A study on organization change as experienced by middle managers during the merger of two large high-technology companies

This study explored the role of context in organization change, through interviews with middle managers in three business units during the merger of two large technology companies. In contrast to existing research, which views change as independent of the people who implemented it and assumes a homogeneous organizational context, this research explored change as a function of both people and their specific contexts. Organization change was investigated within the contextualist paradigm where context and historic events were considered in the analysis. This study followed a grounded theory methodology to bring new perspective and new theorizing to the established area of organization change. A total of 28 middle managers participated in this study. Data were collected over a six-month period through 39 one-on-one interviews and one group interview in addition to observations and archival data.; Insights from each group were clustered into categories. Categories consistent across the groups showed that among the three groups investigated change was experienced differently in each of the three groups. Group I faced change as business as usual, Group II experienced cataclysmic change and intense disruption of their status quo. Group III also experienced intense and radical change due to the merger, but this level of change was not considered unusual within the group. The findings showed that organization change is tightly connected to the context in which it occurs. The context for change influences middle managers' response and ability to engage in the change process. Furthermore, when change disrupts the context of the group, the needs for change and context are in opposition with each other. When this occurs, successful change requires both methodology and execution that are integrated across all levels of the organization. During intense change, upper management tends to act in fear by exhibiting control, withholding important information, and showing lack of trust for middle managers. The study offers set of propositions that can be used to help an organization move collectively in a new direction while addressing the challenges presented by the unique contexts of individual groups.