Leopards Sometimes Change Their Spots: How Established Firms Can Transform Themselves.

摘要

Prior studies on organizational transformation have produced contradictory findings regarding the nature of change (episodic vs. continuous), source of change (top-down vs. bottom-up), and intentionality of change (deliberate vs. emergent). In my dissertation, I examine these polarizing tensions through a longitudinal, case-based, comparative analysis of multiple firms in Taiwan's PC industry. Analyzing the varying degrees of transformation by similar firms that shared the same intention for change, I compare the efficacy of disparate change mechanisms that have only been studied separately. All sample firms have been industry leaders: three were among the largest motherboard makers worldwide, and the others were among the largest suppliers of laptop computers. The study also identifies circumstances in which top management needs to be "hands-on" because relying on other widely-studied processes can be ineffective or unnecessarily risky. I observed that top managers periodically took hold of the substantive content of a strategic initiative and its implementation at the operating level. This lesser-known process, what I have termed a "deep dive," makes it possible to induce changes in the informal organization ahead of changes in formal structures, thereby ensuring undistorted experimentation with a new strategy before making irrevocable choices. Such a mechanism reverses the sequence of change often posited in organizational design literature.