We’re overdue a serious study of change. The subject has been hugely compartmentalised in the past few decades – with scientists focusing on technology; psychologists on the individual; economists on the organisation; and sociologists on society as a whole. When I last looked I could find only one (14 page) article which did justice to change in the round – by Scott London. And that’s in a period of some 25 years!
So I’ve now produced this Updated Annotated Bibliography on Change as a replacement for something I produced some decades ago. The earlier version consisted of short notes I had made about the range of books my assignment from 1990 in countries recently liberated from communism had required me to become familiar with – the challenge of transitioning to new systems of accountability and public management, European systems of local government, the variety of civil service systems, the nature of organisations and the management of change.
Those interested in this range of
subjects can access the original version here
This new updated version focuses less on the governmental aspects of change and more on the intrinsic issues of change – as it affects individuals, organisations and societies. It’s 50 pages long but doesn’t pretend to update Scott London’s original paper (which constitutes the middle section of the Guide). Although it’s reasonably strong on the management of change, it remains an illustrative guide – with a nod to some of the other interesting texts published recently which try to bridge the three levels eg Life and How to Survive it R Skynner and J Cleese (1993O; The World We Create Tomas Bjorkman (2019); and Unlearn – a compass for radical transformation Hans Burmeister (2021)
So here it is again A
commentary on - and guide to - Change (2022)
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