The story of a schizoid organization

Abstract

Reports on the uncovering of a small‐firm reality where the self‐gratifying behaviour of the owner/manager threatens the survival of the organization. Takes a “middle‐range thinking” approach to mould ethnographic data, and demonstrates and develops, via a case study, models of change within organizations. Identifies the importance of power in such change‐resistant contexts, and draws conclusions from the work which suggest that in such contexts “second order” change is unlikely to be achieved and only “pseudo‐colonization” can be sustained in the long term. It is the authors’ view that this context is a common one and is worthy of further research since there may be far‐reaching implications for a whole range of stakeholders associated with such an organization.