Change agents and systems thinking: The non-revolution in management rhetoric

This paper provides a history of popular literature on business management, focusing on the way in which authors have addressed and recommended corporate change. Early texts focused on procedural changes to improve efficiency and productivity, while portraying themselves as ldquorevolutionary.rdquo Many business bestsellers of the last 20 years, on the other hand, have advised fundamental revisions to corporate missions, but have presented their project as one of incremental reform. The most recent texts, within the discourse of change management, reveal a strong tension between an emphasis on a culture of continual change and a recognition that such change is necessarily circumscribed by defining aspects of the organization in which it's proposed.