6: Organizational Patterning

This chapter is interested in more theory building, and a model will be created that will in due course be used as an empirical measuring instrument. As part of this theory building development within the area of transformational change situations, this research chooses to develop a new conceptual device and a new strategic model, rather than examining relationships among antecedent variables (Parkhe, 1993). The desired research outcome will be a refined framework with explanatory power rather than statistically tested hypotheses. As the focus of a theory-building process is not to verify established hypotheses, models, or frameworks but to improve their substance (Flynn, Sakakibara, Schroeder, Bates, & Flynn, 1990), this suggests that the research inclines to a theory-building approach.