (Raithatha, 2015) and people need to be psychologically ready to handle change (Predişcan, Braduţanu, Roiban, 2013). Though the topics are significant when considered separately, they are even more intriguing when trying to determine the connection between them. The purpose of this study was to look at emotional intelligence training strategies and determine how organizational development and change managers can use these strategies to improve employee emotional intelligence. The study addressed four main areas: emotional intelligence training strategies, resistance to emotional intelligence training, improvements after conducting emotional intelligence training, and emotional intelligence training and organizational change. This research addressed emotional intelligence training, its effects on employees, and its benefits during times of organizational change by eliciting narratives from ten emotional intelligence practitioners from both the United States and Canada using semi-structured interviews. A thematic analysis was conducted and identified the strategies needed to improve employee emotional intelligence through training. The study identified that there are many benefits to conducting emotional intelligence training and organizational development and change managers can use the emotional intelligence training strategies outlined in this study to improve employee emotional intelligence and help employees handle change effectively.

Much has been written about affecting change in the workplace, including how to help employees prepare for the process. However, little is known about how participation influences employees' emotions and attitudes at the start of an intervention. By qualitatively analyzing conversations that were triggered by an organizational change effort, we explored how different inquiry strategies influence readiness for change. We examined four inquiry strategies by combining strength or deficit frames with individual or organizational focus. Distinctive conversational patterns emerged within each strategy, which we believe influence peoples' change readiness. In this article we present four readiness modes to describe these patterns and conclude with implications for managers who seek to shape their change efforts more effectively.

Recent scholarship has shown that, despite the broad representation of women in the workplace, gender inequities in organizations remain widespread. Because gender schemas—embedded ways of thinking about men and women—contribute to this phenomenon, addressing such mental models should be a part of gender equity initiatives. This article provides data that suggest that some individuals hold within themselves quite contradictory schemas of men and of women. It then illustrates how individuals can use these internal inconsistencies to push through superficial understandings of gender to more complex ones. By facilitating this learning process in training and other kinds of organizational events, change agents can strengthen organizational efforts to achieve gender equity.

Food safety culture has been posited as an important factor influencing employee behavior in the retail food industry. Although expressed as a subset of organizational culture, it is unclear the extent to which food safety culture is being defined and measured as a distinct but related organizational concept. Through a systematic review of the literature, this study explores how food safety culture is conceptualized and operationalized in studies investigating the concept in retail food establishments. Results showed no consensus in the conceptual definition, corresponding variables, and operational indicators for food safety culture across studies. Results also showed the corresponding variables identified for food safety culture were not derived from nor aligned closely with those associated with organizational culture. Together, these results suggest researchers are measuring different aspects of the same concept and not operationalizing food safety culture as a subset of organizational culture. As the development of measures to evaluate the prevailing food safety culture in retail food establishments is a prerequisite to the quantitative investigation of its impact on food employee behavior, the observed variation in corresponding variables and operational indicators of food safety culture can lead to incomparable results across assessments and studies. Plain Language Summary Although expressed as a subset of organizational culture, it is unclear the extent to which food safety culture is being defined and measured as a distinct but related organizational concept. This systematic literature review explores how food safety culture is conceptualized and operationalized in studies investigating the concept in retail food establishments. Results showed no consensus in the conceptual definition, corresponding variables, and operational indicators for food safety culture across studies. Results also showed the corresponding variables identified for food safety culture were not derived from nor aligned closely with those associated with organizational culture. Together, these results suggest researchers are measuring different aspects of the same concept and not operationalizing food safety culture as a subset of organizational culture. As the development of measures to evaluate the prevailing food safety culture in retail food establishments is a prerequisite to the quantitative investigation of its impact on food employee behavior, the observed variation in corresponding variables and operational indicators of food safety culture can lead to incomparable results across assessments and studies.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to contribute a roadmap to the change management literature, and provide definitions for describing change types, change enablers and change methods. This paper also proposes aligning the change type with the change method to find the effect on the change outcomes. New researchers can use this paper to get an overview of the change management discipline along with the main concepts that help in understanding the different dimensions of and relationships between the change types and methods in the literature. Managers can use this paper to describe and classify their organizational change situation and select an implementation method for systematic change and for change management. Design/methodology/approach – This framework is designed based on literature review and experts judgment. Findings – The results of the research propose a hypothesis that describes the relationships between the change types and methods and how this relationship can affect the change outcomes. Originality/value – The main contribution of this research paper is to connect three main knowledge areas of change types, change methods and change outcomes. These three areas are standalone subjects in several publications in the literature. Some researchers connected the change types and change methods, while other researchers connected the change methods and change outcomes. But connecting the change types, change methods and change outcomes remains a new research territory to explore.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to extend and elaborate the notion of successful organizational change to incorporate the concept of large system change (LSC), by developing a framework that brings together complexity and wicked problems theories to understand how individual organizations and change agents can better influence LSC. Design/methodology/approach – This conceptual paper integrates wicked problems and complexity theories to understand and cope with large system initiatives from the perspective of change agents in organizations, and uses the case of the electricity system as an illustrative example for these concepts. Findings – The paper provides implications for LSC and action steps for change agents in organizations, arguing that by understanding change initiatives through the lenses of complexity and wicked problems, change agents are likely to be more effective. Research limitations/implications – The integration of complexity science and wicked problems underpins the development of a comprehensive framework for creating effective LSC solutions, however, these ideas still need to be grounded in practice and empirical research. Practical implications – Using these ideas, change agents in organizations can enhance their influence and use the power of system dynamics to support positive action for sustainable change. This paper provides a foundation to help think through the cross-sectoral, inter-organizational, and change dynamics involved in LSC efforts needed to bring about a more sustainable, secure, and equitable world for all. Social implications – The world greatly needs system change; however, there is limited theory on effective LSC. This paper hopes to contribute to understanding the ways in which the difficulties of such change can be harnessed to move in positive directions with minimal disruption and greatest effectiveness. Originality/value – Theories of change management that position the organization in the context of a broader system and define its role in creating change do not yet articulate the nature of the problems at hand in relation to the large systems where they are embedded. This paper builds upon wicked problems and complexity theories to shed light on the role of change agents and organizations in effective transformational change.