From events to personal histories: narrating change in health-care organizations

Morrell, K.; Hewison, A.; Heracleous, L.

Abstract

To cope with large-scale change managers must understand complex events, but representations of change are never objective and factual, they reflect choices. They are not simply chronicles but personal histories. We apply this perspective to analyze change in public sector health-care organizations. Health-care is an illuminating context because it is affected by large-scale policy-driven reform. There is a clear macro-context against which to map personal histories, which although diverse in terms of content, have common narrative templates which give them with structure. This helps managers understand a chaotic and complex flow of events; enabling them to cope with change.

Citation

Morrell, K., Hewison, A., & Heracleous, L. (2020). From events to personal histories: narrating change in health-care organizations. Public Management Review, 22(6), 908-926. https://doi.org/10.1080/14719037.2019.1619814

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: May 1, 2019
• Online Publication Date: Jun 13, 2019
• Publication Date: 2020
• Deposit Date: May 22, 2019
• Publicly Available Date: Dec 13, 2020
• Journal: Public Management Review
• Print ISSN: 1471-9037
• Electronic ISSN: 1471-9045
• Publisher: Taylor and Francis Group
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 22
• Issue: 6
• Pages: 908-926
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14719037.2019.1619814
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1300823