Change Management Tools and Change Managers: Examining the Simulacra of Change

This dissertation studies how change management tools affect change managers. Across three articles the dissertation show how designers assemble change management tools and what happens when change managers engage with the tools. The dissertation shows how change management tools tie change managers to common notions of knowing and performing organizational change, which affects both what they feel inclined to do, but also how they understand themselves and their situations. Change management tools are shown to affect change managers by provoking new articulations, providing increased sense of competence, while also making managers strive for realizing improbable change management ideals. Lastly, the dissertation shows how change management tools produce additional work for the change manager. Among other things, the dissertation contributes to the study of change management by revealing new ways of thinking about tools’ functions. The dissertation contributes to practice by providing nuanced descriptions change management tools’ operations, offering alternative takes on what organizations should expect when mobilizing change management tools.