The Construction of an Analytical Framework on the Meaning of Space within the Organizational Change Context

Abstract

Time and space are concepts found in the essence of the constitution of society and of the being itself. For authors such as Giddens (1984) and Lefebvre (1991), sociological tradition has, however, dedicated greater attention to the time aspects of social reality, relegating space to a secondary role. This study aims to analyze how the notion of space and the dynamics of its production influence the manner in which individuals perceive organizational changes, assuming that the meaning of space affects their identities and subjectivities. The study is part of a research agenda which aims to understand the influence of time and space upon the production of organizational reality and on the meanings of work. The results, based on the experiences of 133 people in eight different organizations, reveal that changes are interpreted on grounds of the perceptions of spatial practices, representations of space and representational spaces, categories pointed out by Lefebvre (1991) as basic for the understanding of the production of social space. A reference framework for analyzing the influence of space in individuals' interpretations about organizational change is proposed.