Foruming: A theory of influencing organisational change

The grounded theory of Foruming was developed during a study of change within a Government Department in Australia. The aim of the study was to understand how a group of people (referred to in the thesis as the loose coalition) influenced a change process, whilst participating in it. The study is relatively unique amongst other studies of organisational change for the following reasons.

• The focus was on the 'loose coalition' - a group that did not solely consist of senior managers.
• The study developed a grounded theory to explain influence during an organisational change process.
• During the study, I was both a participant/researcher and a member of the loose coalition.
• The study was designed and conducted within the interpretive social science paradigm.

Three sets of materials were collected during the study: transcripts of thirty two semi-structured interviews; stories of participating in eleven, two-day workshops; notes and recollections of my personal experience as a participant/researcher during eighteen months of the change process. The inductive analysis of materials involved moving through successive levels of conceptualisation to develop the theory of Foruming, which is:

A theory of how characters create and/or attend forums with the intention of playing roles that will influence discourse, increase participation in discourse, and solicit patronage for further forums.