Understanding Organizational Change: Comments on Carman and Dominguez

Abstract

This article attempts to address some of the issues raised in the recently published article titled “Organizational Transformation in Transition Economies: Hypotheses.” The discussion challenges the fundamental reasoning in the Carman and Dominquez (2001) piece. Their basic arguments fall short of what is necessary to fully explain and understand the processes of economic reform taking place in Central and Eastern Europe and elsewhere. Their premises are drawn from the American institutional setting, and they fail to fully include the basic cultural, historical, political, and societal elements that are part of change, especially with regard to the very individual characteristics found in the economies they refer to. This response is an attempt to widen the framework to better understand organizational change and the role that marketing has within it.