Running in the other team's shoes [electric utility change management]

It is not uncommon for organizations to experience difficulties when implementing technological process innovations. New techniques for production or operation may fail to generate the anticipated savings in time or monetary terms. Such failure is often not due to any shortcoming of the physical devices or technical schemes employed, but rather to conflict and lacking acceptance within the organization attempting to implement the change. When resistance to process innovation occurs, it typically manifests along occupational or cultural subgroups within an organization. Such groups tend to have different goals relating to their own performance and rewards. Thus, their varying degrees of enthusiasm for innovation programs can often be related to competing interests in control, authority and recognition of skills. Resistance to innovation has also been attributed to information asymmetries between technology advocates and users. This leads to misunderstandings or disagreements about the expected benefits of innovations. This article, which is based on interviews with employees in electric utility companies, focuses on the case of two cultural groups, operators and engineers, within electric utility companies.