The Challenge of Change-Management Strategies for Transformative Times

Abstract

Reviewing the current status of the Discipline of Management, this paper raises questions about the relevance of theories and models in management, developed on the basis of western experience, to the realities of developing societies. Management as a discipline has to have a new paradigm that would provide adequate explanatory and conceptual strength to relate management to the social power structure and social relations within which they exist in a given society. A realistic approach to management pre-supposes the study of organisational behaviour not in isolation of its socio-cultural matrix but as shaped and cpnditioned by it. Unfortunately management studies and research have failed to resolve the crisis. India today finds itself in a historical transition that is not meaningfully understood and tackled through conventional organisational analysis. The present paper is primarily devoted to the discussions of certain broad structural changes taking place in the context of globalisation and provides a conceptual framework for management of organisations in the changing economic environment.