Integrating the Missing Link of Episodic Continuity into Change Theorizing

This chapter is based on the idea that continuity and change are inextricably linked. Although organizations depend on various forms of continuity for effecting change, the role of continuity tends to be underestimated in organizational change theories. Previous studies have drawn the distinction between episodic change on the one hand and continuous change on the other. Chapter 2 introduces the concept of episodic continuity, which focuses on how actors construct continuity by selectively reconnecting different parts of the past and future to achieve a sense of continuity, sometimes between very different epochs or events from across time. Drawing upon research on organizations and time, it considers the temporal depth of continuity and change. A temporal view invites a reconfiguration of the connections between change and continuity summarized in what the authors label the 'organizational change diamond'. Arranged into the diamond, the four forms of continuity and change offer new possibilities for exploring how to manage organizational change.