Abstract
Haridimos (“Hari”) Tsoukas is a Greek organizational theorist whose work has been influential in introducing and popularizing a holistic, process-based conception of organizational change. Traditional accounts of change assume that entities (including organizations) are by nature static and only undergo change after external force is applied. In contrast, Tsoukas maintains that change is ever- present in the social world and that change itself is the intrinsic basis for organizing. As such for Tsoukas, organizations are not static entities but ongoing processes of organizing, embedded within social nexuses of practices and discourses, which are constantly mutating. He identifies two main sources of organizational change: (i) the world being an open-system and (ii) the reflexive agent. The assumptions and conclusions underlying his work have been strongly influenced by interpretative, phenomenological, and process philosophy, as well as complexity theory. To acquaint the reader with his ideas and work, the chapter is structured as follows: first it will describe Tsoukas’ background, secondly it will summarize his key contributions to understanding organizational change, and thirdly it will discuss new insights from his work and it will conclude with his work’s legacies and unfinished business.
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Further Reading
Tsoukas, H. (2005a). Afterword: Why language matters in the analysis of organizational change. Journal of Organizational Change Management, 18(1), 96–104. https://doi.org/10.1108/09534810510579878.
Tsoukas, H. (2005b). Complex knowledge: Studies in organizational epistemology. Oxford University Press.
Tsoukas, H. (2020). The performative “picture”: Thinking about change as if change mattered. In M. S. Poole & A. Van de Ven (Eds.), Handbook of organizational change and innovation. Oxford University Press.
Tsoukas, H., & Chia, R. (2002). On organizational becoming: Rethinking organizational change. Organization Science, 13(5), 567–582. https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.13.5.567.7810.
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Hadjimichael, D. (2021). Tsoukas, Haridimos: Understanding Organizational Change via Philosophy and Complexity. In: Szabla, D.B. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Organizational Change Thinkers. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-38324-4_96
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