Bouncing back: The road to role mastery is paved with agency

Abstract

Given the context of a Norwegian professional service firm, this case study design aimed to study the lived experience of organizational actors following a deliberate organizational change. The aim of the thesis was to identify the micro-processes that contribute to variations in agency following a deliberate change. Our analysis revealed how an organizational change triggered five distinct micro-processes. These are: orientation, role alignment, redefining the role, resource identification, and resource mobilization. Further, we found that resources, and specifically how organizational actors identify and mobilize them, act as both an enabler for the trajectory of processes and its own micro-process. In addition, our analysis reveals how resource identification and mobilization are the primary source of variations of agency within each micro-process. Lastly, our analysis reveals how the successful mobilization of resources results in the growth of agency. Thus, this thesis provides insight to both the change literature and institutional theory. Theoretical implications and contributions are discussed.