Changing forms of organizing in Australian public companies

Abstract

This paper presents results from a survey of organizing forms in Australia’s largest public companies during the period 2000 to 2004. The study sought to identify trends in forms of organizing as well as the extent to which the uptake of new forms led to a decrease in traditional forms of organizing. The analysis reveals changes across three organizational dimensions: structures, processes and boundaries. While Australian firms were clearly interested in exploring new forms of organizing, uptake was not universal, nor at the expense of traditional forms of organizing. An admixture of traditional and new, or dual, forms of organizing emerged as the preferred response to environmental turbulence. This article employs and extends duality theory in order to explain the changes in organizing forms that occurred in Australian public companies over a four year period. It proposes that a dualities aware perspective offers a potential way forward in managing the balance between the ostensibly contradictory forces of continuity and change.