Globalisation, Digitalisation and Competition: Influencing the Speed of Change

This chapter identifies three factors that can influence the speed of change in organisations. These factors are digitalisation, globalisation and competition. An attempt is made to analyse the interplay between these factors. Contingency theory is invoked in a contingency approach to organisational change. Contingency theory is upholding that there is no definite best way to organise or to make decisions. Instead, there are several ways of shaping and developing an organisation. Which one that is the optimal is depending on internal and external factors influencing the organisation. Contingency theory has a central part in the history of organisational science, and has been viewed as a lens through which organisations can be studied. The theory has impacted both theoretical and empirical research. Factors such as structure impact organisational efficiency and reflects the situation organisations find themselves in (Donaldson, 2001). Contingency theory is relevant to the study of organisational change and has been used in very recent theoretical and empirical studies. Contingent factors may shape and influence the speed at which organisations change and develop. There may be a gap between the theoretical aspects of contingency theory and its application in practice (Romero-Silva et al., 2024). To bridge this gap, empirical studies should be conducted in line with some of the theoretical underpinnings of Contingency theory. There may be a lack of clarity in its theoretical statement as well as its functional forms of interaction (Schoonhoven, 1981). Identifying contingent factors and illustrating how these are related in practice helps making sense of organisational change and also the speed of change in organisation related to contingent factors.