This study is a discussion of change strategies: the contextual aspects of change and the rhetoric of change. Change is analyzed along two dimensions: (1) the context of the change initiative in the organization, (2) the relations of the change project to the institutional environment. Four cases are used as examples of inducing change in municipal services. The four cases are part of a national reform project. In Norway, municipalities are important institutions both as arenas for political decisions but also as decentralized instruments for distributing local services. The main purpose of the reform project was to achieve better adjusted services through more interdisciplinary work and local responsibility. Change efforts may be forced on the organization, e.g., by laws, instructions, and frame budgets or they may be triggered by different voluntary mechanisms. The idea of "isomorphism" describes a passive or incremental adaptation to "signals" and from structure imposed by the environment. The idea of eruptive change implies enactment and entrepreneurship in relation to the environment based on signals from within. The contexts for change at different levels in the municipality are associated with different rhetorics. Context variables describe the situation or background on which the change initiatives are interpreted by the institutional actors. The rhetoric of change is the symbolic expression which defines the change process.
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