Joumal of Management Studies 26:6 November 1989 0022-2380 $3.50 ENACTING NEW PERSPECTIVES THROUGH WORK ACTIVITIES DURING ORGANIZATIONAL TRANSFORMATION JEAN M . BARTUNEK Department of Organizational Studies, Boston College JEFFREY L. RINGUEST Department of Operations and Strategic Management, Boston College ABSTRACT This article explores a behavioural counterpart to the changes in interpretive schemes that characterize organizational transformation. It investigates the experiences of organizational members (especially lower level members) who introduce new perspectives through the work they carry out during transforma- tion. Results of a multi-year study in a religious order undergoing trainsformation indicated that members engaged in work that enacted a new perspective were less likely than other members to be appointed to organizational committees and more likely to leave the order. Members involved in work enacting a new perspective who remained in the order came to perceive themselves as less important to leaders but more influential in the order than other members did. INTRODUCTION In the past five years, researchers have begun to explore the phenomenon of organizational transformation {e.g., Bartunek, 1988; Child and Smith, 1987; Gemmill and Smith, 1985; Greenwood and Hinings, 1987; Kilmann and Covin, 1987; Levy and Merry, 1986; Quinn and Cameron, 1988). As opposed to more typically studied changes in organizations - changes in which organizations attempt to act more effectively within their already established frameworks or interpretive schemes {e.g., Bullock and Svyantek, 1985; Woodman and Wayne, 1985) - organizational transformations encompass discontinuous shifts in the organization's interpretive schemes or frameworks. As one prominent example of such a shift, AT&T came to view itself as a high technology company rather than as a telephone company (Tushman and Romanelli 1985). Similarly, Cadbury Limited has undergone a transformation away from an ideology of 'Cadburyism', which included considerable concern about employees, towards a very different ideology, in which emphasis has been placed on, among other things, profitability and the elimination of labour (Child and Smith, 1987). Address for reprints. Jean M. Bartunek, Department of Organizational Studies, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts 02167, USA.