THE ORGANIZATIONAL TRANSFORMATION PROCESS - THE MICROPOLITICS OF DISSONANCE REDUCTION AND THE ALIGNMENT OF LOGICS OF ACTION

Arguing that current theories of organizational change fail to pay ade quate attention to how organizations move from one stable state to ano ther, we generate a model of the organizational transformation process . We argue that to the degree that organizations are systems of exchan ge, they may be said to be transformed through a process by which the logics of action that parties bring to the exchange are aligned, misal igned, and realigned. Developing the concept of logic of action and dr awing on cognitive dissonance theory, we examine how, in the face of a massive environmental shift (in this case, airline deregulation), cha nges at the institutional level were transformed into changes at the c ore level. The model is generated from an analysis of qualitative data on the impact of deregulation on labor and management's approach to e mployee emotional well-being in the airline industry.(.)