TY  - BOOK
AU  - Beech,Nic
AU  - Mitchell,Ingrid Kajzer
AU  - Oswick,Cliff
AU  - Saren,Mike
TI  - Barriers to change and identity work in the swampy lowland
SN  - 14697017
AV  - HD58.8 JOU 
PY  - 2011///
CY  - Abingdon
PB  - Routledge
KW  - Organizational change
KW  - Linguistics
N2  - Our aim is to examine intractability in relation to processes of change. Drawing upon data gathered from workshops, documentary sources and follow-up interviews, we identify an apparent contradiction between accounts of the self as change-oriented and subsequent inaction. We argue that the dominant metaphor typically used to explain such contradictions – barriers to change – provides an inadequate characterization of change inactivity. We present an alternative way of thinking about change in which the issue of self-identity is central. In particular, we argue that the very way that expressly change-oriented participants protected their self-identity was (ironically) itself an impediment to change. Finally, we offer an alternative to the barrier metaphor – the swampy lowland – as a way of conceptualizing apparent intractability in change-oriented situations
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1080/14697017.2011.564591
ER  -