The Rhythm of Change: A Longitudinal Analysis of the European Insurance Industry

To survive and grow, organizations constantly have to adapt to their environment. The prac- cal as well as the empirical world has for decades mentioned the increasingly dynamic and complex industry environments. Nevertheless, research has largely concentrated on measuring the short-term outcomes of single incremental and radical changes as well as the factors and processes underlying change. Today’s organizations are increasingly confronted with making repeated change decisions in order to adapt to changing industry environments. In the midst of a global financial and e- nomic crisis, the analysis of frequent and repeated change in organizations is more important than ever. For organizations operating in quickly changing industries, timing changes c- rectly is crucial to ensure competitiveness and long-term success. Undoubtedly, the right t- ing of change is also of great interest to managers as it permits them to capture and use w- dows of opportunities intelligently and intervene at the right moment when urgency is p- ceived, when resources can be used best, and when effectiveness is optimal. Research on the timing of changes and the resulting rhythm of changes in firms is still rare. Time and timing were not sufficiently researched for many reasons, whether due to compl- ity, manifold differences in industries, the need for long-term studies, difficulties with def- ing patterns of variability in the intensity and frequency of organizational changes, the - pendencies of environmental evolutionary patterns, the lack of models and insights into the pace of change over time as well as performance outcomes.

Dr. Patricia Klarner completed her doctoral thesis under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Gilbert Probst at the Chair of Organization and Management at the University of Geneva in Switzerland. She is now an Assistant Professor of Strategic Management at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich.