Organizational Change as Paradigm Shift: Analysis of the Change Process in a Large, Public University

Abstract

Since the mid-1960s, systems theory has dominated the study of organizational change [43]. By viewing organizations as adaptive organisms that strive toward equilibrium under changing en- vironmental conditions, systems theory shifted the focus of organiza- tional research from exclusive attention to internal conditions to a concern with the relationships between the organization and its environ- ment [lo, 20,24,41]. Metaphors originating from the systems perspec- tive have resulted in many new directions in organizational change research [32].' Common to most systems theorists is the assumption that, in the absence of dramatic changes in the environment, organiza- tions will best be served by slow, adaptive change. Other theorists [50] have argued that educational organizations are unusual systems, in that they are "loosely coupled," a characteristic that makes large-scale change less likely to occur rapidly or to affect the whole organization in dra- matic ways.