Translating organizational change: An actor-network-theory inspired theory about organizational change

This paper takes it point of departure in actor-network-theory (ANT). It responds to the Next Management Theory tracks call for papers that address and further develops our understanding of organizational change as translation processes. It moreover addresses a critique of ANT researchers in organizational studies for making descriptions of studied empirical phenomena rather than developing theories and giving normative advice about how organizations or organizational change processes may be theorized, analyzed, managed and/or organized better. A new ANT-inspired theory about the characteristics of organizations, organizational change and change agents is therefore developed combining ANT with other theories. The relevance of this view is demonstrated in an analysis of a case where a nurse and the leader of a clinic for orthopedic surgery try to translate and thus implement a risk-management and deviation-registration system aimed at minimizing risk of hip replacement patients clinical pathways in an orthopedic clinic.