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The book represents the core of the author's thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of Oxford Brookes University for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (PhD). The study investigated east German senior industrial managers in transition under the condition of radical environmental change that followed the introduction of the west German political, economic, and societal system in eastern Germany. The enhancement of current understanding of managers in change in the context of the transitional economies of central and eastern Europe is highly relevant to the improvement of the effectiveness of western interventions in the change process towards the market driven model of economic organisation. Of wider significance is the study's contribution to the understanding of the dynamics of change at individual level that might equally emerge within the current fundamental structural reorganisation of western industries. For decades, research into the management of change has focused on the group and systems level and has largely failed to address the crucial significance of individual development in the realisation of change at organisational level.
In view of the questions and the objectives of the research, a qualitative approach was adopted as it provided a particularly strong method for investigating process, culture, and new fields of scientific inquiry. Data was collected through 73 in-depth interviews with senior level managers in east German industrial organisations and structured questionnaires on the individual, organisational, and change profile of the sample. The analysis contributes to the understanding of managerial transition in transformative contexts and offers an empirical model of the individual transition process. It suggests that east German managers emerged from the experience of fundamental change with a transformed world-view. The initial belief in the existence of equilibria in organisational environments had been replaced with the notion of the permanency of change. Because of the way in which the experience of economic transformation was found to impact deeply on individuals' self-concepts, the study concludes that individual development is a key transformation instrument, as it can specifically target the cultural and ideological underpinnings of successful transformation.
Karin Breu, Ph.D., previously specialised in organisational change management in emerging economies, is now Researcher in Information Systems at Cranfield School of Management, United Kingdom. Her Ph.D. research investigated individual change with executives of post-wall east German organisations, a project that had originated in her professional work as a consultant in a broad range of business development projects.
About the author
Karin Breu, Ph.D., previously specialised in organisational change management in emerging economies, is Researcher in Information Systems at Cranfield School of Management, United Kingdom. Her Ph.D. research investigated individual change with executives of post-wall east German organisations, a project that had originated in her professional work as a consultant in a broad range of business development projects.
