Disrupting Change: What Needs to Change About Change?

Existing theories of change struggle to capture how contemporary change unfolds, or to guide those tasked with leading it. This article sets out to disrupt and update current thinking about what change leaders need to “know,” to “do,” and to “be”. We take an “outside-in” approach: four experts from fields external to organizational change each offer their perspective on organizational change research, and three scholars from within the field respond. Reviewing the exchange, we find that the complexity, non-linearity, and technologically driven demands of contemporary change are well understood. The deeper problem lies elsewhere: our understanding of change leadership is mired in a long-standing, outmoded assumption—that to lead change means controlling it. The exchange crystallizes the need to confront this assumption, and to develop leaders able to convene and cultivate change without controlling it in the ways we currently prescribe.

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Publication Details

Journal
The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science
Published
2026-09-24
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1177/00218863261492319
Primary Topic
Management and Organizational Studies
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00
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article

Disrupting Change: What Needs to Change About Change?

Joel Gehman, John Amis, Patrice Elizabeth Rosenthal, Bradley J. Hastings et al.
The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science
Management and Organizational Studies
article

Disrupting Change: What Needs to Change About Change?

Joel Gehman, John Amis, Patrice Elizabeth Rosenthal, Bradley J. Hastings, Inger G. Stensaker, Michael Barrett, Linda L. Putnam, David Grant, Richard Hall, Gail T. Fairhurst
article en

Abstract

Existing theories of change struggle to capture how contemporary change unfolds, or to guide those tasked with leading it. This article sets out to disrupt and update current thinking about what change leaders need to “know,” to “do,” and to “be”. We take an “outside-in” approach: four experts from fields external to organizational change each offer their perspective on organizational change research, and three scholars from within the field respond. Reviewing the exchange, we find that the complexity, non-linearity, and technologically driven demands of contemporary change are well understood. The deeper problem lies elsewhere: our understanding of change leadership is mired in a long-standing, outmoded assumption—that to lead change means controlling it. The exchange crystallizes the need to confront this assumption, and to develop leaders able to convene and cultivate change without controlling it in the ways we currently prescribe.

The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science
The University of Sydney (AU), George Washington University (US), University of Cambridge (GB), Australian Regenerative Medicine Institute (AU), University of California System (US), UNSW Sydney (AU), Monash University (AU), University of Cincinnati (US), Fielding Graduate University (US), Norwegian School of Economics (NO), University of Edinburgh (GB)
Openalex Percentile: Top 5%
Management and Organizational Studies
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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