Narratives of transformation: a strategic decision maker’s guide

This paper explores the implications of paradigm diversity for understanding the strategic decisions involved in transforming organisations. It examines the conflicting conclusions that can be drawn from a well respected study into strategic change. It shows that evidence to support a variety of paradigms and contradictory conclusions is present in the data and arguments presented. By clarifying these, it is possible for strategic decision makers to understand better their own thought processes and become more critical of strategic solutions offered in the literature and in the narratives circulating in their own organisations. The paper then moves on to examine the ramifications of researching and advising on a subject that cannot agree a single paradigm, and argues that conflicting paradigms are not a feature of immaturity, as some writers have suggested, but rather a feature to be celebrated as it exemplifies, and can help to encourage, a high degree of critical reflection and originality about the how and why of making strategic decisions.