How to balance control, power, and culture in municipal organization: A complex responsive process theory

The study report intends to bring forward control, power, and culture issues in a practical setting of a communications department of a Dutch municipal organization. Control, power, and culture are thus strongly intertwined in the interaction of people in the municipality. The current situation entails that the management in the municipality approaches IT projects from a linear and reductionist perspective, assuming that the world is controllable, predictable and manageable. Experience has shown that these projects often do not lead to the desired results. This article discuss a good balance between the concepts power, control, and culture that is essential for sustainable change management, but it is important to note that this balance is context dependent and can only be achieved by learning from our own behavior by reflecting on our thoughts and actions. This is a process of lifelong learning. For this reason, this study approaches IT projects from a different perspective, based on complex responsive process theory, in order to understand what happens during change projects, potentially leading to lifelong learning not only in the workplace, but also in the academic classrooms of managers.