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Networking During Strategic Change In Small Organizations, Louis Grabowski, Lars Mathiassen

Engaged Management ReView

Managers recognize change as their number one challenge with the vast majority of their initiatives ending in failure. Managers of small organizations are particularly challenged because these organizations have limited resources and they are particularly vulnerable to environmental dynamics. Against this backdrop, we conducted a qualitative, longitudinal study into a small organization that struggled with strategic change over a seven-year period. We draw on concepts from Actor Network Theory to reveal the importance of effective, conscious, and proactive networking with internal stakeholders and with the powerful, external players upon which small organizations depend. This perspective also emphasizes that managers must …