The Role of Cajoling Strategies in Path Creation

Carving out new pathways can be challenging, particularly for established organizations resistant to change. Although research has identified the important role of peripheral entrepreneurs in path creation, identifying innovative ideas, and for being motivated to change the organization, less is known about what strategies peripheral entrepreneurs apply when moving ideas from the periphery to the center. This study examines how peripheral entrepreneurs, despite limited resources, effectively employed cajoling strategies over a 20-year span to instigate organizational change. Leveraging the rise in digitalization, these peripheral entrepreneurs utilized three distinct digital cajoling strategies: coaxing, enticing, and teasing to transform organizational structures, revamp work processes, and change established design regimes and traditional mindsets. We discuss the consequences of cajoling as it can be used for both good and bad purposes

Strategies for Improving Organizational Efficiency, Productivity, and Performance through Technology Adoption

With an emphasis on digital transformation, this thesis analyzes methods for enhancing organizational effectiveness and competitiveness through the use of technology. There is a growing need for administrators and managers to comprehend and execute digital transformation strategies due to the widespread use of technology in businesses. The research combines different techniques, such as a literature review, in-depth interviews, and a survey of the workforce at one company. According to the research's results, successful digital transformation initiatives require buy-in from the top down, a well-defined path forward, and a culture that prizes creativity and teamwork. Effective change management strategies that address employee concerns and utilize the benefits of digital technologies should also be an integral part of digital transformation strategies. The research also identifies digital transformation's enablers and inhibitors, and assesses how well digital transformation strategies boost productivity, efficiency, and performance in businesses. Researchers and practitioners in the field of management and administration can benefit from the study's valuable insights into the strategies for improving organizational efficiency, productivity, and performance through technology adoption. However, there are caveats to the research that should be taken into account. The results of this study need to be replicated in other settings and with bigger samples

Remixed, Remastered: Investigating Organizational Adaptation in Higher Music Education

Higher music education presents a unique opportunity to examine change within higher education due to the digital revolution in the music industry over the past two decades. The purpose for conducting this study was to describe, map, and explain the strategies that higher music education programs are using to adapt to the digital revolution in the music industry. This study was grounded in organizational adaptation theory, drawing upon nine well-established theories: population ecology, life cycles, strategic choice, isomorphism, symbolic action, resource dependence, cybernetics, and network theory. Critical concepts of the turbulent environment, environmental perception, and organizational adaptation strategy emerged from these theories. An organizational adaptation strategy typology consisting of five strategies; decentralization, generalization, specialization, formalization, and inaction; was additionally constructed to create a tool for the measurement and explanation of organizational behavior. Music leaders of accredited institutions and programs that grant four-year degrees (N = 570) were surveyed via email using a survey instrument I designed. This instrument contained 57 items created to measure environmental perception (EP), organizational adaptation strategy (OAS), and characteristics of the institutions and music leaders. Data were collected over a four-week period in February 2021 and produced a response rate of 18.4% (n = 100). The most important result of this study was the observation that higher music education is undergoing a great generalization whereby organizational functions have dramatically expanded over the past five years. Furthermore, the environmental perception abilities of music units were found to be positively correlated with the total amount of organizational adaptation, indicating consistency with major tenants of organizational adaptation theory. These findings demonstrate that while expansionist trends in the field are promising for stakeholders, higher music education must navigate the many pressures of a turbulent music industry environment while balancing unique organizational constraints within higher education. Finally, this study provides empirical evidence for furthering theoretical concepts of organizational adaptation in higher education at the single-discipline level

Youth Culture, Organizational Values, and Participatory Politics in the Digital Spaces of Youth-Led Anti-Gun Violence Movements

As traditional forms of participating in politics are waning in popularity and younger people are becoming more politically aware, new ways to engage in politics are emerging from the intersection of youth culture and digital spaces. One way of understanding this intersection of activism and youth culture is to analyze how youth-led activist organizations engage in participatory politics in the digital space. I analyze how anti-gun violence organizations March for Our Lives and GoodKids MadCity, led by youth activists, reflect a unique and distinct form of digital engagement and organizational culture. Through content analysis, I will be highlighting organizational comparison at the national and local levels—including comparison of strategies and organizational culture—as well as how, specifically, these organizations manifest their values and culture through digital media. I use public-facing data from social media accounts such as Twitter, Facebook, and TikTok from the past two years based on interaction rates to complement analysis of the websites of the organizations themselves and any other informational materials geared towards the public. The unique position of youth culture—immersed in the digital space, social media, and constant connectedness—and how that, combined with experience, results in activism, independence, and a sense of responsibility. This research allows for a greater understanding of the shifting political climate, including how and why youth activists are stepping up to lead such organizations for change and how they use their identities and culture to encourage others to do the same

IT PROJECTS IN DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION: A SOCIO-TECHNICAL JOURNEY TOWARDS TECHNOCHANGE

In a digital world in which firms struggle with digital transformation, moving beyond the mere introduction of technologies to leveraging their transformational potential becomes increasingly relevant. Technochange, i.e., the strategic use of IT to derive organizational benefits by integrating IT introduction and complementary organizational changes, presents a promising approach in the context of digital transformation. Yet for the IT function, conducting technochange requires a fundamental change in the way IT work is done. Despite previous research that addresses the particularities of technochange, no research has been conducted on the challenges faced when IT projects transition after applying a TC approach and on strategies to overcome them. In answering this question, we apply socio-technical systems theory as a conceptual research lens to study the transition process of an IS infrastructure project in a mid-size omni-channel retailer. The results of our longitudinal in-depth case study suggest that this transition process is characterized by challenges of exported problems and structural issues that can be overcome by intervention strategies of bricolage, borrowing competence, and building alliances. Our research contributes to technochange literature by outlining the transition from IT to technochange projects and provides practical guidance on how to manage this transition

Coping with Rapid Changes in IT: An Update

Dealing with rapid changes in technology within and outside of their company is a constant challenge for IT managers. About two decades ago, a series of studies and in particular Benamati & Lederer (2001) showed that a range of coping strategies to deal with such rapid changes exists. These coping strategies range from the use of external support by consultants or vendors, or IT education and training to keep up with the demands of new technologies, to simply enduring change and trying to weather technological trends in the belief that they may not have a substantial impact on the company\u27s business. We argue that the current trend towards digital transformation further accelerates technological change in many companies. In this study, we therefore present a conceptual replication of the original series of studies on coping mechanisms and strategies to deal with the challenges of rapid technological change. Our findings indicate that the variety of coping strategies and mechanisms employed by IT managers has become more diverse. In particular, we find that today IT managers try to prepare their companies more proactively for technological change by providing the necessary resources and by creating an appropriate organizational environment, rather than by relying on external support by consultants or vendors, or even by simply ignoring technological developments altogether

The Fuzzy Front-End of Digital Transformation: Three Perspectives on the Formulation of Organizational Change Strategies

The fuzzy front-end describes the random and generally vague initial stages of an innovation project. Since digital transformation can be seen as innovation process of an organization, improving the initial stages can be beneficial for the entire process. This literature review takes the unique perspective of the fuzzy front-end within digital transformation. Characteristics of and challenges in formulating of organizational change strategies are reviewed in three different domains: information systems (IS), management & strategy (MS), and organization science (OS). The results show that within IS, the role of information systems has changed from a process-oriented to a more strategic role and digital technology skills become more important during strategy formulation. Within MS, there is a strong focus on interpreting external signals and reacting to them. In OS, the formulation of a change strategy is seen as a collaborative process between leadership and the workforce. The results from this review should encourage the research on digital transformation to focus to a greater extent on the initial phase of strategy formulation

Pedagogies of Play: An Ethnographic Analysis of Activity-Based Learning in Two Elementary Classrooms

In this document I discuss the relationship between education standards for curriculum and structured play in the elementary classroom. I discuss the various forms of teacher-initiated structured play, and student-initiated informal play and resistance strategies - through participant observation, digital analysis, spatial analysis, semi-structured ethnographic interviews, and unstructured conversations - to understand the full range of learning strategies in elementary classroom settings. I analyze how these strategies relate to curricular standards, or how they might deviate from or transform those standards, which are partially shaped by federal and state education policy. I also outline and develop two hypotheses in an effort to define what I observed in the classroom and the information I gained through my interviews, which I call playing capital and reciprocal power. I define playing capital as a resource and a skill that students are trained to develop in activity-based classrooms, and which has the potential to change collaborative environments and organizational structures. I define reciprocal power as an alternate structure of soft power, in which actors are empowered to take agentive action in hierarchical social and organizational networks, and which creates an exchange of power and changes social dynamics in systems of power

Resisting Industrial Food Systems on the Web: How Non-Profit Organizations Use Digital Technology for Sustainability Education

This thesis examines the link between how community-based organizations use digital tools with the fundamentally resistance-based philosophy that these organizations have at the core of their mission. It aims to uncover how non-profit organizations (NPOs) that work in community development through food and agriculture use digital tools, and how their digital communication strategies relate to issues of resistance to neoliberalism and industrialization in the food and agriculture sectors. Using a foundation of existing literature on food and agriculture, climate change and waste management, critical theory, and technology in pedagogy, this thesis will contextualize how non-profits resist neoliberal regimes of de-traditionalization through community development. This thesis will utilize primary research on the digital strategy of an NPO that supports public schools attempting to incorporate vegetable gardens into their curriculum. The research provides insights into how NPOs make use of the benefits of digital technologies, and how they choose a strategy for employing these affordances in ways that are compatible with their core organizational philosophy