PUSH and GROW Theories in Change （推动和发展变化的理论）.pdfVIP

Barry Sugarman 1 Gateways paper for Ivey Conf. June, 2001 PUSH and GROW Theories in Change Management: Gateways to Understanding Organizational Learning BARRY SUGARMAN VERDICT Research Center, Veterans’ Health Administration (USA), and the Society for Organizational Learning E-mail: bsugarman@ A working paper presented at the Fourth International Conference on Organizational Learning and Knowledge Management at the Ivey School of Management, University of Western Ontario June, 2001 ABSTRACT This paper comes in two parts. Part One examines an apparent conflict between two approaches to organizational transformation (OT) and the theories they reflect. It examines the differences between these Push and Grow theories and the possibilities for a new synthesis. While there is plenty of practical significance to this dispute in terms of alternative approaches to change management, the controversy provides a strategic way for students of organizational learning and change to gain insight into these processes. This is a version of the action science argument: to understand a system, try to change it. Part Two builds on the prior discussion to outline an organization theory, using causal loop diagrams, that highlights the importance of the learning loops of organizational learning. Thus we use the OT Push/Grow polarity as a gateway to further insight into organizational learning and to a little progress in organization theory. BARRY SUGARMAN 77 Oakdale Road, Newton, Mass. 02459 USA E-mail: bsugarman@